Fife Brook and a Dryway Preview

This past weekend, I went out to the Deerfield for two days of paddling, Saturday on Fife Brook with an AMC trip and Sunday on the Dryway on a cataraft with Patrick from the Northeast Paddlers' Message Board.

It was pouring for the drive out on Saturday morning, further complicated by the fact that from Acton to Leominster Route 2 has tire-width depressions that fill with water where you want your wheels to be forcing you to drive towards the middle or outside of your lane.

It was still soggy at the meeting place, where the nine kayakers and no open boaters got together, but by the time we put in the rain had stopped. Andy Novick, the intermediate course instructor which I found out on Friday that I had been accepted into, was part of the group. There were a few other familiar faces, including Rick from the Middleboro pool sessions (who is also in the intermediate course) and Doug from the beginner class.

We spent a lot of time at Hangover Helper as Andy instructed Doug and some others on ferries and got used to the playboat he was demoing. I got a couple rolls in after some stern squirts. Despite the rain, it wasn't too cold, so I wasn't unhappy about going under here, unlike last time.

We finally moved down the river after Shahan, Kathy, a co-leader for this trip and I attempted to get everyone to follow us downstream.

At the next playspot, I got a few good rides on the wave, and had more success after I started aiming for the rock that forms the tiny midriver eddy that accesses the wave instead of the eddy itself. We also had lunch here as it was already 1 pm.

At the top of Freight Train, I caught the wave that Tony and I had missed last time on the fly (the only way to get to it) but it flipped me over pretty quickly. I rolled, but I was down the river at that point and couldn't get back to it.

At the railroad bridge, I tried to surf some more in the big hole there, finally getting flipped over by it but it spit me right out just like the other times. I did a few more stern squirts, practiced some ferries and tried to talk people into going off the ropeswing under the bridge in their boats to no avail.

I caught the surfing waves just below the railroad bridge, which I thought would be the last action until the rock garden. However, the water was so high with all the rain that it was not boring at all and there were some waves.

In the rock garden, I got way ahead of the group as usual. Kathy and I were ahead of the group for most of the trip because we both tend to paddle in the pools when others just drift. (There should be more people like us). Shortly into the rock garden, I tried to do a stern squirt from a midriver eddy and flipped, washing into the current. I rolled and went down a ways and had to wait a long time for the group in an eddy because they had all pulled into an eddy between where I had flipped and where I ended up stopping to remove some layers because the sun had come out.

In the remainder of the rock garden, it was apparent that the water was high because some of the rocks were covered and there was one place right at the end where a really nice wave had formed. There were midriver eddies on both sides, but it looked like it might be a little hard to catch because it was near the top of the eddies and the current was strong. I was able to get onto it though, but quickly flushed out after trying to carve and then flipped, which I was not happy about because I did not think I should have flipped upon resuming my ferry.

I got a few surfs shortly below at Miami Beach, but again flushed out when I tried to carve. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or if the waves were too angular and/or didn't have enough of a backwash to hold me there. The one I carved on the Sacandaga was actually more of a hole.

After the rapid below the island, it was on through the shallow part above the Gap, which was still really bony and got me hung up on rocks a couple times. A few people, including me, decided to run the Gap. I was supposed to follow Rick and we were going to run the tongue at the top, pull into the river left eddy and then go down the left side. I ended up going ahead of Rick and flipped over trying to pull into the highly aerated and swirly eddy. I missed a roll, and went through all three holes upside down in my boat, denting my helmet in the third one. I missed another two roll attempts at the bottom, but did get breaths (which is why I missed) before finally hitting one way below the drop in the rock garden below it. I was not pleased with this Gap run.

It was still a good day though, even though I have emphasized some areas I thought could have gone better. I thought my ferries were very good, particularly the one where I got to the wave at the bottom of the rock garden and the ones at Miami Beach.

On Sunday, I took a look at the whole Dryway with Patrick on his old cataraft, aka, floating strainer. It didn't look too bad. The main areas of concern for me in terms of running it in my kayak are the river wide hole at the bottom of Split Hair and the numerous pourovers in Labyrinth. Dragon's Tooth, which is the biggest rapid on the Dryway, didn't look too bad. The line is straight forward, and there are only two real moves to make, the first of which looks easy. There also appears to be a wider margin for error in terms of where exactly you must be there than there is in the Gap.

Patrick and I got done pretty quickly and after lamenting to him about my Gap run on Sunday, he suggested that I demo a creek boat and run it. I thought that was a good idea, so I went down to the Gap and got a Dagger Nomad. I paddled it between the bridge and the picnic area to get used to it a bit. I could roll it easily but noticed that it didn't turn as well as my Vision. I waited for the people from my group on Sunday to come down so I could run it with them, but the AMC beginners' class got down first, so I ran it with Artemis and Adrian. This time, I took the left side all the way, boofing into the eddy that flipped me instead of turning into it. I ran the left side clean, despite crashing into Adrian after I peeled out. (He didn't flip either). It felt great to finally run the Gap clean, even though it was with an easier boat for doing so. Maybe the boof line will make it easier to run it in my boat as well.