The Vermont Paddlers Club

Instructors: Paul Carlile, Chris Weed, Maddie Clark, Jim Poulin, Sue Strang, Eric Bishop (OC)

Students: Lucian Avery, Ben Bookwalter, Hans Brown, Ethan Ely(OC2), Hannah Mangham(OC2), Eloise Girard, Blaine Martin, Selina Rooney, Morganna Stanworth, Lydia Riddell, Chuck Bookwalter

Middle Mad Saturday (315cfs)

Lower Mad Sunday (275cfs)

What a fabulous clinic we had! This was VPCs first novice clinic since COVID and we were very excited to be back at it. The weather forecast heading into the weekend was a little sketchy but turned out to be very nice. Saturday morning we met at Ward swimming hole in Middlesex on the Mad for the flatwater portion. After getting equipment assigned and adjusted, we did our regular routine of wet exits, boat control/balance, paddle strokes and T-rescues. Ward is great place for the morning session as there is plenty of flat water but a little gentle current to introduce eddy turns, peel outs and ferrys. The group was particularly strong with everyone having some paddling experience with flatwater or a bit of moving water. Sue and Eric provided us with lunch where we discussed river running, hazards and shared some other general information.

For the afternoon, we paddled the Middle Mad putting on in Moretown (below the gorge) and taking out at Wards, about 4.5 miles. We had just enough water for that section (315 cfs). We spent a good deal of time at a feature just below the put-in practicing peel-outs and ferrys and then headed on down river. The Middle offers some great water for novices and everyone had a great time practicing their newly learned skills. We even had a very gentle feature that everyone was able to try out surfing. In the lower section, a class I boulder field provided opportunity for everyone to work on river line reading and catching eddys in moving water. Near the end we hit Graduation Rapid (II) our biggest of the day and all had great runs. We made it through the whole afternoon without a single swim!

With such a strong group, we felt that most of our regular options would have been a bit of a let down so we decided that the Lower Mad at 275cfs would be a great choice. This is the second time in my tenure that we've had a strong group and the right water level to do the Lower Mad. We had beautiful day with sun and temps in the mid 70s. Our tandem canoeists had commitments on Sunday and could not join us. We scouted the first rapid before putting on and only had one swim. We then got out and scouted S-Turn/Double Drop. Everyone ran that successfully but a couple of people got caught in the squirrely water at the bottom. We used the flat water section to work on paddle strokes, which helped everyone down the river. We did a bit of surfing at the spot on the right side of the island above Horseshoe. At this level the entrance to the left side of Horseshoe is blocked but there is just enough water going over the lip of the drop. One by one we got the students into their boats in the pool and every single student ran the drop. Smiles were huge! Washing Machine was it's usual rush with one casualty in the run-out boils. We finished the day with a bang with everyone cleaning the last drop!

Tremendous thanks to all of the instructors for all of their hard work and loaned equipment. Special thanks to Sue and Eric for lunch and to Eric for stepping in to instruct canoe. Finally, thanks to our students who brought such positive attitudes and were very helpful moving equipment and helping with the shuttles. I really enjoyed this group and hope to paddle with all of them in the future.