The Vermont Paddlers Club

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....