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.

Kayaking Update 2006-2007

The remainder of the 2006 season did not produce any particular highlights. After the bad Dryway experience I ran the West in the Fall with Paul Satwicz, a lifelong neighbor, family friend and member of the same church. He stopped boating ~1982 when he started having kids, minus the occasional trip to Cohasset. He made his first roll in 20 years on the West and it was a good time despite the rain. I ran the New Boston gorge in mid-October at the minimal release level. I rolled five times and my helmet acquired dents each time. After the fifth--a particularly hard hit--I decided enough was enough and took out. I did run Bear Trap later in the day, which was a great time. (And no dents). My last run of 2006 was the Green River, starting in Vermont and finishing in Massachusetts near Greenfield. The water was too low to justify its class III rating, but the scenery in this remote valley is unbelievable. I'd highly recommend it just for the scenery, especially in the Fall.

2007 was not as active as 2006. There were some lowlights, particularly when I had to abort my 2400 cfs Dead run at the gravel pit due to two swims and at least one roll. There were, of course, a few Fife Brook runs and I ran the Gap clean every time but one and did not take the easy line once. The highlight was the fall West release where I felt really good and began to consider running the Dryway again.

At the West, I also traded in my Vision 44 for a larger boat (at a profit!) because I felt that the Vision was making harder water too difficult for me. The new boat is a used liquidlogic CR 125, which is 7" longer and much beefier than the Vision and still theoretically able to perform playboating maneuvers, which the Vision was built for (not that I could do any of them).

The last run of the 2007 season was my first run of the Lower Ash in the southwest corner of New Hampshire. Now, the west-flowing tributaries of the Connecticut River between the confluence of the West in Brattleboro, VT and the MA/CT border, namely the Ashuelot, Millers and Quaboag, do not exactly have the best reputations regarding water quality. I found the Ash to be quite opaque and dark and it just didn't feel right on your skin (I know this because I rolled once; no swims). The good news is it did not smell. As far as the whitewater was concerned, there were plenty of good rapids. It was running at a medium level, so there were no class IV's, but some very nice III's. It was a great way to cure my now yearly November syndrome, which characterized by a burning desire to get one more run in before there is ice in the rivers.

Intermediate Course Day 2--Dead @ 1300 cfs

I had a difficult time falling asleep on Friday night on account of some snoring in one of the neighboring tents, so the first thing I did Saturday morning was drive up to Webb's General Store to buy some Red Bull. After two and a nap on the commercial shuttle, I was ready for 17 miles of wilderness paddling on the Dead River at the low, technical release of 1300 cfs.

The first rapid was not technical at all. The river narrowed to about 75 feet, with a rock wall on river right. A short drop led into a wave train and there were eddies on both sides--a perfect place for more ferrying practice. We did a lot of ferries and there was a bit of a jet ferry wave too. I flipped a few times and swam twice, hopefully because the Red Bulls hadn't kicked in yet and I was still tired.

We finally headed on down through a fairly quiet, but moving section. We went through a couple of easy class II's before pulling off for lunch. At lunch, we were reminded that the rapids would get progressively harder the rest of the way down, starting soon.

Elephant Rock was the first of the major rapids. There was a choice of running the middle, where there were a bunch of waves or "the slot" a narrow chute on river right between the shore and a big pourover. I was going to run the slot, but I decided the big waves would be too fun to pass up. When I eddied out behind the pourover, and watched the others go through the slot, I regretted my decision. It looked like a really fun chute with good gradient and no major consequences.

Pretty soon we approached Mile-Long Rapid, which seemed much shorter than it was. There were lots of waves, rocks, pourovers and holes. I was able to get around most of the things that needed to be avoided by catching eddies and looking for hazards. At one point, I flipped over right before a big rock though. I rolled up quick and saw the rock right in front of my face, so I grabbed it before I hit it and pulled myself up and pushed around it. I got partially stuck on two rocks a short while later but again was able to push myself free with my hands.

We eddied out on river left before the final series of significant rapids, Upper and Lower Poplar Hill Falls. I have no idea why it's called a falls; it's just a steep rapid, but nothing close to a waterfall. Andy told us we were on our own for finding a route down, meaning we wouldn't have to follow him if we didn't want to. It looked really steep, so I decided to follow him, but I missed an eddy he caught right away, so I was on my own. I moved from river left to river right to run a fairly big ledge. What looked to me like a soft spot in the ledge was actually about a ten inch drop onto a flat rock with very little water going over it. I ran this spot and ended up stopped on this rock, which was very surprising and strange. How do you stop in the middle of a rapid without catching an eddy? I waved to the others going passed me and laughed. I wiggled off the rock and went on down. Lower Poplar was awesome, with fast water, big waves and holes, and rocks and pourovers to eddy out behind. Andy caught up to me at the bottom and said he liked the way I had run the whole thing.

This was the end of the significant whitewater. The rest of the way was class I, maybe II- in a couple spots. I wanted to relax, and give my crunched feet a chance to be free, so I pulled my skirt and put my knees above the cockpit. I knew that without a skirt, I was committed to swimming if I flipped, but I did not think I would since the water was so easy. What I failed to take into account was the amount of water that would get into the boat. Eventually, enough water got in that the bow was really diving and the whole boat was getting spun and pulled under whenever I hit one of the small waves. After a bunch of close calls, I finally flipped over and swam. I was content to swim all the way to the takeout, which was in sight about half a mile down, but I was convinced it would be safer to go to shore and get back in the boat. I tediously got it emptied on the rocks, got back in and paddled to the takeout with Sohan, who had nicely waited for me.

So, after 8 hours on the river, the course was over. (There were far too many rapids for me to remember and describe, so I have only included the major ones here). Sohan and I were the only ones not staying over, so we made a quick getaway so as not to get home too late. We left the campground at 9:10 and got home about 1:45, which was pretty good.

I became a much better ferryer and scouter as a result of this course. I feel I can run harder rapids now by finding easier routes. The last few rapids on the Dead were really great and it is my favorite river so far.