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Joes at Low Water
Saturday Apr 9, 2016
Participants:
Kayak: Henry, Chan, Will, Griff, Mainer, Anders, Adsit, Ben and Cath Schott, Billy, George, Ryan
Organizer: Ryan
Difficulty: advanced WW
Level: low boatable
Author: Ryan
Joes... 10 miles, 1000 feet of vertical. Best whitewater run in VT - Maybe?
I woke up early and called GMP to see what the gauge was reading at the dam and how much they were running through the penstock that morning. The operator said the bladder was 1/3 deflated, the gauge was reading 5.2 and they were at full power generation. That should correlate to a good amount of water in the river bed. We rally 12 folks up there for a 10am put on and are all shocked at how low the water levels are. NUTZ!
Well, we are here, so lets go slide down some lubed up rock. The fact is it was too low, but still fun enough to enjoy the rapids. So 12 of us put in at the power house and got to it. The first 3 or so miles is beautiful with ledges rapids here and there through a cedar swamp. The only strainer that needed portaged is the same one that was there 2 years ago. It's massive and you are best to eddy out on river right.
As things start to pick up we came into the biggest slide on the regularly run stretch. The only option was to run the meat of the current on river right. All that ran it ran it cleanly and we were on our way to Greenbanks Hollow and the beginning of the Miracle Mile section of Joes. Several of us ran the covered bridge rapid, most were clean, some not so much...but no swims. From there it was slide after slide after slide.... Shallow slides, but they went.
Morse Mills section was up next and that was a pretty busy section of water too. Still too shallow to really get the feel for Joes, but fun, with some convoluted rapids to get after.
The only true gorge on the river was the next section of note, it was pretty mellow and clean this day due to the low flows - every one styled it....
Last up was the rapid at the bottom of the run under the green bridge. It was the only rapid of the day that was fluid. It was the only rapid of the day that produced a swim too.
It was a sunny andd fun day on Joes - Everyone ended the run wanting more. Hard to believe a 4 hour run didn't quench everyone's desire for the day.... Next time it will have to be with more water.
