Whitewater

In the race between Charlotte, N.C., and Garrett County to build the first Olympic-caliber artificial whitewater course, our neighbor to the south won. The $25 million facility opened last summer in time to play host to the national whitewater championships. The slalom course also was sanctioned by the U.S. Olympic Committee as an official training facility. In the long run, however, the nonprofit Adventure Sports Center International near Deep Creek Lake may do better once it turns on the spigot in April.

THERE IS AN UPSIDE TO the downpours that flooded the Middle Atlantic states last month: River rafting conditions are better than usual for this time of year. After effectively shutting down recreational rafting, canoeing and kayaking in popular spots such as those along the Delaware River in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, the heavy rains have ensured an ample water supply for much of the summer season -- and, in some cases, have enhanced rafting conditions. THERE IS ROOM AT THE INN: INNS AND B&BS FOR WHEELERS AND SLOW WALKERS Demos Medical Publishing / $21.95 Inns and bed-and-breakfasts are known for their coziness and intimacy, but for physically disabled travelers, charm can only go so far. Candy B. Harrington, founder of the accessible travel magazine Emerging Horizons, knows this all too well.

As a Boy Scout in my native Minnesota, Augusts were spent paddling in the wilderness canoe area at the U.S.-Canada border west of Lake Superior -- a vast, watery expanse that fueled my imagination. As an adult, I have continued this canoeing tradition with my family, and we have taken trips farther into Canada. But my lifelong fantasy -- formed long before I ever thought to become a scientist or dreamed of joining the faculty of Johns Hopkins -- had always been the trek to Hudson Bay, that subarctic region more familiar to polar bears than to most humans.

McHENRY - When civic and political leaders look at Marsh Mountain, they see potential of Olympic proportions. Where a broad, deep ditch is gouged in the mountaintop, they see world-class whitewater paddlers muscling their way through a slalom course while thousands cheer. Because the pictured course is part of a training center and not just a stop on the circuit, the athletes remain to prepare for the 2008 Summer Games and beyond. But that's not all. The picture includes Garrett College students learning outdoor skills, area residents enjoying an indoor pool while winter swirls outside and a gymnasium packed with 2,500 fans watching championship high school basketball games.

DICKERSON - Organizers of the 2004 U.S. Whitewater Slalom National Championships didn't plan on one last-minute competitor with an agenda of his own. The watery remnants of Hurricane Ivan yesterday filled the quarter-mile cement racing chute that leads to the Potomac River with millions of gallons of runoff that turned the churning whitewater to a latte-brown shake. But despite conditions that drastically changed overnight from Saturday's test runs, the nation's top paddlers persevered by switching from finesse to power strokes.

ATHENS -- In many ways, yesterday marked the changing of the guard for the U.S. men's whitewater paddling team. Two-time Olympians Joe Jacobi and Matt Taylor have most likely competed in their last Summer Games in the double canoe. Kayakers Scott Parsons, 25, and Brett Heyl, 22, checked out the competition with an eye toward the Beijing Olympics. Jacobi and Taylor, both 34, finished eighth in the double canoe competition and failed to make the cut for the final round of six boats. "You'd love to have another opportunity, but that's not what life is about," Taylor said.

Salisbury was eliminated from the NCAA Division III World Series with an 8-1 loss to Wisconsin-Whitewater yesterday afternoon in Appleton, Wis. The Sea Gulls (37-13) established a single-season school record for victories. Salisbury, trying to rebound from Friday night's opening-round loss to George Fox, fell behind 4-0 in the opening inning against Whitewater (37-8). Brady Endl delivered the key blow with a grand slam. Salisbury senior Mac Mollet (6-1) lasted five innings, allowing eight runs (six earned)

For all the flurry surrounding Jamal Lewis' indictment on federal drug charges, the Ravens star is probably only the third-most-famous person to fall under William S. Duffey Jr.'s prosecutorial gaze. Numbers one and two would have to be then-President Bill Clinton and wife Hillary Rodham Clinton, whom Duffey investigated as deputy to independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr on the Whitewater case. For all his high-profile work - Duffey inherited a huge investigation into City Hall corruption when named U.S. attorney in Atlanta in 2001 - he tends to avoid the spotlight, friends and associates say. That's probably smart, now that President Bush has nominated him as a U.S. district judge for northern Georgia.

McHENRY -- Groundbreaking is set for this spring on a multimillion-dollar "adventure sports" complex that officials hope will make Garrett County a prized destination for kayakers, canoeists, mountain bikers, rock climbers and their fans. The public-private venture eventually is to include retail shops, restaurants and condominiums -- all in a "village" likened by its developers to one at the Snowshoe Mountain Resort in West Virginia. A nonprofit group created to build the center has secured the needed $9 million from federal, state and county governments for the first, yearlong phase: construction of a 1,000-foot-long whitewater course and 600-seat amphitheater.

A labor dispute at a nearby electric power plant has short-circuited plans to stage the U.S. Whitewater National Championships in Maryland later this month. Organizers of the Potomac River event, scheduled for Aug. 30-31 at the Dickerson Whitewater Course, have moved it to Wausau, Wis., the site of the Pan American Championships this weekend. "We wanted to keep it," said Richard Perlmutter of the Bethesda Center of Excellence, the sponsoring group. "But this was the responsible thing to do. Now they can piggyback on the Pan Am."