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.

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.

2008 Kayaking Season Recap--Spring

There is no doubt that 2008 has been a banner year in the number of days I have paddled, the progress I've made, the comfort level I've achieved and the responsibilities I have been given on AMC trips.

In late March, I received word that I had been recommended to be a co-leader for AMC trips. After a meeting with other recommendees led by Amy Wong, I was certified to co-lead trips. I have yet to serve as one, however.

The season kicked off on April 12. I was set to meet ChuckS from the message board at the Searsburg Dryway on the Deerfield in Vermont. This dryway has no scheduled releases and only runs during periods of high runoff from snowpack (and New England had tons of snow last winter) or floods. This is a continuous class III run normally, but extremely high flows make it a IV. The water is incredibly clear, and the rocks in the riverbed were easy to spot from the road through the shallow, quick water. On this day, the flow was very high. I later found out it was 2500 cfs, which is 500 cfs more than the level Bruce Lessels says is too high in the guidebook. Not knowing the exact flow and not being sure I wouldn't be upside down in the shallow, continuous, rocky rapids, I opted to pass. ChuckS and his friend(s) ran it and later reported that it was great.

I instead embarked on a photo safari working my way down the Deerfield basin, snapping photos of the West Branch, regular (Monroe Bridge) Dryway, and Fife Brook sections. Some of these photos can be found on the corresponding AW page; and the rest can be found on my photo page.

After the Deerfield tour, I went to the Wave-o-Saurus and got some more photos and videos. I also got some surfs in.

Two weeks later, Paul and Nick Satwicz (see photo above) and I went to the West. Nick is Paul's youngest child, a senior in high school at the moment, I believe. Paul and I ran the upper while Nick did homework in the car and then we all ran the lower. It was Nick's first time in a whitewater kayak on a river and he acquitted himself quite well, even pulling off a roll with limited practice.

The next weekend, I ran the Quaboag for the first time with Randy, Glenn, Dustin, Lauren and others from NPMB. It was a good day and I got a lot of confidence from running the trickier drops. I also got some good videos at Quaboag Drop, the abrupt 4' ledge in the middle of the gorge section.

Here are the videos:


Running the Gorilla Line at Quaboag Drop from Andy Stuart on Vimeo.


Randy sneaking left at Quaboag Drop from Andy Stuart on Vimeo.

Why I'm not worried about Obama losing

The Palin pick has energized enthusiasm for the Republican ticket, pulling McCain ahead in national polls. The first reason this does not worry me is that, in the Boston Globe this week, Democratic political experts were quoted as saying that this uptick is a temporary bounce and it will eventually die down. I assume that this means that once Palin is done being completely controlled in public by campaign handlers, some of the voters she has attracted--mainly independents--will be turned off by her hard-core conservative positions.

But that is not the biggest reason I am still optimistic about Obama. In a nutshell, polls mean nothing. The electoral college means everything. John Kerry won states worth 252 electoral votes in 2004. If Obama carries all these states, he needs to add only 18 more electoral votes to win.

Breaking down the states Kerry won, the following are almost certainly in the Democratic (blue) column (defined as >70% probability of Obama winning as of this morning on Intrade).

California (55 electoral votes)
Oregon (7)
Washington (11)
Minnesota (10)
Wisconsin (10)
Illinois (21)
Pennsylvania (21)
Maryland (10)
Delaware (3)
D.C. (3)
New Jersey (15)
New York (31)
Maine (4)
Massachusetts (12)
Vermont (3)
Rhode Island (4)
Connecticut (7)
Hawaii (4)


Strongly leaning blue (<70%, >65%):

Michigan (17)

Leaning blue (<65%, >60%):

New Hampshire (4)

So Obama should acheive Kerry's 252 as a baseline.

Winning either Ohio (20) or Florida (27), would put Obama over the top. Florida looks like a long shot; this morning the quoted probability of Obama winning was only 36%. Ohio looks like a toss up at 57/43 in McCain's favor.

But Obama does not need Ohio to win, though you can bet the house that he will give it the maximum amount of effort there (Something Kerry neglected to do by not speaking in Cleveland in the days before the election).

The following states can put him over the 270 electoral votes needed without winning Ohio:

Iowa (7 EV's, 74%)
New Mexico (5, 60%)
Colorado (9, 55%)
Nevada (5, 44%)

Given that Ohio and Colorado are tossups, and assuming New Mexico and New Hampshire hold, I like his chances to carry either Ohio (making 284 total electoral votes) or Colorado (273), or both (293). According to Intrade's probabilities and my assumption that NM and NH will hold, the mathematical odds are almost 3:1 that Obama will carry either Colorado or Ohio, or both; and win the election.

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.

Dryway

I got really behind on blogging, but here it goes. On my July trip down Fife Brook, I discovered when I got home and unloaded my car that my paddle had water in the shaft. Luckily, I had only had it for 11 months, so it was still under warranty. It took 2 months to replace it, so in the course of waiting for it I had to borrow other people's paddles. One of the people I called was Vicky, the trip leader from the first T-ville trip in April, who said she would be running the Dryway most of the remaining release weekends. Since the Dryway was one of my goals for the season and I thought it didn't look too bad from the cataraft, I decided to go on Sunday, August 27.

Immediately, I was overcome by trepidation. I didn't lose any sleep, but that Sunday morning I was very edgy. Vicky drove and tried to allay me a bit and did. The run started off very well. I ran Factory Rapid clean, rolled after I scraped a small pourover between Disappointment and Split Hair. At Split Hair, I planned to follow the others, but I did not start the right to left ferry soon enough because the move was so abrupt and I wasn't expecting it. So I ended up running the far right--the hero route. It wasn't that bad really, just a few jutting rocks to push around and some medium sized holes to punch. Actually quite fun.

At Left Turn, a big wave flipped me over, but I quickly rolled on the first attempt and was feeling quite good. I did think it was a little pushy, but I didn't think there was anything I couldn't handle until Dragon's Tooth, which I had been 90% sure I'd portage all along. The next rapid was Dunbar Brook, the longest rapid on the river. Vicky told me to follow her down the classic eddy hopping route. At the first "must make" eddy, I ended up too close to her on the ferry and had to slide downstream a bit so as not to crash but in doing so I missed the eddy. I was then going downstream, facing 45 degrees upstream towards river left going into some big waves. I got flipped over on the first one and couldn't hit any of my roll attempts in the big water. I ended up swimming the rest of the rapid. That was about enough for me. I had to run False Tooth to get to a point where I could carry out easily, but it was just a short, easy class III.

The portage involved a ferry and some class V boat dragging, but it was definitely the right thing to do. Maybe next year I can run this in its entirety.

Fife Brook

I did not get to paddle for three weeks, so I decided it was imperative that I get out, even though all I could do was Fife Brook. Luckily, they were releasing 850 cfs instead of the usual 750, so some of the features were bigger and I didn't run aground in the middle of the river once.

It was a nice group, 6 kayaks and 2 open boats. Tony, from two earlier Fife Brook trips this year was there. We spent entirely too much time at Hangover Helper; sometime, I will run it straight through, catch no eddies and tell the group I'll wait for them at the first playspot. It was not the warmest morning, so I wanted to avoid any flips and therefore did very few ferries. Two of the others showed me how to double pump, which is one way of initiating a cartwheel by slicing your bow under. I could do it a little but it did make me flip. I still wasn't in the mood to do a lot of ferries at Hangover Helper though.

Finally we went down. When we got to the first playspot, we found it to be fairly washed out. It looked like there would actually be more surf in the microeddy used to catch the wave than on the wave itself because a lot of water was going over the rock that forms the microeddy. Looks were deceiving however. I got one decent ride on what was left of the wave and none on the "eddy." We decided to leave pretty quickly.

The rapid above the railroad bridge had noticeably bigger water and there was some play to be had. The big hole right before the bridge was a little more like a wave at this level and also better to surf on. It did not tend to want to spit you right out as much as normal and you could surf on top of the foam pile without going all the way into the hole.

We had lunch under the bridge, and after we left I got some very long rides on the waves just past the bridge. The next section was tolerable with the extra water, deeper and faster, but nothing more than class I-.

When we got to the rock garden, me and another demonstrated some stern squirts for someone else in the group at the first big boulder (known as Squirt Rock). On my second squirt, I flipped and rolled, but had floated past the eddy by the time I got up. I pulled into the first eddy on the side I could find, which was a ways down, and I had to wait there a while for the rest of the group to finish squirting. The rest of the rock garden was fun; I found a few chutes between boulders to go through.

The wave at Miami Beach was bigger than normal, but it was also harder to get to because of the increased flow. The current seemed to speed up in the last boat length before reaching the wave, which caused me to miss it twice. When I finally got onto it, it flipped me after about 5 seconds--a good 5 seconds. I missed two roll attempts before making it.

After Miami Beach, I ran the right channel and the two open boats followed me. It was nice for a change and had some biggish waves despite being shallow.

I decided I wasn't in the mood to run the Gap because I wasn't up for the scary ride that is too short to enjoy. I watched Tony and two others go through. They ran the right-hand side clean, which wasn't as bony as usual because of the extra water.

It was nice to get out after three weekend off and the extra water was definitely a plus despite the first playspot being washed out. I was also very happy to have hit all four of my rolls, an improvement over last time, perhaps helped by some flatwater practice at Squam Lake the previous weekend.