4/12/2013
9/08/2011
The New Decoration Rock
As a result of the floods from Hurricane Irene, a number of rapids have changed in Western New England. Here is a look at Decoration Rock Rapid on the West Branch Farmington River in New Boston, MA. You can click on the pictures for a closer view.
Here is the main drop, which used to be a 3-5 foot vertical drop, but is now just a huge tongue:
Another angle:
The most difficult part of the rapid now may be this huge wave train above the former drop (tough to get a good picture here because of leaves, but this is at least a 6' haystack trough to tip with another big one behind the tree on the left side of the photo):
Below the "drop", is this river-wide V:
And then about 100 yards downstream, a nasty-looking hole on river left:
There has been some question as to whether the gauge is accurate post-flood. I went straight to it after taking these pictures and it read 7.5'.
Here is the main drop, which used to be a 3-5 foot vertical drop, but is now just a huge tongue:
Another angle:
The most difficult part of the rapid now may be this huge wave train above the former drop (tough to get a good picture here because of leaves, but this is at least a 6' haystack trough to tip with another big one behind the tree on the left side of the photo):
Below the "drop", is this river-wide V:
And then about 100 yards downstream, a nasty-looking hole on river left:
There has been some question as to whether the gauge is accurate post-flood. I went straight to it after taking these pictures and it read 7.5'.
10/29/2008
Palin 2012
Ask not what John McCain can do for your country; ask what you can do for John McCain.
What can one do for John McCain in the next six days?
To use poker terminology, ship it all-in.
What do I mean by that? I certainly don't recommend putting all your "chips" on McCain on Intrade. In fact, I would recommend doing the exact opposite if you're the gambling type.* What I mean is that as many McCain supporters as possible need to put as much money and, possibly more importantly, time towards his campaign as possible the next six days.
The odds don't look good. Polls don't matter to me. The map is all that matters. The official, final national poll doesn't even mean anything (just ask Al Gore). I'm not an actuary or a statistician, but I did get a 4.0 in Discrete Probability and tutor it (before I took it in college, lol).
Intrade's map shows an expected 346.6 electoral votes for Obama. Assuming the probability distribution is normal, or more centered than a normal distribution, McCain has a 1/74 chance of winning. To put that in perspective, making an inside straight on the last card in 5-card stud is a 1/12 shot. Make it a straight flush, and it's still 1/48. The odds of McCain winning the election at this point are the same as the Vikings winning the Super Bowl or Golden State winning the NBA championship next June.
*As much as Intrade may like people to think that it sells securities, it is really nothing more than a betting exchange. So when I say do the opposite of betting on McCain, I don't mean to bet on Obama. I mean to bet against McCain: "lay" McCain (to win) by selling him short.
What can one do for John McCain in the next six days?
To use poker terminology, ship it all-in.
What do I mean by that? I certainly don't recommend putting all your "chips" on McCain on Intrade. In fact, I would recommend doing the exact opposite if you're the gambling type.* What I mean is that as many McCain supporters as possible need to put as much money and, possibly more importantly, time towards his campaign as possible the next six days.
The odds don't look good. Polls don't matter to me. The map is all that matters. The official, final national poll doesn't even mean anything (just ask Al Gore). I'm not an actuary or a statistician, but I did get a 4.0 in Discrete Probability and tutor it (before I took it in college, lol).
Intrade's map shows an expected 346.6 electoral votes for Obama. Assuming the probability distribution is normal, or more centered than a normal distribution, McCain has a 1/74 chance of winning. To put that in perspective, making an inside straight on the last card in 5-card stud is a 1/12 shot. Make it a straight flush, and it's still 1/48. The odds of McCain winning the election at this point are the same as the Vikings winning the Super Bowl or Golden State winning the NBA championship next June.
*As much as Intrade may like people to think that it sells securities, it is really nothing more than a betting exchange. So when I say do the opposite of betting on McCain, I don't mean to bet on Obama. I mean to bet against McCain: "lay" McCain (to win) by selling him short.
9/28/2008
Final West Fest
Yesterday, I headed up to the West River for the final fall release and West Fest. The Army Corps of Engineers has cut the fall release for 2009, rescheduled the spring 2009 release to a time before Jamaica State Park is open. This cancellation and rescheduling follow a decades-long paddling of reduced releases. There were once two full weekends of releases in both the spring and fall. To help out with the release situation, go here, join American Whitewater here or donate to AW here if you're already a member.
I have had the West Fest circled on my calendar since, well, the first time I ran the West, so 2008 was no different. Since this year's fall release was the last one and because the fall release has always been the best one thanks to the shuttle/not-carrying-over-the-dam thing, there were no mitigating circumstances short of a death in the family or a debilitating injury that would keep me away from Jamaica, VT. I also wanted to demo some creek boats as Glenn recommended two weeks ago at the Quaboag. Lastly, I wanted to boof the Boof Rock for the first time and a catch a wave in the Dumplings that I'd never caught.
Glenn and I met at 8:30 at the put in. We headed up for the first run and met up with Tony Karis, who I've been on many AMC trips with; and who Glenn took a Zoar course with when they were both starting out. I took my usual LL CR 125 for the first run. I had an unexpected 4 combat rolls, all on the first attempt. At the Boof Rock, I rolled off the pillow towards river left. Hence, there was no boof to be had. I eddied out behind the rock and just went on down.
Between the first and second runs, Glenn looked for people in hope of running Ball Mountain Brook, but he later determined that no one was running it because he saw the people who would have been going down while we were shuttling up.
I demoed a LL Jefe Chico creek boat. I did not like this boat at all. It is built to roll off waves and did that quite well. Unfortunately, this feature makes it impossible for me to imagine staying on a critical line while creaking, since it wants to bounce/roll where ever it wants. The one plus was that it punched holes very well. This positive feature turned negative when I went into a hole I never would have gone near in my CR on purpose to test the Remix's resurfacing ability. Suffice to say that I now know that a helmet that covers the ears is a necessity.
After a lunch break during which Glenn and I lost track of each other, I got back on the shuttle with the CR. Ed Vassar was on it as well and I decided to run it with him and a friend of his. I nailed the Boof Rock this time, aiming right to avoid rolling off the pillow as on the first run. Pretty soon, I ran into Glenn at the eddy with the squirrelly lines on river right and parted with Ed and friend.
We rushed down to the takeout, having reconvened at 3:30, so that we could make the final shuttle at 4 with enough time for Glenn to unload his creek boat because it "needed to get wet", and for me to get another demo creeker. This time the demo boat was a LL Remix 57.
Glenn and I were the only ones on the final shuttle, save for an open boater who was riding it to hike back up to his car at the top of the dam. The shuttle guys called us hard core, prompting Glenn to quip that we weren't hard core until we made our next run hiking boats down the dam.
The Remix was much better in terms of staying on a line and I felt that I could move it around well, allaying my concern about having a creek boat that will only go straight. Glenn said that if I liked the Remix, I might like the Bliss Stick Mini Mystic even better. Their offerings are also considerably cheaper than LL's.
What I will miss most about the West is the fact that I always run into people there who I've run rivers with before. Perhaps the Deerfield River Fest will fill this role, but it is not the same. Plus, it's better to see or have a chance to run into old companions twice a year than once a year.
I have had the West Fest circled on my calendar since, well, the first time I ran the West, so 2008 was no different. Since this year's fall release was the last one and because the fall release has always been the best one thanks to the shuttle/not-carrying-over-the-dam thing, there were no mitigating circumstances short of a death in the family or a debilitating injury that would keep me away from Jamaica, VT. I also wanted to demo some creek boats as Glenn recommended two weeks ago at the Quaboag. Lastly, I wanted to boof the Boof Rock for the first time and a catch a wave in the Dumplings that I'd never caught.
Glenn and I met at 8:30 at the put in. We headed up for the first run and met up with Tony Karis, who I've been on many AMC trips with; and who Glenn took a Zoar course with when they were both starting out. I took my usual LL CR 125 for the first run. I had an unexpected 4 combat rolls, all on the first attempt. At the Boof Rock, I rolled off the pillow towards river left. Hence, there was no boof to be had. I eddied out behind the rock and just went on down.
Between the first and second runs, Glenn looked for people in hope of running Ball Mountain Brook, but he later determined that no one was running it because he saw the people who would have been going down while we were shuttling up.
I demoed a LL Jefe Chico creek boat. I did not like this boat at all. It is built to roll off waves and did that quite well. Unfortunately, this feature makes it impossible for me to imagine staying on a critical line while creaking, since it wants to bounce/roll where ever it wants. The one plus was that it punched holes very well. This positive feature turned negative when I went into a hole I never would have gone near in my CR on purpose to test the Remix's resurfacing ability. Suffice to say that I now know that a helmet that covers the ears is a necessity.
After a lunch break during which Glenn and I lost track of each other, I got back on the shuttle with the CR. Ed Vassar was on it as well and I decided to run it with him and a friend of his. I nailed the Boof Rock this time, aiming right to avoid rolling off the pillow as on the first run. Pretty soon, I ran into Glenn at the eddy with the squirrelly lines on river right and parted with Ed and friend.
We rushed down to the takeout, having reconvened at 3:30, so that we could make the final shuttle at 4 with enough time for Glenn to unload his creek boat because it "needed to get wet", and for me to get another demo creeker. This time the demo boat was a LL Remix 57.
Glenn and I were the only ones on the final shuttle, save for an open boater who was riding it to hike back up to his car at the top of the dam. The shuttle guys called us hard core, prompting Glenn to quip that we weren't hard core until we made our next run hiking boats down the dam.
The Remix was much better in terms of staying on a line and I felt that I could move it around well, allaying my concern about having a creek boat that will only go straight. Glenn said that if I liked the Remix, I might like the Bliss Stick Mini Mystic even better. Their offerings are also considerably cheaper than LL's.
What I will miss most about the West is the fact that I always run into people there who I've run rivers with before. Perhaps the Deerfield River Fest will fill this role, but it is not the same. Plus, it's better to see or have a chance to run into old companions twice a year than once a year.
9/14/2008
Quaboag 9-14-08
Today's run of the Quaboag was a good one. Plenty of people showed up at the put in, a mostly open boat contingent from New England River Runners and people from NPMB who I came to meet with, including Glenn and Randy.
The run was a fun time and I felt completely comfortable in all the rapids. It was at 4.7 on the gauge as opposed to 4.5 when I ran it in the spring. This translates to an increase from 500 to 630 cfs.
I took some videos during the run, but they weren't very good. Here they are:
Gorilla Line, Quaboag Drop from Andy Stuart on Vimeo.
Randy blasts through from Andy Stuart on Vimeo.
Glenn runs the broken dam
Glenn Runs the broken dam. Some unintended camera setting made the water look purple.
"Gorilla Line" at Quaboag Drop
Running the "Gorilla Line" at Quaboag Drop.
The run was a fun time and I felt completely comfortable in all the rapids. It was at 4.7 on the gauge as opposed to 4.5 when I ran it in the spring. This translates to an increase from 500 to 630 cfs.
I took some videos during the run, but they weren't very good. Here they are:
Gorilla Line, Quaboag Drop from Andy Stuart on Vimeo.
Randy blasts through from Andy Stuart on Vimeo.
Glenn runs the broken dam
Glenn Runs the broken dam. Some unintended camera setting made the water look purple.
"Gorilla Line" at Quaboag Drop
Running the "Gorilla Line" at Quaboag Drop.
9/13/2008
Double Dipping on the Deerfield
Today I ran the Dryway and Fife Brook back-to-back.
It proved to be a very tiring day, mostly because after I put in on Fife, I sprinted to catch up with the AMC group, led by Kimo Lindon, that I was safety boating for.
But the details on the Dryway run first.
Without Casey holding my hand, I had to pick my own lines. I also promised the ad hoc messageboard group that I did not have to stop to scout Dragon's Tooth. The result: six combat rolls compared with one in July. One of these rolls was in the runout of the Tooth, which was quickly followed by another flip and voluntary, non-combat swim in the pool between the Tooth and Labyrinth.
There is something to be said for these swims where I know the river well enough to know that I can make it to shore without swimming any rapids. There is more to be said however, for the fact that a roll takes less time to get to air than pulling the skirt, pushing out and resurfacing does. Furthermore, rolling spares the others the difficulty of bumping my boat to shore and the lengthy boat emptying process.
Labyrinth ended midway through the rapid this day, so I did not have a chance to redeem myself on the drop where I had a similar swim in July.
Because of the staggered release schedule (10 AM Dryway; noon Fife), I was able to do the double dip and catch up to the AMC group, whom I wasn't scheduled to safety boat for until the next day. But I decided to surprise them and caught up with them just as they were leaving the railroad bridge after lunch. (I quickly ate mine during a stop farther down.)
It was a pretty uneventful trip, with no rescues. Because of the legal issues involved and the fact that I hadn't signed the AMC release form, Kimo and I agreed that I was not a part of his group; I was just "following" them. (Maybe I shouldn't post that on the internet?)
When we got to the Gap, one of the people on Kimo's trip agreed to film me going through the Gap. Here it is:
9-13-08 Gap Run from Andy Stuart on Vimeo.
Pretty lousy place to start the ferry, as the intended destination, the river right eddy, doesn't even enter the picture. I had to contend with the extra flow (1000 or 1200, I'm not sure, but a lot higher than the usual 750) and the trashy eddy line, which was further complicated by the extra flow coming off the river left ledge. (BTW, there is a sieve between the rock that forms this ledge and the one slightly farther upstream and center that marks the river left side of the main tongue at the top. If you are running the easy and popular boof line on river left, be sure to stay very close to the left shore to avoid this potential trouble spot.) Going over the two rocks was not a new experience for me; I had done it earlier in the summer too thanks to the high flows of most of the season. It does make for a more interesting video to see me going over the two rocks.
I ran into Ed Vassar at the Gap, who was there running the Gap continuously. He said he was planning to run the Quaboag the next day. Although I was signed up to safety boat for Kimo, I couldn't resist the chance to run the Quaboag. When I missed meeting up with Kimo's group for dinner, I left word that I was headed home instead of camping and headed for the Quaboag the next morning from home.
It proved to be a very tiring day, mostly because after I put in on Fife, I sprinted to catch up with the AMC group, led by Kimo Lindon, that I was safety boating for.
But the details on the Dryway run first.
Without Casey holding my hand, I had to pick my own lines. I also promised the ad hoc messageboard group that I did not have to stop to scout Dragon's Tooth. The result: six combat rolls compared with one in July. One of these rolls was in the runout of the Tooth, which was quickly followed by another flip and voluntary, non-combat swim in the pool between the Tooth and Labyrinth.
There is something to be said for these swims where I know the river well enough to know that I can make it to shore without swimming any rapids. There is more to be said however, for the fact that a roll takes less time to get to air than pulling the skirt, pushing out and resurfacing does. Furthermore, rolling spares the others the difficulty of bumping my boat to shore and the lengthy boat emptying process.
Labyrinth ended midway through the rapid this day, so I did not have a chance to redeem myself on the drop where I had a similar swim in July.
Because of the staggered release schedule (10 AM Dryway; noon Fife), I was able to do the double dip and catch up to the AMC group, whom I wasn't scheduled to safety boat for until the next day. But I decided to surprise them and caught up with them just as they were leaving the railroad bridge after lunch. (I quickly ate mine during a stop farther down.)
It was a pretty uneventful trip, with no rescues. Because of the legal issues involved and the fact that I hadn't signed the AMC release form, Kimo and I agreed that I was not a part of his group; I was just "following" them. (Maybe I shouldn't post that on the internet?)
When we got to the Gap, one of the people on Kimo's trip agreed to film me going through the Gap. Here it is:
9-13-08 Gap Run from Andy Stuart on Vimeo.
Pretty lousy place to start the ferry, as the intended destination, the river right eddy, doesn't even enter the picture. I had to contend with the extra flow (1000 or 1200, I'm not sure, but a lot higher than the usual 750) and the trashy eddy line, which was further complicated by the extra flow coming off the river left ledge. (BTW, there is a sieve between the rock that forms this ledge and the one slightly farther upstream and center that marks the river left side of the main tongue at the top. If you are running the easy and popular boof line on river left, be sure to stay very close to the left shore to avoid this potential trouble spot.) Going over the two rocks was not a new experience for me; I had done it earlier in the summer too thanks to the high flows of most of the season. It does make for a more interesting video to see me going over the two rocks.
I ran into Ed Vassar at the Gap, who was there running the Gap continuously. He said he was planning to run the Quaboag the next day. Although I was signed up to safety boat for Kimo, I couldn't resist the chance to run the Quaboag. When I missed meeting up with Kimo's group for dinner, I left word that I was headed home instead of camping and headed for the Quaboag the next morning from home.
9/12/2008
2008 Season Recap--Summer
My first Fife Brook trip of the season was May 10, which I am calling summer because it was warm and we were on a "summer" run. Nicole Vassar led the trip with multiple co-leaders, not including myself. It was a good run. I did some practice combat rolls successfully to get in the swing of things and build confidence. (I guess "practice combat roll" is a bit of an oxymoron.) I choose a difficult line for the Gap, eddying out left at the top and attempting to ferry to the river right eddy. I made the ferry, but missed the eddy and quickly did a 180 to run the right line. The right line is much trickier than the straight-shot boof line on the left and eddying out left and then running left is also easier than the right side. I think the right side is more fun because of the dance you have to do around rocks and holes. You can also catch a few eddies mid-drop from the right line.
We also had a great barbecue after the run with hot dogs, chicken sandwiches and ketchup taste tests.
The next highlight was a trip on the Dead the last weekend of June. I rode up to The Forks with Charlie Sweet, an open boater. This trip is an annual openboat trip at more open-boat-friendly release levels of 1800 (sat) and 1300 (sun). (This makes no sense to me; shouldn't the low level be on day 1 as a warm up?)
Maine had a ton of snow last winter. It was the snowiest winter in 126 years in places, I heard. When this snowpack melted, rainfall came, keeping water high for a long time. I saw pictures linked to a post on NPMB of people running the Kennebec at 12,800, with water coming down the spillway. For our trip, the release was a little higher than usual because the dam operator at Flagstaff Lake did not subtract out the flow of Spencer Stream in calculating the release level. As a result, the flow was more like 2050 cfs. I felt much better in the genuine class III rapids than in 2007 and hit a roll in the middle of Upper Poplar, which was the only flip of the day.
On July 13, I ran the Dryway at 1000, with help from Paddle Head, aka Casey, who showed me the easiest lines. I did a roll in a flushy eddy after rear-ending a rock. I did not flip again until the last drop of Labyrinth. I would have liked to have been further left, where the main flow is, but flipped and rolled Piscataquog style (360), proving that you can have too much hip snap. I washed through the waves/holes at the bottom, tried another roll and then decided to swim because I knew I was in the flat water. It was a good run altogether.
The first weekend of August, Paul Satwicz and I ran Fife Brook together. We were planning to run the Dryway, but we couldn't find any companions probably because the downriver race that day kept many away and I wasn't comfortable leading him down it myself having only run it once myself. It was a good time. At the Gap, Paul did not follow me as directed. The result was that when I eddied out at the bottom, I could still see Paul sitting in an eddy above it. I knew what was coming, as he ran the middle, flipping and rolling up at the bottom. After this, he said he was glad we hadn't done the Dryway, although in my opinion, there isn't a single rapid on the Dryway where the line is less discernible than the Gap.
I didn't paddle any more until the weekend after Labor Day. I was scheduled to go on the annual overnight trip to the Magalloway, but the trip was reduced to a day on the Lower Millers because we didn't want to experience Tropical Storm Hannah in tents. The Lower Millers was great. The rapids are much bigger than they look from route 2, solid class III the whole way. It was a beautiful day too and I finally got the last of the endorsements I need for a class III rating from the AMC, which was a long time coming.
We walked the Funnel, which made Dragon's Tooth look tame at this level (4.8). I thought that there was a possible sneak route on river left, but with our group of four, there was no way anybody was running it that day.
We also had a great barbecue after the run with hot dogs, chicken sandwiches and ketchup taste tests.
The next highlight was a trip on the Dead the last weekend of June. I rode up to The Forks with Charlie Sweet, an open boater. This trip is an annual openboat trip at more open-boat-friendly release levels of 1800 (sat) and 1300 (sun). (This makes no sense to me; shouldn't the low level be on day 1 as a warm up?)
Maine had a ton of snow last winter. It was the snowiest winter in 126 years in places, I heard. When this snowpack melted, rainfall came, keeping water high for a long time. I saw pictures linked to a post on NPMB of people running the Kennebec at 12,800, with water coming down the spillway. For our trip, the release was a little higher than usual because the dam operator at Flagstaff Lake did not subtract out the flow of Spencer Stream in calculating the release level. As a result, the flow was more like 2050 cfs. I felt much better in the genuine class III rapids than in 2007 and hit a roll in the middle of Upper Poplar, which was the only flip of the day.
On July 13, I ran the Dryway at 1000, with help from Paddle Head, aka Casey, who showed me the easiest lines. I did a roll in a flushy eddy after rear-ending a rock. I did not flip again until the last drop of Labyrinth. I would have liked to have been further left, where the main flow is, but flipped and rolled Piscataquog style (360), proving that you can have too much hip snap. I washed through the waves/holes at the bottom, tried another roll and then decided to swim because I knew I was in the flat water. It was a good run altogether.
The first weekend of August, Paul Satwicz and I ran Fife Brook together. We were planning to run the Dryway, but we couldn't find any companions probably because the downriver race that day kept many away and I wasn't comfortable leading him down it myself having only run it once myself. It was a good time. At the Gap, Paul did not follow me as directed. The result was that when I eddied out at the bottom, I could still see Paul sitting in an eddy above it. I knew what was coming, as he ran the middle, flipping and rolling up at the bottom. After this, he said he was glad we hadn't done the Dryway, although in my opinion, there isn't a single rapid on the Dryway where the line is less discernible than the Gap.
I didn't paddle any more until the weekend after Labor Day. I was scheduled to go on the annual overnight trip to the Magalloway, but the trip was reduced to a day on the Lower Millers because we didn't want to experience Tropical Storm Hannah in tents. The Lower Millers was great. The rapids are much bigger than they look from route 2, solid class III the whole way. It was a beautiful day too and I finally got the last of the endorsements I need for a class III rating from the AMC, which was a long time coming.
We walked the Funnel, which made Dragon's Tooth look tame at this level (4.8). I thought that there was a possible sneak route on river left, but with our group of four, there was no way anybody was running it that day.
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