The Vermont Paddlers Club

Finally got on lower Paul Stream! This run holds water pretty well as everything else in the area was dropping out, but we had a plenty fluid run on a sunny April wednesday. On our way oer we learned that our third boater and shuttle driver, wasn't going to make it. So, we headed up, stashed our boats in the woods, drove to the takeout and walked back to the put in, just shy of 3 miles. The morning sun made it a pleasant walk, though we had hoped for a passing car to pick us up. No such luck!

The drops on this run are fantastic. The first is a slide/falls into a diagonal hole with a fast runout. Being only two we opted to pass on the first payment to the river. The river flows as nice class 2 for about 200 yards before dropping over 3 back to back ledges, all fun and boat scoutable. The last endered Charly (Travis' river persona) and made for some rolling practice in a turbulent boil, but that proved to be the only mishap. The river bounced along playful class II rapids for a while before pitching downstream in a continuous class III section culminating in a class IV three stage drop. The continous section was a blast, pillow boofs abound, and lots of little 2-3 foot drops were sprinkled in to keep us entertained. The last drop (the class IV) had one heck of a horizon line, so we scouted river left. Next time, we'll scount river right, its a lot friendlier... What we found was a fun lead in drop with some optional harder slots, followed by a manky rock garden with a clean slide down the right, and a fun pillow move at the end in the runout. I nearly explored the whole rock garden in reverse, but a quick correction off a rock on my way down spun my boat in the proper direction just as I began to charge down the slide.

After this adrenaline booster the river once again mellowed out, winding through boreal flats and multiple channels before rounding the bend at the take out on VT-102.

If you don't boat the NEK, you're missing out. Its just you and whoever you bring, and rapids and unexplored creeks everywhere. Come boat the last frontier!

Copy and paste the link below for photos of the run.

http://www.vtpaddlers.net/talk/upload/index.php?directive=show&showVolume=rivers&showAlbum=Paul+Stream&dirAlbum=Paul%20Stream&showEvent=Lower_4_21_10&eventLabel=Lower%2C+4%2F21%2F10&datestamp=2010-04-21%2000:00:00&index=0&date_test=%3C%3D%272010-12-31%27#slideshow