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'.