The Vermont Paddlers Club

All good plans....  have a back up plan.

The original plan was to get on Patterson (Upper White in Granville, VT) early morning and then snag something in the Dog River drainage.  Maybe Stoney or DWB.  Then when the flows weren't cooperating, we knew we had the Green all weekend with a single tube release, then that went belly up and we thought we could sneak in a double trouble of runs in Baker Valley and it was too cold so the bottom dropped out of the runs in that area......  What to do....The Wells???  Na, that would be Way Too Fluid!  Lets go beat the bottom off our boats and hike into the upper the EB Pemi from Lincoln Woods and run it down through Loon proper to lower village......and that is exactly what we did (beat the bottom of our boats in and hiked up from Lincoln Woods.

As we were hiking in, AJ stated that it really isn't as low as it looks, its just that the water is so clear that it looks shallow.  That really didn't make any sense to me, but I was already in with boat feet and a mile up the trail to our designated put in.  So I trudged along dragging my boat behind me trying to recall my only run on the EB Pemi from 2006.... that was like 9 years ago, how did that happen I thought to myself.

We got to a location that seemed as good as any to get in the water, so we did.  What a nice slice of water through the White mountains.  The upper portion of the EB Pemi is so picturesque, in the tight river valley between the looming White Mountains.  The Rapids were mellow at the level we were plying today.  The run felt more like a class II run up here than a III/IV....  GOtta luv ELF boating. 

Once we hit where Hancock Branch came in, the flow bumped up some and the river valley opened up some along the Kanc.  About every 200-300 yards there was a nice bolder choked rapid.  Most were clean and playful.  If you read it right you could poke in and out of various channels and sneak your way through tight slots.  I was taking this to the extreme and ended up in a sticky spot where I had to paddle down, but knew I was going to get housed, pinned or otherwise.  THere just "weren't" enough room for the SCUD to sneak through.  Trying to drive up on and over a guard rock, my stern was sucked down and I pinned vertically, then floped on my side and was now pined horizontally and up stream, then flipped and was up side down pinned....  TIme to swim.  Thankfully the current was meager and I could just stand up and toss my boat and paddle into an eddy.  HOLY SHIT the water is cold, even in my Drysuit it was bloddy bitter.  That was a wake up call to not horse around too much and work on staying up right and making clean lines...

We all stayed upright and dry the remainder of the run even with a couple of botched lines at the old USGS weir and a really ugly brace at the take out.

A decent run with AJ and Jamie - those guys are a fun pair to be on the water with.  Jamie had to jet after we wrapped the run and AJ and I went to the Woodstock Brewery for some suds and wings.  Great way to wrap a long run in the Whites.