2006 Season Kicks off: Farmington--T'ville

Today, I kicked off the 2006 paddling season. This winter, I went to many pool sessions, trying to perfect my roll and I think that that was a success. My goals for 2006 are:

1. Take the intermediate (class III) course with AMC at the end of June.

2. Take a playboating course (at Zoar most likely).

3. Run The Dryway (class III-IV).

Today's paddle was Tariffville Gorge on the Farmington River in Connecticut. It is a class II-III section with numerous playspots. I met Andy Novick, the leader of the intermediate course at my pool session on Tuesday and he said I should get some class III experience before the course in June. Since it was a class III, I had a pretty good idea going in that my roll would be tested.

I met the group of 5 at the put-in in the small village of Tariffville (an appropriate destination for Tax Day). The river here was very gentle and shallow and paddling upstream was easy. There were some class I rifles just downstream of the put-in, and the action gradually picked up. I caught a few of the little waves for some surfing, which most probably wouldn't consider worth the effort, but is still fun for me. After going over a small class II ledge, we passed the gage and entered the Bridge Abutments rapid.

At this spot, most of the current is squeezed between the right bank and one of the sets of bridge abutments about a quarter of the way out and there's a pretty good gradient. The others explained the line and the mid-rapid eddy we'd catch behind a ledge/rock on the right shore. I didn't think I'd make this eddy, but it wasn't pushy and I stayed close to the right shore, so it was easy to hit. We did a few ferries from and below this eddy where the current spreads out more and there are some rocks in the middle.

Next we approached the first class III rapid (Bridge Abutments is II+), a series of ledges with big holes, including a popular play hole. I ran the extreme left, avoiding all the holes and we pulled into a big eddy on the left. There were a few other people here surfing the play hole. I ate, then took a few rides on it myself. I'd never surfed a hole before, and this was a big one. It was a little hard to get too if you weren't going full steam out of the eddy, but I got into it a few times, flipping each time. I did get one sidesurf one time for several seconds. I rolled each time, although twice I needed multiple attempts to get up. I also carried up above the hole one time and punched it easily, which was very fun.

Below this point, all the rapids are class III, starting with another series of ledges with hydraulics and shallow rocks at their base. We scouted a line on river left (where the current is a tamer) into a pool. From this pool the others moved back to the center, but I decided to take a side chute on the left which looked a little easier and would be kind of cool because it was pretty narrow. At the base of the rapid, we did a few more ferries in the pretty strong current.

Next up was a stretch of flatwater before the most dramatic drop on the run, Broken Dam. The whole river flows through a 25'-wide break in the dam on river left. We scouted this drop as well. I decided on a route to the extreme left, to the left of a roostertail and down a little tongue. I lined up the route perfectly despite the blind drop. Shortly after going through the tongue, I hit a shallow but invisible rock and it knocked me over. I was anxious to roll up because at the end of the turbulence following the dam there is a car-sized undercut rock in the middle of the current. I had to wait a bit to set up the roll, however, as I hit a few rocks under water, including one off the helmet and one that hit my right paddle blade, causing me to let go with my right hand. I recovered, and set up the roll, hitting it and coming up in time to miss hitting the undercut. It felt good to hit an important roll in turbulent water.

After a short pool, the river split around an island. We took the left channel, which contained one more short class II rapid before the takeout.

It was a great trip to start the season with. The class III stuff did not seem terribly difficult, perhaps because of the relatively low water level and I was happy that my rolls were successful thanks to all the pool sessions over the winter.