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A.J. traveled down Rt. 5 from East Burke to East Barnet early Sunday morning to get a visual on Joe's Brook, which was "just a trickle". Plan B options included the Mettawee, the Poultney, and the New Haven Ledges. None of these appealed to A.J., but we agreed we'd run Joe's together - one way or the other - before the end of April. Moving on, I made the call on the message board to meet up in Bristol at 11 am to run the ever-popular NH Ledges.
After gearing up at the take-out, we pulled over on the way up to the put-in to examine the best route around the "pin rock" above Play Pen. It was good timing, for us, as another group of boaters was in the middle of a real-life rescue of a kayaker vertically pinned in that exact spot. Noone was hurt, but I wish I had taken a couple of pictures to make others aware of this hazard at low water.
The water was sparkling in the sunshine, and the level held steady at ~375 CFS all day - low and technical but definitely boatable. It got above 50 degrees, tempered by a strong/chilly west wind once you were all wet. There were swims at Lost Legs and the Play Pen, but in each case a rope was tossed to keep the swims short. I impressed a father/son spectating at Toaster by attempting it in an open canoe, and moreover hitting the boof/tongue perfectly and landing upright (and virtually dry) in the pile at the bottom - my first completely clean and upright run of Toaster!
I will post a few Paddle Pix for the day.
As kayakers go, Jim, Jamie, Eric, and Pete are good eggs. I'd paddle again with them...any time ;o)
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This marked the first time the VPC has hosted a clinic specializing in creek boating. The clinic turned out to be a great success, minus one cracked boat. Students learned the basics of steep creeking, advanced stroke concepts, and capped the day with a special treat, courtesy of the O-Face hole!
Rain brought the river up to a fluid 240 or so CFS for the clinic, and Mother Nature graced us with sunshine that got better and better as the day went on. The class began with stroke technique for draw strokes and a few slalom-inspired draw stroke drills courtesy of Alden Bird. Students then ran the first drop, Brett's Mom, with no paddle stroke to get a feel for entry speed and angle on a drop and how to interact with the various currents. Then, we all hiked back up to try it again! The second attempt taught the basics of the "Boof" stroke, and completing the drop with a strong forward stroke at the bottom. Then, we ran it again!! The 3rd time down the drop worked across the current, and had students catching the RL eddy as though it was a "last chance" eddy on a tight creek. Everyone handled these three exercises very well!
Next up was our first run of "The Sweetness". This drop introduced hydraulics, cross currents, and boof ledges. A few folks didn't navigate the cross current very well, and John decided that the drop was so easy to run forwards that he did a rock spin and attempted a back boof. A snappy roll finished off his freestyle approach to class IV!
One of the main topics for the day was about slowing down the river, catching eddies, and having strong entrances to the drops. In "Labyrinth", the class practiced eddy catches and navigated the exit slide to thread between a couple of sticky holes. Shortly after this drop comes "Elevator Shaft" and all students got to practice their boof technique again on a clean 3' drop towards river left. Another run of the same rapid bounced students down a fun slide on RR.
Then came the fun... El Salto Falls. This is a chunky 12' cascade on river right, and we had all students approach it as a slide. Entry angle, loose hips and a neutral body position were emphasized. A few folks were spun sideways while dropping down the cascade, but all rolled up at the bottom. Most folks had better lines than expected, and it was the biggest drop to date for many of the participants. Alden showed us how awesome the river left line can be. Twice.
With everyone upright and smiling, we headed downstream through the boogie and eddied out at the top of "Tantra", the final rapid in this beautiful stretch of river. Tantra has two lines, one RR and one RL. The RR is more straightforward, simply requiring a point and shoot (and some balance) to get down the two-pitched slot. The RL line is more involved, requiring a boof over a seam, and a hard charge to river center or a big hit in the O-Face hole at the bottom. The RR line was, once again, not sporting enough for John and he decided to do yet another rock spin and run that drop backwards as well! Paul blurted some profanities while pitoning on the RR line, and folks who chose to run the RL line did so very smoothly, or with some fun-for-spectators carnage.
This concluded the morning session, and we all headed back to the put-in for a quick lunch.
After lunch we got back on the river to continue exercising the participant's newfound skills - changing the lines on the first drop, and working on turning boofs in the second drop. A fun little boof was introduced in labyrinth, with a RR exit over the "race line" to avoid the hole at the bottom. Everyone styled El Salto again - some ironing out the kinks from their morning attempts of the run. Downstream we went through the boogie towards Tantra, and then the fun began!
For the last run of tantra for the day, everyone chose to run the more difficult RL line. The seam/hole at the top served up a nice helping of roll practice, and the hole at the bottom (the O-Face hole) provided multiple (close to 70% of the class!!) swiftwater rescue training moments. The hole (and eddy that so kindly feeds you back into the hole) can be very sticky - at any level. It was a fine finish to an otherwise perfect day - reminding everyone that creeks can be intense, and the river is not always on your side.
With gear recovered and smiles still on everyone's faces, we concluded the day with a BBQ and some fine Vermont ales.
Personally, I can't wait to be part of the next creeking clinic. Its awesome seeing class III/IV boaters step it up and learning how to work with the river to make class IV fun and manageable. Thanks to all of the participants and instructors, and to all of the photo/video hounds that documented our every move!
Until next time... boof!
In it's 6th year the New Haven Ledges Race has come into it's own. Folks around New England know about it, Boaters from north of the boarder come down to race it. Sponsors want to be involved and overall it is a really great fun event.
This year may have been the best one we have had yet. We initially had scheduled it for the first Saturday in April only to have to bump it back a weekend to let the ice break loose from the river. Our timing was as good as it gets. The river had come up high the week before and cleared the ice and we had nice high flows the day before the race and then it came back down to a reasonable flow that met the needs of racers of all abilities.
We had 42 racers in all. 6 of them raced in both the Long boat and Creek Boat categories. A large percentage of the field of racers were from Quebec. VT brought the usual strong contingency of local boaters, but ultimately it was a racer from the past that showed up this year to turn the heat on and win the overall Creek Boat and Long Boat categories. Tino Specht topped past winners, Gilbert, Pritchard and Brown taking home the Lion's share of the prizes. The best part of this was that it seemed as though no one really cared about the prizes, because the prize was that everyone was out on a sunny 70 degree April day at the Ledges running laps and there just happened to be a ramp and finishline for folks to collect their times.
The New Haven Race - laid back grass roots VT event. Pure fun - the way boating in Vermont should be.
Not to forget - our volunteers were huge this year, Brock drove shuttle, John - brought the ramp and directed traffic, Chris was a multipurpose guy all over the place, Paul assisted with the finish Danica kept time and crunched numbers for us, Andrew took photos and worked safety, Alex did the same, Will was the race day logistics man - safety, time keeping and really making sure our gears were turning as the should. Nick put in a ton of pre-race time helping to secure sponsorship and pre race logistics. So a huge thanks to all that helped out in some way or another.
Also - Thanks to our sponsors. Many companies provided prizes and most importantly the Vermont Paddlers Club for their continued support financially and with Volunteers.
The New Haven Ledges Race - Just another excuse to spend a day on one of the best stretches of Whitewater in the Northeast!
Growing up on a south-facing hillside in Hinesburg, the crescent skyline of Lincoln Ridge was a familiar sight for the 18 years I lived there, or the time I spent living with the same view in Charlotte. Hiking along it one finds a remarkable and relatively rare microclimate of consistent mist, rain and heavy moss growth, with it's considerable, orographically-enhanced runoff running east into Vermont's most well-known whitewater river, the Mad, and to the west into a slightly less well known but more notable watercourse, the New Haven River. I have hiked many times on Lincoln Ridge, but am equally familiar with it's western drainage, my parents having taken me swimming at Bristol Falls and Circle Current (among other swimming holes) since I was young.
A few other things: First, Mount Abraham and Mount Ellen (the 3rd and 5th highest in the State of Vermont) sit at Lincoln Ridge's southern end, both somewhat conical peaks. A tight notch, Lincoln Gap, is found just to Mount Abe's south and divides Lincoln Ridge from the Breadloaf Wilderness (also a relatively high-elevation area). Second, this topography captures the local storm tracks and enhances the precipitation, to the tune of 60 or 70 inches of liquid equivalent per year. No wonder this river is so popular with paddlers, with consistent spring flows and at least one runnable weekly day (on average) July through December. Third, this topography is largely responsible for the massive 1998 flood, when the river rose to 20,000 cfs. After that, I saw the river as an elegant, brutally powerful feature, more than just a swimming spot. But of course an 11-year old would not really think of it as something to paddle. Paddling was what you did with you're folks on Lewis Creek, not the waterfall-studded New Haven.
Of course that was then and this is now, and it wouldn't really be easy to describe what the river's steepest section, the New Haven Ledges, really is about. It's a whitewater run - a quality one for sure - a training river, a proving ground, and a sort of home-away from home for many Vermont boaters. But rather than waste time delving into some sort of conceptual, spiritual or essential nature of something that is just for sport (this has been done to no end by creative and ambitious authors), I'd like to list a couple milestones from 2014.
Things got off to a late start in April - a start more typical of the 1990's or 2000's rather than the globally-warmed 2010's. I think we got about a week of training in before the New Haven Race. Which, by the way, was awesome for 2014. Past years have seen levels that were pretty high and pretty low, and weather ranging from mediocre to wonderful. But in 2014 things pretty much aligned and we had perfect racing flows of about 600 cfs on the gauge.
The following week saw a heavy rain-on-snow event and the river rose to many thousands of cfs. Things move around a bit. Chute by the Road now has a serious FU rock at low water, and is now called Sh*t by the Road. Some say Oh By the Way has gotten more difficult at medium levels, and my numerous personal trips through the Schott Slot confirm this, though I can't really say why it's gotten harder. Scott G kept himself in his boat in Roostertail at the race this year while a Quebecker swam - so I don't know about changes there, but Playpen cleaned up a lot, and now has a fantastic greenwater boof at the top. Finally and most importantly, the much-maligned slab of rock that All-American Boof lands on dropped 8 inches and even at low water this landing is soft and friendly. This riverbed changes a lot. It even changed a bit in December, for the better I think- and will likely change at ice-out this coming spring, for the better I hope. But it will be good regardless.
2014 saw a couple new faces here. Justin Worth, Eric and Anders Newbury, Felix Touzin and Andy Lockey got their first runs here, and Ryan McCall and Paul Dawson returned after a several-year hiatus. Culley, a hard-whitewater-right-off-the-couch specialist moved in and randomly confused us with his California license plates one day. And no doubt several other people were introduced to this fine run. Apologies to whoever I omitted from this list. As Scott G once said "if there is anything as good as running a rapid for the first time, it's seeing someone run a rapid for the first time".
Unfortunately some valued crew members also left - Daphnee and Nick moving to the desert southwest. We no doubt miss them, but were pleased to see that Nick, one of our own and a New Haven Ledges regular ran the mother of all rivers, the Grand Canyon of the Stikine. Also, Christian moved somewhere, I am not sure where...
But this really just goes to show how unique each day here is - the exact water level, the configuration of the riverbed, the weather, who you're paddling with and whatever happenings might occur off the river. It is a one-time event never to be repeated again in the entire universe. Yet somehow every season is rewarding. Here's to 2015 on the New Haven.
April 13, 2019…. We set that date back in October of 2018 as when we wanted to hold the 11th annual New Haven Ledges Race on the New Haven River in Bristol, Vermont. We always set a date for around the beginning of April so we can catch the snow melt bubble coming out of the Green Mountains. Last year we got temps in the 20s and sleet. The year before it was in the 20s and snow. This year……Jackpot! We got a smidge of rain the night before and then it got sunny and temps drove toward 70. Some years you miss it and some you hit it on the head. This year we knocked it out of the park. Some of the best weather and water levels we have ever seen. I should have played the lottery.
The race has really grown into the season opener here in New England and this year we saw our highest number of early registrations. The day before the race there was a flurry of online sign-ups that put us at 47 racers pre-registered. That made for an interesting morning of the race. Since 2012 we have set the max race registration at 60 racers. We have never gotten to that number. Doing the math it works out pretty nicely for each racer to get two laps over the course of the day. It is also a good number to split the field to set half the racers in safety and the other half on deck for their race lap racing, doing this both in the morning and in the afternoon. For this year we were rapidly approaching our max number of 60 and “day of registrants” were still rolling in before our pre-race meeting. Things happen for a reason though…a number of racers weren’t comfortable with the meaty levels for race laps and decided to turn in their bibs. This opened up the opportunity for others waiting to sign up. In the end we handed out 49 bibs to racers.
Our morning started off wet and wild as we sent racers 26–49 down through the course to get to designated safety spots. One of the safety boaters on his way down to his designated safety location got munched in the second ledge about 25 yards below the start ramp. Our team went into action immediately to pull the paddler and his boat from the river. Not even racing yet this was a sign of things to come. Most folks had never raced the Ledges at this level and greatly underestimated what the river was doing.
Our field of racers is top notch. We are seeing top caliber boaters entering this event and it really shows on high water days… We had a shoot out for the top 3 spots this year again with the big hitters. In fact in the top 10 this year, 5 were past winners and two more were top three finishers. That is pretty amazing.
We had a tie for the second fastest time at 1:40 between Ryan Mooney and Jason Kahn. Mooney left after his first lap so did not compete for the tie breaker at second, leaving Kahn with the 1st runner up prize. With the 2nd runner up place, Mooney has placed more in the top three than anyone that hasn’t won over all. Way to go Jason and Mooney for laying down seriously fast laps. However this year we have a new LEDGEND OF THE LEDGES…Congratulations GREG LEE! Greg netted a time of 1:34, setting a new course record and taking advantage of the high water to run a unique line through the ledges to shorten the course to his advantage. Well done!
Our Women showed up to race as well. 3 women raced this year with Leanne Bernier taking the top spot with a time of 2:04. This was not her first rodeo on the New Haven Ledges. She knew the lines and what it would take to pull down a win, not her first for the Ledges Race.
Congratulations to our winners. They all put it on the line and raced in some pretty serious full on conditions.
Every year I thank our volunteers, both on the ground and safety. I once again am grateful to the assistance that the volunteers provide, from setting up the ramp the day before to assisting with the shuttle process, to break down after the race wraps up. Our volunteers are the best.
Our safety is the best as well, they kind of have to be though. They also race. This year they were put to the test with a lot of out of boat experiences in the high water. Our live-bait above toaster saw several rescues. Our safety director, Will Seegers, really does a fantastic job of having our racers in all the right places to make the saves!
Again the race sponsors came though with a good mix of gear for the winners and our raffle that raises funds for American Whitewater. Below is a shot of our door prize this year, a stainless steel pint glass with all of our sponsors on it. Thanks again to all of you and your generosity. Having you on board really does provide a level of legitimacy to this event that otherwise would not be part of the Race.
The day was about as perfect as it gets for holding the Ledges Race. The racers were stoked on the river levels. All the spectators were entertained on the action they were getting watching the racers run some serious water levels. Everyone was smiling about the sunshine and temperatures and yours truly was happy as a clam with how everyone was having a good time enjoying the event. Myself and Will had the pleasure of hearing how this was the “BEST LEDGES RACE YET”… I’d have to say I couldn’t find a reason to disagree. 11 years and running. This seems to be more and more the norm for opening up the boating season in VT and northern New England…you could say tradition? Hope to see you all next year for the 12th annual New Haven Ledges Race.
IN IT TO WIN IT!
See you on the ramp next year….Ryan
2019 New Haven Ledges Race
The 2021 Class II clinic was scheduled as usual for the Deerfield River. You know the saying, "when it rains it pours" and after a very dry summer Tropical Storm Elsa dumped a few inches on southern VT resulting in flows on 7/10 of 5000cfs over 4x the normal release washing out most of the rapids and turning Zoar Gap into a Class IV. Luckily Otter Creek was running at a nice level so we rescheduled to there. Saturday it was flowing around 950cfs and it was beautiful sunny day. Below the Belden Falls Dam the group worked on ferries, peel outs and eddy turns. We had one swimmer and a near miss or two in the very turbulent waters of the gorge. There was quite a group the river left rock below the gorge who were entertained by the aftermath although they couldn't see the action. More peel-outs a the bottom of the next rapid. The surf wave below the campground was in enough to give the group a good introduction to surfing. On the mile flatwater we were treated to 3 Ospreys and 2 beavers. On the second run we caught a lot more eddies working to get as much out of the run as possible. This lap we got a fly over by a bald eagle next to the campground.
We'd hoped to do a low water Lower Mad run on Sunday but were disappointed that it had dropped too far. Back to Otter Creek, this time at 750cfs. Sunday we were joined by Molly B and Jess R. More work on fundamentals then on down the river. This time we had a 100% success rate at the gorge. We noted that water was maybe even more turbulent but the waves not as big. We stopped at the now vacant sunning rock to talk about safety. We did some rope practice and the took turns jumping in and throwing to "rescue". Sunday the surf wave was smaller but still enough to do a little practice. After a full weekend and a long run due to the safety lesson the crew decided to call it after one run.
All of the students did great and are ready for more. Praying for more rain and the chance to paddle together soon.
Preamble
This year the weather ruled the days. It was generally cool and cloudy, not quite the normal hot August days on the Ottawa River. Most days hovered around 70. While cloudy, at least there was not a lot of rain – that made camp more enjoyable. A few showers but nothing we couldn’t handle. Our last day, Sunday, was the sunniest by far, and sent us home with visions of big, fluffy and very, very white whitewater. The water was warm but maybe not quite the bathtub level of prior years.
There were thirteen paddlers in total. As is always the case on these trips we picked a few strays that wanted to paddle with us (not sure why – have you seen us paddle?!?). Abbi Goddard, a 21 year old from London England (and an alternate on the UK Freestyle Team), hung with us for the entire time, including around camp. Abbi was about halfway through a month-long visit to the Ottawa. She had needed a “lift” so she relied on us (and others) to transport her to the put-in and take-out. But I think she liked us anyways. We also picked up a couple from Quebec City, Florence and Alex, for a run down the Main. And on Friday, Walker, originally from Tennessee but who now lives in New York City joined us for a Middle / Main combo. He was in Ottawa City for a wedding and headed to Forester Falls to see what the Ottawa River buzz was all about.
Levels for the first couple of days were in the +1.75 range. (as opposed to last year’s -1.75) Then on Friday the River Gods (dam operators) reduced the flow to -0.5 for the 2023 Canadian Cup Freestyle competition on Garb. While rumors had it that the river level would head back up, it stayed at -0.5 for the rest of our time there. -0.5 is much more playful than +2.0 with Baby Face, Pushbutton and Garb coming in nicely.
Dave had been in Canada all week taking a 5-day class at the Madawaska River – he was high bidder at the AWA auction. He was working on getting all the fundamentals correct after years of doing them “his way”! He was ready to show us his new stuff!
This year the Canadian border crossing was easy peasy. No more ArriveCAN app and necessary paperwork. I didn’t even think about the recent border process until after I was already across the border.
That said we did have a couple of paddlers (RyanZ & ChrisF) turned away at the border. I heard rumors they were trying to smuggle some American Poutine across the border. We missed them!
Once again Owl Rafting was our home base. They are so paddler friendly! I mentioned last year that the whole Owl business was for sale. Well, the kids bought it from their parents and it continues on. We took full advantage of their facilities – camping, showers, live music, fire pits and SAUNA (not really needed in past hotter years). Thank you Owl Rafting!
Speaking of next year, mark your calendars. Since this format seemed to work for so many, we will do it again! See you at Owl Rafting for a week (OK, technically 5 days) on the Ottawa River:
Wednesday August 21 through Sunday August 25, 2024
So here is a daily breakdown of the daily juicy deets…
Wednesday, August 23
Level: +1.75
Weather: some sun and more clouds with temps around 70
Participants: Paul, Mark, Chris and Jim
Afternoon Run
After the drive and 3pm-ish arrival we opted for a full Middle run.
We didn’t scout McCoy’s as it was the not the first rodeo for this veteran crew. Note that the Zoom Flume sneak route is still choked with wood from last year’s tornado, so not even an option.
We had an uneventful run of McCoys – doing the usual “thread the needle” line. The group played around below the Horseshoes for a bit to get our big water legs under us again. At this level Baby Face was not really in. We then headed downstream. Ran all the usual Middle runs without scouting (walked Garvins of course) Big No Name was quite interesting at this level. Working down the left line we came upon a horizon line near the bottom left ledge. Not sure where all the holes lie – and there were many, we opted for a far left sneak line to check it all out, instead of getting out and scouting. A great start to the trip!
We headed back to camp and the group completed the day by relaxing over dinner with a few adult beverages.
Thursday, August 24
Level +1.5
Weather: cloudy, cool, misty and windy
Participants: Paul, Mark, Chris, Jim, Lauren and Tyler plus strays Abbi, Florence and Alex
Main Run
We opted for a Main run today. There was a quick scout of McCoy’s rapid as Tyler and Lauren had not seen it before. Paul provided probe services for the scout team. We spent a little time at Horseshoe and Baby Face, but like yesterday, Baby Face was not in at this level. After the lengthy flat-water paddle, we arrived at Upper Lorne (home of the Garburator). Ran through without a scout. Garb was not in so we proceeded down to Push Button. At this level Push Botton was more friendly to the longer boats but everyone had a go at it.
We moved downstream to Butcher’s Knife. Paul’s description for all the new folks was to start right, miss the holes and then casually head left. After we ran through Paul thought better of the “casually head left” comment as at this level you need to move pretty aggressively left!
Normans was next and we played followed the leader in the chaos. Everyone did great and we stopped for a scout of Coliseum. Mark provided probe services while we scouted. He tried the traditional right-and-work-left line only to end up in Mikey’s Hole (Mikey eats everything). He rode Mikey for some time before surfing back into the right line slot for an escape. From our scouting position we only saw an occasional paddle blade and tip of his boat. Cheers erupted when he made it out in one piece and still in his boat! So, Mark’s probe showed us what not to do! At this level, there seemed to be a good straight right line. After the initial hit on the V-wave next to Big Kahuna, you stay in the main flow – maybe a little on the right shoulder of the next three waves. This lines you up for a smooth slot through Mikey’s hole. Works in theory but some of us (me!) ended up too close to the large rock and then dumped into the big hole behind it. Saw a large portion of the sky for a while but got out unscathed. I forgot to mention to Lauren during the scout that the waves will be a bit bigger than they appear from the rocks. She did point that out to me after we ran through!
We found that the river right wave hole at Blacks is quite surfable at this level, so we spent a bit of time checking that out before heading to the takeout.
Afternoon Run
We had big plans for a second run down the Middle. But after all the fun on the Main (it was already approaching 3:00pm) we opted to go back to camp and call it a day.
Saunas and warm showers were the rule of the day at this point as all were a chilled. Then we tucked into apps and adult beverages before setting about telling tall tales of the day’s adventures and mishaps.
We wandered over to the pavilion to see some live music by The Fiddlaires. They were a couple of teenagers playing guitar and fiddle and step dancing with an accompanying keyboard. These kids ripped it up. Check a sample out at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyzXH3y53lM&t=10s
As we watched the music, we noticed a number of “poutine loving senior” folks having dinner behind us. We could not believe all these folks had rafted today. Upon inquiry we found they were going to have a sunset cruise on the Owl party boats (the ones they use to tow the rafts from the last rapid back to camp) and The Fiddlaires would be playing on the cruise as well. Good on Owl to use their assets to help make a go of it.
We were all tired after our day, but it was a banner day all around and why we venture north to this wonderful whitewater playland.
Friday, August 25
Level -0.5
Cool and clouds with temps in the high 60’s.
Participants: Paul, Mark, Chris, Jim, Pete, Bridget, Lauren, Tyler, Kelsey plus stray boater, Walker
First Run - Middle
I had never considered a dry suit for an August Ottawa trip. But I’ll bring it in the future. Kudos to those who tossed their dry suit in the bag before leaving Vermont!
We opted for a Middle run to get everyone on the water and feeling comfortable. This included a run through McCoys. There was a quick scout of the rapid as Kelsey had not seen it before. Paul once again provided probe services for the scout team – he does this well. Baby Face was in today and we spent some time surfing before turning our attention downstream.
From there we worked our way down the Middle Channel. All your favorite Middle Channel rapids were fluid. Iron Ring, S-Turn, Butterfly, Garvins, Little No Name, Big No Name and Velvet Falls was the lineup. We did walk Garvins as usual – although Tyler and Walker took a good hard look at the line down Dragon’s Tongue (and the Boof of Destiny) before deciding to save that run for another day. There was much play at all the usual locations. For Big No Name we split the lines on the right and left. Jim took Bridget down the right line but Pete saw Chris having some “fun” in the big central hole and yelled to Bridget to go hard left instead. This didn’t turn out so well for Bridget (or Chris for that matter).
In past years, we would head back to camp between runs. This sometimes led to demotivation (in other words, cocktail hour) and cancelation of the second run. This year we had a plan, bring lunch/snacks and head right for the put in for run #2. While there was some complicated shuttle design to minimize travel, we managed to get boats and people to appropriate places, that is, of course, if Mark doesn’t leave Paul stranded at the takeout!
Second Run - Short Main (Upper Lorne to the Takeout)
We had hoped to get to Garb early enough to see the end of the Canadian Cup competition but we just had too much fun on the Middle Channel! We did get to see a few stragglers strutting their stuff. As you would have expected, Dane Jackson and his sister Emily, won the men and women’s classes. Here is a short video of the day’s competition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=111U4OUKE_o&t=2s
Participant: Mark, Paul, Jim, Kelsey, Pete, Bridget and Walker.
Tyler and Lauren opted to head back up to McCoys and Garb for a park and play session. Chris decided to take the afternoon off.
After watching the big boys and girls show us how to handle Garb we started our run. We played at Push Button for a bit – nicer at this level for surf and spins. Then to Butcher’s Knife and Normans. We all scouted Coliseum (even Mark) to get the line straight at this new level. During the scout Dane Jackson came roaring up stream on a Jet Ski. But not some normal Jet Ski, this thing sounded like a NASCAR race car. He wound it up and flew up Coli, catching significant air on some of the wave holes. And then he was gone. Some of our crew saw him at Garb working his way upstream. Here’s a quick video: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CwnXplKr7uK/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
The run through Coliseum was much less eventful with everyone nailing the right line.
The short Main option is good for a second run. I think it only took us a couple of hours (and that is with play and scouting). Could be done in an hour if you needed a quick fix. Back to camp for saunas and beers before dinner.
Rubin and Tanner rolled into camp with a couple more boats than they started out with. They had stopped in St. Albans so Tanner could buy two squirt boats. We all marveled at these old relics. A few of us harbored dreams to take a run down the river in these low volume crafts. But after we attempted to get in them, we thought otherwise. We ended up with skinned feet/ankles and cramped feet. They got stored behind the RV for the weekend. Can you say buyer’s remorse?!?
After three days of paddling, it is no surprise that there were a few sore muscles in camp. Never fear, Dawn (our traveling massage therapist) is here! For almost an hour there was stretching, rolling on rollers and baseballs (really), Dawn working her deep magic on shoulders and necks and the Massage Gun (The Thumper) made an appearance.
Paul broke out his newly designed and built candle pot and we watched the flickering flames until it was time to retire.
Saturday, August 26
Level -0.5
Weather: cool and cloudy – temps in the upper 60’s
Full Main Participants: Paul, Rubin, Tanner, Kelsey, Jim, Pete, Bridget and Jon
McCoys to Pushbutton Participants: Mark, Dave, Tyler and Lauren
Morning Run – Full Main Channel
No need to scout McCoy’s since Jon, Rubin and Tanner felt they knew the lines from last year. The river was still pretty quiet with no more kayakers and rafts than there were the past few days. Maybe the weather is keeping people away? So, without the normal long lines, we spent some time on Baby Face.
We made our way to Upper Lorne. A few brave souls tried their luck on Garb before we headed down to the milder Push Button. There was much boat swapping going on and it was fun to see all the various paddlers trying to figure out their new rides.
We opted for a no scout at Coliseum. Interesting personal note, I noticed Kelsey and Jon in the eddy on river right mid way down. I thought it would be a good place to be. As I went through the V-wave it crashed on me and by the time I shook the water out of my eyes and ears, any chance of making that eddy was long gone. I continued down the right line to the bottom. As is the case with many runs on the Ottawa, the best laid plans become Plan B in a big hurry!
Second Run - NOT
Well, the best intentions were for naught. After a playful first run, no one had the energy for another go. The plan was a short Main. But the Plan B (see previous comment) turned into saunas and beers. Plus, it was tequila night and we needed to hoard some energy for that!
Apps came out and the tequila flowed. Then Dawn played a song she had written for the weekend – Heart to Heart with the River. (here’s a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8GSYcof6-M ) That led to the formation of the Ottawa Jam Band – Dawn on Uke, Paul on guitar, Dave on banjo (who knew I???), Rubin on fiddle (who knew II???) and Tyler keeping the beat on the bottom of Chris’ boat. There was some singin’ and drinkin’ until it got too dark to see!
By then, there was a very loud band playing in the pavilion. Some wandered over to check it out. They rocked the house until after midnight. The rest of us felt fully comfortable lying in our tents and listening from afar.
Sunday, August 27
Level -0.5 still!
Weather: sunny (finally) but still cool – temperatures maybe hitting 70
Short Main Participants: Paul, Rubin, Tanner, Jim, Dave, Chris
McCoy Park & Play Participants: Pete, Bridget, Tyler, Lauren
Garb/Push Button Park & Play: Kelsey
The Last Run
One of the nice things about the Ottawa is the plethora of run options. We all had different plans for today before we hit the road. Made for easier shuttle logistics! We utilized Jon’s truck before he hit the road (sadly his back was acting up this morning and he thought better than to test it on a Main run). We were just trying to squeeze in one more fun filled run before the ride home.
We were out of camp by 9:45 and opted for a short run down the Main, putting in at Lorne/Garb. Playing was limited but some did a few surfs at Garb and Pushbutton. This would be a no Scout and no Swim run. That’s the rule for the last day run.
While at Pushbutton, a solo open boat came by and headed downstream. When we continued our journey, we caught up to him while he was scouting Butcher’s Knife. He watched us run both the right and left lines. Then, while we were down at Brain Douche, he attempted his run. We watched as he flipped and swam the right line. He came out of the water on the lower right side of the rapid with his paddle in hand. Whew! But his boat, which we could not see, was stuck on the right cliff. We looked on for a bit and then Tanner decided to get in his boat and paddle upstream to offer a hand. But before Tanner got going, our solo friend got his boat and headed down. We thought he would run the next two big rapids with us for safety but he opted to scout Normans alone. He was not even in scouting position when we made our run. Not sure what happened to him, but it sounded like a questionable choice to run the Main solo.
Speaking of Normans, the river had to take one last shot at Rubin. In this chaotic rapid, Rubin rolled not once, not twice, but three times to get through that lumpy (Abbi’s word) rapid. As I mentioned a few times this weekend – I am not fond of this rapid!
After our run through Coliseum, Dave mentioned he would have liked to have seen that line before following us down. But he did concede that if he looked at it too long it wouldn’t have really helped!
We were back in camp just about 1:00. Rubin’s family had arrived from Kanata and were waiting for us. We packed up, ate some lunch and said our goodbyes. We all vowed to meet up again next year. Same Ottawa Time, same Ottawa Channel (see what I did there?). Everyone was on the road between 1:00 and 2:00. Paul, Chris, Jim and Dawn connected for a creemee in Alburg on the way home (can you say dinner?!?)
I never heard from anyone Sunday evening so I will assume the ride home (including the border crossing) was uneventful and everyone had sweet whitewater dreams that night.
I hope everyone enjoyed the trip as much as I did!
See you next year…
JimP
4 Degrees above freezing really makes the hardiest boaters come out. Questionable rain and flows threatened to cancel the trip, but Old Man Winter somehow let out just enough snowmelt from the previous few days of accumulation to bring the Victory stretch of the up to a low 5.4' runnable level.
The trip this day was mostly class 2, and of course it began to rain after we put on. We played and surfed our way down the river, taking in the scenery and noting an unfortunate broken canoe on the way down during a quick rest and stretch. The low water caused mystery rocks to appear form nowhere, flipping an unsuspecting OC-1 in unusually calm waters. Had to have been a rock. Or one of those darn kayaks darting in and out of his way.
We all had a great time in the cold drizzle of the NEK, adding another river to the list for Brock and Jim. A cold long trail ale closed the day on the backroads of a great lesser paddled run.
Til next time!
A day of creeking transformed into a huck fest due to the late start and physical state of two of the paddlers in the group. Staying up and out late doesn't bode well for a day-break assault on the river especially after 3 long days of boating prior.
So I punted and we headed to Middlebury to give the PA crew an opportunity to huck their meat off of Middlebury Falls. With a couple of guys in the water for safety, Brenton took his turn at the falls. It was at a fairly meaty level of 1700cfs so the ledge hole below the falls was relatively sticky looking. The kid (Brenton) aced his boof of the 18ft. falls and sliced through the hole shortly below (pictures to follow). The rest of the group decided to take on the 3-Brothers class V meatloaf sandwich and headed up the hill for some caloric energy.
Now pushing 4:30 everyone seemed to wake up a bit (talking about an alpine start) and on our way back home I suggested we hit up Warren falls....about that time we drove past Texas Falls and I hung a "U-ie" and we headed up to Texas Falls Rec area. The levels were such that it looked very runable and surprisingly there was no wood in the creek. With safety set, Brenton and Jason tag teamed the first 3 major drops with Jason swimming out of the second one and stuck in a pot hole he needed roped out to get back to his boat to finish the run. In all they ran from just above the major drops down about a 1/2 mile. There were some ugly lines and a couple of flips to quick snap rolls but they stayed in their boats for the remainder.
This was the end of a long weekend of creek boating around VT. For basiclly no water, we did a great job of finding some great runs with enough water to make it fun. Thursday the guys hit the WBD at about .5 on the gauge on their way up to meet me. Friday we got in the Clarendon gorges and a guided tour of the Big Branch (thanks Russ). Saturday we found enough water (the coldest water of the weekend) spilling over the bladder at Joes Pond for a 10 mile wilderness run on Joes Brook and it's famous Greenbanks Hollow Section. Sunday the plan was the Middlebury Gorge but we got lemons and made lemon-aid with some great waterfall drops at Otter Creek Falls and then Texas Falls. I'd say it was a solid 4 days of paddling for the crew.
We ended the weekend with food and beverage at Eagan's Big World and I think when everyone walked out of the Pub there was a look of tired satisfaction on their faces...I couldn't tell if it was from the pints imbibed or the 4 days of quality VT boating.
Gihon was high at 4 seams surging to 3.75 seams showing which I now know is my cutoff level.
We paddled to the dam on the upper section, it was one solid sheet of water and a nasty walled in hole at the bottom with towback maybe 6ft downstream so we paddled back to the car and headed down to the lower section.
We put in at Bedhead and ended up walking it. Then each tried 4 - 5 times to make the ferry to get to the river right side of Eldorado below Bedhead. At this level the center is a big burly hole and the left has a nasty pocket downstream against the wall. The ferry was almost impossible, so I decided for the "scary ferry" move which was to surf a wave from river left to right directly above the center drop of eldorado. I made the ferry and down the slide on river right but flipped at the bottom directly into the backwash of the hole...immediately felt myself sucked back into the hydraulic and the beating began. Trying 2 rolls, neither which were successful, I then pulled the cord. For the first time ever I had the unpleasant experience of being in a body-recirculation for maybe 8 - 10 seconds but which felt like a whole lot longer than eternity. After the exhausting failed attempts at ferrying I was seriously out of gas and air. The only way I knew what was up and down was the occasional contact with bottom where I would try to push off and get to the surface. Finally by more of a decision of the hole than any action of mine I felt the chaos lessen and emerged about 20ft downstream of the hole gulping for air. With what small reserves I had left I got to the side and clung to the rock wall for a good 20 seconds before pulling myself out and then sat for another good minute or two calming myself down. I played it off when Chris finally found me and we went on a boat chase. We found the Huka and my paddle in the big eddy above pincushion, and went to finish the run.
Well, the eventfulness didn't end just yet, as Chris got stomped on in the hole of pancake which was also big and hungry today but he swam free, fortunately without the body-recirculation...
All in all we only ran about 4 rapids each, and each swam once. I'd say once the Gihon is only showing 4 seams or less on the Powerhouse bridge, my new option will be to walk away, and go to the NBL (North Branch of the Lamoille). We had looked at Waterman Brook and it was surprisingly too low. On the plus side, events like this are sometimes a good thing to remind you just how powerful a river is, and that sometimes you are gonna get beat up by it...it comes with the sport.
Borrowed from a Message Board Post from Scott Gilbert...
All three rivers that flow west through the spine of the Green Mountains to Lake Champlain were at flood stage by the end of 4/20 on account of a soaking rain Friday night on the heels of a warm and windy Thursday/Friday that set the stubborn snowpack in the deep woods up the feeder valleys a-melting. North Williston Road and Rt. 15 in Cambridge were under water by day's end. And although I never laid eyes on Joe's Brook I'm positive it was too high for any of us to want to run it. So instead I spent the morning driving around up north looking for something that seemed reasonable when virtually everything was too high. Call me weird, but I have to say road scouting 8 or 10 raging rivers with coffee and doughnuts on board was almost as much fun for me as actually paddling one. By 11 am, after looking at Mill Brook (in Jericho), the Lee R., the Browns R.(in Underhill), the Seymour R., the Brewster R. (all probably reasonable), followed by the NBL @ ~4 feet, the Gihon, and the Green R. @ 4.5 feet (none of them reasonable), I drove up the Mountain Road in Stowe (VT108) as far us Notch Brook Road, and shared my plan to run the West Branch of the Little River (WBL) in a group text.
More rain arrived as we were suiting up to paddle, but once you're in your drysuit it really doesn't matter. There is a convenient put-in eddy under the VT 108 bridge on river right, upstream from the Matterhorn Restaurant and Bar, at the confluence of Ranch Brook and the West Branch, with a place to park vehicles at the foot of Ranch Brook Rd. At high water the paddle from this confluence down to Taylor Park (the "Stowe Peace Park") is 2.5 miles of non-stop, FUN boogie water. FU rocks and strainers were a non-issue, except for one obvious river-wide (large) tree trunk a few inches above the waterline, where the river and rec path converged.
The main stem of the Little River in Stowe Village had crested just over 3000 cfs at 9am, pretty big for such a little (get it?) river. The one WBL feeder stream with a real-time USGS gauge - Ranch Brook at Ranch Camp - had crested overnight at 360 cfs (dropping to 240 cfs when we met at 1pm). The WBL only dropped 1" during our run (according to my rudimentary stick-in-the-mud gauge at our Rusty Nail/W Br Sculpture Garden take-out).
We ran into Ben and a crew of hair boaters as we were changing back into our street clothes after our run. They were setting shuttle to do the same thing, except they were going to start even higher up, on Ranch Brook. Prior to our run, I walked up to look at Bingham Falls, which was quite impressive.
It was a fun day!
Everything around Rutland was running but not a paddling partner in sight. I couldn't let all that water go to waste, so I ran about a half mile of the Cold River. I parked at the covered bridge and carried up as far as I could. At medium-high flow this section is a technical III+, eddy hopping and hole dodging all the way down. Great fun! The class IV "Asskicker" drop lived up to it's name....thank goodness for padded seats. The gradient keeps up past the covered bridge down to the confluence with the N. Branch (It drops about 180 feet/mile in this stretch). It was tempting to continue; the N.Branch was adding a lot of water. But it was getting dark, the lightning was getting closer, and it's a 2.5 mile walk back from the next possible take-out. A short bushwhack on river left brought me back to the bridge.
The gauge is on the Middle Road bridge, downstream river right.
Finally we have some flow and it seems to be all in only one river....The Mad! What started out as a pre-meeting group, grew to 18 deep. Yes you read that correctly - we had 18 boaters on the river. I was late to arrive so walking down the put in path it was absolutely amazing seeing all of the boaters popping in and out of the eddies above Elevator Shaft (the first rapid of the Lower Mad).
It was a really fun night because all boaters were solid and everyone was pretty lose (even the swimmers were having fun). Every eddy was worked by our resident slalom expert Hugh Pritchard, Other studs were playing features up like they hadn't been on water in years and my not be again. I think everyone got two rides on the wave below 100b!
On to Horseshoe Falls....Most everyone ran the right side, some multiple times. There was lots of the eddy game on the lower rapid tons of play inbetween.
The Mad is a really good option when nothing else is running - I think all of us that are local and paddle it regularly take it for granted. IT is amazing the number of boater days it actually has a year.
Considering we put on at 4:30 and wrapped up shortly after 7pm I'd say there were 18 boaters that got off the river with perma-grins!
Lets hope for many many more days of flow this spring.....
On Sunday morning we awoke high up in the Sainte-Anne watershed. We were pretty beat from the previous day's adventure, but we were in the middle of the Quebec whitewater vortex and it appeared everything was at a perfect level and we had all day to paddle. Did I mention the previous day's adventure had us kinda beat?
The most appealing option seemed to be the Neilson - a classic run that was at a great juicy medium level. But as it turned out, we were really close to the Tourilli, none of us had run it, and the whole purpose of the trip was to run some new things. So we grudgingly sacrificed a great Neilson day in the name of exploration on a run that was described as "less steep than the Dryway". Oh well... at least days like that strengthen your resolve to get back up there and run something good.
Truth be told, Alden describes the Tourilli as recommended... but somehow the description is just not that inspiring. Maybe it's because it's accompanied by a story about a hideous waterfall beating. Or maybe it's that the picture shows riffly class II-III leading up to a drop that looks a little to scary to be fun. Regardless, it was warm and sunny - perfect for napping and drying gear at the put-in while shuttle is being set. And there sure were a lot of locals around and they all seemed pretty stoked about the run and the level. Once on the water we saw why.
Juicy class III started just out of sight of the road, and quickly built into fun, very continuous class III+. This went on a ways, and in a few spots pinched down or steepened into a little class IV. There were a few holes or rocks to dodge, but nothing particularly worrisome - just continuous and big enough that I didn't want to swim. It was classic Quebec whitewater too: juicy boat-scoutable rapids, impeccable water quality, clear blue sky above and the river twisting between steep spruce-covered valley walls a long way from civilization. This is why Quebec whitewater is awesome
There was a group right in front of us that we followed so we knew we weren't going to accidentally drop into something nasty. After about 3 miles things widened out into the aforementioned riffly class II-III for a couple hundred feet and we hopped out to portage the U-Hole. One of the locals said he ran it earlier that week, but everyone seemed pretty wary, so we followed them off a great seal launch into some solid class IV with a couple real holes to avoid. Another mile or so and we got out to portage the waterfall.
With all due respect to Alden, no wonder he got a beating in there. It looks like while it wouldn't hold you forever, it would happily rip off your skirt, shorts, eyelids or shoulder connective tissues and probably fill your stomache with uncomfortable amounts of river water. Just below here was a great final stretch with some friendly but very rowdy class IV.
At the take-out we seriously considered another run, but enough soreness was creeping back into our muscles to hold us back from a second run on this Quebec classic.
The Tourilli is one of the finest sections of class III-IV whitewater in the northeast. It usually runs into June, is just 4 hours from Burlington and has a ton of other great stuff around. Do it!
Well... A 4:00 thunderstorm turned a falling Mad into a rising Mad. The Mad peaked at 1350 cfs at 10:00 p.m. last night, we took off the river a little before 8. It was an evening full of swims and portages. I apologize if the details are skewed and I will correct them.
Everyone ran the put in rapid cleanly. At these levels double drop had a troublesome curling wave at the bottom. Woody hit the curling wave and swam. John paddled right into the hole on the first drop and swam the second drop.
A few of us scouted the drop below the bridge on river right. Then ferried back to river left. John got up close and personal with the main pillar on the bridge and swam. Class 2 brought us to the calm before Horseshoe Falls.
Everyone portaged the falls, which resembled a hydraulic death trap. Ryan and Francis opted to bounce down the low flow slide on river left. Chris, Ryan, Dan, Woody and I all ran the Washing Machine cleanly.
John had his final swim for the day in the rapid below the beaten down Lovers Lane Bridge. There were no swims on the final drop. We spent a good amount of time surfing the bottom wave which is awesome at these levels. Packraft had the best surf of the day.
Overall a day where the river handed out many lessons.
What do you do on a rainy cold April Day when nothing else is boatable or skiable. You hope that there is a release on the Green River in Wolcott. Just so happens our spring snowmelt runoff had drained and there wasn't flowing but... We had a Green River Release scheduled for both days on April 26 and 27.
When I showed up at 9am the bottom gauge was reading 1'2", not nearly enough water to boat. Shortly thereafter Andrew Blease rolled into the parking area and let me know he dropped his boat at the top and there was plenty of water up there too boat the run. Guess the H2O was feeling lazy like the rest of us on this cold dank morning and was taking it's time getting down the river. Shortly after a hand full of other boaters showed up to get suited up and get on the river. Jamie, Will P, Andrew and Cully joined me and Jordan, Mainer and Clay were on the river shortly right behind us. We more or less ran the river as a medium sized group and had a blast. Moonshine the first drop is changing with each flow...more water is being funneled through the sneak and making it much more manky and the main drop is getting more dry. That said Cully fired it up and made it look easy. Down and around double squeeze and we were into the rest of the top drops ending in plugger. Everyone ran them fine albeit one swim out the bottom of the hole in plugger. The flat water section was a nice place to regroup and chat it up some. One log jam in there requires a portage (the only one of the trip). Below the flats is Young Buck, it has changed some as well in the entrance, looking like it may actually be easier to run the top of it cleanly. This doesn't change the consequences of a mess up in the mini gorge though. Cully again made it look easy. ON down through Cookie Duster and we were at Humble Pie.... On this first run, those that ran it ran it cleanly and then we headed down through Do Si Do and the lower rapid before Lumber Yard. Upon arrival of Lumber Yard we found.....lumber in the line which we quickly made short work of and opened up the rapid. Again those that ran it ran it cleanly. That left us with Runway and the Piton. Most folks ran each of those rapids cleanly from a number of different angles and approaches. With Saturday Run 1 over - we hit up the snack shack for some calories and warmth before heading out for run two. This second lap we were down to just myself, Mainer, Clay and Jordan. With two unplanned fish counting exercises and multipile sessions on the waterfall at Humble Pie, we still styled the run in an hour and 15 minutes. Both runs saw the stick gauge reading a solid 2'6" splashing up to 2'7". This would be considered a low minimum flow. Post beers were had at Lost Nation Brewery....Great beer - better company and we all got to meet Andrew's wife...
Sunday was to be more of the same on the Green and the sun was trying to pop out some too. The guys were busting my chops about the sunshine, because it seems every Green Release we get I managed to get Morrisville Water and Light to give them to us on Raw damp nasty weekends. So Round 2 we got a later start to let things warm up some... With that brought in some new boaters for the second day, Adam P, Scott G, Jamie S Will S and Paul D joined Mainer, Clay Jordan and myself for a mid day run and there was a group of 6 Quebequois that put on ahead of us. Everyone had a great run - again there was some unplanned fish counting and multiple runs on Humble Pie. I think Jordan hiked back up 7 times to get after it. The level seemed to have dropped out some and was more like a splashy 2'6" on the stick gauge, less fluid than the day before
Once we wrapped up the snack shack got a hefty dose of business from the crew of hungry kayakers and then we were off to the Gihon, which was at a great medium-low level. We had two newbies on the Gihon, which was fantastic. It's always fun to send them off the first drop with nothing more than directions. Everyone had a great time on the Gihon and again there was some un planned fish counting. Four guys in the crew fired up Mustang with varying levels of success and for the most part the run went without incident and we ran the rarely run rapid in town at the Studio center. When we pulled out the sun was shining and the temps had climbed into the high 40s. It was a appropriate end to a really fun weekend of Creeking in the Green Mountain State!
Thank You Morrisville Water and Light for giving us a weekend full of flow.
The Fish Counter....
If there aren't any pictures then it didn't happen, right? Then this didn't happen. But if it were to have happened, then this is how it may have gone down.....
Like most of my recent boating escapades of 2015, it starts with what seems like the same email title I've seen from the same group all year (because it is the same email). "Looks like Rain", and what follows is the atmospheric babble that someone has mashed together about how the NWS has said the storm will be more intense in NVT or there will be a longer duration cycle in SVT or the storm is a wrap-a-round and we are going to NH. Ultimately the New Haven runs and most folks stick to the usual suspects. That is good, I wish I was closer to get on that run more often due to its high quality rapids.
Unfortunately I don't live that close to the Champlain Valley. But in VT there are a lot of boaters out there in the woodwork and there are a few boaters over on this side of the Greens that have a similar bend for exploratory boating on brooks that may or may not give up the goods.
So with a storm predicted for mid week, the email comes in and it is a mish-mash of responses of where folks are looking to go boating... I have a busy day of work, but its been way too long since I had been on the water, so had planned to skate out of work by noon. The rain had come down hard over night and things were popping around CVT. In comes the text from what seems to be my go-to guy for 2015. Justin Worth is up early and his his standard 3 word "you boating today" text comes through around 5:15 am. "Yup" is my response. So all morning we are back and forth on where and when. Finally we agree to meet at my place back in Montpelier... We can hit the NBW or head up to the Gihon or something else that way if our initial plan of chasing down some obscure Micro-creeks doesn't pan out. Initial goal is something branch of something river in some vt drainage.... But we get distracted driving up Route 12 out of Montpelier (the center of the northern New England whitewater universe). Looking at the painted gauge in Putnamville, it reads a level of runable for the NBW. Hmmm what to do.
We head up 12 to Hancock brook road and I show Justin the last drop on Hancock Brook, I can see his eyes popping with excitement as he says it looks like it goes. Its actually flowing at a decent level to make all sections marginally runable, or so it seems. We head up the road getting a look at all of the drops up to Hampshire Hill Road. I've been wanting to run Hancock for years from an old Mountain Cabin partially up Worcester Mountain. Off we go, my truck in 4wd low, we crawl up an old double track to the cabin. The flow is low, probably too low, but we are there and anxious to boat. Its going to be bone-zoning from this high up today, but we need to see what its about up on the mountain.
It took us an our to make it down to the Worcester Mountain Trail Head (about 1/2 mile in distance) the river is braided and there are a fair amount of strainers in this section. Not worth the abuse I put my truck through, boat through or Justin through. We did get to see a stretch of river that isn't seen very often. Once down on the brook to approximately where the Worcester Mountain Trail parking area is things got lively and much better. It started off with a really cool boulder/bedrock rapid dog leg thing that led into three really sweet bedrock slides above the culvert that goes under Hampshire Hill Road.
Hampshire Hill Road Culvert sets you off down the rabbit hole in earnest with a rocking 4-5' boof. into a very steep rapid that is severely undercut on the right. Below this steep rapid, the river has been run in fits and starts. In October of 2010, I was on this stretch during a high water event with Packie, Kelly and Guttridge. Without a a doubt the fastest I've ever moved in a boat. So at this low water level that Justin and I were running it, it was interesting to see what was creating the features that we were dodging and flying through in 2010. Its a tight and substantial brook for sure.... one of the steepest in VT in excess of 300ft/mile.
Justin and I were running out of daylight and water fast so we shifted to turbo mode hoping we would get down to the bottom section of drops before darkness. Below the 8' slide at the midway point, we thought we would be in a cobble strewn channel, however, se were pleased to find it was still giving way to quality bedrock rapids.
We made it down to the top of the bottom section before it became fully dark. That coupled with really low water and the brook being shrouded in a full hemlock forest, meant we needed to make a smart move and pull the plug on our mission.
We unfortunately didn't get the bottom 6 drops on our run due to early darkness, but we definitely had a great run. Those bottom drops run a lot more regularly than the rest of the river, so we'll be back for them, especially the bottom teacups.
Its always fun to try out a new run from time to time... Running obscure micros though are a totally different animal. Its along the same lines of poking at a new ski line you saw from the highway but aren't sure if it will go, an unknown MTB trail that you spotted veering off of the beaten single track, or a new slab of rock that may yield a new crag to climb. Its exploratory, its exciting and if you are lucky you have a new run to add to your arsenal of go-tos. If you aren't lucky, well then you had a great mission with your boating partner exploring something new.
So - maybe the Hancock Brook top to bottom mission happened or maybe it didn't. But if you ask Justin about it, look at his eyes when he starts to describe the rapids, the painful first 1/2 mile, the awesome bedrock, strainers, boofs and lack of daylight and water. The truth will be there.....pictures or not.
Justin is moving to MO the end of this year and will be sorely missed around the VT boating scene. I'll be looking for a mission go-to partner. If you think you can handle some losers with the winners, give me a shout. I've got a running list of obscure runs that I want to tick off. You never know what you may find.... We found the Green that way, folks found Kennfield and the Basin that way, folks found Waterman that way.... There are more - and its always so much better to share that experience with a partner on the river than solo. Because if there aren't any pictures it doesn't happen, unless its shared in the memories of the folks that ran it.
Until the next rabbit hole......
So it is hard to find a better vertical run in Vermont. If you open the dictionary and look up pool/drop whitewater - the North Branch Winooski is in the picture.
Lots of water this week (really no different than any other week this year thus far). I get an email from Paul asking what's up...no pun intended. I needed to stay close to my stomping grounds and why go elsewhere anyways with this 12 miles from my abode. NBW it was - I knew it would be on the low side but definitely runable....hell I've been on it lower (not recommended).
We got to the take out at 5:30 and got our stuff together and headed up into Elmore to the put in and got on water at 6pm on the money. This was Paul's virgin run on the NBW so it was going to take a little longer than a normal race run but we had at least 2 hours of daylight to get down it. Also the river was at a level that it didn't push or stuff you but you had to be on line not to piton. That being said we boogied through it in just over 2 hours.
So starting off on this run you get lulled into a beautiful dance...maybe a waltz? of weaving bobbing and popping off of micro ledges. It is hypnotic as you work through the forest and gorge, all the while looking for Moose. Then blamo - you hit the first drop (broken drop). At this level it is easy and straight forward with a solid right boof stroke into the seam and eddy. This is where I got the pleasure of seeing the first expression on Paul's face. The saucer eyed look of surprise continued on each and every drop down through the river. After broken drop there are two really fun ledges both between 5-6 feet and require precise angle and boof strokes. Paul launched them both with skill in his Mamba.
Next up was the first of the substantial drops... On this trip there really was only one line on river right down the face of the 12 foot falls. It is a jumbly sort of affair and this is where the dance changes from waltz to foxtrot, knowing the ante has just upped its self. I had a decent line with a classic side-boof off the bottom lip. Paul styled it, even if his eyeballs looked like they were going pop out on the way down.
Below this things gorge up a little dumping you into Manky Mank. A deceivingly steep section of undefined rapids (boogie water between the defined stuff - to relate to a discussion a bunch of geeks are carrying on, on the message board). In my opinion one of the harder sections on the river though. Again today there was only one option and you needed to make it happen. Through Manky Mank we looked back up stream to really see how steep the two tiered multi faceted rapid actually is. Not to be taken lightly - especially with more water in it!
This brings us to the Big Bouncy...We walked down to look at it but knew we wouldn't be running it today with the low flow. Just not padded out enough.... But worth a look at the three lead in rapids that we would paddle to avoid the heinous portage on river right. So off we went down the three ledges snagging the last eddy above Big Bouncy and portaging river left on the bedrock shelves. This allows you a fun seal-launch into the bottom half of Big Bouncy and give you perspective of the magnitude of this beast - when you add in the lead in it is over 45 feet in height. A MONSTER.
Below this are some more ledges and roadside rubble leading into the tube under Route 12. Always good for a few whoops and hollers in the echo chamber.
Popping out the other side we had 8 notable drops between 4 feet and 35 feet left in our run and about 1/3 the distance left of the river. It was about 7:20 at that point so we needed to make haste and get to Flat Falls...Usually an easy right to left driving boof off the center prow in-between the two piton slabs at the bottom. This is not trivial but not hard either. You need to be precise because an 8 foot piton is never good for the boat or you. Both of us fired it up cleanly and we were on our way to Sliding Board. A fun curling sculpted banked right hand turn over a ledge drop. One of the two holes on the river that you really just don't want to mess with. Stay left and you are golden, go right and you are going to get a good surf at best and maybe some time with Elvis at worse. I learned my lesson on a run a few weeks prior...not a fun place to swim either because it is above the 35'er Double Drop. Both Paul and I cleaned Sliding Board with Paul having a few terse moments being sucked back towards the hole....STAY LEFT!
Portage #2 Double Drop definitely went today, however we opted out and boogied down the portage to put in at its base. What a great rapid and amazing waterfall. Go see it to believe me.
Starting to run out of light we needed to book it on down to Cave Falls. Definitely the worst hole on the river. You can see the cave behind the falls curtain - disgusting! Better have a whopper of a boof to clear the back tow of the falls, oh yea and it is a completely walled in gorge too. BUT.........The option to make it a really fun rapid is the slide on the right, next to the falls. With just enough water to lube up the slide we both powered up onto the slide and rocketed down into the gorge with a great seal launch in. In all the falls are probably 10-12 feet in height. An awesome place to practice a boof but a horrible place to not make it! The outside of the gorge is a really fun hole/wave thing that you need to punch. Below that is a nice 5 foot ledge followed by another 4 foot ledge and then the slack water leading to the Final Stage.
Final Stage is a river wide slide that looses close to 10 feet in elevation and ends in a river wide ledge that is approx. 12-15 feet high. We were officially out of light so pulled the pool toys out of the water and carried up to look at the drop and be on our way. Definitely two clean lines can be had at the level we were on the river at yesterday. Center goes fast with fury and River left, directly against the mid-river buttress was about as good as it gets.
Paul and I were all set and walked south on Route 12 to the shuttle. It was a great way to spend a Tuesday Evening....
Boating.... the ever entertaining NBW.
If you like waterfalls and hucking your meat - this is your run.
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
The trip that had been planned for the Moose River needed to be moved, since there was no water in the Moose. And, with rain approaching from the southwest, we were compelled to 'go east', to the Ammo. The Ammo also was low, but was one of the few in the northeast with any water at all, since there was still snowmelt from Mt Washington. (With a gage of 2.66', the American Whitewater website called the river 'too low', but it was actually quite acceptable. Rumors abound that the Ammo is OK down to about 2.5') With the approaching storm, we had strong east winds during the drive, and my double nested canoe tie-down had a lot of trouble on I-89, until a better rope arrangement was achieved. We were about a half-hour late to the put in. Once on the water, there were a few places where we had to stare ahead to make sure there really was a channel, but there always was. At this level, everything upstream of Boat Breaker Rapid was class 2, and Boat Breaker itself was reduced to a rather anemic class 3. One of the boats took out at the Pierce Bridge, and the other four continued on. Below the dam, the water was quite good. Powerhouse Rapid was still a solid class 3, with more rockiness than at higher levels, and the rapids continuing to the first bridge were all good. We continued to the last bridge before we would have reached Alder Brook, and took out there because of folks trying to get back to Burlington.
The day was supposed to be the better of the weekend days, but it was really fairly miserable. On and off light rain was the staple of the day, on the river and during the drive over and back. The water, of course, was recently melted snow, probably 35 degrees, and the air temperature on the river was at best 50 degrees. As the rain continued, Sheri Larsen, being wiser than the rest of us, decided not to paddle, and met us at each bridge to provide logistical support - and brownies at the end. Because of time constraints, one boat took out at the first bridge (Pierce Bridge). The other boats continued past the dam, and took out two bridges downstream.
The water level was a quite wonderful 4.05' at the Bethlehem Junction gauge. At this level, nothing is rocky or scratchy - there are big chutes through every rapid. Of course, the water is a lot pushier, and the waves a lot bigger, but there is nothing overwhelming. All of the major rapids required attention to features 40 and more feet downstream, and strategic manoevering to get away from the worst places. There were fewer obstructions, but you would be in real trouble if you waited until you were almost upon some of them before reacting.
Boat Breaker Rapid had an added feature - a tree trunk that extended 6 feet out into the main left-side channel about 2 1/2 feet above the water, right across where we normally make the entrance move. But, at this level there was a big-wave route just beyond the tip of the tree, so we ran the waves with the tree tip grazing the left side of our helmets.
Powerhouse Rapid seemed in some ways easier than when the river is lower, because of the higher water covering some rocks. The waves were big and powerful, but with good, strategic boat placement even the open canoes could get through without taking a lot of water. It would have been a nasty place to swim, but no one had any trouble.
We pretty much cruised down the river, with no stops to 'play'. From the put-in at 'The Big Pine Tree' to Pierce Bridge took just over 1 hour. There was another hour of on-water time to the next bridge, plus 30 minutes for the portage around the dam and lunch. From that bridge to the take-out bridge was about 35 minutes of on-water time.
I had low expectations for this trip, and was tempted in fact to cancel it when Friday's rainfall failed to bring the Sunday level much above 3 feet. But I was pleasantly surprised at how sporty the "Ammo" can be for intermediate paddlers at this level. Lori, in fact, maintains that a pleasant albeit scratchy run can be had here at levels all the way down to 1.6 feet. My preference actually would be 3.5 to 4.5 feet, but on this day the sun shone, the water was sparkling clear, few swam, and the gang of (mostly) VPC old-timers was in good spirits.
The day's most comical (and pathetic) moment came when a native on his ATV decided to show off for our group and ford the river under power, only to sputter, gurgle, and stall out in the deepest part of the channel. These antics aside, it was easy to see why the Ammo is a perennial club favorite, especially among open boaters.
This trip needed help from the weather gods. The river was low as of Saturday AM, at 3.1', but rain was expected Saturday PM and overnight. But, of course, we could not take too much rain. By Sunday AM, the river was at 3.9', an excellent level, but someone forgot to turn off the rain. A cold, misty rain continued all day until 3PM, and the air temperature stayed at 45 degrees most of the time. So, we had excellent flowing water, but miserable atmospheric water! One planned paddler chose not to paddle because of the rain, so we had the advantage of a 'transportation specialist' who would meet us at each road crossing. We planned to go from the big pine tree at the new parking lot west of Twin Mountain, down to the railroad beyond Alder Brook. As it turned out, we all got out after a cold 4 hours on the river. The trip we had was great, but enough was enough.
The remnants of the flood of the previous Sunday, where the river jumped from 5' to 10' in about 6 hours, provided intereting aspects to the trip. There was debris in all the alder branches 5 and 6 feet above stream level. And, the spillway at the dam was plugged by mangled trees, sending the water over the top rather than through the spillway.
At a 3.9' level, the river is really good 3+ / 4- water. Boat Breaker, Powerhouse, and a couple of other steep drops are impressive, but still quite doable in an open canoe.
Since this was the trip organizers birthday, a post-trip treat of brownies was provided by Sheri Larsen.
Year #5 for the road tripers to make the pigrimage north to get after the goods in New England, specifically VT.
This year the crew was whittled down to just Jason and Dan driving up and for a change it was low key, low pressure. In addition it meant that I didn't have to drive around by myself as the other 1/2 of the shuttle carried on in the PA-party mobile. This year we were set. I had a small shuttle rig 125cc enduro that I could mount on the back of my truck and we all hauled around together for 3 days getting after what water was left of the measily runoff the lack-luster winter provided us with.
Day One... We got an alpine start, NOT!!!, and headed out the door around 11am to Warner New Hampshire. Neither Dan nor Jason had been in their boats since 2010 and wanted to get some warm-up action. The Warner was one of the only things running that they could get their "mellow" on. Blar - low manky and down-right pitiful. None the less we headed down it and left it littered with lots of little pretty, colorful plastic shavings..
Quickly we regrouped and headed north up I-91 to get in a lap on the Wells.... fun low risk creeking and even more fun when one of the guys has no idea what is over each horizon line but is more than willing to follow you off of them. Needless to say we bombed this run and had a blast - for the entire 20 minutes it took to get down it. Back to Monty-P and then on to Waterbury and the Prohibition Pig for some quality drafts.
Day Two..... Dan is one of those weirdo squirt boaters. A few years ago we hit the stuff up in NVT like the NBL, Gihon, Waterman and others at Amazing levels. However, the only thing Dan could talk about was this AWESOME seam he saw on the Lamoille at Ithiel Falls. So back to Ithiel we went for a few hours for Dan to get is down-time in before we headed over to only real thing that was running this weekend.....the Green River.... Yea we had convinced Morrisville Water and Light to give us a minimum, one tube release for the weekend. So after packing up Dan's Squirt Boat and gear, off to Wolcott we went for some amazingly fun creeking on a warm spring afternoon. Those of you that know the Green, know it starts with a bang no matter if you run the meat or the sneak. I didn't fail to entertain by running the meat of the sneak (Huh - wtf is Ryan talking about again). The left side of the sneak is a sure fire way to put a crease in the nose of your boat so that it looks a little like the backside of a super model. Makes for some really weird water dynamics too with that butt crack in there (resurfacing after Humble Pie). None the less it was caught on film and is pretty funny to watch. After that the run went without incident with Jason running all of the drops, Me walking the gorge and Dan walking Humble Pie. The run was as good as always and having the Moto Shuttle makes it just that much more fun to buzz up the back roads to get the Truck... Getting back in time to Monty-P for some killer Positive Pie Pizza and good local company.
Day Three...
Off we went in a southernly direction...I was hoping that maybe by some chance there would be some flow in the New Haven...NOPE, then we headed on town to the Midd and it was BONE DRY. Further south we went - looking at BB - Nothing and finally we headed out of Danby in an easternly direction toward the Mettawee.... A first for me but getting the guys headed in the right direction toward home. We ran all of the drops on the Mettawee except #2... Why mess with a rapid that is a known to be potentially lethal. I especially enjoyed triple drop - very cool feel to that rapid with the way it is walled in and the holes you must skirt. The last one was a blast too with the big spout/boof on the right side. Anyways - we wrapped it up and got moving in opposite directions. Jason and Dan to PA and I, back north to Monty-P.
It was a fun weekend even though it was the worst water we had seen in the 5 years we had been doing this. I am sure we'll be looking to hit the goods again in 2013.... Stay tuned - hope to have better stories for the PA to VT creek weekend then!
Most of the week I was bombarded with reports of sunny weather and great water levels in New Hampshire, but aside from a quick low-water Mad lap my week was nothing but work. That had been pretty much the story for my entire spring and I was a bit frustrated. It seemed unlikely that the good snowmelt would continue through the weekend, but I figured at least I'd get a solo low-water EB Pemi lap in to help keep myself sane.
Surprisingly, Will was game for a trip over there, and Friday afternoon showed levels not dropping a whole lot. Tom had an itch for logging that needed scratching and Becca figured that after she dropped him off for his logging class she could meet us for a run with a couple other Maine folks, and so it looked like a Saturday of paddling was lined up.
We met a big group of Maine folks at Lincoln woods and as usual, inquiries into my State of origin were made, until I told them who their home state was named after. And being residents of a state devised for my vacationing purposes, they were eager to do the 3-mile hike up to the upper section. They were so motivated in fact that while I was still the first to the put-in bridge, I had barely enough time to drink my beer before the rest of the group showed up.
There's not a whole lot to say about the EB Pemi but it was a little over 1000 cfs and at that level it's a lot of fun class III with tons of fun boofs, slots, eddies and holes to mess around with. At the regular put-in Will and I decided we needed to get moving to catch the Upper Pemi and did the rest of the run in about 45 minutes, passing several more large groups of paddlers out enjoying the beautiful day, and when we did shuttle we ran into yet more paddlers putting in. There must have been 40 boaters on the river that day, enjoying it like everyone should.
Up at the Upper Pemi put-in, we judged the level acceptable and put on, neither of us having done the run before. After Alan's passing, I thought I'd never do this run, but now I think that's not a great legacy nor a good way to remember someone. We took a conservative approach that involved some careful scouting and a ton of careful eddy-hopping and two portages. What a great run. Tons of polished granite and clear water that in places takes on an iridescent blue-green hue, not from any sort of sediment but rather the scattering of light off millions of tiny suspended air bubbles. Unlike a lot of other New England creeks it's not super-steep or stacked... but somehow every time you turn around there's another great, decent-sized rapid.
Jogging shuttle up the bike path was an added bonus, with dusk settling into the spruce and birches while orange sunlight still hung on Lafayette and Cannon above. On foot I was surprised at how short this run really is... 2 or 3 miles though it feels longer. And that's just it... a run that just keeps going and going.
And other things that just keep going and going: memories of people we paddle with, or mellow runs where we remember what we love about the sport.
I was running home from the Chace Mill to get my boat and other gear at about 2:30, and passed an SUV loaded with boats coming from UVM. A signaled and asked the driver (Conner) if they were headed to the falls; he indicated yes.
By the time I arrived at the Chace Mill's back parking lot (~3:00 pm) Matt was about to put on and everyone else was on the river. I launched at ~3:30 and headed down the falls to join them. We spent the next 1.5 hours doing repeated runs of the Horseshoe or practicing attainment in the rapids below the falls. After everyone else left I hiked back to the put-in and did a conditioning paddle up to the Lime Kiln Dam and back, and after that ran the falls again on the far right side.
The weather was cool (mid-40s) but the sky was cloudless. There were some broken ice floes coming down the falls around 4:30 or so, continuing until after 5:00, but very little ice on the river overall. A later visual check from Riverside Park confirmed that Salmon Hole below the dam is completely free of ice. It was a perfect day to be on the river.
The AuSable is a beautiful Chasm that is rated between class 3 through 5. The river has previously been closed to kayakers and other watercrafts except for the Ausable raft company which only run the short class 3 section.
Si took part in the 1st study and advised that we should sign up for the next one. I was a bit apprehensive as I knew nothing was portageable, river scouting was limited and to top it one of the rapids would be full of I beams.
The great thing was that I would be able to scout all the rapids from the Chasm company's grounds. If I decided not to run it I could do so before I even got in my boat...Once your on your on..you can't take off.
We met up with Tony Shaw and another paddler called Marcus and agreed this would be our group for the river.
I am going to skip most of the part where we spent a good 2 hours talking, filling in forms and scouting the rapids.
Tony and I walked along the chasm and eagerly eyed up every rapid and discussed the lines, and where we would need to take out to scout. I think Tony had already decided to run it; I scouted the last one and knew I wanted to be a part of the river.
We were the 2nd group to put on, and it is quite intimidating having the organizers watching and filming your every move, heightened by the fact hundreds of tourist are eagerly watching at the little duck (us) 100ft below shouting and cheering at us...
The first drop (4) which can be seen from the road was a beautiful two stage drop then straight down through a series of three holes. Very fun and the group in front took advantage of running it a few times before we got there.
The next drop (4) and probably the hardest were made even more difficult by the fact no sneak chute existed at this low level. By the time we had scouted, the other groups were catching up. We watched intently has a few paddlers opted for the gnarly line and survived...me I ran the top section, quickly eddied out and did a grade 5 portage round enabling me to run the bottom of the rapid (4) a fun steep set of ledges forming various holes with a run out that conveniently smashes in to a wall. This was actually easier to avoid than it looked.
Then final rapid (4) came up probably a little too quickly. On this one I was glad I scouted from above. Scouting at river level wasn't too easy; we opted to scout from our boats.
The difficulty of this rapid is heightened by two nicely I beams that have washed into it.
The first stops you making a nice easy ferry to the right, the second and larger one comes in if you miss that ferry because the water pushes you right towards it.
I personally had a bit of a panic at the top of this not only because I knew I had to nail the line, but the last part of it is a really nasty hole that pushes water into a slight undercut.
I was glad but sad the hardest part was over.
Paddling through the reminder of the chasm was beautiful; it felt such an honor to be part of a minority being able to run the river.
After a man made chute that the AuSable chasm has created to entertain rafter and Tubers (they put in below the last rapid), the river pretty much goes flat. We were concerned that as the river widened the water flowing would not be enough to get out...it was bare minimum and we managed to scrape out.
The day was perfect and I was pleased to discover Tony was the first canoeist and I was the first female to run the chasm.
FANTASTIC, if you have the chance to run this go, play a part in the study and have fun...watch out the organizers insist you scout before you run. The scouting costs $11 because you have to go in to the AuSable Chasm trails.
Sunny, warm temps and medium flows made for a perfect day to be on the Chasm. We put on around 11:30 spending time paddling up to Rainbow Falls to check out the view. Moving downstream we made quick work of horseshoe, second rapid and the diagonal slide all with clean lines. Everyone grabbed an eddie above Elephants most scouted from river left. As we approached the Diagonal Slide the Chasm Company employees were on us. They did nothing more than observe and seemed friendly enough but they were clearly there to make sure we did nothing more than move downstream. They seemed to have no problem with scouting and setting safety at river level. Scott set safety below the long rapid walking up a bit which seemed fine with them as well. Everyone ran Elephant's on the far river right. Scott ran first followed by Mainer, Paul, Justin, Kristen and I in the duo then Caleb. When the Duo dropped off the right side of Elephants Kristen disappeared. She resurfaced and we finished out the long rapid which was quite pushy at this level. The river left side (sneak) of Elephants seemed rather manky although with some effort you can portage river left. We swirled in the eddy on river right waiting for Caleb as a random solo boater in a yellow habitat came down, did not say a word and paddled away. Caleb finished up the rapid and we made our way down to Mike's Hole. The line was start river left, move right around a rock at the entrance then make your way back left to finish boofing the hole toward river left. Again Scott Gilbert (possibly most runs of the Chasm ever) ran first and the rest of the group followed. Everyone made it through and we were done with the major whitewater. Their was some rebar on river left below Mike's Hole by 100ft or so but is easily avoidable in your boat. We enjoyed the narrow vertical walls of the chasm, playing around in some of the remaining rapids and having an extended surf session at the waves below. Motivation seemed high for a second lap but as usual the scrape out taking 30 minutes changed thoughts and we ended up at the takeout satisfied with our one lap. Some made their way to find a milkshake at Stewarts (and possibly some cheap adult beverages) while Kristen and I made our way north to Clare and Carls Michigan dogs in Plattsburgh to cap off the day. Since the destruction of Irene the Chasm Company has put in some ropes courses and climbing apparatus's over some parts of the Chasm around the Long Rapid and Mikes Hole. They did not seem to give us much trouble as long as we were scouting and made some effort to move downstream. The run at this level had a medium feel with most rapids being class IV and right side elephants class IV+. Caleb had his personal first decent and I believe Kristen and myself had the first decent in a K2. This runs is high quality both in scenery and rapids, the paddle out is somewhat long so get their early if you plan on doing multiple laps. Warm weather creeking is a pretty nice appeal in the Northeast.
Bands of intermittent ADK summer rain brought the Ausable River below Ausable Forks up above 1100 cfs briefly around midnight on Thursday but by noon on Saturday it had fallen to 569 cfs. Two of us had never run this short but impressive class IV river before, and the other two had not run it in a decade (and neither/never higher than 400 cfs). Someone at NYSEG needs a stern reminder that the paddlers' (public) gate at the put-in needs to remain unlocked starting Memorial Day weekend, but as the saying goes: “what happens (just barely) under the barbed wire fence stays under the fence”.
I think I can speak for our entire foursome when I say the mid-500s was a really fun level, and the shallow 2 mile paddle out to the 9N bridge was not bad at all, made all the more enjoyable by a light breeze under sunny skies, temps in the 80’s, and bald eagle & osprey sightings. In the named drops up above no flips, no swims, and plenty of hoots and hollers at river level, and also from the paying crowds overhead enjoying their own version of an adrenaline rush, crossing back and forth over the raging river on the Tarzan bridges maintained by the Ausable Chasm Company. The ACC staff were universally welcoming and friendly to us when we stopped to scout at the Devil’s Oven drop and above Mike’s Hole, where kayakers in the past have been harassed.
The morning hiccup at the gate squelched our ambitions for a second lap, but otherwise with an early start 2 laps seem realistic, even at flows as low as 300 cfs.
Sunny Skies and clear clean water was on the agenda for our trip trip to NH. With less than an alpine start, we met at the Montpelier Park and Ride to saunter to Barre where we snagged Henry and the 6 of us from VT headed over to NH to meet up with Brandon and Jamie at the put in for the SB Baker. The level was at a flowy medium.
All of us were happy to be on water and floating down the river. Water temps reminded you that we were really still barely into spring. All rapids went cleanly down to the entrance to the old mill. There was a log that was easily moved. At that point we all ran lines through to the last drop of varying degrees of cleanliness. Below the Mill Drop we bopped on down to the confluence with Rocky Branch and Cannibal Falls. No one nutted up to fire Cannibal on this trip, but it was definitely primed and ready to go.
From Cannibal Falls on down, the group spread out and everyone picked apart the rapids and drops until we hit the last big slide, which everyone ran far right and cleanly....... If you haven't had a chance to run the SB Baker and you are a budding creeker looking for a mix of bedrock and boulder rapids, this is a fun class 3/4 run with lots of action.
Next we headed to Pond Brook for a fun run on a quality bedrock run with fun slides and a whopper of a boof at the end! Mega Slide served up a few tense moments but the folks that ran it ran it with their own personal panache....what a quality rapid. What a great run and everyone was ear to ear smiles at the bottom.... Other than paddling past the take out (MAINER) I would say I like Pond a little more than SB Baker just because of the style of rapids and continuous manner with which it drops downward to the Baker.
After the run we shared brews, stories and caught up with another group of boaters that included Tom and Becca driving over from Maine to sample the goods.
Over all a great day of early season boating for all of us present.....
Low broachable, I mean boatable level. The narrow steeper drops had plenty of water, but the wide easy parts were too low. The bridge "gauge" was showing either 5.25 or 6.25 blocks....I'm never sure whether to count the big top block. A challenging run at any level.
A day late, a few hundred cfs short.....well into the lower range of the "low boatable" category. Still a some fun, gnarly drops in there where the river chokes down and steepens, but many boney dues must be paid getting there.
Gauge: the entire rt.30 bridge abutment was exposed right down to the riverbed on the downstream side. (you count the blocks down from the bridge to the waterline; 6.5 is typically considered minimum. This was more like 7+)
My stomach churns, my hands are sweaty...I am thinking about running a huge technical drop...I am actually day dreaming. The sickening feeling is my car sickness taking a hold. The miles and miles of dirt road are starting to take its toll.
"Where the hell are we?" I impatiently shout at Simon "nearly there" he replies.
An hour later we arrive at the SoftMaple campground.
I am excited we have three days of solid boating ahead and it all begins here..
Taylorville
Si "advised a nice easy grade3" lulling me into false sense of security. I learnt early on in paddling not to read guide book descriptions. They are just there to scare you into not running anything other than grade2.
Our first run wasn't pretty. We were the first on the river and somehow three of us ended up in the same hole at the same time. One swimmer, mangled bloody knuckles and a good trashing wasn't a good start to the day!!
I think we even managed to scare some of the kayakers watching, who wisely decided to put in below the first drop.
The next drop...The slide..wow 30ft of pure pleasure only to be thrown right into a hole at the bottom...we survived this one unscathed and upright.
The next rapid ate me for dinner and spat me out with a black eye. It obviously didn't like the taste of an English chick.
The rest of the run we had a swimmer here and there. The whole run was fantastic drop, pool slide pool drop pool drop pool...play spot the perfect river.
We did a second run and revenged it big time, and we even ran the slot chute a couple of times for fun.
Afterwards I read the guidebook Dennis's description perfectly describes it.
While most of us headed back to Camp to lick our wounds and cleanse them from the inside with Alcohol. Si and a few others headed out to the Oswagatchie.
Day 2 Moshier
You know it is going to be a good river when your paddling with the likes of Freddie Corriel, Justin Beckwith and Alden Bird!!
Freddie wowed everyone with his grace and finesse by running a supposedly unrunnable nasty first slide, clean and uneventful.
First was a nice clean 12ft waterfall, which was great to practice the boof stroke and get the muscles warmed up.
The second a waterfall followed by two nasty holes...scary so I portaged!!
After a couple of grade 3+ rapids the Encore arrived a long grade 5 rapid...but where was the water?? Oops it looks like we got ahead of ourselves.
When the water arrived the drop was run over and over again...I watched from the bank...The lines looked fairly clean, I was tempted...okay maybe next year.
On the second run the water was higher and the last hole had kayakers for Lunch breakfast and dinner and even two at time...serious carnage!!
Eagle...
Well I didn't even bother kitting up for this. I watched in amazement as paddler after paddler like a line of lemmings run through this narrow grade 5 run....it looked fun, and scary.
It is a steep, rocky, narrow, ledgy run all in one, it is a steep creek lovers dream.
The carnage was minimal, but when it did happen the unfortunate kayaker got cheered and clapped from the huge crowd that had come to watch "those crazy people".
The final day had arrived and I was thankfully that a group consensus enabled us to paddle at Taylorville one last time...That is definitely one of my favorite rivers now. With my boofing perfected I nailed my lines like a dream. The highlight was running the 30ft slide a couple of times.
We then moved on to Raquette. Alden hadn't run it before, and I felt kinda sorry for him when the group decided he wouldn't be allowed to scout anything...on that note I volunteered to be the groups shuttle bunny...I have run the Raquette before, but I am not confident enough not to scout. So I sat in the sun, borrowed a Dog and stuffed myself on cookies and beer...it's a hard life.
The guys on the other hand raced down the river two times...I think they almost ran out of water on the second run.
They came armed with tales of fist fights in eddies and broken boats from badly run waterfalls (none of them were our group).
Huge smiles, beers and new friendships ooh and cookies seemed to be the perfect ending to the weekend!!
WARNING the English are taking over!!! I was surprised at the amount of English paddlers I met over the weekend...
One last fling before the year begins. The afternoon began with a juicy run down the New Haven with Katie (21 years old on that very day!) and Marshall. I recall: boofing smartly over a large hole in the Playpen, then getting hammered in the hole in Mama Tried.
At the take out we met up with the rest of the gang. My two friends headed off to do other things and I stuffed my boat in the van to run Beaver Meadow.
Beaver Meadow is a trib of the New Haven that dumps in about a mile up from the normal Ledges put in. I had never run it before. It is virtually Ed Clark's personal creek -- he lives there, discovered it and has led most of the few descents.
The water was low, but the river was steep. There were many exciting drops, including a nasty one with a log that we walked. Most of the drops seemed to be about 7 feet tall and contain some variety of hideous piton/pin spot on one dreaded side of the bottom.
In fact, we did have one minor shoulder dislocation and also the most serious pin I have witnessed. I heard Chris yell, "Shit! Pin!" and tried to move smoothly into rescue position. All I could see was the bow of a boat sticking up in the air, and the occupant with his head just out of the water. Fortunately we had plenty of power on the banks and were able to pull him out quickly and safely.
Fittingly, this new gem was my last Vermont river of the summer, and probably my last for a long time. That night I drove five hours home to Connecticut and a week later I moved to DC. This river marked the end of a long, vagabond summer spent running rivers and meeting people. I once read something like, "As an artist, you become familiar with due process. You can't just write people off or send them to hell." Same with boating. You can't go boating alone, despite what some desperate incarnations of ourselves will say. It's been a great summer, and I hope everyone is careful, paddles fastidiously and scouts and sets safety in a meticulous way. Because you know what they say -- if expert paddlers are laughing at you, you're probably being pretty darn safe . . .
At least to get all this paddling, briefly, down on paper. Let's see, the first day I did Fish Creek in NY. Actually, the river was very high and the folks I met at the take out bridge opted to run a side creek instead. Somewhat disappointing.
Next day Jake and Rick and I hiked 3 miles up the trail and ran John's Brook in Keene Valley. 5 miles of Big Branch style boulder gardens. Jake fired up the usually-portaged drop and impressed me deeply by acing it.
After that, we drove over and took a fast, sweet run down the Middlebury Gorge and then some runs off Otter Creek Falls.
Next morning we woke and Rick and I took a quick run down the Middlebury again and I experienced one of the most rewarding moments in my short boating career.
For years I have been making due with a right stroke while going off the waterfall (Fallopian) in the heart of the Middlebury. It never works. Since I am a right-handed canoeist, it is very difficult for to me make the hard move to the right off the waterfall. Consequently I often end up in the dangerous river-left "room" that is hard to escape.
But on this day, I broke through. I finally gathered the courage to try a cross-bow boof off the 15-foot Fallopian. I let Rick go first, so he would be ready to pick up the pieces if necessary. I caught the eddy just above the lip (not frickin easy - I almost fell out backwards!) and looked over my shoulder. Since we were in the depths of the unportageable section of the gorge, nobody could have watched me visibly psyching myself up. Years ago I climbed in to scout the waterfall and it took almost 30 minutes of dicey rock-climbing moves to get to the edge of the cliff above. So as I held onto the cliff while bobbing in the eddy on this day, it was just me up in there and I was a little on edge to say the least.
My mind was not exactly made up when I peeled out. At times like this, I think of a former kayaking friend who used to say, "I'll make a game-time decision." Yet when I got to the edge, it felt right. I went for it.
The water was low. I was worried about landing upside down - so little balance does the crossbow offer in turbulent water. Still, I knew that Rick was down there and that made me feel safe.
I came around the corner. No speed. I twisted my body into a pretzel - cross bow. I grabbed the lip with my paddle as I started to fall and swung as much leverage into the blade as I could, my whole frame propped over the edge with no brace, 15 feet off the deck for a split second. I flung out from the falls seemingly the same as always and landed and braced for the inevitable explosion of white tonage on my stern and the inevitable combat roll that would be demanded of me.
It never came. I landed clear of the falls - miraculous! - safe in the coveted river right eddy - right next to Rick. I shrugged. I couldn't believe it had worked. It didn't feel that different. It reminded me of when someone gives you gapingly common-sensical advice, like, "Maybe if you just talk to her," and then you wave your hand, "No, that would never work!" But then, miraculously - it does.
We had to do another run! Rick didn't want to. But then Scott and another guy showed up and we just HAD to join them.
We did not catch a single eddy in the whole first mile through the upper gorge until we were above the waterfall. I was last in line. I watched everyone disappear down the hole-in-the-wall slot that leads to the long, flip-you rapid that pours through the notch-in-the-cliff that is Fallopian Falls. At the lip I took one cross bow stroke to correct my angle -- and then another on a "delayed boof" as I tilted downward. Again, I landed flat -- this time indisputably far (even for my own instincts) away from the white, falling water.
After that, the rest of the run was glorious. There is nothing that compares to a familiar, magnificent river in the company of (low-key) old friends who are just as blissfully lost on their own adventures as they are keeping an eye on you from 10 feet away while bombing the rapids and sliding off boof rocks like skiers off jumps.
After that we met up with everyone else and headed over to NY and ran many more rivers: the Boquet, Ausable, Oswegatchie, the Moshier, Eagle and Taylorville sections of the Beaver, and the Raquette.
The trip ended with a ferry ride across Lake Champlain at Essex at sunset on Monday. Nice way to relax and unwind after a great deal of whitewater.
See you on the river.
Yes...that would be referring to me. I have been behind the curve for about 3 years now for the New Haven Ledges. Infact so far behind the curve that this past Saturday was the first run I've had on the Ledges since Irene has had it's way with the run.
That said - it was a beautiful day and it was either a low water run there or back to the Mad. I need me some Ledges and figured it would be fun to check it out with an old pro/local (Mainer) and Paul Dawson. Paul and I set shuttle and looked at a couple of rapids and by the time we had gotten down Mike had snuck up to the put in and got a speed run down through.
We had two relatively uneventful runs and mostly ran cleanly through. the low water messed with Mike's beater boat some more and Paul pinned in the entry to Playpen, but mostly it was a benign afternoon on the river and we had it all to ourselves. Oh yea - and I seem to have forgotten how to roll in the pool below Toaster - DOH!
I really need to spend more time on that run. I sure spend enough time in April looking at it and sending folks down it at the New Haven Race... Time to change the paradigm and get out there more myself!
I'll be back more often and more fluid levels.
ALSO - at low levels be careful in the run out of Oh By The Way. There is a nasty piece of wood in there that if you went deep could be a hazard.
Many creeks get harder when they are low. The New Haven is like this. You are
more likely to flip if you hit a rock at high speed than a wave.
Apparently the Big Branch is the same way, according to my companion who had run
the river a foot higher. If I were to go back, I would want some more water.
This is the steepest and most continuous river I have ever done. To do it right
you have to Concentrate, Concentrate, Concentrate. When I got to the takeout I
felt like I had just taken the damn SATs or something.
Unfortunately one of our three dislocated his shoulder in the "Cave" rapid right
at the start and, writhing in pain, had to call it a day. We hauled his boat up
and out of the gorge for him. This took a while. End result was that I didn't
get back to school in time. Missed class for some class V.
The few times I looked up I noticed that I was hurtling down through a very pretty gorge. That's why we say "gorgeous," ain't it?
Ran a quarter mile of the Big Branch today at an absurdly low level: 0.5 on the bridge gauge. Started below the old abutments and ran down to just above the take-out bridge. The river was really too low, but in this short stretch I found a runnable line all the way down, and didn't have to walk anything. Like an addict, I've had a small taste of this creek, and now I want more!
Was lucky enough to show my Washington DC friends down several Vermont creeks on this day. In the morning we ran the Middlebury Gorge. I had forgotten . . . Soon after we departed for Rutland, bound for the Big Branch.
Suffice to say that it was a "zone experience." Nobody missed a move the whole way down. We didn't get out of our boats once. It was intense. I just remember constant boofing, bashing, dropping through chutes and around boulders amid all those steep-as-hell fields of rocks. Long stretches of not eddying out, heaving the bow of my C-1 out into the air off vertical drop after vertical drop.
The one highlight that sticks in my head is from the hardest rapid, Mushroom. In the eddy above, I sketched out the dangers to avoid on the left side of the rapid. I descended the tight staircase first, out of sight of the others. As I hit the famous "sky-boof" on the right, it occured to me that I had not mentioned this. I pulled into an eddy and waited for Joe and Steve. Seconds later I saw it! Joe came flying around the corner in perfect position to make the move. Did he see the big boof? Yes, he did! Would he try to jump off it? Would he be comfortable enough with my directions and with this creek to try something I had not mentioned? Yes, he would! He hit the boof and his bow flung up into the air and his stern followed. He hung in the air, totally out of the water, for a full second, and then landed about two feet away from me, touching down on his stern and sizzling into the eddy. On his face was a look of wonder, surprise -- and silly laughter.
When we got to the bottom (the final rapid is impressive to anyone) Steve claimed that this was his new favorite creek and Joe proclaimed it "harder than the Upper Blackwater or the Green Narrows." It was a pleasure to show them down my favorite river. Now I understand the look in the eye of all those locals, eager to please me with their rivers, whom I followed while exploring rivers for my guidebook last year.
I really wish I had a picture of Joe in that rapid. I remember conferring with him briefly, right afterwards, then peeling out into the next rapid and letting my own bow take to the air off another 5-footer. The Big Branch is the river that makes the bows want to fly.
To start with....starting late for a first time down the Big Branch is not recommended. When we put on it was at 0 and when we took off it was at 1 on the painted gauge.
That being said if you do have a late start make sure you are paddling this with Russ. Russ had 60 days last year on the Big Branch and some of those days included multiple runs. When I say he is intimate with the run...this may be the understatement of the year!
So to the put-in parking lot and then down the 700 vert feet into the gorge to the river we went. Russ did some maintenance on a few branches blocking the beginning sequence and we were off down the river.
I really can't do this run justice in a trip report so I'll try to describe what was experienced. This run is a boulder filled stream - there really aren't any bedrock ledges so it is mostly slots and pools that you boof from one to the next. The creek drops an average of 250 f/mi so you should get the idea of its steepness from that. We all walked the big three, Cave Drop, Mushroom - 50/50 and BLT. Mostly from already hauling boats around them but the level was pretty lowish too (When we put on it was at 0 and when we took off it was at 1 on the painted gauge).
Russ ran lead and I ran sweep for most of the run so I was seeing everyone from above all of these slot drops and they would always be smiling, but a later conversation from folks that were in the eddys, said that as people approached the slots you could see looks of concentration. Concentration is something that you can't let up on in this creek because it just keeps coming at you.
So we made it to the last rapid and it had gotten dark really fast. Everyone was pretty frazzled at this point and was ready to get off the river. So Russ gave out a quick set of instructions and sent the ducks on their way, myself included (ducks because we basicly paddled the river in a line like a bunch of ducklings following every move Russ made). This last rapid more or less decimated the group. The vast majority of the group was flipped at some point in this rapid (all hit their roll) and were happy to be in an eddy (eddy is an exaggeration) at the bottom.
Upon exiting the creek we pulled our nicely chilled recreational beverages from the creek that we stased prior to the run (snow melt water does wonders) and I proceded to prop my boat on the guard rail - bad move....A stiff wind blew it over and it landed squarely on the sharp end of an I-beam putting a wicked puncture in it. Needless to say - was up late on a weld-job to ge the boat ready for the next day of Creeking in VT. Note to self....drain water out of boat like everyone else instead of trying to be slick and leaning it up.
If you haven't at least looked at Big Branch....go do so!
I had been thinking maybe I was ready for my first run on the legendary Big Branch. Alden had run it a few times, and seemed to think so too. So after a couple days of storms sweeping through south of Rutland, we decided play hooky for the morning and see if it was up. Up it was, to 3.5, a pretty solid level I'm told.
We put in at 8AM. The run started out well, boofing over an endless staircase of 2 - 4' drops. This is cool! The drops are so close together there's hardly time to think. The scenery is amazing, if you can find the time to look. Blue sky, warm sunshine, lush spring foliage, and a riverbed full of glacial boulders.
Soon we were at the first of the named drops, "Cave rapid". A 6' drop, cave on the right, rock wall on the left, piton rocks in the middle. Tough choices. Alden runs first, taking the middle line. With a thump he pitons into the rocks, breaking both thigh straps. Not easy to roll a C-1 like that, but he tries twice, then he's out and swimming. We recover the boat but his paddle has gotten away. Thankfully he has a spare in his boat, so we jury-rig his straps and continue (I took the sneak route, on foot, boat on shoulder, river right)
Another stretch of steep stair-step drops and we're at "Mushroom", a maze of small boulder drops ending in a couple bigger ones. It's my turn for carnage. All goes well until I somehow find myself running the last 2 drops upside down, lose my paddle, and swim. The boat stays with me but the paddle tries to escape. After a short search we find it and we're off again, dropping and boofing.
At about the halfway point I'm flipped again, banging along through the boulders. Too confused to roll, I pull the ripcord and gather up the pieces. This time I have a firm grip on the boat and paddle, but I watch as some of my outfitting floats away. With a hip pad and my confidence washed away it's time for me to admit defeat. I shoulder the boat and hike the last 3/4 mile to the take-out bridge. Alden finished the run solo, without further incident. Afterwards, on the drive to work, I find my shirt sleeve wet with blood. A quick stop at the doctor's office for a few stitches in my elbow and I'm ready for the next adventure.
What an amazing creek. Far steeper than anything I've been on. Absolutely relentless and unforgiving rapids. Gorgeous green wilderness. Beats the heck out of working! Not sure how soon, but I'll be back again to redeem myself. At a lower level. It's too cool a run not to try again.
Join the Saturday, June 4 Big Splash river festival flotilla for all, about 3 miles from Norwich Landing at 11am, to Wilder Picnic Area, site of the festival. Shuttle available from Wilder Picnic Area at 9:30, 10, 10:30am Saturday June 4.
50 exhibitors, international music, activities, boat builder, arts, alternative fuel and energy discussions, children activities all day 10:30-6:30.
Rt 5 to Gillette St by the church with the purple clock, to the river.
It's been a slow start to the season here in Vermont. There's a good snowpack for sure, but the ice has stuck around in the riverbeds and levels have been pretty low. The skiing has generally been pretty good though, but after a night of freezing rain I was pretty sure Saturday morning that I wanted to go boating. Problem was that the ice status on the Mad was unknown, the New Haven was probably still iced in, and everything else was definitely still frozen.
Except for Sheldon Springs on the Mississiquoi. It certainly seemed likely that this normally dewatered, low-elevation reach, which was currently running at around 3000 cfs would be pretty clear of ice and be at a nice level. And we knew from releases last fall that if there was water and not too much ice, it would offer a fun time. Tom and Clay were on board so we headed 40 minutes north and were happy to see the riverbed nicely full and generally clear of ice.
The level felt a little bit higher than the first (higher) release last fall - not significantly but just enough to make the features noticeably larger. There was plenty of water going over the dam (a bit less than last fall), but the left sluice gate was wide open, which the dam operators said was good for about 1000-1200 cfs. The level behind the dam was fluctuating around 202.9 to 203.1 while we were there (there is a staff gauge on the river left dam abutment; Scott, the friendly dam operator said he has a rating curve somewhere). If the level last fall was 3000, then I'd guess we had 3300-3500 or so.
Like we saw last fall, the run had a nice big-water aura to it, but because the riverbed has lots of jumbled boulders the water is more active, with many boily and unstable features. This level does a nice job of covering the many pinning features that are exposed at lower water.
The run starts out with a meaty ledge with several clean options between meaty pourovers. Then comes a complex assortment of channels and rocky islands. On all three laps we ran the left-side boulder garden sneak of the second rapid, running the twisty entrance on the right but then cutting to the left side to avoid several large holes. The right side is a great, exciting and generally straightforward line but given the cold temps and very cold water we wanted to play it safe and not get worked in holes while chunks of ice assailed us. Plus, the lines down the left are fun, classic boulder garden slalom courses. The added water also appeared to open up some lines in the center which looked cool, and meaty.
The next couple rapids are a bit more straightforward - a wavetrain with two offset holes requiring a very classic big-water S-move, then a rapid that should be called "Screaming Right Turn", which pushes into an un-named stretch that has a couple hidden holes out in the middle that successful boaters must identify and avoid (there are many ways to do this), and finally a bit of runout with a few decent surf features. Then there is the powerhouse on the right, where you take out, load your boats on the car and drive back up to do it again.
And so we were entertained for three laps, and could have done more except that we brought only one car and thus had to walk the 1-mile shuttle each run, so it was getting late by the time we finished and had also started snowing.
This is a fun section of river that seems to run pretty frequently and is really convenient. It's hard to believe it has been sitting there all this time and is just starting to become popular.
Today we ran Bingo Creek, a beautiful little secret down in Rochester Vermont. It's one of the many, many White river tribs that comes up with rain and sees only a few boats per year.
This cl. III river is a gem -- beautiful green water and many, many ledge drops. Even still there is plenty of challenge -- with both the boaters having to "practice" their rolls!
All in all, it was a very good day.
Bill Ryan, Mike Ward, Rick Covill and I spent a delightful evening in Downers.
Water level was 2', rising to 2.5' at Downers, downstream gauge at North Springfield was 4.5', rising to 5'.
At this level, one finds brisk drops through the gorge, lovely waterfalls along the banks, a surfeit of surfing waves and holes, and no unpleasant drag from those round projections from the bottom.
This was my first experience paddling with Mike, who has major sea kayak experience and a nice roll, and eagerly ate up any guidance given, so he was turning in tight eddy turns in midstream and surfing credibly. You will find him worthy company for rapid progression through III and IV waters.
Levels will certainly hold through the weekend, and possibly into midweek next.
Rick Covill, Bill Ryan and myself paddled for about five miles from Whitesville to Downer's. Level was 1.5 on the covered bridge gauge, rising to 1.75 by takeout, a low-medium level. Put-in was shared with a concurrent AMC trip of about ten paddlers.
Whitesville has an intriguing feature I had not seen before. A large monolithic shelf results in the flow spreading out and dropping four feet, abruptly on the right and gradually on the left. I chose the extreme right, which curls off a narrow chute about four feet wide. Bill caught a center eddy, then propelled off a right shelf just left of a "bitter ending" rock at the bottom of the shelf. Rick went center left through a 15-ft diagonal wide chute which then turned right and dropped another couple feet.
From Whitesville to the gorge is leisurely Class II, forming gentle s-curves along the highway, but always twenty feet below the roadway, so traffic doesn't impinge on the experience. The last quarter mile above the gorge steepens, with more large eddy rocks and play waves.
As we turned the corner to enter the gorge, we noticed 50 yds behind us a young man in a 12-ft green touring kayak crossing the current.The 1.75 level is perfect for sheer enjoyment of the gorge. Clear green water, large boulders, frequent flushy two-foot drops, no retentive hydraulics, and always the steep banks on the right with moss and springtime ferns.
We were stopped one-third through for yet another of Rick's backrest repairs, when the young man floated by, dressed in cotton and sans helmet, accompanied by his boat, which he was struggling to wrestle ashore, and he succeeded about 100 yds further down. We learned that he is from Massachusetts and was paddling while his brother was flyfishing. Our young man had scouted the river from the car heading upstream, so was unable to see what was in store for him, and so had decided he wouldn't need his sprayskirt! He was rummaging in a dry bag for some clothes to change into, but I suggested we accompany him downstream where the bank was lower so he could carry up to the road and meet his brother. The young man seemed to have pretty good paddling skills, but had gotten side-flipped by a rock at the top of the gorge. When we got to the end of the "action" and lower banks, he saw his brother standing in the water in his waders on the opposite bank.
The remaining mile down to the covered bridge is gentle s-curves and a final two-foot flushing sluice which sometimes has a fast play wave, but a submerged rock just below it at center-right makes play risky unless you have kevlar-knuckle gloves, shoulder and elbow pads and a face mask.
Another pleasant outing with old paddling buddies and an adventure or two.
A lucky thirteen souls came out on Saturday for a run or two down the Black river in beautiful downtown Perkinsville.
This was a logistical masterpiece with meeting spots set up for the Richmond Park & Ride, Waterbury Park & Ride and the (closed) Sharon Rest Stop on I-89. And this was just for the Northern Vermont paddlers! Who knows what coordination went into getting the Central Vermont paddlers to the take out!
Kelly from BRAT (Black River Action Team) was there to video the happenings. Their goal is to capture various users of the Black River in action. I am sure this adventure will be the next You Tube sensation. Keep an eye out...
After some quick hellos and changing into our gear we were ready to head to the put in. Does anyone know where the put in is? Apparently not. The group split into two caravans and neither headed to the right put in. CJ finally got us all together and we were ready to go.
The water level was low but boatable. The slack sections got a little boney but the rapids tend to channelize so there was good flow. Everyone was hopping around the rivers into eddies, small surfing waves and green slimy boof rocks. There were a couple of swims. One was by Brian but that was due to being egged on to perform a roll in water that was too shallow. After dragging his head across the bottom he pulled the rip cord. I am not sure this really counts as a swim.
The gorge section provided the best rapids on this section. The river pinches a bit and the gradient increases for about a quarter of a mile. This stretch would be quite impressive with a foot or two more water! After some more fast moving water we arrived at the take out covered bridge. How Vermont!
At the take out Francis proclaimed this was his best run on the Black! A number of the Northern Vermont contingent had to agree as it was our first run and therefore our best also (I guess you could counter it was our worst run too). We decided to see if we could top that by taking another run. A couple of boaters had prior commitments so we were down to eleven boaters for the second run. Still a formidable flotilla!
We cut off a little bit of the first part of the run in order to save some time and get to the gorge section more quickly. Having learned from the first run, we had one caravan and all made it to the correct put in together. And it is said that kayakers are lower on the evolution scale. Ha, showed them! The second lap came off without a hitch and everyone seemed to be in their own whitewater world exploring different lines, eddies and play spots.
By the time we got to the take out everyone had their fill. Some goodbyes and promises to meet up on the river again soon finished off the day. Then it was to reverse the pick up process on the way home to get everyone, their boats and their gear to the correct places.
There was some left-over flow from a hard rain a couple of nights prior. This time of year you get what you can take and both Paul and I were jonesing to get on the water w/o making an entire day out of road triping it. The Wells seemed the likely suspect since it is boatable to pretty low flow levels. I have been on it now twice below 200 cfs and probably won't make the trip over there to do it a third time below 200cfs. Although, when you are jonesing....you are jonesing.
So the first drop, Brett's Mom, was a simple straight forward bounce along a green finger to the run out. Simple stuff and a fair warning for how low the river is going to playout.
The second drop, Sweetness, at the level it was running opened up two lines....a scrapy slide to the runout on river right or the slingshot edge of a hole to a boof move. It took both Paul and I several attempts to run it smoothly although all the variations on the line worked none the less too. After some photo ops at Sweetness we headed down stream to Labrynth. Looks a little different at low water and more like a natural slalom course if you take care not to pinball down it. The last hole is a wee bit sticky though if you run into it...Right Paul?
Next is Cafe Yo Boof. We bothched that the first time too sliding down the right side to avoid the tree on river left. Hiking back up we both pulled decent lines the second time though at the boof spot.
On to El Salto falls...Pauly ran it on the right flake again and got pushed into the seam and penciled in pretty deep and corked back up backwards, surfed out and was grinning ear to ear....I think there was a wiseman (Will Bucossi) that once said Kayaking is 90% luck, 5% skill and 5% steel cajones. How right he is and how much luck and cajones Paul brings to the table (river) everytime I paddle with him blows me away! Needless to say, I walked the falls (not enought water to make a clean go of it).
Elevator was pretty much a boulder garden at the low level and that brought us to Tantra - the last drop on the river. What a great drop with a great options to run it. Paul steped up and decided to hammer out the seam on the right line. He had something against seems that day because I think he ran everyone of them on the river. He piced it clean and banked off the pillow at the bottom to avoid both holes in the runout....I decided to peel left into the eddy and then blast down the slide throught the hole at the bottom...Got a little too close to the wall and scrubbed some speed and almost god sucked in the hole at the bottom of the slide but didn't. Eddied out above the bottome hole and then surfed over to river right to finish out the run. Well worth the drive over and was a great day to be on the river.
About as mellow as you get for a post work run....
We all joined the club because we like to boat...Being on the board was a choice because we like what the club does and promotes but when there is water flowing the choice is easy - boat or meet? Paddling wins! So why not a float and then meet afterwards????
Anyways - the Lower Mad was at about as low as you want it for a fluid run - the upper rapid has tons of eddys and the lines are a little more narrow. BRock found this out by drifting into the only rock on the first rapid sideways. He broached and pinned losing his paddle and swimming down to the landing below the first rapid (is this thing still called elevator shaft?). Anyways Brock lost his paddle and had to walk out.
The rest of the run AJ, Paul and I eddy hopped and boogied down through the remaining rapids in the upper section and then plopped down over Horseshoe and then more of the same eddy hopping down through the lower gorge. After the last rapid we surfed up the speedy wave a few times and then headed to the take out to meet Brock, upon which we loaded up and headed to the Reservoir for some Brews, Dinner and the board meeting...Rich Larsen met us there unwilling to huck any meat....
In retrospect Paul, AJ and myself weren't paying attention and were goofing off up stream surfing and eddy hopping. Knowing Brock is a gritty bugger and has a lot of time in the boat this season we were much too lackasdasical about him drifting into the first rapid on his own ahead of us. The situation ended ok with a lost paddle and his OC1 a little over flexed (no gunnal damage). But it could have been a mess if Brock had been pinned between his boat and the rock. As a relatively new paddler it is the responsibility of the stronger more seasoned boaters in the group to pay much closer attention to the rest of the group - even if you aren't the trip leader. I know for one, won't be taking for granted a participant's ability to successfully navigate a river. I have been burnt twice this season.....
Pix posted....
The AuSable feasibility study planned for today was a wash-out, or at least that would be my interpretation given the gauge reading at 7 am over 3400 CFS. This left Eric, Ryan, and myself looking for something saner to paddle.
The Adirondacks were an obvious choice, given how heavily it rained here all day Saturday, but we needed to be looking in a higher, smaller drainage. Enter the Boquet. Going only on Jamieson's text, which calls the North Fork Boquet "unrunnable" and the next 2.4 miles to Split Rock Falls "class III-VI", it seemed like a good bet for two aging open boaters and a kayaker we'd never paddled with before. LOL.
I don't want to bore you with the details. Suffice it to say the river flows with incredible clarity from one boulder seive to the next. Saturday's torrential rains here did nothing to affect the water clarity, remarkably. Given a gradient of 100 feet/mile and the amount of boulder congestion wherever it got steep, the only saving grace was that we didn't get to the put-in until almost noon, and the level was starting to fall into bonydom - maybe 150 cfs. By the time we reached the take-out it had fallen even more, and bonydom was the unanymous opinion. In between, we nailed a bunch of very narrow/steep drops ranging in height from 4-6 feet, and we picked our way laboriously through several wide/shallow segments.
I wouldn't recommend the upper Boquet to ANYONE lacking expert whitewater skills if the stretch along Rt. 73 near its junction with Rt. 9 is bank full, nor would ordinary paddlers think it much fun at 150 cfs. But WE did.
If there is a whitewater park in heaven, I hope it is like the Boreas in NYS!
A day before this trip I had sheepishly pulled the plug on the Hudson Gorge trip because it had been raining all week (heck, all month) in the central Adirondacks and the Hudson was running more than a foot and a half higher than I had ever run it in my OC1 (6.7 feet). But the trees over there were all budding out and getting their summer leaves, so the Boreas was actually on the low side by Sunday am.
Running the Boreas is something everyone should do at some point or other. It doesn't take all that long to drive there from Burlington and it is 7 miles of wilderness boating. We saw no big game but no people either - except one family camped at the take-out, where there are several marked campsites ready for use.
The Boreas would be pretty intimidating if not dangerous in high water, but for us it was 2 inches below the lowest painted marking on the bridge footing at the take-out (the Northwoods Club Rd. off 28N) - reading just under -0.5 feet. The rain held off and it was in the 60's - very pleasant with just enough blackflies to make you glad you weren't that family...camping.
It was a new river for both Paul and Jim. As for John, he was evasive on this point.
Below the 28N put-in there are a couple of cool features in the first half mile that led to one flip/hole-roll (nice recovery BTW, Paul) and one short carry for 1/2 our group (river right). Then a series of straight-forward easy rapids brought us to one long stretch of flatwater where we enjoyed the solitude and green grandeur of the Adirondacks in late May. Once sufficiently bored on Hewitt Eddy the river started dropping again, through easy rapids for a while and finally culminating in continuous Deerfield Dryway size features for the last 2.2 miles, with noone else around to compromise the wilderness feeling. The low water conditions made each of the rapids "busy", but the boulders in the streambed are mostly all rounded and there always seemed to be one+ good clean route through. Everyone was grinning ear to ear when we reached the take-out bridge.
While Jim and John ran shuttle, Paul and I walked up the defunct rail line that parallels the steepest part of the river on the right bank, and contemplated how we might someday utilize the tracks and a homemade "handcar/shuttle vehicle" to run carbon-neutral laps on the tumultuous middle/lower Boreas. This could be a really fun camping/paddling/fishing weekend, when the water is up and the blackflies die off (fall 2011??).
We spent about 3 hours total to complete a leisurely run, wishing we had had found it with a bit more water. The trip can be lengthened, too, by A) starting higher on the road to Newcomb and/or B) paddling to the Hudson River confluence and down the runout to North Creek.
A few pictures were uploaded to Paddle Pix ( http://bit.ly/k5B12t ) and our new FaceBook page ( http://on.fb.me/iPtVKr ).
What a beautiful day for a paddle. Not a cloud in the sky, warm weather good friends. Too bad the water wasn't quite as warm as I thought it would be. There was one fish counter this trip and it was me. I used the excuse that I was paddling a strange boat (Paul C's Mamba), but that only went so far. The first feature we encounter was the dam. We got out to scout and John took the first run. Straight for the rooster tail, bounce off a rock and into the pool below. Easy right? I put in my boat and planned to follow John's path. NOT! I went too far to the left, got forced right, into a rock and finally ending up upside down. BRRRRR!. Ken was up next with a beautiful execution followed by Chris who nailed it. After wainting for me to empty my boat, we were on our way again. (did I mention how cold the water was?). Paddled through some fun little rapids, even though there were alot of rocks. (John thought it was fun to BOOF off rocks) Silly John. Got to a little S turn where we were supposed to go Left then Right then Left and into and eddy. (thus avoiding the big rock in the middle) Chris was clean as always, then it was Ken's turn. Left, Right, Left, oops, flip, roll, then eddy. (ice cream type headache). My turn. Left, Right, Right, Right, bounce off the rock I was supposed to avoid, and over the little ledge I went. (I had planned the whole thing) Into an eddy I went, followed by Chris, Ken then John. Off again to paddle some more rocks. After a few bumps and boof's we reached the falls. Out to scout a line. Another plan of Right, Left, Eddy, Left. Or so I thought. I got the Right Left Right down, but then beached on a rock. Watching Chris roll his eyes, I lunged forward into the eddy. PHEW! John came after me and decided to forgo the eddy and head right down the slide on the falls. Ken was on his heels, who picked a much more graceful line than John. Ok, my turn. Heading for the slide...oops, change of plans. Just shy of the slide, I bounced off the rock, spun around and found myself going backwards down the falls. Leave it to me. With one last look at John and Ken, over I go. Guess who gets their stern stuck in the falls. ME! Trying to push off the rock behind the falls, the water grabs my paddle and I am left on my own. I guess the scene was quite amusing to watch, according to John, as I kept pushing off the rocks with my hands and then going right back where I was. I even tried to dog paddle my boat out, but to no avail. Eventually I went to reach for the rock to push off, only to discover it was not there, and over I went. In what felt like an eternity, but only a few seconds, the water pushed me down under my boat. Finally surfacing, John and Ken brought me to shore, all the while maintaining a straight face. We turn around in time to watch Chris head down. Well in the biggest moment of flattery ever, Chris decides to take the same line I did. Spinning around and about to go over the wrong part, backwards, he paddles like a maniac and gets back into the eddy. (I think he wanted to be cool like me). And down he comes, in the right place, and nails it. While emptying my boat again, I am wondering if blue is the right color for my fingers. I decide it is not. Back in the river we go. Bouncing and boofing off rocks, we head to the beaver dam. Luckily John had his handy dandy saw, and manages to chew through the big log blocking the way. Chris roped it and pulled it free and we were ready to go. John first. Oops, hit that rock, oops, there is another, but he lands gracefully into the pool below. Chris is next, and of course nails the line and drops into the pool, as Ken and I watch. Umm did I mention that I chose to NOT go over this feature, but walked around. Hearing hoots and hollers from the river, I assume that Ken made it down without a hitch. Would have been kinda nice of the boys had told me where to put back in, but instead I walked and walked until I could find a place to drop in. And off we were again. John tells us that there is another feature coming up and before we know it, we are there. (this is where Chris advised me NOT to go right, thanks Chris) Chris, Ken and I are down and go around the corner to see the bottom of where we didn't want to go right. Nice slide, complicated. Chris's words of wisdom to John was "yes but if you end up upside down, it could be messy" Messy Chris? I thought very painful and possible drowning was more likely. Back to the river. (it is only then that John tells us that if we would have encouraged him, he would have gone right....sure John). Oh wait, I didn't mention that in the beginning of the trip, John told us he had found a new take out, "just a little ways after the bridge". Apparently we need to get John an odometer for his kayak as his "little ways down" turned into almost ending up in the Lamoille. ALL FLAT WATER! Thanks John. When we finally get the the bridge at the take out, there is a small wave train, where John tried to redeem himself stating we would have missed "all this" if we had taken out earlier. (about 3 inches of water for the wave train, how could we have turned that up John). By this time, I am frozen and decide that I am going to take out before the bridge. And through a cow field I go, complete with burdocks, water and poop. The boys play somemore under the bridge, and we meet at Johns truck. (thank you John for parking in the swamp) John shows us his new key fob that is attached to his PFD, so we knew we were ok. (guess he learned Rich) The boys took pity on me as I shivered so hard the road shook, put me in the car and loaded my boat for me. :) Back to the put in we go. Wet clothes stripped off, boats loaded, heading for home). So the moral of this story is....the next time John says he is buying.....HE LIES! Thanks for the last paddle of the year for me guys. You are awesome. See you all on the water in the pool.
The water was falling faster than the temperature was rising. By the time we reached the take-out 4 miles north of Westford on Rt. 128 it was an even 32 degrees, and the rapids were noticably bonier. These considerations accounted for a good deal of attrition on what would otherwise have been a well attended VPC trip. The Browns was a better choice than the intended Lewis Creek (too low), or larger rivers which afford little wind protection. The truth is that the 2 of us stayed warm throughout this 2 1/4 hour trip!
We played leapfrog (eddy-hopping) to give Pierre an excuse to practice his eddy turns and peel-outs. Neither of us felt much like running the 4 foot drop where the Westford dam is washing out, but we both enjoyed running the 3 foot ledge farther down. A river otter on the island at the final ledge drop greeted us as we approached.
Assumed to be a little scratchy... and it was. But all agreed to take on the Browns and tack on the lower lamoille after that. No regrets.
It was a beautiful day, and the three boats made the most of it. Only the first drop at the broken dam forced a carry due to low water.
It was here that we picked up another paddler (of the doggy paddle kind). Better than most of us at the ferry, and definately excelled at cleaning up sticks out of the river (his part for green up day, I suppose). He paddled with us for over 1/2 mi.
The couple of ledges were run by all and the double ledge drop after catching Ricky for a moment... posed no problems for anyone, and enjoyment for all.
It is a long trip, and it never felt longer than with a headwind on the lower lamoille. But as the rapids approached all was forgotten, and the boats began playing once more.
We left exhausted (except for Marathon Kayaker Mike Malley, who was using this as a rest day from his normal training routine), but were glad to be on the water on such a day. Trip time approx. 4 hrs.
Decided to run the Browns even with levels low as I haven't paddled this since my years with the Northern Vermont Canoe Cruisers some twenty-two years ago. The level was approximately 6" below the bridge abutment at the put-in. We scouted the dam and thought the left-side slide would result in just scraping and way too big a hit against the rock creating a small rooster-tail at the foot of the slide. We chose a center line which alas was slightly too far left. Both my son and I checked the fish count as our rear quarters were caught in the pour-over hydraulic from the slide and endered us with a twist. Kris wouldn't have this and Lief helped portage back upstream for a second go. This time Kris had it clean on a centerline drop into the dam's hole with good countering hip action and strokes to get past the multiple currents grabbing in the hole. S-turn rapid was smooth. We river scouted and discussed a dry-land scout for the 1st river-wide drop by the house on the left. Memory of a run 20 some odd years ago wasn't so clear. With some careful eddy-work to preview our line, we chose to drop it without a scout. It was in good shape and we took a line in the middle for the largest drop. Further downriver at the last drop by the island we stopped for a break and scouted for logs. The left channel was clogged with a lot of debris, starting with the remains of a beaver dam up top. On the far right of the island, the chute looked clean; but, didn't have nearly enough water to cover the exposed fanfare of rocks. The center lines had a birch log parallel to the current flow exposed just below the first drop. With the log present we thought making a narrow line in the center but tight right against the island possible with more water. We chose river center, just right of the rock with trees, keeping just left of the birch log camped in the middle. Lief dropped the first ledge and with an extremely fast duffek was able to twist to the right below the log river center for good water over the final drop and to avoid a flat exposed rock on the left. Kris took a nice straight line with momentum through both drops and simply boofed off of the rock at the precipice of the larger lower drop. The remainder of the paddle to McNall road took good river-reading skills to stay off the rocks in the river-wide shallows and we each scraped a few times. Now with a refresher we'll take it on with more water the next times we have rains. Good time and a really fun paddle. Caution should be taken especially if higher waters move the birch log to broach the center line by the island drop.
We got some overdue rain on Tuesday, bringing up the Browns to a respectable level - 4" below the bridge footing at the put-in. For a river with an average gradient of just 24 feet/mile, the Browns has its share of technical features - 5 in all.
First up is the collapsing dam on the way north out of Westford, where Tony's canoe nearly got back endered in the hole, where Eric counted fish, and where Brian and Jack (upon witnessing this mayhem) opted to carry.
The beefy diagonal wave near the bottom of the S-Turn Rapid extracted a pair of swims, giving Tony some early season throw bag practice. Many signs of beaver activity were noted along this reach, not to mention 2 real live beavers.
Paul enjoyed the first major ledge so much he carried back up to try an alternate boof move. Up next, the Double Drop was the one place where we could have used a tad more water. But at least now it is free of strainers, thanks to Ken, John A., and a chainsaw in 2012.
Both sides of the island were explored at the last drop, without incident - also clear of obstructions thanks to Ken and John's 2012 handiwork. The "path" up from river right before the VT 128 bridge is a little easier to negotiate than the one on river left below the bridge, but either way works.
Brock noted ½ way down that if only the water quality was better this would be a classic New England novice whitewater run. To which I replied, but hey, then it'd probably not be "The Browns".
3.8 miles, 2 hours
http://www.vtpaddlers.net/paddle/geo/index.php?load=1365818023349
A summer whitewater outing in these parts requires a dam release or a rainstorm. And rain it did. But the Monday afternoon—and overnight—intermittent heavy thunderstorms were clearly fast-moving and isolated, so we also needed a Chris Weed to read the tea leaves and ferret out a hasty Tuesday paddling plan. Early Tuesday morning the VPC message board started lighting up. By late Tuesday morning the sun had made a return. And about the time we put-on in Westford to run the Browns—1:00 pm—the Lamoille R. at East Georgia started falling from it's peak flow (1900 cfs).
I knew from my own scientific analysis here in Williston ("thousand one, - thousand two, ...") that several potent cells had passed 10 miles or so to our north—over the Browns headwaters. Those fast-moving thunderstorms - the kind that shake your whole house when the thunder hits—were impressive. God I love summer!
I debated between canoeing and kayaking, and I chose the kayak mainly because it is a bit easier to carry and load on the car—and because it was easier to extricate from all the s#@* cluttering up our garage.
So Chris and I took my 7-week-old hip for its maiden voyage in a kayak, and it was great! The Browns corridor below Westford is surprisingly remote and lovely, home to the 2 deer we saw on the riverbank and their compadres, and at least the one coyote we saw SWIMMING across the river! And of course we had the swollen, musty-smelling river thing going on. It's the "Browns", after all!
There is a new river-wide strainer in the first 1/4 mile below the put-in on Rt. 128 in Westford, but other than that all the lines were clean, and neither of us had any difficulty. My hip actually felt really great while boating, and I even went for a mountain bike ride later that afternoon. God I love healing!
It would have been fun to have a larger group on the river, but it was Tuesday after all, and with storms like these you've got to strike while the iron is hot. I think the Browns was cresting in Westford just about the time we put on (2" or so below the concrete footing at the bridge across from the put-in). It was down to 4" or so below the footing as we headed for home around 3:30.
A final note on wood
As already indicated, 40-50 yards above the rapid leading in to the broken dam (the second drop after the put-in) there is a freshly fallen tree spanning the width of the river. (It apparently went down during one of the thunderstorms on Monday, 6/18.) It has plenty of branches and foliage, so it's a bad strainer. It's danger is mitigated by the slow-moving flow at that point (at yesterday's medium level) and the fact that one can sneak past it against the bank on far river right. However, another high water event could move it downstream into the lead-in rapid or the broken dam itself, so it would be good to cut this tree at the earliest opportunity.
There is also some new wood in other locations farther downstream, but nothing that represents a real hazard (for now). However, note that the far river-right sneak route at the river-wide ledge (third major drop) is obstructed by a log at its entrance. That will be an issue if one attempts to use that route during a high water run, when the hole main ledge drop looks risky to punch. (That would be at a level approaching flood stage.)
A mid-forties sunny day with light winds prompted Tony to dust off his trusty river alchemy and algebra books for some extrapolations on the Browns flow, coming up with, "it could be good." Sure enough, a moderate flow (Lamoille - E. Georgia was reading around 6,000 when we started) made for an active run with plenty of water. The flow was roughly level with the footing of the cement bridge on the far side of the river at the put-in just south of Westford.
We could tell immediately there was a nice flow under the Rt 128 bridge and around the bends on the way into the village where we scouted the dam pulling out, river left, just after the covered bridge. Then we all ran the very left short slide that presented a little roller-derby bump at the bottom. Tony led the way for John and I, giving us a refresher on how to do a slow smooth roll. We took the same slide/hip-check line but opted to practice our roll a little later.
The S-turn rapid with the sentinel rock above the small exit ledge reminded John and I to work harder on our boat control in twisting current, as both of us careened off the pillowed guardian but managed to stay upright.
We again scouted from river left and each decided to sample different lines over the river-wide ledge. Tony took a line on the far right and stepped neatly down with a carve left. John chose the far left straight drop burying his nose pretty deeply but clean. I ran left of the center rock, upon which Tony had managed to balance his canoe and take up position with safety rope.
The last drop was also scouted river left before we all elected to run the center where there was enough water to consider alternatives and make adjustments before completing the second drop. Shortly after the double ledge we came to the island where the main channel goes river left. Tony and John river-scouted the right hand channel that needs at least the level of flow we had to run it, and before counting to ten Tony dropped in and neatly eddied out. John followed next. Learning a lesson about the-one-you-don't-scout and giving way to what-the-heck moments, I followed but choose a poor line hard left and bounced down through the small rock-garden allowing myself a brief cool-off at the bottom, learning that John had also taken some brief refreshment there.
What often becomes a slow paddle out from that point on was more lively today requiring only occasional paddling while enjoying the sunshine and taking in the early spring scene including a brown furry mammal (Otter?) and evidence of the recent high water along the banks.
We pulled out at Rt. 128 and traded grins and comments about each getting an opportunity to practice our roll and how I'm still at the duckling stage in the whitewater world.
There were 6 paddlers for the first paddle of the Browns River this season. The level was low-fluid (about -6" on the footing) and a good level for 2 first-timers (a 3rd was planning to come but got hung up at work). We messed about a little in the current at the small ledge by the bridge and our first swim got the group under way. Both first-run paddlers portaged the dam feature, which appeared less retentive this year. The swirl in the left-of-center hole had been replaced by a curling haystack. The slanting ledge and green tongue on river left remained the only apparent line there. In the S-rapid that followed a line center-left, skirting the waves and flow that pushed into the 'magnetic' central rock, was the preferred route. While eddy scouting there Chris Weed found a submerged log river right of the sentinel rock that he thought could come into play if someone got off flow to river right. Everyone stayed on line through the rapid but on the exit a second swim happened when a rock stuck it's foot out and trip up one paddler. At the river-wide drop, everyone stayed upright following a line left of the central boulder. There was a log blocking the direct route at the slide-drop feature that followed. While some of the experienced paddlers had some extra lateral moves before finally exiting, the inexperienced paddlers had better luck there. Beth (in John's Solo) slid right down through the cross current mid-way and dropped off the second ledge clean and Chris Frost followed (in his Biscuit 55 playboat). Another rock tripping swim incident happened exiting the feature and then came the long, sometimes bony, 1.5 mile class l-ll boulder garden to the last (islands) feature where no one elected to run the river right chute. 3 route options there were clean of wood.
We didn't get underway until closer to 5:30 so it was dusk when we finished up. In spite of relatively fluid conditions, some plastic was donated in the usual area. There was only one swimmer (who practiced a few times) but in spite of that he did very well considering he was river running in a playboat and had only paddled the Upper White and Middle Mad previously. Beth hadn't paddled (since the Deerfield Class ll clinic) and she did great peeling and eddying out from the first wave train at the put in. It was a fun evening and of course our entertainment director, Brock kept the smiles refreshed.
[A comment about the Browns River flow... The Lower Lamoille cfs flow figure on the East Georgia gauge is regarded as a poor indicator of the paddle conditions on the Browns so that figure on the AW website can be misleading. However, you can get a better estimate by looking at the level of change per hour. If the Lamoille is climbing the Browns will likely be proportionately higher and vice-versa if the Lamoille gauge is dropping it will likely be proportionately lower.]
The after-work 4:30 p.m. Browns River flotilla consisted of two canoes, 5 kayaks and 1 pack raft. This VPC scheduled trip was organized by John Atherton, paddling his snub-nose Fuse. The other kayaks were of the mid-size and chunkier variety. An otter launch at the excellent put-in kept most of the paddlers out of the rivers edge muck. The group paddled around below the opening ledge pourovers waiting for our VPC ambassador visiting with a couple paddlers just returning from an earlier run on this 3-3/4 mile section.
Some of the group eddied out to shore scout at the dam after passing under the covered bridge in Westford Village. All but one paddler then picked a line from river-right to left around and over the lead-in ledge pourovers to negotiate the slide on the far left at the collapsed dam. A few rolls and braces were required by the tilted ledge at the foot of the tongue but the canoes and pack raft thumbed their noses as they passed by the toilet bowl swirl that has evolved there.
One paddler portaged and displayed some early signs of difficulty eddying out and negotiating the ledge portage and again while re-launching. There was some question about the challenges ahead for this paddler and some extra time was necessary there before continuing on. The next feature, sometimes referred to as the S-turn Rapid, which is the liveliest (and arguably the only) rapid on the run, led to a couple swims resulting from an encounter between the same kayaker and the Sentinal Rock that guards the main flow as well as the trip leader trying to keep a watchful eye on the capsize. In the sorting out of these swims a decision was made by the paddler to stash his gear and walk out on the nearby road, given the reality that the Browns run becomes more inaccessible from that point on.
The remaining group paddled on as Brock's demure voice (not) and contagious laughter introduced the other open boater, Morley Flynn, a new paddler to VPC, to highlights of last Labor Day's Ottawa River trip. Everyone cleanly ran river-center at the next ledge drop feature, 6-10' left of the large rock (Bare-rock Obama?). A short distance later, the group again choose center-river lines between the tree and island ledge in the 2-step, slide-drop section of this 3-4' drop, that is also river wide. There were a few light scrapping sounds through the shallower section that followed but it was all reasonably fluid. The final double-island feature came up after 1-1/2 mile of flat water and a progressive class I-II lead-in rapid. Some river scouted from an eddy overlooking the river-right slide, and then everyone elected to bounce down through that option rather than paddle the center or left channel alternatives [there remains a tree in the left (main) channel but it is negotiable on river-right].
The take-out bridge came into view, after another 3/4 mile section of flat water, with plenty of light left. The walk-out paddler showed up in his truck so the rest of the group knew he was accounted for. As the group clustered around Morley's van to visit and replace some fluids, Jim Poulin expressed his pleasant surprise at the Browns personality - this being his first run on that section. It was solid dusk by the time vehicles were all heading home. Morley appears to be a new prospective protegee of the venerable T. Shaw.
The Browns was at a low runnable level. The Lower Lamoille was at 1500 cfs.
Frank Wells stopped by to say Hi and introduce himself. Although he couldn't do the run he offered his service as shuttle driver, which was great. Thanks a lot Frank!
The Upper section of the Browns seemed promising. We stopped to scout the dam in Westford. Chris and Mary Kate ran the dam river left and I ran it river center. Everyone else elected to portage. Everyone ran the Big Ledge Drop down the center - right of the big rock. Everyone ran it clean. The levels were low but OK until after the last major drop down the left hand turn. After that it became really scrapey and not that fun.
It was a long slog to the Lamoille. Luckily it was a beautiful day so the only whining I heard came from me. The Lamoille was an uneventful run with one quick swim. Everyone left tired and a little disappointed there wasn't more water.The consensus was: 1st third fun, second third awful, final third fun.
Chris , John Atherton, and I ran the Browns a week earlier with the Lamoille at 4000cfs and it was a fairly challenging run - maybe III-. Its a really fun run at that level.
I had a Browns River trip on the schedule, and one early interested participant, so I started watching the Lamoille's flow as the best available correlation. It got a small boost late on Saturday, and I got two more expressions of interest, so the trip was a go.
It promised to be marginally runnable, but turned out to be better than that, although certainly not exciting. We elected to use the alternate bridge takeout on McNall Road, eases the climb up from the river while adding nearly a mile to the run. It finishes with some easy class II water, after an extended flat stretch. The weather was stunning all afternoon, with a temperature close to 80 F. The water was refreshingly cool in contrast.
One of us (MC) was new to the run, having done the White River numerous times with a few runs on smaller rivers (Black, Huntington). In marked contrast to the White, much of this section of the Browns River is away from the road and surrounded by woods. The feeling of quiet isolation is one of its best features.
Two of us chose to walk the initial drop at the broken dam, but it presented no problems for those of us who ran it, despite being forced to traverse the hole on river left. Everything else went without difficulty, and the right side of the final island drop was surprisingly smooth. (Two of us ran it, and two of us took the class II bypass on river left of the island.)
All in all it was a very pleasant way to spend a gorgeous Sunday on Memorial Day weekend. On the Browns, one doesn't often get this combination late in the spring paddling season, with all the trees fully leafed out.
NOTE: The local gauge is not painted on. It consists of a low flat bridge footing across the river from the put-in parking area. Poking above Sunday's water level is a rectangular cavity in the vertical face of the footing, a few inches below the top. If part of the cavity is visible the level is low, albeit runnable. If the river is at the top of the footing it's at a good padded level that adds interest to the main features.
On the wall above the footing is the opening of a pipe embedded in the concrete. This marks the highest level most people will want to run, and is not for novices. Above that be especially careful, and scout the drops. You'll probably want to walk at least one. Also, the river will be lapping into the trees and strainers may be in play that wouldn't normally be a concern.
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.
Saturday, October 26 offered a beautiful, crisp afternoon, and I needed to get out of Burlington, so I headed east and south to German Flats Road in Fayston. My original plan was to check and see if a couple of river-wide logs on Mill Brook were still present, but when arrived I recalled my interest in exploring the tributary along German Flats Road.
I arrived about 2:20 pm, and I spent the next 2.5 hours exploring the brook on foot. My hope was that it offered an interesting extension of the usual run on Mill Brook along Route 17 (Mill Brook Road). My main concern was that it might be too wood-choked to be worthwhile.
My initial hike upstream from near Route 17 revealed a continuous Class 2/3 stretch with a number of logs to avoid, but with easy ways to walk around them. The brook flows through some lovely woods, much of which turn out to be part of Fayston's Chase Brook Town Forest, which connects to extensive network of mountain biking trails.
At a certain point I was blocked by private land, which could have been circumvented by fording the brook and continuing on the river-right bank. I didn't want to drench my hiking shoes, so I headed back to my car, and drove up further up German Flats Road to look for additional access points.
Fortunately, I came upon the trailhead and parking area for the Chase Brook Town Forest trail, which is almost directly across from the Fayston Elementary School. A recently constructed foot bridge connects the parking area to the trail on the river-right bank. I parked, crossed the bridge, and headed downstream along the brook. The Town Forest trail quickly heads uphill into the forest, but there is an older trail (no longer in use) that follows the brook. That allowed me to scout the section that I had previously missed. I found more wood, but the river gradient remained steady, with interesting features in the riverbed, including an apparently natural log dam that impounds a shelf of gravel and cobblestones, forming a 3.5 or 4 foot drop. (There is a narrow bypass on river-left.)
A check later on Google Maps showed that the total length from the trailhead down to Mill Brook is about 0.71 miles or maybe a bit more (accounting for bends not shown on the map). This is a substantial addition to the run from the culvert at the Mill Brook Road intersection, making a total of 2.35 miles down to the takeout just above the final bridge before Route 100. I think this is well worth some effort to clean up some or all of the obstructions, several of which are small diameter logs. I hope to recruit a small crew to do the work this fall.
After heavy rains through out an area from Northfield north on Friday there was a flury of activity among the few that were frothing to get on the water. To no avail, nothing close enough had popped for Friday night so the plans were laid to get north for Saturday. Scott was up and at it early and hell bent on a scouting mission - finding several new micros in the wilds of the Kindom for a later day he missed out on the actual paddling. Dave and I were on our way to meet him when it seemed every river we drove over had a decent flow once we got north of the Lamoille River.
After a few road side scouts of our own Dave and I finally said "uncle" and decided to put on the NBL above the slide at Back Road. There was a tree at the top of the slide that you could limbo under, but looks ready to drop sooner than later (take note). We then proceded through the flatwater section enjoying the pleasant setting and noticed there were several bathers along this stretch - one of particular note making a joke of how he didn't have any electric so he was getting his daily bath in the river. Makes sense - you should have seen the amount of damage that Waterville sustained from the storms on Friday.
Once through the mellow float and into the gorge the pace picked up and it became a very fluid bop down the river. Taking turns through drops and picking various lines one is reminded why this is one of the best runs around. Very plesant, unthreatening, and FUN! At one point we came across a group of boaters poking their way through the gorge in playboats all grinning ear to ear. Not much was said - but not much had to be said. It was a great day to be on the NBL.
Arriving at the standard take out for the gorge section, Dave said we ought to poke down the Ledges/Slides section. I had never been down this steep stretch of river but had looked at it a number of times at high water thinking it would be a romp at a sensible level. It proved to be exactly that with a new horizon line every 50 or so yards either sloping down a slide or droping off into a pool. What a great stretch of water in its self!!!! Even better the bottom of the stretch ends at a fellow boaters abode, so we snagged him to head over to another drainage that was on the flow....The Gihon!
Now with Marshall entow we were a group of 3 and on a speed run to beat sun-set. Over we headed to Johnson for a speedy put on at the first drop of the upper Gihon gorge. Gotta luv starting off a run on a 35 foot Dam drop. So all drops in the upper gorge went well even Mustag for Dave and Marshall (Mind you Dave has paddled the Gihon more than all other boaters together that have been on this river)....I walked Mustang, of course, and seal launched into the gorge below the drop only to slam into the wall on the other side at about.......MACH 7 - UGH! Anyways the flatwater between the two gorges went fast. Good conversation helps. Droping into the next section of the river on Bed Head gets you back on it quickly. Not to get into details we all finished the bottom section relatively unscathed and with about 20 minutes of day light left. A serious speed run on the Gihon.
It had been about 3 months since I had been on any substantial creek run and today was a great opportunity to get reaquainted with my trusty creeker. The progression of difficulty from the NBL gorge through the Ledges and then bopping over to the Gihon made for one of the better afternoons of summer boating I have had in a long long time.
Looking out the window right now, I think we might have another few days of flow with the stady rain that is hitting us....HOPE SO!
Better Days, Later waves........
While others decided to head to Maine for optimal flows a select few dedicated (or creek running starved) paddlers decided to paint the routes down a couple of rivers with the plastic from their boats.
With not a whole lot of response initially to the trip I was pleasantly surprised to arrive at the Barre double-D to find a much larger than anticipated group of paddlers. Once working out logistics for vehicles, we headed east off to the Wells. We set up in the Fish and Game parking lot a few hundred yards below the first drop. Everyone hiked up and we started the process of running various lines on the first drop. Julie, who didn't have a creek boat decided that she would work the camera for the first river saving it up for when we hit the Pemi later. The first drop was a fun and easy one move drop. The second drop near the fishing access point was an interesting mulit-move rapid down the middle - boof- peal left and paddle out or a bump and grind slide down river right or backwards like Paul ran it -upright too. The next couple of drops were read and run with the low water and probably a little to scratchy for most of our tastes. The next significant drop was the Waterfall (Face Smacker). Lots of scouting and contemplating left all of us to walk it but two. Dave went first on the alpine line to river left off the flake and straight into the ledge/rock formed pile in the seam on river left. Good think those Prijons are tough as nails. That all but sealed the deal for anyone else to run it, but Paul was hell bent that the river right line was cleanable...and that is what he did. He cleaned it smooth as can be off the river right flake into the main current feeding out below the seam. After that we ran another couple hundred yards of boogie water to the final drop - a complex rapid that has two routes. One down river right that hugs a spine that sticks out of the rivers bed and the other that darts left iand drops 2-3 feet into an eddy before a 20-25 (12 ft high) foot slide into a pretty sticky hole and one more curler before the run peters out in the backwater of a dam. John ran river left line and eddied out above the slide to set safety. Dave was next and ran left as well, carrying the momentum from the first drop to the slide and through the hole at the bottom. I ran next and had the same results as Dave. Paul was next and went left as well, but flipped on the first drop and rolled quickly up to be swept into an ill placed root-ball. It was a very fast horizontal pin. John and James were quick into action and Dave was out of his boat fast as well to stabilize the situation. They pulled Paul off the root-ball and he was on his way down the slide. John came down the slide as well and that was the end of the fun on the Wells. A great little short gem with fun drops. Good for multiple laps if you have the time and energy. It is easy to see why the Wells River Rumble is such a success as the short length of the Wells and ease of opportunity to view the drops make it ideal.
Off to NH and the Pemi. Dave had to work so headed back. Now it was Julie's turn to get wet. About a 50 minute drive got us to Lincoln to set shuttle, but a burning desire to get McD's overwhelmed a few of us and so indulged (more on this later). We put in at the Lincoln Woods Center above Loon Mountain Resort. While getting gear on we hooked up with a friendly fellow by the name of Jim (from northern NH). He joined our group and brought the group number back up to the magnificent 7. Running shuttle both John and I were appalled at how low the river was and was pretty sure we'd be wearing a hole through our boats on this run from all of the scraping that I'd be doing. Once on the river it wasn't as bad as it looked.....it was REALLY low though! At this level the river was more or less a natural slalom course and the significant drops really weren't all that significant. There is really one major drop that is directly below the Loon Mountain access road. It probably drops a total of 25 feet in about a 100 yard run out. John ran both the left and center lines very cleanly and smoothly. The rest of the group that ran it went left and some chose to eddy out and skirt back center and James and I continued down river left through a narrow channel at the bottom...very bumpy! Below this the fun began. One of our group felt the need to count the fish a few times....Understandably so as it was a long day and I can understand how fish are much more interesting when you get to look them in the eye. The group theory is that the McDonalds earlier messed p everything that is pure and good in the world of paddling and said fish counter was feeling the effects of a nasty chicken sandwich and fries thus losing concentration, balance, use of upper extremities (head), and ability to paddle around stationary objects. OUCH - happens to the best of us. Anyways the run wrapped up with out incident on a couple of fun drops right above the take out.
A stop at the "packy"???? for gas and more bad road food and we were on our way back to VT to pick up vehicles at the Barre DD. It was a spectacular spring day on the rivers. The water was a little low, but the company was good and the entertainment was superb.
Hind site is 20/20....
So today was a beautiful day - the day before Mother's Day and a great day to get in a paddle. The problem was we really had to work to find our water. The scheduled trip on the Gihon was moved to the Mill River for the Gorge(s) section because it channelizes the water so well that it is fluid at a multitude of levels.
So a quick meet and greet at Dennys in Rutland and we were off on our way south on Route 7. Tony, Chris, Jamie, Eric and I estimate we put on the water around11:30 and headed down river to much fanfare and spectators on the swinging bridge. With the low water levels hitting your line was even more important due to the FU rocks in the first drop. One of our group tested the "stay on your line" theory and let us know that the left side of the drop was a little less enjoyable than the right side and ensued in a swim, a boat rescue, a live bait log removal and some rattled nerves. Once said party member got it together off we went through the upper gorge in an almost rhythmic approach. I was getting a total kick out of watching Tony maneuver his canoe around all of these drops with such ease.
Through the upper gorge and out into the flats we picked our way through the tedious shallow class I-II waters until the Mill Drop. All that ran it ran it with their own mark on the last part...more bump and scrape to the portage into the lower gorge. This was the hardest part of the day - If you have never seen the put in you should and then see a crew of guys working like a team getting the boats to the water including a 13 foot canoe down in there too.
The Lower gorge was a lot of fun. The drops were relatively clean sans the one where you go left around a boulder and slam into another boulder as you drop in. The last drop of the run I wish I had gotten my camera ready because everyone was grinning ear to ear as they boofed off of the ledge and into the left wall pillow.
It was a good day to be in the gorges - All present had a great time!
I posted before about paddling the Mill Brook in Brownsville, Vt.
Water level was 1 at the covered bridge over the Black River in Downers, so Barre Pinske and I made the short run of the Black River gorge. He was in a playboat modified for creeking by adding upper deck flotation, and I was in my CFS. He got to lead through, which is always a thrill the first time.
On the Steep Features Hold Water Longer (SFHWL) principle, Barre and I drove 12 miles to the Big Feature Gorge of the Mill Brook north of Brownsville. Barre cut a couple logs (leaving a big one at water level which can be boofed at runnable levels), then I rock-hopped to get to the Big Smiley 12-ft slide/falls, then on to several smaller features before taking out 200 yds downstream, just below the bridge that carries Brook Rd across.
Local water, big fun.
It’s not often enough that I can get on the Mill River / Clarendon Gorge. With the buds coming out and limited rainfall, we were fortunate to be able to get on this gem, albeit at a low level. We were evenly divided between those that had done the river before and those for whom it was a first. The opening rapids only give a hint as to how steep and tight the coming gorges are. A couple of the guys were a little wide eyed, especially after the opening rapid caused a couple of rolls. Nothing like not having any warm up on a cool day to jump into IV. That was the only real excitement on the water for the day. A few of the rapids gave a little pause (particularly the next to last one). Overall fairly straight forward at this level. The covered Bridge rapid had me turned around a bit but without consequence. The others that ran it were much cleaner. Once again, the owners of the house at the covered bridge came out for some sharing . And we learned Chandler is apparently going to be a diplomat. Noah will hopefully write a short summary of the (overall positive) interaction and post it on the message board. The devil’s gorge rapid had most throwing in their boats and then following. Once again, Chandler was the man as he showed us all how to do a proper back flip. With a few scouts we managed to do the trip in a couple three hours at a very relaxed pace. Everyone managed to leave with a smile.
I was not quite prepared for the first question out of the participants of the clinic, "What is your motivation for doing this?" I gave a quick novelty answer, but it was an interesting question that I pondered over for the rest of the weekend.
Following on the heels of a very successful Novice Clinic, I already knew this was going to be a great weekend. It started with everyone rolling into camp Friday evening. We stayed at Woodford State Park in Vermont as the parks in Massachusetts near the river were pretty solidly booked. This turned out to be a great thing as the sites are twice as large, the sites aren't right on top of each other, the grounds are cleaner, the staff is much friendlier, and there aren't so many ridiculous rules. For $6.50/night at 3 people per site, you just can't beat it.
Saturday morning we headed to the usual paddler put-in on Fife Brook. Two of Zoar Outdoor's buses completely blocked access to the put-in road much to the dismay of a lot of private boaters, but they moved about 10 minutes later. Good thing, there were a lot of angry canoeists impatiently waiting behind us in line! Thanks to Dawn, we were able to drive all the vehicles to the take-out. The first rapid, Hangover Helper, really worked our fledgling crew over. Most of them swam at least once; some of them appeared to be there for swimming lessons as much as paddling! To their credit they worked very hard and really pushed themselves. If I had one word to describe this crew is would be "determined". That first rapid's current and eddies are very tricky for new paddlers. Yet, they kept going back for more.
We proceeded downstream through Carbis Bend and Upper Railroad without incident and quite a bit of surfing. Then along comes Lower Railroad which served up more entertainment. Some found out what a seam is the hard way (they were warned at the top). Others discovered what exactly a hole is and how quickly it can flip you when you jump in there.
Then came Pinball and everyone really enjoyed the maze of eddies, waves, and small holes. There were a few upsets, but already you could begin seeing improvement in their paddling. Attitudes were positive through the whole thing. The evening before we had discussed the pros and cons of learning to roll too soon, and I really emphasized that swimming is very much a part of paddling and learning. The next day Kristy and Paul would help reinforce that idea.
We arrived at the Gap and I explained to all that the Class 2 Clinic ended above the Gap. We walked up to take a look at it and noticed the water was dropping fast. There was probably only 400-500 cfs in there. A couple of the novices went with the other instructors. I stayed behind with the others and set safety with a rope. I was really looking forward to a little practice but everyone made it through upright.
Exhausted from a long day we headed back to camp. A few people went into town for food while the rest stayed at camp to cook. Once we gathered back together, the excitement of the day spilled forth over the campfire.
Sunday morning the other instructors, Jim, Kristy, and Paul, headed to the Dryway for a quick run. I took the class down to Dragon's Tooth to watch. This provided a great lesson to learn! The river was mostly empty when we got there, and I was able to warn them the river was going to rise several feet. Sure enough, once the bubble arrived it took less than a minute or two for the river to pulse to full strength. Besides learning about rising rivers, they got to watch rocks form eddies, the eddies become holes, and some of the holes become waves.
Our Dryway heroes arrived and scouted from the opposite shore. After a lot of whooping and hollering back and forth off they went. This was Kristy's first Dryway attempt and I have to say she styled it. She did swim at the bottom of Dragon's Tooth and washed into the top of Labyrinth. Her would be savior, Paul, also cooled off with a short swim in Labyrinth. She was reunited with her boat and cleaned the rest of Labyrinth.
Off to Fife Brook we went again. This time, Hangover Helper had met its match! There was an immediate improvement noticeable in the way the class was paddling. Not that there weren't a couple swims, but they proved they belonged there. We didn't stay long and blasted through the rest of the rapids with hopes of making it to Pinball with lots of time to play. Unfortunately, Zoar Outdoor was running a river rescue class blocking a good 2/3 of the river in the top portion of Pinball. It was a good chance to revisit river signals as one of the Zoar instructors was signaling people to go right.
I wasn't feeling well Sunday, but by the time we got to the rapid above the Gap I started feeling better. While I would say Shane is a playboating superstar to be, Alex is going to be a creeking maniac. Alex was boofing rocks in that last rapid left and right, one time completely clearing the water. Intentional? Maybe not but he made it look that way!
So here comes the Gap and everyone decides to ante up and go for it. While bouncing down through the Gap was the highlight of their day, I think they probably overlooked the most important thing they did over the weekend. They caught the eddy right above the Gap. No one missed it! Then they all peeled out without incident. Those two things alone is a testament to how far they have come.
Jim looked graceful as ever. Kristy popped off a couple rolls on her way down. Alex, Shane, and John all repeated their runs from the day before. Paul set a great line for Debbie and Brian to follow. Debbie went off line slightly, making it all the way to the bottom hole and went deep before swimming. Having half as much experience as her classmates and considering this her first time through the Gap, it was an amazing accomplishment. Brian, who just a few months ago thought paddlers must be nuts, made it through with some fancy bracing. Me? Well, I was running sweep and was a little too entertained by the happenings downstream. I completely missed my line and hit the first hole at an odd angle. Nailed my very first Class 3 combat roll though!
"What is your motivation for doing this?" I had all the answer I needed back at the take-out. The grinning ear to ear, the laughs, the commotion, and the stares from other people wondering what the fuss was all about makes it so worth while. There is definitely something lost as we gain experience and move on to bigger and greater things. Helping new paddlers get into the sport has a very addictive quality to it and renews the experience. If you haven't tried it I highly recommend it. I hope down the line a few of these graduates from our clinics will come out to volunteer to pay it forward.
I would really enjoy receiving any feedback anyone has. I recently achieved ACA Instructor Certification and one doesn't do strive for it if they can't handle criticism. So let me have it! While we all had a great time we should strive to make it better next time. I already know we need more canoes out there! Allan was alone paddling OC-1. It would have been much more enjoyable for him if he had company.
I would really like to thank Jim, Paul, and Kristy for coming out to help with the trip. Our success can largely be credited to you. It is great for new paddlers to see different styles and get different opinions. I would like to thank Dawn for all her efforts with shuttling logistics. Last but not least, I would like to thank the participants for making it such an enjoyable weekend. Your enthusiasm made it that much better for us instructors.
The 2017 Class II clinic was held July 15-16 on the Fife Brook section of the Deerfield in Mass. We had a small group of actual students with only 3 paddlers needing much instruction. In total we had a group of 9. We had a 2 beautiful days of paddling with only a little bit of rain Saturday evening. We camped at Woodford State Park in Vermont.
Class II Clinic
Fife Brook Deerfield
Instructors: AJ Seibel, Paul Carlile, Mark Lienau
Safety: John A, Brock, Rich R, Dave H
Students: Kerry W, Nick M, Adrianne R. Nick R. Rod M, Jim D, Ben
A small contingent arrived Friday morning and paddled the Fife Brook section to scout out the teaching spots and enjoy the river. We camped at Woodford State Park just East of Bennington, VT. After some scattered showers that soaked the campsite on Friday night for the early arrivers, we had clear skies and sunshine for the rest of the weekend.
After meeting up with the rest of the group Saturday morning we put on the river just below the dam about 10:30. The release was from 10 to 4 at 800 cfs , so we had plenty of time. After spending a little warmup time on the flats we headed down to the Class II Hangover Helper for some ferry and peal out practice in the fast current and some more stroke work in the large eddy. After a few swims from some people pushing their envelopes we headed down river stopping a couple of spots along the way. The students were somewhat tentative going through Pinball caught several eddies along the way as their skills and confidence were clearly improving as the day went on. Four of the students were ready to challenge Class III Zoar Gap by the end of the day and although there was a little fish counting, all had a pretty nice run and were looking forward to the next day. Had a great meal at Madison Brewing Co. in Bennington that night.
Sunday was supposed to be 1000 cfs release but we all decided that it was probably the same as Saturday. Everyone pushed themselves harder at Hangover Helper working in the faster and it was clear that they had made a lot of progress the day before. By the time we got to Pinball, the students were choosing their own routes and catching most of the larger eddies in spite of a crowd of paddlers that arrived at the same time. At Zoar Gap, the students caught the eddy right above the first drop and made the clutch peal out cleanly. It was incredible to see the progress all of the students made. They are a great bunch that worked hard and had super attitudes. I look forward to paddling with everyone in the future.
The second week of April brought our first good round of true spring snowmelt. On the afternoon of the 11th folks were planning to hit Ridley. I wasn't too bitter about being stuck at work since I was pretty sure it'd be too high. But that means Cobb would be good and Scott was game to meet me there for an evening run. Of course this had me a little nervous - I think Cobb is sweet and all, but it's short - and Scott has run a lot of creeks in Vermont and had high standards. So I hoped he'd think the drive was worth it and headed for the takeout.
You can drop into Cobb from up top on Trapp Road, but I usually hike up river left from the bottom. The first few ledges you'll see aren't especially stacked but they look good, and Scott indicated he agreed. Then the gradient really takes off and by then I think Scott was pretty much sold. I think all total the creek drops around 200 feet in about a half mile.
I usually put in just a little ways below the primary confluence. You can go higher up but it gets pretty small pretty quick and is fairly dechannelized up there. Below the confluence, you get a few hundred feet of warm-up before the gradient really starts. It's all steep bedrock, pretty clean and well channelized, with enough (but just barely enough) eddies.
There is one marginal rapid here where you have to drive right across a shallow slide to avoid falling into a menacing crack. It looks like you'd still go through if you missed the line, but let's just say the Republican health care plan wouldn't pay to have your arms screwed back onto your shoulders.
There are a few other big drops down here too - one big chunky ledge where I landed in a pothole sideways and Scott briefly disappeared into a boat-width bedrock trough, another one that has a flake that could be a piton or could be a boof (hint - it's a great boof), and one final double drop with a surprisingly strong hole for a creek this small. Other than that there are a whole bunch of great small slides, ledge staircases and even one or two boulder gardens. Most of the drops aren't more than 5 feet tall, but most of them aren't more than 5 or 10 feet apart!
We hit the takeout right before it got too dark to paddle. I love timing a run like that!
Scott Gilbert and I ran the Cold this afternoon. Pretty low level; there was just enough water in the steeper narrow rapids, but too low anywhere the riverbed widened. None the less, it was an excellent run. Soon after leaving the roadside it starts to rock and roll.....bouldery class III-IV drops requiring a lot of maneuvering. The gradient is fairly constant. We boat-scouted everything except the "asskicker" drop (about 1/4 mile above the covered bridge)....a confused boulder pile with a couple places to squeeze through. About a quarter mile below the covered bridge the North Branch spills in, adding some water. A little below there I got the chance to practice a couple class III shallow water rolls...successfully.
There's a few strainers in the last third of the run; all dodgable or duckable at low water, but maybe not with more water. We took out under the Cold River Road bridge to avoid the small dam and the shallows coming into N. Clarendon. The last rapid is a beautiful marble gorge; crystal clear water flowing over white stone in a series of almost river-wide ledge holes.
It's been over 10 years since I first (and last!) paddled this river. I'll tell you what....the Cold is steeper, more continuous, and more beautiful than I remember it. Hard to believe this run is completely unknown. Hard to believe I "forgot about it" for the last 10 years. I won't forget again!
(I'll put a description and directions on the almanac page when I get a chance)
Section 4: Bloomfield, VT to Maidstone Bridge Drove to Maidstone State Park in just over 3 hours. Actually made good time as there was little traffic and the roads were dry. We arrived around 9:30 am. We checked in and dropped our camping equipment off at the lean-to we will be using for the next 3 nights. We changed into our paddling gear and headed out. The beginning of the first section, 4, was only about 9 miles from our campsite so it didn't take long to get there. I dropped Jim off at the Bloomfield/North Stratford put in at the mouth of the Nulhegan River on the CT Rvr at 10:44 am. Dropped truck at the Maidstone Bridge and biked back.
The first 2 or 3miles of the CT are very quick to Class I. Nothing very tough, but a nice way to get back in the seeing the water and paddling mode. Neither of us have an opportunity to do other than flat water, so we need to get the rhythm back for this kind of paddling. (Tomorrow we will have quick class I and class II.)
Lots of islands, 6 - 10, until we reached the bendy part of the river. We tried to take the shortest way for this was often the fastest water. One stretch, Horse race, was class I and very wooded and pleasant.
As we worked our way down, we saw the 100 foot esker cliff on the VT side. Quite different from anything we have seen on the CT. Just before it was the Brunswick Springs Brook. Small but pretty with the smell of sulfur in the air. About 5 miles farther down river we passed Paul Stream. This is the outlet stream for Maidstone Lake, where we are staying at the state park. We saw several Kingfishers, lots of crows, a few ducks and mergansers and many small song birds.
At one point, I saw an otter scramble up the bank and disappear into the grass. This is the first one we have seen on the CT, though we suspect there are many more.
Where the river opens up and does lots of bends, the banks are lower. Once again, the ubiquitous corn is growing right up to the rivers edge. I would guess that the CT Valley grows more corn that many Midwestern states. We have seen it from Northfield, Ma north to Canaan, VT, some 200 miles.
Approximately 2 miles from the MS bridge, we found an Osprey nest with both parents and most likely, though we could not see them, youngsters. They both flew around as we moved by, obviously upset with our passage.
We also found several places where the former bed of Glacial lake Hitchcock was exposed. The blue-grey clay being laid down in very neat layers ranging from a millimeter to a couple of centimeters. One area had lots of wood sticking out of it. I managed to pluck out a small piece of a branch from approximately 20 feet below the preset day field surface. I will try to preserve it and send it to Ed Klekowski for identification and dating.
All in all a good warm-up paddle to get the muscles back in shape. Paddling time: 2:26:11 hours 11.28 miles. Bike: 33:20 min, 9.5 miles, 17.2 MPH Ave.
Section 5: Maidstone Bridge to Guidhall, VT.
On the water by 8:20 am. This was not a particularly easy put in. The rocks run don to the river, but with no clear path and a bit of current it makes for a bit of adventure. Once in the yaks everything was fine. We missed most of the fog and as a consequence, had plenty of sun for the entire section.
After looking at 4 different maps, I came to the conclusion that no one knows howlong this section actually is in miles. I found everthing ranging from 10 to 13 miles. If I was to put a number on it, I wouild say 11 to 12 miles. I will do a map mileage check to get as close as possible for the record.
As we pulled up to the bridge we saw two beautiful red doe in the farm's field. We took this to be a good omen. I also had seen a Great Horned Owl on the ride back. There were more Canada Geese than we had seen anywhere else on the river. At least two flocks of 30-40 on different stretches of the river. We also spotted a muskrat crossing the river just as the 7 or 8 loops started. The river wends it's way back and forth across the valley for the next couple of miles.
This was our single longest paddle in terms of time and, most likely distance. Given the flat water nature of the river we were on at this point, it was a relatively slow section.
As we got to, what has now proven to be approximately the 9 mile mark, the river became a "t". we both thought that this was a bit, no, quite strange. After a minute or two of hesitation, we decided to go right, as that is the apparent direction of the minuscule current.
One of the more unusual aspects of this section of the Connecticut River is the multiple opportunities for Vermonter's to see the sun set on New Hampshire. We noted it in several places because the shoreline appeared to change from VT to NH and back with the same side of the kayak never changing. An odd feeling, but kind of interesting in an Escher kind of way.
After e completed this section, we wondered why we did not see the Upper Ammonoosic entering the CT Rvr. Upon checking the detailed maps, we determined that the "t" was where that particular river entered the CT. Given the lack of significant water and the fact that it looked like an oxbow cutoff, we suspect that there will be many paddlers whom will miss it. How a through-paddler, from Old Forge east bound, would fair is beyond me. There was a serious lack of water during Memorial Day and even less now. If not portaging, then you would be doing a significant amount of lining. Even with a light kayak, it would be unpleasant at best.
One other item of note for this section was an island about ¼ mile downriver from the mouth of the Upper Ammonoosic. Jim stayed to the right of the island in the main part of the river. I decided to venture to the left side. While a bit shallow and gravelly, it was a small diversion which proved to be worthwhile. Just before the end of the island, I put up a couple of Bald Eagles, one an adult and the other a fledged juvenile. We had not seen any eagles prior to this point, and had earlier in the day remarked on that fact. (We also saw a first and only, Great Blue Heron as well as a cormorant.)
It may have earned me a new Indian name - Two Eagles. I think I like that a lot!
The Wyoming Dam came up short after that, approximately 1.5 miles later. We were able to pull out just before the current became overwhelming and pulled us over the dam. There are steps going up the bank and along a residential fence. We portaged over the road and down the other side to a broad sandy beach looking out on the dam.
From where we stood, it looks eminently runnable. At least during times of high water, there appears to be enough water to cushion the kayak from the rocks. However everything I read said to say out of the water at this point. I presume that there are sharp and large items in the water which prevent an easy and more importantly safe passage. It would be great if they could get in here with a crane or dynamite to open the channel up and allow for paddling over the site.
Paddling: 2:53:25 hours 11.19 miles
I bet that title caught your attention...
The prior three days yielded some good flows on the usual suspects. It was Sunday and a handful of us were still itching to get in the water even though most other rivers had dropped off. Dave stated it best, wanting an Adventure. An adventure is what we got.
With Russ being the seasoned vet in the Middlebury Gorge we had a guide that not only knew the river but if you have ever paddled with Russ as your guide, you know all too well that his mind is like a vault and no detail is too small. We even got hi tech drawings in the dirt of what rapids looked like. AWESOME! Marshall had been down it at a lower flow a long time ago when the Birth Canal drops were slightly different and Dave had only boated below the Birth Canal. I was the newbie on the run (no pun intended).
So after a mandatory look see at the Birth Canal from above Rebirth we were back up to the road and put in up towards Ripton. The first mile or so down to the confluence with the North Branch of the Middlebury River was really fun class III/III+ continuous boogie. Speaking for myself, it was nice to get some of that in before the action started. My heart was so far in my throat before the run, I was actually feeling sick. Lots of anticipation and anxiety for me from hearing about and seeing some pretty stout drops from a distance and the committing and unportageable nature of parts of the gorge. So like I said the upper part of the run was a nice way to loosen up and get focused or decide that you were just not feeling it which on this river you have to be feeling it before dropping in or you are SOL.
The 4 of us arrive at the confluence with the North Branch and the anticipation starts back up as Russ starts to give exacting details of what to expect. Marshall and I jump out of our boats, one with a camera the other with a rope and watch both Russ and Dave run the entry drop of the Fallopian Tube and both get splatted on a rock that Russ said has pinned him in the past and looked like he and Dave missed the same fate by a very small margin. At this point it was get'er done or hike it out. Marshall had only 3 days in his boat this season prior to this one so he made a judgment call and hiked it out. I had been having a solid season up to now and felt pretty confident that I would be OK pushing into the Birth Canal. I ran the entry drop a little further right than Dave and Russ and never got near the said pin rock. However, I was completely locked into a brace when I needed to dig into an eddy so this was the first missed move of the day for me. That missed move meant I was going to get the first shot at the 15 ft waterfall at the end of the Fallopian Tube. So now more details from Russ were blinking bright red in my cortex about a wicked crack in the wall directly above the falls that can swallow the front end of a boat and stick you in there. So even though the current was pushing you in the direction of the crack, you needed to drive across the current and try to get a late boof off the falls. As everything felt like it slowed down to a weird movie slo-mo shot I came up on the crack...I could see the edge of the falls and where the nose of my boat could be swallowed so I dug and stroked and then felt like I was hanging in space for a whole lot longer than any other 15 footer I have ever run. It all went white and then dark and then white again and then.......I was bobbing in the inner gorge, the birth canal.
It felt like eternity before Russ banked around the top and threw a HU-JASS boof and landed about as perfectly as I have ever seen off of a trashy lip! Lots of whoops and hollers and smiles and we sat bobbing in our respective eddys for Dave. Dave threw a pretty cool melt-down/boof thingy that sent him out but not far enough from the spout of the falls to keep him from an AWESOME ender. This resulted in a swim in the preferable river right eddy where Russ was able to scramble up the ledge and get Dave a rope to climb up the wall on and then tow his boat out of the surging eddy. Absorbing some sunlight and taking in the whole beauty of the gorge for a few minutes was pretty cool!
All regrouped we paddled down to look at the next drop where you boof a 3 foot ledge and then get left to set up for the drop called Cunnilingus. It was a squirrely flume that had changed from the last time Russ had been on it (a 6 foot boof before). Russ styled it and was in the eddy above the next drop. Dave ran up to his boat and came down through the ledge and Cunni with style as well. Next up was me...As finished the 3 foot boof I was in the slack water above Cunnilingus and could see Dave out of his boat and headed down the river left shore. I though wow he boogied on down through Rebirth and was already scouting the stuff below. Later I found that Rebirth munched on him as it was about to destroy me. So I hit Cunni in the right location but didn't anticipate it to snag my bow and flip me so quickly. Next thing I know I am getting hammered along the bottom of the river and taking shots to the head and hands..then it all stops and I am broached against a boulder upside down above Rebirth - one of the ugliest rapids I have ever seen or boated and the end result of a mess up is equally miserable. So I say forget this and wet exit my boat and Russ is in the eddy telling me to stand up and grab my boat. Huh - easy enough I am safe and didn't run rebirth upside down...I think to myself. I do a quick sort of mental regroup and go to pick up my boat to drain it out and the right shoulder is feeling a wee bit loose. Russ is pretty anxious to get down river to see if Dave is OK so I tell him to hit it and watch his line as I all the sudden realize I am in the Birth Canal alone and have no choice but to run the next drop with a loose shoulder because I couldn't have been is a more committing place w/o a way out but down the river.
OK all systems check ferry into the eddy throw a few paddle strokes and peel out and drop off the same line Russ did. I don't even know what happened next other than I was up side down again and hanging on for a good opportunity to roll. Then it hit me - O S!#t roll NOW! The entire current of the river pushes into an undercut portion of the wall on river right called the Catcher's Mitt. I hit my roll to hear Russ screaming PADDLE! I paddle just enough to get away from the mitt but my stern is sucked under and I flip again and end up in a shallow but rapid spot that yanks at my paddle and I feel the shoulder go again. I let go of the paddle and manage a hand roll (what the hell is the purpose of having a hand roll - you can't paddle anywhere after you are up anyways). Now I am headed down a class V river w/o a paddle backwards. It doesn't take long for me to get flipped and being completely shot I swim up on a beach river left just above the next rapid. My boat is stuck in an eddy up river a bit and Dave is laughing because he did the same thing.
At this point I see that I can hike out and I am fairly confident that there is no way I am boating out of the gorge with the way my shoulder is behaving. Russ and Dave decided that they are going to put my spray skirt on my boat and bump it down the river through several other legit class IV and V rapids. I am happy that I don't have to try to carry it up the gorge wall and bid farewell to my trusty cork and paddling partners as I can hear the familiar BONK sound of a boat bouncing off of rocks.
While out of the gorge I hooked up with Marshall and we got the vehicles all down to the take out and chilled while we waited.
It took the guys probably an additional 90 minutes to boat the remainder of the river to the take out where I saw them send my boat down through the last rapid running it cleaner than I probably would have in it. The rest of their run was uneventful and enjoyable with out the stress of the Birth Canal but still had them on their toes.
Upon their arrival at the take out vehicles brewskis were popped all around. At the very least I needed to have beer on hand for the two guys that got my boat safely out of the gorge w/o me having to haul it up the wall.
Dave got his adventure...at least what I saw of his run. You'll have to ask him about the rest of it...
The ~6 hour ride over to The Forks was half the fun, as usual, with several of us car-pooling, a pair of walkie-talkies to pass the time and keep one of the caravans in sync, and Frank arriving quite late Friday night having gone north of the border and back into ME at Jackman (he has "friends" at all the border crossings). The little one-horse hamlet where the Dead and Kennebec meet truly feels like a place where time stands still, a little (or a lot) like in Ken Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion.
Most of the group had never paddled the Dead before, and none of us had in recent times. Since it is a scheduled dam release, we knew we would have 2400 CFS on Saturday and 1800 CFS on Sunday, medium and med-low, respectively. The weather was warm and mainly dry while on the river both days, but it offered up a steady light rain Saturday night in the campground. Not enough to spoil dinner cooked over Ken's gas grill, or stop several from a short drive and hike to see the lovely Moxie Falls. Karl was in a hammock overnight, which wasn't the best thing under the circumstances, and the young couple on the site beside us cashed it in in the middle of the night - tossing their brand new tent in the trash and bugging out.
Tony, Frank, Tina, and Jamie earned their keep by helping retrieve the shuttle vehicles from the put-in, and Tony got additional brownie points from the group (ask John) for collecting a bunch of dry firewood on the return trip (with no axe or saw), The hornet's nest Tony disturbed getting firewood was nothing compared to the "assault" staged by the campground owner/manager, based primarily on her memories of weekends long ago when the private paddling groups at her campground ruffled the feathers of her "bread and butter" raft-going clientele - who like to drink too much and stay up late lighting off fireworks and being generally obnoxious. But even when she came bustling onto our site accusing us of theft of service and threatening to call the cops if we were secretly harboring a dog and with little sympathy that we might actually value getting a good night's sleep, and even though she came with "back up", Frank and Ken and Karl (in particular) joined forces to keep things from escalating into fisticuffs. It would have gone down differently in a Kesey novel, I'm sure.
Tina went off to Moxie Lake on her own to explore Saturday, but joined us for the run Sunday and paddled with confidence. For Ken the Dead was a good place to practice paddling with less timidity in preparation for the Labor Day weekend on the Ottawa, and Rich was doing the same. Karl had a helmet cam and recorded some video clips that were fun to see afterward (on the www somewhere), and both Jamie and Tony took digital photos (http://bit.ly/xxs25P).
The weekend was a "full adventure" (Ken) with "a very convivial group" (Jamie), and such outings should be repeated from one year to the next. Now that the Kennebec minimum flow in the FPL Energy dam license agreement is up from 140 CFS to 300 CFS, a low water run on the Kennebec on Saturday afternoon will be a possibility during the long days of summer, and/or all day Sunday at 4800.
We all got an early start Friday morning. Too early, in fact, so we had coffee while we waited for water. Friday proved to be a great day; the water level was about 700CFS, but there were few people there. We had the river to ourselves for most of the day. Kim had an especially productive morning and decided she would run Zoar Gap with us. Unfortunately, she followed me...right over a rock. She had her first successful Gap swim - a right of passage for any novice boater! Norm also banged himself up pretty good, but we all got through with smiles intact.
Saturday, we had the "Chica Paddle" before the official ladies paddle. More water, more people. Kim had a pretty nasty swim in pinball, driving home both the necessity for swiftwater rescue knowledge and the need for a good helment. She shook it off though, got back in her boat and finished the run! (Much to our admiration!) To our delight, she took photos of all of us running Zoar Gap. Kristie had a great Gap run that day. Her first clean run!
Sunday was the official Ladies' Paddle. The day started off cold, rainy and ominous. Kim, Deb and I met Emily and Carissa (friends of Cheryl's) and Matt for the day. It was a great day, even if our girl party was crashed by a boy! The last day was a day of firsts - Deb showed off her offside ferry, Kim showed her conservative side (and was "One Swim Kim" for the day), and I nailed a roll in the Gap and didn't swim!
All in all - a good time indeed!
We put in under the bridge on Rte 12 by the town of Northfield offices and garage. We paddled under two covered bridges before reaching Northfield Falls and a mandatory portage. Exit river right , walk past the old mill and down an old road to the river. Between the falls and Riverton there is a fair amount of easy whitewater and two portages (at least for us on this day). After Riverton the river continues with good current but little excitement all the way to the Winooski. We took out about a mile down the side road off Rte 12 at the south base of the big hill.
I realize this was in no way an official VPC trip, but I wanted to record this information on a lesser-run river in case it proves helpful for future boaters. What a treat last night -- as I scoured the Internet to find any information about paddling the Dog River -- to stumble onto Eric Bishop's trip report from Saturday, April 17th, 2004 -- almost 16 years ago to the day. And what a treat to realize, by looking at other trip reports on the VPC site, that Eric and I had run Joe's Brook a day later -- my first trip down Joe's and a wonderful memory from my senior year in college. Eric's write-up was helpful today, and in that spirit, I wanted to provide an update.
I put in just upstream of the town of Northfield. The dam just downstream of the Route 12 bridge was the best rapid of the day, a 5-6 foot sloping ledge. Light rapids to a portage around the big dam behind the Nantanna Mill on river left. Easy water to the shallow rapid just above the next Route 12 bridge, by the town offices. A decent ledge just below the first covered bridge. Then the huge, impressive 25’ Northfield Falls alongside the abandoned mill just downstream of the Cox Brook Road covered bridge. Is it runnable? Back in 2004, with safety set, maybe . . . But in 2020, solo, definitely not!
More easy water to the “Jacuzzi” drop at the head of the last gorge. Easy water to the Riverton take out.
Partway through the run, I paddled past a man running his chainsaw in his backyard. This man was, interestingly enough, a dead-ringer for Eric Bishop, circa 2004. He put his chainsaw down for a moment to talk. This is Week 5 of the Coronavirus social distancing period, and both of us were eager for conversation, even a few brief words When I arrived at the take out, I saw he’d driven down to talk some more. We chatted for a few more minutes at the bridge, six feet apart. I biked the shuttle and drove home.
With late March's 80 degree temperatures already having melted 2012's historically low snowpack, and with our favorite Vermont and New Hampshire creeks having run off during a depressingly short period, on March 24th seven of us put on the Jail Branch in Barre, Vermont, with just enough water - just enough - for an adventure.
The "Jail" Branch? Flowing from the East Barre "Detention" Reservoir? It didn't sound auspicious. Nor did our pre-paddling scout, which revealed we'd been sentenced to low water. That none of us had run an oft-navigable, roadside creek in one of Vermont's largest towns tells one that we'd done our best to stay out of trouble and avoid the Jail Branch. Having done hard time myself - bank scouting down steep, loose shale along Route 302 - I knew what life was going to be like on the inside: sharp rocks, trees across the river, and all manner of junk car parts.
But just a half-mile into our incarceration, we found the Jail Branch to be less of a corrective measure than we thought. Our pre-run scout had not convinced us that the ten-foot breached dam below the Route 110 bridge did not land on a piton rock. Fortunately we had not yet become hardened inmates, and found ourselves still considering a run. Then Nick - the only free-boat-receiving paddler in our group (and proof that even Ivy League graduates end up in the Jail Branch sometimes), paddled off the edge. As fate would have it, he barely hit at all, and as subsequent runs confirmed, the dam was little more than a fun slide, with barely a boof (though several rolls at the bottom) required.
Then the Jail Branch took off downhill and we entered the most violent period of our sentencing. With any reasonable amount of water, the following section would have been pushy. As it was, it was jarring. Below the Route 302 bridge we made a long portage around a series of constricted rapids that were blocked by trees fallen from the spectacularly eroding bank. At one point, I boofed what appeared to be the rusted remains of a car's entire front end, and then stepped on a discarded granite tombstone on the portage, all in the same 100-yard stretch. At that point, I did not doubt that I would emerge from the Jail Branch a changed man.
Another brief portage and a mile-long shallows brought us to Spaulding Falls, where we found ourselves imprisoned in a walled gorge through which the creek dropped 40 feet ahead: first over the requisite too-shallow entrance ledge, followed by an impressive 25-foot cascade. For my part, I could not believe that none of us except Ryan had heard of such a large and marginally runnable drop right in Barre. For Ben's part, he decided that Spaulding Falls was eminently runnable. He completed the first descent with confidence and style.
No one else was convinced to run however, except Ben himself - who scaled the gorge again, boat in tow, and made the second - cleaner - descent ten minutes later. At that point, having been deemed fit to return to society, Ryan and I lowered our boats to the base of the falls and finished the remaining half-mile with Ben over several wide ledges to the Spaulding High School take out. There we met the others, who, hiking down the road in brightly colored drysuits, looked like the Jail Branch's own prison work crew.
Now that I'm out, I'll probably try to hold myself on the straight and narrow and avoid a return to the Jail Branch. That said, temptations abound, and I'm not naïve enough to doubt that with the combination of more water, fewer trees, and the wrong crowd (and especially following the trial of another low-water season), I might not just find myself back in the Jail Branch.
Two runs after a Friday night drubbing.
Patterson was an easy choice and there were a couple of guys that had never had an opportunity to boat it. The other logical option was Bingo and we all wanted to see how bad it was loaded up with Wood from Irene.
Tony Jamie Noah and I all met down in Granville. The level was low fluid. No complaints here. Great level to show the crew down this Green Mountain Gem. Check the pictures that Tony and Jamie posted - great stuff. It was a beautiful day to be on a beautiful river. The run went way too quickly and we were wanting for more, so we headed south to the little run Bingo. Rumor had it, that Bingo was chock full o' wood from Irene. We only came across one mandatory portage around wood and it was at a drop that would have required a portage that day anyways. Bingo was a blast of bedrock slides and channels. At the level we ran it, it was stupid low and most likely was the culprit of the new crack in the bottom of my boat!
Great day on the river(s) with a great crew. Looks like more great days are upon us with all of the rain we keep getting too!
The dryway...a classic New England summer run.
After spending most of my 2005 summer down on the Dryway I considered myself a dryway veteran. I think me and my Kingpin are becoming part of the features down there.
I was surprised when I saw fellow VPCer, Will run the dryway in his creek boat most people take playboats. Laugh, oh did I laugh!! A full winter of smack talk began!!
Fast forward to Summer 2006, Will finally succumbed to the smack talk and decided to talk the talk and walk the walk. Will joined me for a weekend on Dryway in his playboat.
What followed was two days of extreme smack talking, no swims, a lot of surfing and hell of a lot of fun. So much fun in fact he decided to join me again the next weekend.
The dryway is based on the Deerfield river and is classic New England run. The rapids rate between class 3 to the infamous Dragon's tooth and Labyrinth 4's. This river can be as hard or as easy as you want it to be. There are a surf waves dotted throughout the river with the big finale at Labyrinth one of the most difficult waves to catch and surf on the river...at least you get plenty of warm up before you get there. There are numerous slot moves raging from easy to hard.
I knew Will had paddled the dryway before but I think we brought him a whole new experience.
The second time there was Demo fest...Will was eager to Demo a new boat in particular the EZG50. Unfortunately due to my coffee & croissant stop and I am sure Will will say my socializing, we arrived a little later than expected and EZG50 had disappeared for the day. So he had to endure another day of the Amp.
At the end of the Dryway we didn't have time for our projected 2nd run so we headed down for some beat downs on the GAP (fife section). At which point Will decided to demo a poorly outfitted RX. A friend of mine described the various lines from the road and we watched as eight boaters came along. They had whole load of personal carnage by either swimming or flipping neither looked a nice way to go down the Gap.
I decided I wanted to surf the Hole at the Bottom of the Gap, while Will opted to go for this strange task of Seven moves along the Gap?? Something that apparently if you can do you know you ready for the Dryway!! A bit late if you ask me..
I don't think we achieved our set goals but we did impress the spectators by running it upright.
We finished the evening by stopping at my favorite food place the Biker Bar then headed to socialize with the rest of the VPCers (Ryan, Norm, Chrissie) I think they were staying in the local state prison, No visitors after 8pm, No alcohol and no over crossing the boundries on the camps even if you are all friends... Thankfully we were allowed in for a quick hello at 8.10pm. Some beers and a few hello's later we headed out (10pm) to recovery for the next day paddle.
The next day we were joined by Ryan, and 3 of his friends who had never paddled the dryway before.
But first Will and I had to make sure we did two runs...Will when I said we would do a Bomber run I meant it. As soon as the water released we put on. 40 mininutes later and no stopping we were back at the top for our second run...Fantastic.
The second run was a lot more entertaining, great surfing, rock splats, to rescuing swimmers. Oh and the quaking of knees at Dragons tooth.
The run was thoroughly enjoyed by all, there was little carnage considering the newbies who did really well.
Again the day was finished at the Biker Bar...Beers and Burgers yummy.
Two weeks later I return with another VPCer Julie Prior, I had talked her into doing a day trip so I could demo a new boat. Bleary eyed and half a sleep we hit my usual coffee and croissant place and Julie experienced the same socializing..Sorry guys it isn't my fault I know so many people...
A friend Marc, kindly agreed to show Julie the lines, as we apparently we going to be in for a fun day, I could just barely roll the demo boat in the flat water.
Julie had a blast she surfed every thing possible like a pro and she even followed Marc to the T, quite hilarious watching them both run Dragons tooth upside down...Okay okay so that's my general line through there too..Thankfully I managed to roll my demo...it was a close call though.
Sadly I didn't get to see Julie run Labyrinth, I heard she did great and even managed to try to surf the wave there.
I mentioned the subject of a second run!! But I think the first one had sapped all of Julie's and Marc's energy so instead we enjoyed the sunshine and socialized as per usual.
Tired and Happy we drive home from another excellent paddle at the Dryway..and there is still a whole load of Summer left. Dryway Fest anyone??
The choices for this Friday trip were E.B.Pemi or the Contootook, with New Hampshire getting the river pleasing rain that we were missing. Luke was pumped for the Pemi, and it was closer, so we hoped the gauge coorelation was right and headed east. The book description was right on, it looked a little low when we got there, but there was plenty of water for paddling.
We put in right at the footbridge at the parking lot for hiking, not wanting to walk up river. Right away the action started, boulder dodging and keeping with the main flow. There were lots of eddies, and plenty of nice whitewater down to the Loon Mountain Bridge. At that level it was nice class lll, with no scouting required. A few play waves are there to play on in that section, mine and Lukes mindset that day was river running, so we did not play much, to the dislike of Will, who rightfully said we should have surfed more.
At Loon Mountain Rapid, there is a horizon line, and we scouted, and ran the conservative line on the left side, there was just enough water on the end of it to get back right to the main flow. No incidents, expect my bruised ego later when thinking a few years ago I would have wanted to run the right side, now I find myself content to run the easier lines. Sucks getting old!
Below that, there is some awesome class lll whitewater, lots of fun maneuvering around rocks and holes. We did portage the old dam area, it looked a bit scetchy with rebar and logs in the river, and big holes if you missed those. Below a split island and under the bridge before the I93 bridge there was one beautiful wave we all tried surfing on, it is tall, steep, and fast.
We took out just below the confluence with the main Pemi, on river left. Good parking and a nice beach to pull up on. A great run to experience, we were all impressed by White Mountain whitewater and want to hit the Swift sometime!
A good day to get wet....
Cold windy and snowy were the choice du jour. Setting shuttle and sliding down the put in hill we all stretched and put on the river. It was a nice level to stay dry and afloat and work out the early season kinks. It was AJ's first trip down the Mad - more of a geographical thing.
Being the only guy in a play boat, Jamie surfed it up below the 100b bridge. Off to Horseshoe, Jami and I ran the center line to no fanfare. A quick combat roll and we were off through Washing Machine and the bottom gorge.
It was a good start to an early season.
OMG! Between 3pm (when we put on) and 8pm, the windy, sunny, HOT weather had a tremendous effect on the level, doubling the flow from 1000 cfs to 2000 cfs at the Loon Mt. USGS real-time gauge. 80 degrees at the end of April in NH's snow-capped White Mountains will do that!
The guidebooks say that people sometimes carry upstream on the Wilderness Trail 3 miles or more to run the pristine sections of the EBP above the Kancamagus Highway. That is not anything I ever expect to do with a canoe! But the 6 mile section downstream from the Wilderness Trail parking area to the confluence with the main stem Pemi is plenty attractive and contains plenty of class III action at this level. About a mile downstream from the put-in the Hancock Branch enters on the left, which would have been fluid enough to run today.
Passing under the bridge @ Loon Mountain, 3 of us chose to take the more conservative (and a little bony) left side of the island, and one chose to call it a day. I flipped and had a pretty long swim once after Loon, just so I could attest to how very cold the waters of the EBP can be, even on an 80 degree afternoon!
The closer you get to the take-out, the more hemmed in the river becomes by (largely vacant) ski family condos, all of which are well-kept but can't help detracting from the scenery a bit.
Near the confluence the remnants of a dam are easily spotted from upstream. Bank scouting (and lifting over) on river left was the prudent thing to do, on this day. The hard-to-miss graffiti there pleads: "Don't MASS up NH".
After passing the sewage treatment plant and passing under I93, take the small channel to the right of the island if you've left your shuttle vehicle behind the fire station in North Woodstock at the little park that is located there.
I posted a few photos in the VPC Paddle Pix area. The camera batteries died, or we would have many more photos to make everyone jealous that they missed this trip!
950 cfs is a pretty sweet level for the EBP, IMO. After leaving a car at the Lincoln Family Park (behind the fire station in North Woodstock), we stopped on the bridge to Loon Mt to agree on our intended lines above and below the bridge. There was little appetite for carrying upstream above the footbridge at Lincoln Woods, so we put-in there. The Hancock USFS campground was nearly empty, likely because it had been cool and rainy most of the previous week. The 5 day rain total reported in Woodstock (USGS) was 1.4 inches. Notoriously flashy, the EBP had spiked to nearly 4000 cfs after Sunday's soaking rains.
The 3 of us were perfectly happy with 950 cfs today, "non-threatening" (Paul's words) but plenty continuous and plenty splashy. We set safety at the abandoned dam site and all ran the sneak route river left without incident. The 2 big holes in the middle there looked nasty (and so did one or two other holes along the way). We completed the 6+ mile run in around 2 hours end-to-end.
Little sun or wind, and no one else on the river, with the temperature around 50 degrees. Stopped at "Big Cones" in Wells River, VT on the drive home, where $3.50 buys a medium waffle cone that is a meal in itself. Don't even THINK about ordering a large!
HOLY COLD BOATING!!!
So this spring has been less than stellar for the creek boat scene. So you gotta make hay when the sun shines. The scheduled Stony trip was bagged due to lack of water in the Dog River Drainage. The known options for the day were the Wells (lots of bang for the buck - short) or a new one to me through the two Clarendon Gorges. Dave was the only one that was willing to go out and brave the elements and freeze his fingers off with me as a select few others that had planned to attend retreated to the comfort of their warm couches and large Easter brunches...bet they watched Cabrerra win the Masters too!
So Dave and I were off to the Mill River near Clarendon. With snow in the air, clouds and bits of sunshine it was a great and typical early spring day in VT. The first gorge went with out incident through numerous read and run class III/IV drops leading up to the infamous Mill Drop. What an awesome drop. Dave and I checked lines and then took our respective turns at it. We both aced it with one redux. After this drop the flat water section between the gorges opened up and let us soak in some that limited solar radiation.
Eddying out on river right to portage the first drop of the Lower gorge we noticed there was some ice on a couple of aspects of the walls. This ice we saw was right where the put in below the "hell hole drop" was located. It made for a dicey set up to drop into the gorge. After we were in the water along came Russ and Alex and they went the high and dry route and seal launched in from a 30ft high cliff. Yes you read that right. CRAZY and didn't look like fun but definitely looked easier than the way Dave and I put in!!!!! After the portage nonsense we got back to business and did a far bit of read and run through the lower gorge which I would say was more along the lines of consistent class IV. The drops in the lower Gorge required more precise boat handling and a much more reliable brace.
I must say this was one hell of a cold day on the Mill River. Well worth the drive and I would recommend this run to anyone looking for a beautiful gorged out class IVish run.
Keep an eye out for pix to follow.....
There really isn't anything I can cay here that I haven't said in the past. The headwaters of the White River that start in the Breadloaf Wilderness on the east side of the Green Mountains may be the best continuous stretch of III+/IV- in the state.
This was Paul, Gerard and Eric's first run on this gem and they all came out the other side grinning. Paul found that a couple of the holes are stickier than they look, Gerard came out of his packraft once, Eric stood his Y on end, and Dave did a good job of showing everyone which holes not to enter sideways. I scared the crap out of myself in my new micro creeker/play boat wierd thing spending a good portion of the run squirting down it on my stern.
Sean lives on the river and knows it better than anyone so it was nice to have him along showing the newbies down the river....also a great resource to tap into to find out when it is running.
A great day on Patterson for sure...Go get some folks - the spring melt is about through!
Happy Easter
After a hair-raising experience on Hancock (with my hair on fire), our group being dealt two substantial beat-downs and a broken boat, something a smidge mellower was of order. Ben was supposed to meet up with some of his old UVM club-mates at the NBW so he and Russ raced off to check the take out for them. I jetted over to Minister to get a look at the old breached dam drop at the bottom of the run and to meet them over there. No one liked the looks of the drop or the hole at the bottom. It's not very often you see a recirculating hole at the bottom of a horsetail spout waterfall; there was one there though. We all loaded up in the cars and boogied over to Martin's to get in a run before the sun set — the biggest and easiest of the tribs to the NBW and definitely the cleanest. After the UVM guys got suited up and were ready to get wet we loaded up and headed up to the put-in off of Macy's Road. We probably didn't put in until 5:45 and it was more or less dusk making the initial gorge pretty dark. The flow was good but definitely dropping so we were lucky to be catching this run at a medium level. Any lower and Russ would have added more than just the one additional crack to his multi-welded Jefe.
Martin's Brook is a pretty mountain stream that gathers the water from Patterson, Martin's and further down, Herrick streams off of the slopes of White Rocks, Hunger, Putnam and a few others in the Hogback range in Middlesex. We put in on Patterson above where Martin's comes in. There are a handful of mild class 3 rapids above a boulder choked Big Branchesque rapid that with more flow pushes class 4+. Today it was a 3+ with broach potential. Below this rapid things pick up to the confluence with Martin's Brook. We all found ourselves in line like ducks with either Russ or myself in the lead. We bombed down through the continuous class 3 action from the confluence of Martin's and Patterson to Shady Rill and one of the bigger drops on the river that you can catch a decent boof off of — this is where Herrick comes in as well boosting the flow some. Once you cross under Shady Rill bridge, you enter the ledge drop section straight away. It has holes and ledges to avoid or crash, and plenty of boof moves to make if you choose. At this point the group was loose and paddling cleanly. Danny, Mike, and Rogan were fresh and making crisp moves. Russ, Ben, and myself were enjoying low stress creeking after the freight train ride we had just been on over at Hancock Brook. From the straightaway you run down to a few vertical drops that require some precise maneuvering to run cleanly and a confident line to avoid excessive bracing. The group of 6 ran this section cleanly, Blue Angel style, except for me; I flopped the last rapid and had to throw a HUGE brace on my left side in the landing pool...no harm, no foul though. From there it is a couple of more class 2+ rapids to the take out at the Shady Rill Park. Everyone was happy to be off the river as we were out of daylight! We all had huge smiles and were pleased with the run to wrap up another epic October 2010 Friday.
Fun stuff...
It took quite awhile for the 2015 rains to arrive, but when they did around the start of June, they did so with vigor and stuck around for awhile. By the afternoon of June 12th the New Haven was headed north of 3000 and Billy was kind enough to get a Ridley visual, finding it too high... and there were at least two more heavy bands of rain waiting to nail most of northern Vermont. We made plans to head north and find something to paddle... maybe Sterling, maybe the Green... but hopefully not getting flash-flooded in the process.
Yes, that’s right, the East Branch of the Pemigewasset. Where all the wealthy, famous and fashionable New England paddlers go. Or at least they should, but didn’t. I got a couple miserable excuses: “Too low” (it was holding around 700), “The Saranac is in” (the Saranac isn’t 10 miles of impeccable class III-IV) and so on. I guess this river, once one of the most trendy and fashionable paddling destinations in the northeast just doesn’t stack up to not paddling at all, even on beautiful late spring days.
Actually, doing this run alone was sort of nice. I didn’t have to work on convincing anyone to do the hike into the upper section (because there was no anyone), and I didn’t have to convince anyone else to hike past the normal upper put-in and go even farther upstream - one of my goals for the day. I ended up going about 2.5 miles past Franconia Brook (or over 5 miles above the roadside put in) before I decided that I needed to leave time to actually paddle. My hiking was rewarded with a couple of the best solid class IV boulder gardens in the whole Pemi watershed. This was a nice surprise, in addition to the miles of great, continuous class III, pristine water quality and wilderness scenery. I also ran into Greg and Sawyer Hanlon, who were in packrafts and a little surprised to see another boater up there.
Most of the run is in great shape, with a lot of the messy cobble piles left by Hurricane Irene mostly eroded away. The floods last fall cut an entirely new channel in one place, leaving a solid quarter-mile of the old riverbed almost completely dry.
Loon Mountain Rapid also changed a ton—it’s unrecognizable compared to the past-Irene version, and is a vast improvement over the shitty, rip-rapped sluice that the ski area left when they replaced the bridge. The new version is a steep, clean drop over and around huge granite boulders well upstream of the bridge. There were two older open boaters here who absolutely crushed the bottom hole in their gigantic boats
On a side note, if you’re in the Whites when things are running, check out the Zealand River—it’s one of the nicest-looking creeks I’ve seen. It probably runs when the Sawyer runs.
Had planned to run the Marshfield section of the Winooski but by the time we arrived it was well below a boatable level, so back south we went to the Hidden Dam....
Put in below the hidden dam and had a great run above the Kubota Dam on what would be a AWESOME big water run. I was getting the feel for my new old skool boat donated by Paul Carlile. Gotta luv the sleek!!!!!
We portaged the Kubota dam through some of the thickest poison ivy I've ever crawled through and caught it...UGH
We ran the Fiddlehead and then headed to work. Not a bad way to start the day....it so makes the drone at the office less painful!
Go get some flow before work kids....
Let's set the stage here....
We just received 5+ inches of rain in the Winooski River Basin and it's tributaries over the last 12 hours. You do one of 3 things - You get to a high point in the landscape, build an Ark or load your creek boat on your vehicle and head to the smallest, steepest runable stretch of brook you have dreamt of running for the last 2 years.
The latter is exactly what happened. The Devil's Washbowl is a never run ribbon of love that streams down from the Northfield Mountains to converge with Cox Brook along Moretown Gap. It has been getting tweezed for the last couple of years and poked and prodded at various levels but never has it seen a full complete descent until October 1st 2010.
The day stared as it usually does when boating is on the agenda...A check of the USGS gauges a drive to Putnamville to see what the NBW is doing and then back to make a few calls starting with Dave. Knowing he was also off of work for the day took the urgency of jumping on it out of the equation. A mellow conversation about possibilities for the day, that he was going to hop in his truck and get a visual...and then I was off the phone and back to breakfast with my kids. About 30 minutes later he called and said everything was huge and it was a Devil's day, get down to Northfield! Scott Gilbert walked away from the NBW and stuff was going off huge. Yup - the online gauges were spiking with no ceiling in sight. I couldn't make it down at the moment though as I was working on my coffee and a bagel sandwich sitting in between a 2 year old and a 4 year old watching Elmo converse with Mr. Noodle...Scott and Dave fired up a partial run at flood stage with out me, walking most of the meat because of the waves and holes.
Once I had my fill of Oscar, Big Bird and the rest of the gang on Sesame, I loaded up my gear and headed down to meet Dave at his house and wait for Russ to get out of class at Norwich. Noon and the three of us are on point ready to get on the river flows still pumping and rain coming down. We get about 1/2 way there and I look in the back of the truck and there is only one paddle, helmet and PDF for two boaters - back to Dave's house to get the rest of his gear...Nice when you only live 5 minutes from the river. As we are headed back up, Sean calls and says he is on his way over. Yes! a 4 man crew...this is good, as it takes the crazy JuJu that seems to hang over the Dave, Russ and Ryan show (I always get hammered in some hole or rapid when I am with those two). We set shuttle at the take out and head up to the draw where the creek flows, don our gear and hike down into the put in.
Dave wants to make sure Sean can find us so he runs back up and waits as I can feel my stomach flopping and all moisture leaving my mouth as I look at the creek. As I turn to Russ to say I want to see some of this on foot, he grins and says it is all boogie with some horizons. Yea - whatever, as I start down the creek knowing I am on a time limit of scouting. We scout down to the confluence with Bean creek (another that is on the shortlist) and get back as Sean is working into his boat at the put in. HERE WE GO!
I am such a pokey bastard and always the last on the water. Probably a bad thing to sweep as I am the weakest paddler in the group, but I do a lot of watching and learning as I see all of them taking their own lines and eddys. About 400 yards into the torrent I am bopping in and out of the action like a dance and really feeling the rhythm. I look up and see Russ and Sean moving out of their boats in an urgent fashion. Dave has pinned in a strainer but is upright and stable. The current is trying to pull him under but quick action and a shallow stream bed allow Russ and Sean to grab Dave and his boat and pull him out of the situation. I had boofed the log and was down stream to pick up any loose pieces. Dave is out safe and already pulling a saw out of his boat to strip the strainer. One less piece of wood to deal with later (Dave and Scott paddled over this at higher flows earlier without knowing - scary). Wood cleaned up we are off on our way to the confluence with Bean Brook and the first major rapid and gorge on the creek. Russ, Dave and Sean are running things in Blue Angles style and I am again alone but want to see the drop...Dancing around trying to see the line Sean pops from behind a rock and says just stay right and over the pillow. OK and I fire it off and it is as smooth as it gets...down in a sweet little gorge with a limbo log to get under - gotta get that one out some other day.
At this point we are all regrouped and feeling good in our boats. Dave has had two partial runs of this creek at this point and Russ one. They boat it as read and run down to the next side creek on the right...MAKE SURE TO EDDY OUT THERE! OK I can follow directions and besides you guys are going to be there - right. We run what feels like another several hundred yards of some of the most rhythmic boating I have ever done and I see Dave out of his boat standing in the eddy smiling from ear to ear ready to snag my bow as I peel into the eddy. He shoulders his boat immediately as I am getting out. Both Sean and Russ leave their boats. I carry mine up to where Dave has his and then walk down a path to see the rapid. It is a right handed turn into a falls dropping you into a beautiful gorge. The move doesn't look hard but more than I want to bite off. Sean is confident in his line and fires it up, getting sucked down upon landing and almost flipping...He cleans it though and is through grinning. Russ was taking speed shots with his camera the entire time. As Russ and Dave are discussing the possibility of following Sean's line, Russ decides to look at his sequence of pictures...He doesn't like what he sees of Sean's run and bags it. Sean nailed the first D of this drop and named it after his daughter Aspen...great name for the drop!
We get in the river below the drop to join Sean and make our way down though more amazing rapids that are now starting to shape up to be fun little boof ledges. All too quickly the action halts as the crew bangs into an eddy and we all scamper up the bank to look at what is around the bend. The Triple Drop....Wow what a pretty drop. There is much deliberation, scouting and an unintentional ghost probe run by Sean's boat - must have slid back into the river and ran the drop cleanly and upright even boofing the ~10ft falls. I have now gotten my boat down to where I am putting in (not running triple) and have scouted the drops below so I know where and what I am doing going on down river. Russ has me set up to take pictures and I am ready with a rope. In all reality Dave has been working this run for a couple of years - he gets the first go at this one. He styles the falls and runs a great line on the slide into the pool where I am at. Russ fires it up next and the Sean. Both Dave and Russ carry back up for a second go and make it look easy again.
Now that we are all back in our boats and working the river eddy to eddy you notice that it is definitely steeper than at the beginning and it is mostly 4ft ledges one after another...total boof fest - except for one that has a rooster tail that looks like a rocket launcher. Again Dave and Russ fire it up as I make the easy boof. Looked like a sweet launch (check the pix). We come to the last ledge and all run it cleanly, eddy out and hike back to the car set for shuttle.
Once at the car we find Russ has left his keys up in my truck at the put-in. Sean and I thumb back up and we are quickly back at the take out. With so much water it is tuff to call it a day but Dave and I have to head back. Russ and Sean are off to bomb a quick Stony run only to find it has already flushed out as we suspect Devil's Washbowl has too behind us. At the bottom of Cox Brook Road in Northfield Falls is the Rustic Inn and not ready to totally call it quits and it being a tradition of mine after paddling in the Northfield vicinity, Dave and I belly up for a couple of pints to recap the day's events and toast the rain gods for serving up such beautiful liquid madness before heading back to our respective abodes.
So the long winded version of the Devil's Washbowl first descent...Get when you can!
Taken from a NPMB post
Got to the NBW about 7:30 to find ten cars, fifteen bleary kayakers, and a river that was patently unrunnable. Some folks headed down for ultra high water Mad runs, and the rest of us drove up to the Green River Reservoir, hoping to find the only river in the state that was "low." With no drainage area and the whole river stopped up by a huge impoundment, the Green River is the perfect option when everything else is out of its banks. It might even still be too low.
We put in just downstream of the culvert, portaging two logjams right out of the gate. Soon, we came to the first drop, which is shaped a bit like the turning boof on the East Branch Pis, but with a far less obvious line. The main flow appears to land on an angled shelf, so the only options are a hard drive left or a turning boof to the right. All of us that ran this drop ran it on the right, off a shallow flake into a shallow pool. Tripp fired it up first with a beautiful line, and we followed with slight variations on a slightly more center route. Alan pitoned really hard off this drop - 15ish feet into three feet of water. Be careful here. There may also be an easier line driving hard left, but you'd have to fight some powerful boils to break back into the main current. The runout of this rapid has a nice boof followed by an undercut chute where you want to stay left.
A few more trees and easy rapids, including a fairly steep river-wide hole. Then a mile-ish of foggy flatwater with turning leaves and heavy rain. A few trees in this section, but it went quickly.
Got out to scout the "teacups" in a large eddy on the right. This is the only drop we didn't run because of wood. The line is a straightforward boof on the left, followed by a boily runout in a mini-gorge. A few more easy rapids brought us to another of the standout drops of the run. This rapid has an easy class II entry followed by a sloping fan 10-12 feet high. There's wood in the entrance that forces you right, and there's a huge pine down in the pool, right where you'd resurface on the boil. I ran a left to right line, boofing into the right eddy above the wood and finishing in a side channel. Tripp, Alan and Mike all attempted the late boof in the center. Mike got violently backendered and swam right into the strainer, where Tripp executed a characteristically speedy and effective rescue.
Downstream, some boatscoutable water, mixed with larger rapids, including a fun steep sequence curving around two corners. A small ledge with an obvious boof flake, and we were at the logging bridge (which is an easy 15 minute hike out or in). Just downstream of the bridge we carried one river-wide log, then got out to scout an interesting drop jam packed with wood. I ran it down the left (I went under one of the logs, but had to pass my paddle over the top), but when the wood is out, the main line will be down the right.
A nice set with a stronger hole than we'd anticipated at the end, then "piton" drop to finish the river. Stay center on this one - more than half of us got too far right and smacked some rocks right good. One more timber portage, and you're out to the bridge.
We parked at the electric transfer station, but this required us to walk out boats along the road for a few hundred yards. If there's a convenient parking lot or pulloff on the Lamoille, it might make sense to continue into the main river and paddle down from there. Be sure to look right and see the junkyard fully underwater if you do this.
Based on my previous walk of the river bed, and some photos of the 288 cfs release, I think that we had slightly less than that, maybe closer to 200. Everything was runnable, but everyone on the river agreed that a little more water would smooth the run out. Especially the first drop, which was essentially a speedy seal-launch with a midair 180. It needs some wood to be cut out (which may not be terribly popular with the fishermen who use this river far more than we do), but this has the potential to be a really prime dam release river. Everything is runnable, and the drops have a good bedrock character, though it is potholed under there. The run took us two hours, with eight people and a fair amount of scouting. If you knew this river and the wood were cut out you could route it in a half hour.
To run the upper Mad (the scheduled trip) we would have needed twice as much water as was flowing in the Mad today. The lower Mad, then, was a good alternative. The level held steady, low but purrrfectly fluid, with temps in the lower 40's and spotty drizzle that didn't spoil the fun at all. Some of the surf waves are especially inviting at this level. We apparently were the missing ingredient that triggered a bug hatch half-way through the run - a sure sign that spring has sprung.
Nobody wanted to test the stickiness of the hole below the horseshoe on river right, but all the runs to the left of the island were clean. At the last rapid around an island we all ran right, but the passage to the left is free of any riverwide obstructions if you want to give that a try.
Most Summers it happens. The Jet Stream puts us in the slot for everything coming east to train over the Green Mtns for some period of time. Reminicent of the summer of 2006, multiple smaller systems pushed thru this last week and rail-roaded northern VT's higher terrain. Rain totals from Waterbury North were impressive. 2-3 day totals near 6 inches in spots with widespread areas getting over 2 inches of rain resulted in some huge levels, but the stability of the jet kept things tight and most of Vermont stayed dryish. "Head North!" my labor-stricken commrads e mailed...and working outdoors this summer, I was rained out for Tuesday. Jamie's teaching gig lets him out to play on summer days. Tanner is visiting from Utah, getting married next week and has been working on the family farm so his schedual is open as well. AJ is just a slacker and bailed in his life obligations to come boat, and I got to show 3 newbies down the Gihon at the perfect level. When I got out to scout the dam, the bank was only a few inches above the water level. A thick green slab bent over the weir boards, but the hole looked manageable. I slid back in to the tepid water and led the three lemmings over the lip blind, for their first dam run, as is Gihon tradition. One capsize with a quick roll found us all grinning in our repective eddies. We rambled down to the boof above Balls to the wall. A well-lube hummock of rock practiaclly auto-boofed all 4 of us with little effort and much joy. The sound of pancake-flat landing boomed above the din of "Balls" just down stream. Feeling the group would follow me off niagra at this point, and for the sake of the rythem of the run, we ran Balls with no scout. AJ showed off his side stoke in the eddy below, and one other checked for trout in the runout but decided to stay with the plan and paddle into the eddy. We ran the next 2 ledges left, avoiding bad wood in the right slot just above the scout for Mustang. The level was really great for this big 5. The first sneak was somewhat fluid, the slide was easy to get to and the hole at the bottom was surging and churning, but pushing thru hard. I decided to give it a go. Tanner is so solid, I knew he was in and with 2 more for a live bait set up above the crux, I was feeling well prepared for this rapid that I haven't run in a coupla few years. It went without consequence...I don't think Tanner got his head wet. After the flat water I showed everyone the line at Bed Head, which had some punch at this level, unfortunately I showed everyone the wrong line. 2 feet too far right. Squirted right after the first boof, into the corner, off the pillow, out via a quick side-surf in the bottom hole put Tanner and I in the bottom eddy. Jamie was not so lucky. A quick beatdown in the top hole, a timely roll just above the second drop, and another out of the bottom hole found him in the eddy. AJ watched all this and carried right, the more difficult line for sure. There is bad wood in the left side of the next rapid which makes this sequence pretty legit. We ran down the rest of the run to Powerhouse at a great level. At Powerhouse, Jamie decided to see why the runout is called "cheese grater" and demonstrated amazing patience while boating inverted and donated some flesh for his efforts. Great run at what I think is the perfect level. At the takeout, everyone who actually has real jobs showed up and as we left, they made haste towrads NBL which was at 2.5. They got poured on during that run and the area got hammered again overnight. Both rivers flooded the next morning, but by the time we got over there at 5, they had dropped to runnable levels. We did a NBL gorge run, scouted the ledges and found them gnarly. Attempting to hook up with Scott who went to Joe's without telling anyone except Gerard left us without shuttle, a theme for VT boaters that night. After hitching the shuttle we got to the lower gihon and it was still on the high side of medium. After the portage of the Bed Head/El Dorado sequence, we ran the rest of the lower in the dark. Even a better level for these rapids then the day before. At the top of the chute for Powerhouse the toung was black as oil and the pillow popped in the light coming out the covered bridge window. Stellar moment I won't soon forget. Reports from Joe's were a medium level, with wood still in the big slide. Most of the boating up there was done in the dark and the short shuttle back to Green Banks Hollow was also done on foot....making for a very late night for the local jonsers. Summer boating rules.....Great runs on great rivers at great levels in great temps with great crews...only 1 swim, and light carnage. Until next time.
DVT
Lots of Rain in isolated locations got a crew of us out and about on the river...
For some it was a virgin go of it on Patterson. We found it at a lowish level but relatively fluid considering. First run was fun and we boogied it out in about 36 minutes (at least that is what my head cam said). Second run we hooked up with a few locals and worked it in about the same time frame. Both Paul and I swam with various resulevels of bodily harm, but still alive and ready to paddle out.
After Patterson a crew of us headed to the Moretown Gorge for a lap. At a fun pushy level those that paddled were treated to the only sunshine of the day. It was nice to get some thermal radiation.
Dave and I not ready to call it quits yet made a race run on the Lower Mad. It was at a fairly meaty level with lots of fun waves and some pushy eddy lines. Horseshoe was munch and Dave tested the squirtability of his Creekboat in the entry hole. All ended well with a good boof of the right side of the lip. Never see his eyes that big though!
A finish through washing machine and the final bits of the bottom gorge and we were out and on our way to a couple of quality DogFishAles...
A good full day on the water!
We met in Richmond at 10 am, on a stunningly beautiful day. After a quick scout of Joe's in West Danville, with Tony and Jamie deciding the level was higher then they were comfortable with, we headed to Franconia, NH.
None of us had done the Gale and we didn't know what to expect. I was feeling particularly proud as I was bringing Tony Shaw to a river he had not run. What are the chances of that? We were pleasantly surprised to find a real gem. The river starts with a pleasant class II boulder-hopping and wave-catching run and gradually builds in difficulty to become an easy class III, similar to the lower New Haven. Beautiful clear water and remote wilderness surroundings enhance the experience. I was able to relax with a quick dip below one of the numerous holes.
The crux of the run is the Gorge section. It is a quarter mile with three distinct drops. The first drop is about a three foot ledge with a rather large river wide hole at the bottom. Jamie ran it first and rolled up about three feet clear of the drop and began a slow creep backwards as the hole sucked him in. A valiant side surf ended with Jamie being bagged out of the hole. A chase for boat and paddle ensued.
I ran down-river and Jamie used my boat to give chase. He made it as far as the third ledge drop. I had stopped Tony to make sure he looked at it before he ran it. It runs into a huge foam pile on river right. (See photo of Chris Weed.) Tony styled it. Jamie was in my Mamba 8.6, an unfamiliar boat not fitted to him. He missed the ferry and ran the four foot drop river left into a frothy mess. Thus began his second swim of the day, albeit in a new boat.
Earlier in the day we had been speculating whether the gorge was really anything to worry about or if it even existed. After the fracas ended Tony pointed upstream and said: "I think that's the gorge."
The boats, Jamie, and my paddle were recovered in an eddy below. We hiked up and gave Chris the scouting report and set safety. Chris styled everything resulting in a great photo from Tony of Chris lost in a foam pile. I borrowed Tony's spare canoe paddle, gave Jamie my kayak paddle, and proceeded down-river in K1/C1 hybrid fashion. I actually really liked it. [I'm not sure "styled" is the term to use in my case; "near death experience" might be more appropriate. Nonetheless, I'll accept the compliment. --CW]
At the takeout, Jamie's inventory revealed lost paddle pogies and a throw rope. Tony realized he had managed to dump his throw rope while emptying his canoe. Despite the unusual amount of lost gear everyone added a new river to their list of favorites. Paddle the Gale if you can; it's a gem.
Navigation, with help from Alden Bird's Let It Rain:
Take I-93 Exit 38 in Franconia, and take an immediate right (north) onto Route 18/116, which runs along the Gale River. Go about a mile and take a left onto Streeter Pond Road (by Coffin Pond). Travel for several miles until you come to a T-intersection. Take a left here (Sherman Road), go 0.5 miles, and park just before the bridge over the Ammonoosuc. The Gale comes in just downstream; a short hike gets you back to your shuttle vehicle. That's the takeout.
To get to the put-in, go back up Streeter Pond Road and watch for Crane Hill Road on your right, where it crosses the river. (That bridge is the gauge bridge.) Follow Crane Hill Road for about 0.75 miles to a point where it is close to the river. Park your vehicle(s) here, gear up, and put on.
Video: See this spring 2012 video on Vimeo, showing the Gale at a slightly lower level than we encountered. The ledge drops in the Gorge look a bit more friendly.
The anticipation grew with every hour of driving...that's a lot when it's 14hours worth.
The van bulging with kayak gear and essentials...like beer, mudslides and wine (we decided it was safer to leave the Vodka at home). No tents, camping gear or food we spent the weekend in Luxury, hotels and restaurants. (Totally out of character for us kayakers). Do you know how good it feels to sleep on a real bed after a hard days kayaking??
7 kayakers set out on weekend that was about to become one the best paddling experiences each of us had ever had....I sit here a week later saddened by the fact I am here writing about it and not still in West Virginia paddling
The last few times the crew has gotten together I have seriously influenced them with my Team America sayings "J.T.F.C" and "B.F.L" but this weekend was different we needed something new...and so I introduced an old favorite "The back of the Hand" said with the chosen hand slightly raised and flat with the back pointing at the person receiving it.
"The back of the hand" would be given to anyone who was cheeky, disobedient, not listening, taking bad lines or hole beatings, bad driving and not drinking enough. So you guessed it, it was used frequently...we even got Lisa a pacifist to raise the hand...yeehaa!!
A plan was hatched. Friday Lower Gauley, Saturday Upper Gualey for Jim & Jon, The rest Lower Gauley. Sun Upper Gauley and the New....perfect.
Saturday Morning. We awoke early to a bag of nerves. My stomach churned my hands were sweating and I hadn't even left the hotel room...where Lisa sat nervously quiet refusing to leave the bed.
To get to the put in wasn't exactly easy...but we opted on recommendation by locals for an easy route. We watched as our boats catapulted at 100 MPH through the trees knocking Jim down in the process and somersaulted on the road below (Jon honest that dent in the end of your new boat wasn't from this, it was already there (sweet smile))...I just hoped my boat would forgive me on the river.
I had read a basic description of the river; I knew the first and major last rapid would be the hardest.
We stood on shore and looked downstream at the first rapid...we couldn't see it, we could see the huge rock that we already knew was DANGEROUS and UNDERCUT (like every other huge rock on the Gauley). We watched as the little duckies and lemmings of kayakers followed one by one into the unknown.
No Matter how much we tried, the hour long shuttle, the huge walk to the put in, taking our time putting our gear on...we could no longer hold off putting on the river. It was TIME.
Only Jim and Jon showed any signs of being relaxed...but then Jim is always relaxed and laid back. I am glad he knew the river and was leading us down, he also was the only one in a creek boat. He didn't need to worry about anything.
We approached the first rapid and I watched how everybody headed right towards the big rock...I didn't fancy any of that side and picked my own route down the center. I caught the eddy at the bottom and realized the crew was on the other side. I thought for a minute, if this was one of the hardest rapids it was going to be a fun day. I joined the line for the play hole and unsuccessfully made two attempts to get in...I gave up embarrassed at my defeat...But I did make up for it on the second play spot.
The rest of the river was made up of a variety of rapids ranging from ledgey slot drops to long rapids full of big wave trains. The odd rapid was made excited by catching eddies on the fly...Okay guys yes I really did mean to catch that eddy below the slot drop...Honest!! or going down the "unusual lines" as discovered later we had taken some unconventional lines down some of the rapids.
Remember this PSH...standing for Pure Screaming Hell...the single most dangerous rapid on the lower Gauley...remember this has you will be tested later...or at least a couple of people were!!
Jim navigated us through this difficult rapid like it was a class 2 (shame I couldn't remember that line the next day).
The paddle ended with lots and lots of flat and a huge disappointment when we discovered we were at the wrong take out and would have to paddle a further mile down stream. At the days we were pleased with our paddle and celebrated in our usual style with copious amounts of alcohol.
Day 2 "bye Jim, Jon hope you have a great day on the upper!!"
The rest of us hit the lower again. No nerves today, we knew what expect, we knew each rapid...so it should have been easy. Well it was for most of us...poor Kendall, poor Kendall.
The first rapid has a beautiful 5 boat play hole at the bottom. The day before I had failed to get in. Today I took one attempt and quickly retreated. The water was lower making it humongously stickier. I watched amazed when Kendall surfed out in to the pit and began to rip it up like a pro....what a cool boater chick she looked. The guys whooped and cheered...until a look of terror came across her face, her cry for "I can't get out". Was met with lots of helpful half laughing hints of "surf to the left"...she just couldn't bring it round...1 minute passes..she still surfing and window shading, 2 minutes pass a hero tries to bump her out flipping them both she loses her paddle...but she is still side surfing hands thrown in the air in disbelief...the hero washes down stream. 3 minutes pass and she window shades for the last time pulling her deck and flushing down stream....You rocked Kendall.
Lisa and I take turns to lead the river. Everything is going perfect, Sun is shining, the water is warm and except for Kendall's one incident (which doesn't count because she was playing) every one was having a great run. Ian and I even opted to run the infamous Cliff drop...a narrow chute that curls and pillows next to another undercut rock forming a huge hole. The kayakers were making it look easy. Catch the eddy on the left, surf back out on the reactionary turning down stream to miss the hole....easy...yep it was that easy. We both cleaned it...except my one little roll at the end.
This day was proving to be better then the first we hoped Jon and Jim were having just as much fun.
PSH test time...do you remember?? Well I didn't and I was leading. I remembered the two holes...but couldn't remember the line from the day before. I decided to run and read. I opted to skim the right side of the top hole use the corner of it to spin me to face upstream which would allow me to use the slack water behind to paddle hard and ferry above PSHH (pure screaming hell hole...which for the record is not only HUGE, but next to an undercut rock" the guide book states here a swim could be fatal) and in to the big eddy on the left. I made it...I didn't think it was difficult. But I watched in horror how quickly things can go wrong and how timing is critical. Kendall was following closely behind, behind her was Rowan. Kendall followed my line but went slightly left taking her straight in to the top hole causing her to immediately violently window shade continuously. Rowan followed; but the change in the hole caused by Kendall in there allowed him to get straight through unscathed. I rummaged through my pockets quickly pulling my whistle out. I blew hard to warn paddlers and rafters to stop...they kept coming and coming. Over the roar apparently they didn't hear me.
Kendall swam and thank the River Gods she made it safely in to the left eddy avoiding the PSHH. After some (lots of) coaching and asking everyone in kayaks to leave the eddy to give us some space. We managed to get her safely down the rest of rapid by PSHH. I felt immensely guilty at the situation. I had many after thoughts I should have done this and that. There was a safer easier left line which would have completely avoided the holes...I should of taken it being the leader...but I saw the hero line and wanted it with no regards for the paddlers following me.
With another hole beating, Kendall had certainly been our offering to the river gods that day. Shaken, but thankfully unhurt, a bootie short and boat minus outfitting. Kendall amazingly put back on the river to finish it...Wow you go girl.
I did get about five "back of the hands" from Kendall for that.
We arrive back at the hotel and we waited patiently for Jim and Jon to tell us their adventures. I was so eager to paddle the upper on Sunday so much that I couldn't bear it if they had a bad day.
Jim walked through the door smiling..."I swam honey and walked" "excuse me rewind say again" It turned out many offerings had been given to the Rivers Gods on the upper gauley.
Jim repeated "I swam on the second rapid, flipped a bunch so decided to get off"
I replied "stop joking Jim, tell the truth"
Jim: "that is the truth, I just wasn't feeling it so walked".
Our jaws dropped, if Jim walked or should I say climbed and dragged himself out, it wasn't good. The plans for the upper were shelved ...or at least till next time.
Jon however despite a few incidents (offerings), managed to tag along with some strangers. Who oblivious to him were two world class play boaters. Who had run the river many times...They took an unawares Jon down all the difficult lines...boofing this boofing that. Poor guy no wonder he was so tired (or is that an ageing thing??)
Festival Night...no beer unless you scrounged it from the stands...but about 8000 paddlers had gathered. I had never seen a festival like it. Any gear you wanted you could get there...we walked out empty handed (they had sold out of the Gauley shirts we wanted) and returned to the hotel looking for more alcohol to numb and ease our aching bodies.
Sunday, the plan was to get up early run the New, then for those who had energy left paddle the lower Gauley again (why was it only me that wanted this and why did I get the back of the hand every time I mentioned it). It was funny how conveniently long it took us to put on the New....was there a conspiracy going on behind my back??
The New was extremely low and the drops were more creeky than the Gauley although much easier. We decided I would run most of the drops first so I could take pictures of everyone else.
At the second drop I cautiously paddled out to where I thought I could see enough of the drop. I had watched the kayakers in front run it hard left, but I saw a clear chute down the centre. I paddled hard, dropped of the ledge through a small hole then to my surprise I was hurtling (sliding) across a flat rock at top speed them plopped elegantly of it. To the surprise of about 20 kayakers in the eddy wondering where the hell I had come from. I quickly reviewed the rapid and decide the left line would be the best for everyone else. I set up camera and snapped away...still to the amazement of the kayakers still staring at me. One asked if I had run this before. I replied "nope this is my first time on the river" he shook his head in disbelief and started laughing "did I usually run things like this?", I laughed back and said " not usually, but today I am the probe"
The New river was beautiful and the perfect last paddle for the weekend (although if had my way we would have done the lower, I am not being resentful at all... "back of the hand" to the rest of the crew for that)
Sunday evening we had the best meal all weekend if you ever down there go to Fayetteville and go to Sonoma grill...fantastic food. Our bellies full our eyes sleepy, we headed back to the hotel...pretty much ready for bed. But that would have been too easy and boring, nope we decided to finish the beers (so we didn't have to carry them back) and read stories...yes it was like children's reading time, each of us taking turns to read stories, ranging from Pig Shit, Raft shit and best of all Paddle shit.
Regardless of the noise, laughter and jumping, sleeping beauty slept through it all...but then she slept pretty much anywhere at anytime.
West Virginia, the place where kayakers can live the dream...yeah right, if only we didn't have to work to pay for the toys and trips.
Ben and I ventured forth to MD and then WV all on our own this fall. We left VT on Thursday evening...I curled up in the back of the Volkswagen, sniffling, coughing, and generally feeling sorry for myself having just come down with a cold and come off three night shifts as Ben cheerily drove forth through the night. After 10 hours of sleeping for me, and 10 hours of driving for Ben we arrived in Friendsville MD. Thankfully the water for the Upper Yough doesn't turn on until 10 AM and takes 2-3 hours to reach the put in for the river, so there was time to catch a few hours sleep for Ben and a few more for me before chugging some Dayquil (me) and some beers (Ben) and putting on the river.
The water for the Yough was a gentle fall level of about 2 feet, and the warm water and 75 day made it hard not to smile. There was a feeling of generalized chaos as what seemed like a million kayakers and commercial as well as private rafts bombed down the tight lines. Aside from the one rapid I ran on my head and getting a little too friendly with the hole at National Falls, it was (thankfully) a fairly uneventful run.
We got off the river late in the afternoon, and started making our way south to Summersville WV. We got pulled into the giddy energy of Gauleyfest as we approached the grounds. There were hundreds of cars with boats on them and hundreds of grubby looking paddling folks of all ages. After a brief chat with Bob Nasdor (who was volunteering with the parking crew) about current affairs in NE boating we made our way into the fest. We connected with a Kayaking buddy of ours from Texas and a couple of his friends (yes, there is apparently WW in Texas, and quite possibly even 6 kayakers who live there).
Saturday was an amazing day on the Upper Gauley. I had never run this section in my own boat, Ben vaguely remembered the lines for some of the rapids, and our small crew of Texans had no idea what was going on. There was a lot of boat scouting, eddy hopping, and hoping. Thankfully there were literally hundreds of other boaters on the river...If you wern't sure of where to go you could sit at the top of the rapid and watch how others fared (or failed) and choose your line from there.
We did opt to scout/watch the carnage/heckle/take a nap at Pillow Rock for an hour or so, and scout Iron Ring. We all survived the Gauley without major incident, and after hiking our boats about a 1/2 mile straight uphill to get to the car at the takeout we made our way back to the festival grounds and the party that awaited.
Ben and I spent 2 hours on Saturday evening volunteering at the back gate, selling bracelets. We discovered a great perk to the "no glass" rule at the fest...you get to drink the beers that you confiscate.
The Texas crew took off Sunday AM to begin their long trek home, and we headed back to the Gauley for more fun. This time, we got to paddle with a UVM student/friend of ours from Georgia as she took her virgin run down, and I got to try out a new to me Pink Karma that I had bought the night before. Although the release level was the same as the previous day, the rapids seemed significantly smaller and more manageable now that we had a better idea of where not to be on the river.
We discovered an amazing Mexican restaurant in Summersville that evening and then made our way back north to Friendsville for Yough round #2.
Monday was significantly less crowded on the Yough...The bright sun finally got overtaken by clouds and rain and I found myself thinking longingly of my drysuit that was in California getting repaired. Ben and I spent a low key day paddling with just the two of us. Ben took advantage of this time to give me some much needed pointers, and I was able to relax enough to play around and hone my skills.
After such a great 4 day weekend, we dragged our feet getting back to Vermont, and finally arrived home on Tuesday AM, feeling accomplished and tired.
Friday we paddled the Lower Ashuelot (NH) class II-IV, What a fantastic warm up to my 2006 paddling season. The river is a decent continuous river, at low level it was running at I don't think it exceeded class 3. The Ashuelot experienced massive flood damage in late 2005. Because of this flood the river is strewn with debris from landslides, buildings and what looks like lots of pool toys.
The river is about 3 miles long and is a great late evening paddle. Although we paddled in our creek boats the river provides plenty of surfing opportunities.
So on to the Main event.(well sort of). Creeking for Geezers (I am a geezer in training). A creek course run by Zoar.
To say the least I was very nervous and scared when I heard on Friday that Bruce was considering putting us on the W.B of the Deerfield (V)..mmmm I think all of us said oh my god we are going to die. Our instructors Bruce and Mo where fantastic. They eased us on to the WB by firstly doing a hardly run section on the upper WB. A nice class II/ III to warm us and practice our basic skills...Nerves were abundant - I think we felt like lemmings being led to our death. The Readsboro falls came all to quickly...This is where the main section starts. Our stomach in our mouths, our knees quaking we began to scout the first drop know as Holey, Holey, Holey - to me and the others it was Holy $%!# Crap. A technical class IV with a not so easy run out. In my mind I knew if I didn't run this..my nerves would continue to get the better of me. I asked if any one else was running it but I was met with the expressions of deers caught in the headlights.
I was one of the last to run it. I paddled slowly down caught the first eddy ferried across to the bank and stared down at the drop with a huge mass of boily white mass below it ready to swallow me up for breakfast and I wasn't sure whether it would spit me out...right about now I was thinking "why oh why do I do this". With a deep breath I paddled towards the drop and plopped down, with a short praise of my self I tackled the next section cheered on by my fellow geezer. We HAD survived. The group's nerves had dissipated and our confidence radiated. Next came a series of IV holey drops, willing to catch any kayaker that even dares to get of line. We all cleaned it again - yeehaa!!
The highlight of the course was being taught to boof...did we master it...of sorts. On this section there is a nice little boof about 6ft high it is perfect for boofing. Bruce had us all run it twice but I think we could have stayed there all day. The river continues on with slightly easier class IV.
We were in are element. Our group had no swims, cleaned most of the lines and we were paddling the infamous W.B of the Deerfield. We didn't run Tunnel Vision...but we weren't disappointed. We had learned a whole host of new skills from Bruce and Mo, but more importantly a lot of us had a much needed confidence boost.
Sunday...wow what a day. We did two rivers the Warner (IV) and the Blackwater (IV).
I have to say these rivers are very similar. They lull you into a false sense of security. One minute your paddling class 3 then before you know it your running class IV. The Warner..was amazing. The sluice drop we had to run is a prime place to lose paddles. Remember to turn your paddle before you enter, otherwise your either lose your paddle or worse dislocate your shoulder. Thankfully only one of our group dropped thier paddled but recovered well for the next drop.
One of the significant rapids is pinball and pinball it is. A perfect creeky rapid. Unfortunately for one of our group they took a nasty swim but it did allow us to practice our rescue skills when we unpinned the sunken kayak.
If you ever run this you must do the final drop it is actually after the take out, but you can paddle back up stream afterwards. We came to a horizon line which is clearly an unused old dam. Ian paddles hard towards it and disappears...oh my god where did he go. Lisa laughed and said " go on it's safe". Yeah where I have heard that before!!
So I paddle hard and as I go over the edge it like being on slide except this slide has a kicker which threw me in to the air (I am smiling now remembering how much fun it was to run this) and made me land with a huge splash.
The next river was the Blackwater. If you put in at where the guidebook suggests expect a total 2 1/2 miles of flat and 1 mile of whitewater. Of course the flat separates the rapids and the whitewater is definitely worth it...the first rapid (bar an easy class III at the start) is about 1 ½ miles down stream after lot of flat!! And it sucks and it feels like it is never going to end. .
The first drop is a cracker. A weird little 6ft drop, slide or hole depending on where you run it. We decided even though it was followed by pool we should set up safety...did we need it noooo. Our confidence was soaring!!
The Blackwater is then followed by some easy class 3 and flat. Then be prepared for a huge tumbling mass of whitewater and rocks this is known as eggbeater (IV). This rapid is a long and very continous with some ledgy drops that have only one line to run. A couple of our group won the humpty dumpty award for this rapid...the guidebook quotes a swim here would result in a long and bumpy one and any swimmer will win the humpty dumpty award. Two swims and two pinned boats...meant it took us a while to finish this rapid. the eggbeater definitely lived up to its reputation. It also marked the end of the river and the end of a fantastic weekend of paddling.
Yea - another NBW report from Ryan....sorry folks, but this one includes a Gihon report, a broken boat, a swim by the author (no comments needed), two NBW virgins and a Gihon Virgin......Sound more interesting now?
Ok - as the texts and emails are buzzing about through cyber space the Friday nigh prior, I was working the Montpelier Ski Swap getting things set up for their big annual sale. Yea - I am a planner and knew that if I worked and helped with set up that night, I could do the presale after set up was over and then wouldn't have to deal with the insanity on Saturday Morning.......and miss out on BOATING!!!! It also meant I had first dibs on boots for my little 7 year old ripper.... Anyways I got home and looked at the message boards and checked emails to find it oddly quiet. Huh - no one interested in getting out for some fall boating???? The next morning I awoke to a phone call that my daughters soccer practice was cancelled because the fields were under water. YEA OH YEA - gotta run the trash to the dump - I'll swing by the gauge and check what the NBW reading says....4 and rising. Time to take matters into my own hands here. I started sending out texts to folks around 7:30. Dave was first to respond and said lets get after it. A little while later I received the boating community woke up and I think I received 15 emails asking what the NBW level was..... Yup - by 10:30 we had a solid crew of boaters at the NBW put in, several of us with multiple runs on the river, a couple with only one run and couldn't remember the lines and two virgins.....this is going to be fun!
Those that don't know the NBW it builds with amplitude from a magical float through riffles and small ledges in a tight valley high up on Route 12 in Elmore and ends with some of the cleanest biggest waterfall drops in succession on any river I can think of - anyone, Bueller, Bueller...... So it can either lull you in to a relaxed state before you start into the meat, or maybe it brakes down some of the nerves you are dealing with at the put in with anticipation for what some folks (definitely not me) over hype as one of the primo runs in VT.
Noah and Andy had never been down this run and Chris hadn't been on it in years so it was really fun to watch them style the early drops as they progression built up. Through Broken Falls and The Squeeze Box before the first real drop, the group was really taking everything in. Clay didn't hesitate to bang out the first drop and be in the pool to film. I snagged the eddy above and pulled Andy and Noah in so they could see the line. Ultimately everyone ran a clean line - Scott tossed the biggest boof off of the flake of the group. Next up Manky Mank - It is just a messy pain in the tukkus when you have to run the first ledge on the right. But there is a really fun boof off the left side of the second ledge. That leads to the right hand bend in the river where folks that are portaging Big Bouncy get out and carry....sometimes. Everyone decided to eddy hop down to the top ledges above the meat of Big Bouncy and then get a look at it. Again, Clay fired up the line right off. Most veryone walked along river right. Chris, myself and Andy were on river left. Chris decided to walk, I was undecided and Andy was confided he was going to fire it up. I knew I'd make a call once I ran the first two ledges and was above the main drop....Yea - I knew the line, was successful the last time and decided to peal out up high and run for the left side of the prow and ride it out...just don't get too rowdy on the lead in boof. Before I knew it I was at the lip and was out and on my down the slide b-i-g and b-o-u-n-c-y. Andy was next and got rowdy on his boof but it worked out well. Through the tunnel and off to flat falls - everyone got their boof and we moved on down to the Wall Slide. Stay left, but not too far left. I think Noah was on the wall. Simone was a smidge to far right but no one went for a hole ride! Next up - Double Drop. Everyone fired it up with varying degrees of style. Ingram made it look like it was his back yard run with a HUJASS boof and clean run out though. Following DD, we came to Cave Falls. We all ran the slide - it is just way too fun and the hole at the base of the falls looked really hunger that morning. The Last Drop....With everyone looking from different positions and at different lines, I was confident on running the river left line down into the deeper portion of the pool. The lead in slide to the vertical falls didn't look lubed up enough for my liking. Down the middle line Clay went first, Scott next, then Simone, finally Dave....OUCH - Dave's feet of fury drove a crushing blow to the hull of his boat as the stern of the Mystic caught the ledge at the base of the falls his hull smacked down on the non-areated water at the base of the falls and his heel Kung-fu'd straight through his hull....BUMMER - but it was funny watching Dave fred-flintstone his way over to shore to drain his boat and try to get back over to the left shore. I knew there was no way I was going to run the middle. Chris and I discussed again the line and off we went. One, Two and we were bobbing in the pool at the base of the Last Drop. Noah was up next and somewhat hesitant on the line...he was going dancing that night down in Saratoga Springs and didn't want to miss that with an injury...BS! get back up there and run it. He FIRED IT UP - being a smidge too far right on the left line results in being catapulted sideways off of the current and into space. It was an awesome boof and he came up smiles. Andy proceded to fire the middle line and clear the ledge. Big hoots all around for the crew. A fantastic run on the NBW in late Fall.
Some of the crew had obligations and needed to get back home. We lost Chris and Scott the Hardwick boys and Noah beaming ear to ear like the cheshire cat was off to Saratoga to get down...
Now where and what do we do... Head north was the suggestion - check the Gihon on our way through to the NBL. If the Gihon looked good but droping then we would run it as it holds water better than the NBL. We got to Johnson and the Gihon was at a great level...The call was made - Gihon it would be. Andy would get his Virgin run on the Gihon as well and the hype was on about the first drop down the face of the Dam. Pshaw - the dam is an amusement park ride - just drop in 3 feet off the left side of the center pier and you are fine. Yea - that is the old location....it is more like 1 foot of the left side of the center pier. Needless to say he watched me get munched on and swim (yea that stinking dam got me again) out of the backwash and self rescue my boat and gear - I had to be the first lemming over the drop and I wasn't wearing a dry suit, only dry pants and a top so I was soaked!!! Everone else ran it cleanly and we were on our way to the first set of ledges above Balls to the Wall. Great succession of drops. The next drop has a couple of lines the left of the top boulder being the regular route. Today there was enough water that the right line where the water piles up along the all and then accelerates you over a ledge seemed like a good idea to me and I was in an eddy set up for that line. I watched Clay and Simone run the regular left line and it looked like a ton of fun so I ferried back left and ran that line instead.........HOLY SHIT it was a good thing...there was a channel wide hemlock spanning the right channel that would have been sure fire disaster for anyone running that line. Luck of the draw I changed my mind and didn't run over there. No one else did either.... After this drop there is a couple of small slides that lead to the beast, MUSTANG. It looked a little messy with some wood in the run in and then the hole in the gorge at the bottom was pulling back up river. We all seal launched in below it and ran down through the flat water to Bed Head. Simone, Clay and Dave ran it with varying lines. We also at this point caught the kids from UVM and Rogan ran Bed Head with a solid boof over the hole on the second drop. Eldorado was next and a much make ferry to catch the right line was a struggle to make at today's flow, but the left line wasn't in the cards for our group so we all pulled to make the right slide and down. Good and clean. Up next was Spinich....all ran different lines and everyone cleaned it even one with a kombat roll in the middle of it. Pin Cushion - new line for me. Instead of far left I ran just left of the rooster tail - Smooth. FInally was Power house. Everyone ran the meat on the left - I went for the boof on the right. Alls good........Sunshine....I still don't know the line here and pitoned the crap out of it at the bottome but was spent so didn't care - hiked back to the car and called it a day......
AWESOME - lots of vertical, one broken boat, two rivers and two boaters had their cherries popped on the NBW and GIhon...
Yea - VT Creeking.
Go get some
Finally we got some rain, and with Central VT getting the bulk of it, Bob and I were looking to expand our horizons and run something down that way. The lower New Haven seemed to be at a low Medium level, and that sounded perfect for a coupla first timers. I traded messages with Ryan and it turns out he turned up at the white church right on time. Bob and I hooked up with he and Matt, set the shuttle rig, so we hit it.
There were river wide strainers just at the corner below the Rt 117 bridge, so we carried just below them out of the back corner of the lot and put on. After snapping a few rolls in the eddy, because it's been a while, we rolled on down stream. It was a fun, bolder filled river that reminded me of the NBL. A little less tech., with some great surf on the fly. Matt was surfing his blunt like it was made for it, and led the rest of the group down thru for most of the run. The rest of us ran it in smaller boats and had no issues.
There was some more wood of note, a tree just below the surface that disguised itself as small ledge or horizon. After Matt bounced over it, the rest of the crew regonized it for what it was and were able to get around the root end on river left, but if the water was lower it might block the entire channel. It is located about half way thru the run, in the left channel of the river where it splits around what I think was the first Island. The right channel was just a trickle, so again, at lower levels this may not seem to be a fork at all.
At the most difficult rapid, a SHORT class III- at this level, bob and matt ran the meat, and ryan and I sneaked a river right line. From there it was II+ continuous to the take out under the next bridge.
Good trip to get my feet wet again, a river worth doing once, and at slightly higher levels worth doing again.
On a side note, we then watched Matt and his partner mac the Ledges. So THAT's what the Blunt is for. Nice boof Matt! I want a creeker!
There was still some snow left in the mountains of Northern Vermont with a blast of rain overnight levels on the Gihon were at a nice medium (3ft on covered bridge). Eric and I started with a full lap on the Gihon. The upper section with nice flows on a sunny day is one of the best sections of Vermont white water. The dam packed a punch at the bottom and the boof above "balls to the wall" was in for all its glory. We met Ben at the takeout and decided to do a quick lower only Gihon before making plans with Billy and heading up to the Trout.
I had walked short sections of the Trout when I was early in my boating career and a group had gone up last year raving about the unique boulder gardens so it had been on my mind for this spring. We put in behind the Belfry restaurant on Jay branch scraping down (1 dash on the bridge gauge). This was surprisingly clear of wood but too low to enjoy very much as we scraped down to the confluence of another tributary (wade brook?) after about a quarter mile. Now we were officially on the Trout and the water level became a comfortable low. Eddy hoping our way through many boulder gardens the walls steepened a bit and horizon lines began to appear. A great wall ride on the right marked the start of the fun stuff! A few drops later we came to a four stage rapid. The first spout was clean but led into a sieved out middle boulder that looked less than favorable. Third drop had a tree in it and the fourth slide was clean with an overhanging wall on the right. Ben ran everything as the rest of us portaged on the left. We paddled more boulder gardens feeling we were close to the end of the run we were on the lookout for the un-runnable waterfall. We scouted on the right and sure enough this thing is as ugly looking as i remember. We portaged on the right and were rewarded with the highlight of the run. Two back to back 10 footers landing in a deep pool. There is some curtain/pin possibility so we set good safety and fired it up, all of us had good lines. We scrambled down some boogie with one or two more fun drops to the takeout at Montgomery Center. Even though the Trout has been paddled many times by prior it felt like such an exploratory run for us. All of us seasoned northeast boaters getting a personal first descent in Vermont was a great feeling.
Billy made his way home while Ben and I decided we were driving by the Gihon anyway might as well do a bomber (full) lap while Eric drove shuttle. The lap was a great cap to an awesome day of Northern VT boating!
Jordan V
Another usual suspect for an afterwork run...
The Gihon holds water better than most creeks in the state, because of the size of its watershed extending all the way up into Belvidere and Eden. It also has a large wetland complex that releases flow slowly. We had plenty of rain lately and a few of us were game to make the drive north.
Having Ingram with us is a treat, because I think he may have close to as many runs as Dave or Scott G on this river. He knows all of the fun cooky little lines and such to have a great go.
Chan was again new to the run and lobbing a newbie off of the first drop, the 35 foot dam face is always a fun. I think he thought it fun too. Of note - the Woodsides, the folks that own the dam are usually less than ok with people running the dam, especially Mrs Woodside. On this day they were sitting at their kitchen table eating dinner and watched us fire up the drop. I actually think I saw Mr. Woodside give us fist-pump!
With more high quality rapids in the upper gorge than I can remember or that have been named, we were all grins. Of the two that are named, Balls to the Wall, is especially fun and its a left to right move to get on the green water tongue. and not fall off into the crack. A few more quality boofs and then Mustang - a great class V drop that is very runable but also sports some really serious consequences. The entire group opted to portage and fire off the seal launch.
Flat water was next for a good stretch to the lower Gihon that has all of its quality rapids named starting with Bed-Head. Everyone ran it cleanly and into Coliseum which went cleanly into Spinach (Carpet Factory) which we all ran cleanly on a suggestion from Chris Ingram to run the initial drop on the left....FUN!
Next drop was Pin Cushion that has a fantastic boof off of the large boil or what looks luke a pin cushion. Then was the Power House. A nice long and fast rapid. Stay out of the notch is the best advice! Sunshine has a great line far left that Chris also showed us and then we bopped on down to the drop in town that is a bunch of fun too...
Beers in the rain at the take out were well earned.... After work runs are the best!
This short, steep section of the Gihon, just upstream of Johnson,was a nice substitute for the scheduled trip. The put-in is off 100c and the take-out just below the collapsed covered bridge. In between are 6 or 7 good sized drops. We had serious trouble only at the 2nd drop and I would recommend that most would want to carry this one. The rest were far more straight forward and a good time was had by all.
After no measurable precipitation in May, we got a nice soaker. It brought the rivers up to medium levels just in time for a club Gihon trip. We put on at the bridge on Whitcomb Island Rd that is still closed from the big flood from a few weeks back. It was the first time on this strech of the Gihon for 5 of the 8 boaters and the Dam loomed large at the end of the flat water. The major high water event has changed the hole at the bottom of the dam making it a more fitting feature for a drop of this size. Now the 35 foot, 70 degree slide ends in a formidable hit at medium levels. Staying forward is much more important if staying upright is at all a concern. From the eddy below I got a great show. One by one I watched faces light up at the horizon, and one by one I watched the lemmings torpedo thru the hole at the bottom with dramatic results. A few capsizes, a couple swims and 7 stern squirts later we were back in formation and moving down towards the sweet boof above Balls. All but 2 gave a quick scout, and this fun, dynamic rapid was fairly kind to the group. We moved down towards the 4th drop where most ran left and left again. There were 2 more swims here but rescue was swift and no gear was lost. Mustang was up next and I was eager to settle the score after getting roped out of the bottom hole last week. This feature also change slightly from the floods and has become more retentive. I hit the hole at the bottom more left and was flushed through swiftly, and upright. No one who got out to look at the hole felt like taking their medicine today and we were back in below the gorge and padling the flats towards BedHead and the Lower Gihon. Bill and I both ran BedHead with the stadard line, far left boof, punching the lower hole dead center. We both ended up in the eddy on the left. We boogied on down to Powerhouse with a few rolls thrown in here and there. A few scouted Powerhouse, and multiple lines were run. Sunset went smoothly and I think everyone was stoked. Good trip.
Dave Packie
An uneasy feeling driving to the river anticipating high water was quickly turned to joy when driving up 100C and seeing the last drop, Sunset. It looked beautiful from the road, a perfect medium level was seen on the flat rock gauge we use looking up powerhouse rapid from the covered bridge. After some good info from local resident boater Jim Andrus, we got to know the names of all the lower rapids and where to avoid trees. Everyone agreed to the idea of snow trudging while scouting and portaging, and we loaded up. The upper proved to be very challenging, the first drop with a six foot boof drop is my favorite drop on the river. The second is a solid 15 - 20 foot total drop with conseqences when hitting the fold, as Dave found out and went over head first. After seeing 3 other sucessfull runs of it I braved it for the first time and it went perfectly, unlike the rest of my day. We all portaged the big one on the upper, Mustang, it could be in a video.
On the lower, 3 tried the first drop, Bedhead, all 3 doing mystery moves and showing up at the bottom upside down. After scouting the second drop myself I tried to show the line, missed it and hit the hole of Eldorado, flipped and proceeded to poorly try to roll, and swam. I got to shore and watched my boat go over the next double drop, luckily it caught the eddy next to the old power house. We all reunited and went down to pin cushion, where Dave found his boat had broken and his day was over. The four of us continued down powerhouse rapid, where Scott C. said that was one of his favorite rapids. The Sunset drop gave me a vertical stern squirt, a fun way to end the day.
The Gihon offers a lot of action in doing both upper and lower. A good time was had by all.
The Gihon at medium level in the summer time is about as fun as it gets. Pool drop character and big fluffy drops at that.
This was a group of newbies to the river and they all showed up to boat. The first drop on the river is probably one of the largest easily run horizon lines to be had in VT. It is a 35+/- dam that you run down into the gorge. With out taking a look at where and what is happening below, it scares the pants off of you when you drop over the wier at the top and onto the face of the dam. 4 of us fired it up and 2 walked (I walked it my first time too and found that it was more of a class 5 portage) The dam drop is more like class III and may be the best entry to a river....EVER!
As we worked our way down through the upper gorge there are 3 or 4 very distinct drops that are a blast with Balls to the Walls being the biggest and MOSTEST FUNNEST! Stick hart right on the wall and let'er rip. All that ran it came out of it up right and smilling. A few more boofs and we were at Mustang. This is a Monster of a rapid and is the highlight of the run. At a full on class 5. No one was feeling it this day so we all either walked or seal launched in just below the last drop. Still fun in the slot gorge.
Flat water for the better part of a mile between the two gorges and then Bed Head came into play. Again looking rather munchy and unfriendly, we all put in below and ran Eldorado with varying degrees of competence. On to Spinich all taking different lines and then down to Pin Cushion that most ran far left and I ran over the boil. All cleanly.
Only Power House and Sunshine were left and all ran then cleanly....
Good day on the Gihon for a bunch of newbies for sure!
Good old Gihon..... Great drops no matter the level.
We broke a welded boat on the first drop - The dam! Taped it up and headed down river. Andrew is a class III boater from North Carolina - that means he is more like a solid clas IV+ boater. He cleaned everything easily and styled the river way the heck better than I did that day. And get this he is an open boater boating in a hardshell right now still making everything looks easy.
We walked Mustang and ran everything else below with style only leaving small shards of plastic on occasion.
For a change we ran down through town to the Studio Center drop and finished out there.
Good warm Gihon lap on a lazy Saturday.....
Scoring a shoulder-season (spring or fall) permit to run the Grand Canyon in the annual January Park Service lottery is a Diamond in the Rough. As well as a Crystal, Emerald, Sapphire, Ruby, Turquoise, etc., etc. A bunch of us tried for years with no luck and then, finally, in February of 2019 a "Congratulations..." email came my way.
No 225+ mile, 2-3 week wilderness float trip ever goes entirely "according to plan". Inviting a group that can be flexible and resilient is the first of many challenges. We were a solid group of boaters/adventurers, considering some of us are pushing 70, and the weather we had could not have been nicer. Jon was a really great late addition to the roster, grinning ear-to-ear with every splash of water! I could say something equally nice about every other person on my trip.
It was sad for sure when Pete and Bridget hiked out from Phantom Ranch on day 8 after breaking a wrist (the 2 youngest paddlers on the roster). Getting off the river on day 18 at Diamond Creek was the original plan in 2019/2020, before our launch date then was scratched due to COVID-19, so I personally wasn't heartbroken when we arranged our day 18 pickup.
Arduous and sublime are my go-to adjectives to describe our trip, and I hope one day you get to experience it yourself.
(I hope that whomever edits the Bow and Stern can leave this out -- I feel a little bad even putting it here, but I wanted to record it, and it feels so good to write it up somewhere "official.")
"Nature's first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold"
- Robert Frost
It was the first hot day of the year. Along the highway the trees were spotted with gold. The hills were becoming green again. North Carolina was everywhere in bloom. With a feeling of excitement that bordered on dizziness, I drove slowly and wonderously through Asheville, a wonderfully new place for me. I felt like Marcel Proust upon reaching Combray. It seemed to me an enchanted city. 40 minutes later, I wound my way down the 36 switchbacks of the take out road as into paradise and walked down the sandy beach to the river at the take out. The water was sparkling green and people were swimming and sunning themselves on the beach.
"The first trip out of the box for the new paddle season is always the toughest. Do I have all my stuff....?"
- Fritz Senftleber
What a way to start off the season! The first creek of 2005 and all I need are shorts and a drytop. As we descended the half mile put in trail through the hot air, I sweated though I had not yet put on a shirt of any kind.
"It was such a lovely sun-drenched day and the water was sparklingly clear and I was in the company of low-key friends...what more could you ask for?"
- Tony Shaw
I had never descended a creek with another c-1er before. But this time I had one of the South's most prolific with me -- one who paddles on the same side (right) as I, and who even has the very same boat that I do! Not to mention his many runs of the Green. Talk about a perfect guide.
The Green is the most fun river I have ever done. I have never run a river that was so clean and had so many good boofs. I have never so wanted to interupt the passage of my life and continue returning to the put in of a river indefinitely. All of the rapids were incredibly clean and distinct and wonderful as real people. The constant image that I saw in the drops was Will's blue C-1 leaping off some boof into the air, bow high above the stern in a wheelie.
The Green was the perfect level of challenge. After all, this was the first creek of the year for me. We both portaged the two hardest rapids, Gorilla and Sunshine, which are both as difficult as Tunnel Vision in Vermont. Will had run Gorilla many times, but chose to walk today. It was by far the most impressive waterfall I have ever seen. I'll be back.
"He was like a man who stands upon a hill above the town he has left, yet does not say 'The town is near,' but turns his eyes upon the distant soaring ranges."
- (Asheville native) Thomas Wolfe
The Green's final waterfall is a scary, ominous constriction - reminding one of Rebirth on the Middlebury Gorge. This waterfall on the Green, dubbed "Hammer Factor," was a fitting last test -- not only of one's balance in a canoe, but also of one's mind. If one can feel the same sense of joy (blind to the fact that he has portaged, and blind to the "distant soaring ranges") that he imagined would be in his heart, when, the year before, he stumbled upstream on the trail in daze of pleasure and first beheld this secret waterfall, then he has done as well as a spring day.
At the end, I paddled the final "bonus rapid" (a rocky, emerald class II rapid) and down to the main beach, instead of using the normal kayaker take out just upstream. I did this because I had so long imagined myself one day descending this rapid and climbing out on the sand like Odysseus. Life occasionally works out exactly as one expected. The Green is magic.
PA to VT Ed VIII........
Jason and Dan rolled in late the night before the spring Green Release. We got off to a late start so missed the crowds form early day on the Green. Sounds like they did a good bit of ice-breaking on the river. We waited for the sun to come out.
The first drop - Moonshine - went with out incident for Jason (Dan and I skipped it), as did the rest of the upper drops. Young Buck was socked in with ice so was closed out for the weekend. Old buck, Humble Pie, Do-si-do, and everything down to Lumber Yard was low in flow, but high in fun. Down to Lumber Yard - there was ice the regular line, so gave the right line a go - holy boat abuse. Jason ran the left, regular line and got hammered and went for a swim. Easy boat recovery and off we went through a couple of s-bends and then the manky little falls. This leads into Runway. The line of choice is down the left and off the lip for a super fun boof. The only problem is there is a massive ice bridge with all of the water going under it on that line. Jason was out in front and was barreling down that line. Like a cat he was out of his boat and clinging to a rock... PURE LUCK or athletic ability! Boat and boy was a-0K. Paddle not so much, so if you see an H2O paddle on the green with a silver bent shaft, give me a shout. We ripped on down to Piton with clean lines and Jason using his break down paddle.
That was just the beginning of the weekend.......
Low Green Release - lots written before of it.
Huge turn out 35-40 boaters, many making multiple laps.
Ibex showed up to do a product shoot. They coordinated with Tom Sterns (land owner) to hike into Humble Pie and cover folks firing off the falls.
Good day on the river
MWL once again put out notice there would be a "one tube" release. Having missed the previous one, I was real keen to get on this one. Unfortunately, it was scheduled for Friday making the eligible particpants a bit more limited then a weekend release. And one tube is a low volume run though definitely passable (well as the story progresses you may decide otherwise for yourself).
I was able to hook up with Tom Cronin who works from home and has some flexibility in his schedule. Our plan was to meet at 10:30. Earlier is often better with MWL as the flow sometimes stops a bit before the scheduled time.
When we arrived at the used car dealer at the Green's confluence with the Lamoille, we found no other cars there. (Tom had checked in to request permission for parking.) A little surprising as there hasn't been much local boating lately, but then again it was a Friday. Off we went to the put in where the day was becoming sunnier and warmer.
The river at the put in was at a pleasant fluid level.Neither Tom or I had run the river much and did not really know the rapids well. And there were reports of wood in various places, so we committed to scouting as necessary.
After the opening boogie water we quickly came to Moonshine. Neither Tom or I had ever run it. But we thought we'd take a look. With the low flow, it seemed it would be relatively easy to get well placed for the 10 ft(?) drop/boof. And that turned out to be the case. I came off the right side of the falls while Tom was a bit more center. He did manage to miss the rock pile just a bit further over to the left. Avoiding the undercut rock at double squeeze was straight up as the flow was not very pushy.
From there to Young Buck there was not a whole lot of excitement due to the water level. All class III drops were pretty straight forward. We didn't scout as the upstream visuals gave us enough comfort regarding any potential wood. We did need to portage in the flat area to avoid two river wide trees and we did scooch (technical term, look it up if you need to) over a few others without incident.
Young Buck now has some impassable wood in it. Well at least at this level. And the main log shifted so a branch is sticking down where one might pass under it. Not that this mattered to Tom or me. It's not like we would run it.
Now Tom hadn't been out white water kayaking since October of last year. His first drop, in close to a year, is Moonshine. When we get to Humble Pie, he asks if we should scout or run it blind. He's never done this rapid either (though he has looked a tit plenty). Given the lower water flow I figured the recirc wouldn't be too bad. So off we go. Both of us had great lines going center left. Tom, it turns out, is a pretty good boater. The next section was a little thin but you you could get through without too much plastic loss. We took a look back at Humble Pie mid way through the next rapid. That is one of the most gorgeous sights on the river, especially when its high 60's and sunny(ish).
When we got to lumber yard we did get out and scout. No wood, but the water was barely coming over the flake rock. I decided to try it and while it wasn't a s*** show, it wasn't pretty. I was surprised when Tom decided to follow. And he aced it. He got over the flake rock with just enough oomph and completed the rapid without issue.
The rest was bump and run. The final rapid before Pition had a tree in the left side line. I almost missed getting over right but was able to with a bit more work then I wanted. I took the hard, hard, hard right side at Piton and had no issue getting into the eddy there. Tom followed but only went hard right, much to his dismay. He found Piton! and broached in it. We got him out, while he stayed in his boat, with a rope pull. As he was still in his boat (though not really upright entirely), I said to stay in it and I would right him.it He said, "Uh, no, the boat's cracked." He wasn't kidding. There was a crack in the nose that ran under the boat for about 1 1/2 feet. The nose was litterally separating from the rest of the boat. Crazy. He amazingly was of good spirits regarding the whole situation. He said, "Well, a fitting end for the boat. And hey, this is the first time I have to walk off a river but have dry hair!".
As you may have concluded, there was no second lap for us.
The PA crew (Mic, Hippie, Brenton & Art) was in town on their annual pilgrimage to The Green Mountain State. This would be the 4th year in a row the core of them has made the trip up to paddle VT's snow melt in the prime of the