T-ville Part 3

On Wednesday, Paul Satwicz, a neighbor and old-time kayaker, and I went down to T-ville to get some boating in. He had not paddled a whitewater river in 15-20 years, but had paddled a tidal rapid many times in that time.

When we got to the put-in, there were several other people with boats around there. Two of them headed up a path along the river looking for Cathy's Wave. We decided to follow suit.

We were instructed to walk up the path, then ferry over to the other side and keep walking up on another path there. We did that and walked up the other side until we ran into a rock wall on the side of the river. We put in here and were able to paddle upstream a ways to a spot with an artificial wall and a gazebo on the bank. There were a few waves here and it is the location of the beloved and mysterious Cathy's Wave (the level was a bit high, I guess, 4.8').

I flipped a couple of times trying to get to the smallish waves, not rolling until the third or fourth attempt on one of them. We then went down to another spot with some small waves. I didn't catch a ride on a wave at either spot. Paul said I wasn't angling my boat far enough upstream on my ferries. He said I was doing better at the second part, but it was still hard to get held on the small waves.

We then ran the rest of the river down to the main play spot. The bridge abutments were completely underwater except for one, which was forming a nasty roostertail. We ran the far right side, which is the normal route at low water and was really ripping. We then moved back to river left to run the rapid containing the play holes. We had time to try to hit the main play hole twice apiece and neither of us made it because of the rapidly rising and fast water and/or because we chickened out because of the hugeness of the hole.

Paul had a great time and I was happy to get his advice and to run as much of the river as we did. We will paddle together again, perhaps as soon as tomorrow (Sunday).

T-ville Late Afternoon Park and Play

I had the day off Wednesday, so I decided to head down to Connecticut to visit my grandmother and great aunt and stop at T-ville on the way back.

I got to the park and play put in and saw many cars with boats. There were only about 5 kayakers in the water and there were even two people with boogie boards.

The level was just under 4 feet, over double the height (and much more volume) than my trip there on Tax Day. The rapid was barely recognizable. I had a somewhat difficult time figuring out which hole was which. The eddies for accessing the waves and holes were pretty much washed out, which was quite problematic for me. Basically, I couldn't paddle up to where I needed to be to get on the play features; I had to walk up the bank or in shallow water, which was quite painful with my 2mm neoprene socks and the sharp brownstone rocks of T-ville.

My first few rides, I just paddled up what was left of the eddy as far as I could and paddled into the current, missing the waves. The next couple of times, I got out of the boat, waded upstream, and got in from a farther up point. I didn't get to the features this way either, not having ferried out far enough. One of these times I did have a pretty good ride through the waves, just missing getting swallowed by the main play hole. After the hole, I even did an unintentional midriver stern squirt. I got in a few rolls on these rides too.

With my feet hurting, I decided I would go for one more ride. (I also had to get home pretty quickly to meat my friend to go up to New Hampshire and hike on Thursday). This ride failed to reach the hole as well, so I went for one more absolutely final one.

I made the hole, but it endered me instantly and actually held me for a few seconds. I tried to roll twice in the hole, but I was obviously on the wrong side. Then I flushed out and tried to roll a couple more times, but I was still against the current so I didn't make it. I decided to try one more time and then wet exit. I didn't make it: first swim of 2006. I was already into the next rapid when I wet exited. I started to swim over towards the river right side when I saw a kayak on my left catch up to my boat. He said to grab his loop, so I did and got my boat with the other hand. He took me over to the left side (a much shorter walk back than the right side). I got out and secured my boat above water level then climbed out of the gorge. (I didn't want to bring the boat up until I had my shoes on). There was still the matter of my paddle however. My rescuer had considerable distance to go to it on account of having brought me and the boat to shore and I was afraid the paddle would be history. I had visions of it getting stuck in the undercut rock below the broken dam.

I ran back to my car and drove down to the dam. My rescuer had been joined there by two friends. I didn't see any of them with my paddle. But then they told me it was on the beach above the dam. :-) They caught up to it in the large pool above the dam, which I had forgotten existed. I got the paddle and the boat and got home in time to leave again for the hike in New Hampshire at a reasonable time.

Thinking about the swim, I realized it was more of a mental breakdown than a physical one. The "last" roll attempt did not have to be the final one; I got a breath on that attempt, and could have made at least one more. Luckily, the water was so high I didn't make contact with any rocks during the swim and thanks to the other paddlers, I still have all my equipment. (You only own half the paddle now, Artemis).

2006 Season Kicks off: Farmington--T'ville

Today, I kicked off the 2006 paddling season. This winter, I went to many pool sessions, trying to perfect my roll and I think that that was a success. My goals for 2006 are:

1. Take the intermediate (class III) course with AMC at the end of June.

2. Take a playboating course (at Zoar most likely).

3. Run The Dryway (class III-IV).

Today's paddle was Tariffville Gorge on the Farmington River in Connecticut. It is a class II-III section with numerous playspots. I met Andy Novick, the leader of the intermediate course at my pool session on Tuesday and he said I should get some class III experience before the course in June. Since it was a class III, I had a pretty good idea going in that my roll would be tested.

I met the group of 5 at the put-in in the small village of Tariffville (an appropriate destination for Tax Day). The river here was very gentle and shallow and paddling upstream was easy. There were some class I rifles just downstream of the put-in, and the action gradually picked up. I caught a few of the little waves for some surfing, which most probably wouldn't consider worth the effort, but is still fun for me. After going over a small class II ledge, we passed the gage and entered the Bridge Abutments rapid.

At this spot, most of the current is squeezed between the right bank and one of the sets of bridge abutments about a quarter of the way out and there's a pretty good gradient. The others explained the line and the mid-rapid eddy we'd catch behind a ledge/rock on the right shore. I didn't think I'd make this eddy, but it wasn't pushy and I stayed close to the right shore, so it was easy to hit. We did a few ferries from and below this eddy where the current spreads out more and there are some rocks in the middle.

Next we approached the first class III rapid (Bridge Abutments is II+), a series of ledges with big holes, including a popular play hole. I ran the extreme left, avoiding all the holes and we pulled into a big eddy on the left. There were a few other people here surfing the play hole. I ate, then took a few rides on it myself. I'd never surfed a hole before, and this was a big one. It was a little hard to get too if you weren't going full steam out of the eddy, but I got into it a few times, flipping each time. I did get one sidesurf one time for several seconds. I rolled each time, although twice I needed multiple attempts to get up. I also carried up above the hole one time and punched it easily, which was very fun.

Below this point, all the rapids are class III, starting with another series of ledges with hydraulics and shallow rocks at their base. We scouted a line on river left (where the current is a tamer) into a pool. From this pool the others moved back to the center, but I decided to take a side chute on the left which looked a little easier and would be kind of cool because it was pretty narrow. At the base of the rapid, we did a few more ferries in the pretty strong current.

Next up was a stretch of flatwater before the most dramatic drop on the run, Broken Dam. The whole river flows through a 25'-wide break in the dam on river left. We scouted this drop as well. I decided on a route to the extreme left, to the left of a roostertail and down a little tongue. I lined up the route perfectly despite the blind drop. Shortly after going through the tongue, I hit a shallow but invisible rock and it knocked me over. I was anxious to roll up because at the end of the turbulence following the dam there is a car-sized undercut rock in the middle of the current. I had to wait a bit to set up the roll, however, as I hit a few rocks under water, including one off the helmet and one that hit my right paddle blade, causing me to let go with my right hand. I recovered, and set up the roll, hitting it and coming up in time to miss hitting the undercut. It felt good to hit an important roll in turbulent water.

After a short pool, the river split around an island. We took the left channel, which contained one more short class II rapid before the takeout.

It was a great trip to start the season with. The class III stuff did not seem terribly difficult, perhaps because of the relatively low water level and I was happy that my rolls were successful thanks to all the pool sessions over the winter.