The Vermont Paddlers Club

So I think our minds were made up long before we ever left in the morning...

Paul and Gerard and I chatted in the morning and made the decision to head to the NEK to meet up with AJ and sample some of his goods in the Kingdom. They received a good bit of snow up that way and it held on for a few days longer than around the Montpelier area so - what the heck - off we went.

On our way up we saw a boat laden car at the parking area next to Joe's Pond. Chris from CT was waiting for a crew of boaters to meet up with him. They were dumping a ton of H2O from the Joe's Pond dam but not enough to get the river up and running...Think flood stage for Joe's to go!

So Chris joined our group and we were off to meet up with AJ and head up to Paul Stream.....

Lets just start that this stream is not just a long drive but like on a different planet! It was another hour north of St. J. By the time we got there though the sun came out and it was looking like we had a decent day of flow.

Right off the start is a class 4 bang (read AJ's TR from last week). We all ran it sans AJ (smart man). All that ran it went deep. Out of all that ran it I swam out of the bottom of it. Fun rapid...fast and flushy! I need a better roll.

The rest of the river went w/o incident - lots of fun. We got to the crux of the run and there was a log in the middle of the entry rapid. An hour or so of work and we had it open for business. Totally worth it to get the feel in for that stretch! (See Gerard's Video). There was some more read and run to the take out. At the take out was a father/daughter combo with a sweet rainbow trout on a stick. If you're an angler it looks like Paul Stream is a nice place to work your cold water fishery skills.

Off we went to get in another river down in St J. The Moose. What a fun action packed stretch of ledges. Definitely a big water feel and some holes to be avoided.

All in all I think the group had a great day on the river.