The Vermont Paddlers Club

It was the end of the 9th annual PA to VT creeking extravaganza.  Jason and Dan were on their way back home to PA so the standard is that I head south and snag a river with them on their way back.  A lot of rivers had dropped out so we figured that the Middlebury Gorge would be a good option with the levels being reasonable. 

We were right and once we got a look at the river we knew it was going to just be one of those amazing runs in an amazing place.  For me it was the first time back in the Gorge since 2009 on an adventure with Packie, Russ Kelly and Marshall Pahl (two of those three don't even paddle anymore).  The Sun was out, the temps were in the 70s and we had the river all to our selves.

We opted for the non-committal route by lowering our boats in below Rebirth and running the lower rapids.  They all went, but at this level we had some route finding to accomplish for clean passage.  With as low as the water was, Tester was the only one that was REALLY hard to run cleanly and all three of us came super close to smashing our faces off of the sloper on river right.  Your Mom was a mess and the lead in had a lot of FU rocks that would jostle your line, but it went as well.  The last rapid was fun and channelized and if you picked the correct channel, you were in like Flynn.

All and all it was a befitting end to the weekend of boating (Flint, Joes, Green and Midd) and the 9th annual PA to VT event.  Jason and Dan headed south and I did my best imatation of Steve McQueen up Route 100 to get back in time to coach the first soccer practice of the spring season...I was 5 minutes late!