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.

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.

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.