Details

Written by Ryan McCall

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 06 May 2014

Hits: 5830

Organizer(s): Ryan

Date: 2014-05-03

Kayakers (K1): Ryan m, Mike M, Paul D

Predominantly: Advanced WW

Water Level: Low boatable

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Site: Brooksville

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Flow (cfs), e.g. '797': 350

Yes...that would be referring to me. I have been behind the curve for about 3 years now for the New Haven Ledges. Infact so far behind the curve that this past Saturday was the first run I've had on the Ledges since Irene has had it's way with the run.

That said - it was a beautiful day and it was either a low water run there or back to the Mad. I need me some Ledges and figured it would be fun to check it out with an old pro/local (Mainer) and Paul Dawson. Paul and I set shuttle and looked at a couple of rapids and by the time we had gotten down Mike had snuck up to the put in and got a speed run down through.

We had two relatively uneventful runs and mostly ran cleanly through. the low water messed with Mike's beater boat some more and Paul pinned in the entry to Playpen, but mostly it was a benign afternoon on the river and we had it all to ourselves. Oh yea - and I seem to have forgotten how to roll in the pool below Toaster - DOH!

I really need to spend more time on that run. I sure spend enough time in April looking at it and sending folks down it at the New Haven Race... Time to change the paradigm and get out there more myself!

I'll be back more often and more fluid levels.

ALSO - at low levels be careful in the run out of Oh By The Way. There is a nasty piece of wood in there that if you went deep could be a hazard.

Details

Written by Ryan McCall

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 06 May 2014

Hits: 125

Organizer(s): Mike M.

Date: 2014-05-04

Kayakers (K1): Ryan M, Clay M, Mike M

Predominantly: Advanced WW

Water Level: Low boatable

Painted Gauge Height (ft) e.g. '3.3': 3

Whoa!

There have been nebulous reports that there was some high quality whitewater in them there hills of the North Country. Since we were already almost at the Canadian boarder for the Missisquoi release and everything north of Rt 15 got pummeled with copious amounts of rain Saturday night we thought....what the heck, lets check it out - its only another 30 minutes to the east and we are all the way up here! So Mike Clay and myself headed east toward Montgomery with visions of beautiful sculpted schist and giant boulder gardens. Our beta of the run came from a few folks that had run it years ago and some obscure photos that Dave Packie took while getting in a solo low water summer run. The photos made it look magical and fun with one terrifying (probably unrunable) waterfall.

So to the put in we went up off of Amidon Road (those of you that ski Jay....think The Belfry). It looked low passable and there was a painted gauge on the bridge abutment that was splashing at 3 when we started and was at a solid 3 when we ended. Again level was low fluid boatable. The first section was shallow cobble/boulder garden stuff. Relatively low gradient but busy enough to be ok. Once Wade Brook came in on the left (Wade drains Hazen Notch on the north side), the flow picked up as did the gradient. The boulders got bigger and the horizon lines did as well. We noticed that the river bed was showing some more signs of bedrock grade control rapids too! Fun high quality stuff that required your attention but didn't elevate to PUCKER FACTOR on the pucker factor meter. We were able to boat around or thru a few of the wood snags, but one was a jumblely mess and we hopped out. Mike and Clay river right and I was on river left. Just below this stick pile the river woke up and showed it's true colors - we were dubbing it QUAD Drop. there were four distinct drops in this rapid that required a little bit of all your creeking skils - a right handed boof into a pool with a quick eddy out, then a jet ferry into a slot that you needed to drive up and into, then another eddy before you caught a tongue on to a flake to clear a seam and then a brace left down a small slide to pick your poison of going left and into another seam/hole thing that jammed you into an undercut boulder (undercut - this is a common theme on this river) or you went right and paddled under a massive boulder - almost like going into a cave. Mike and clay went left I took the opportunity to paddle through and under the cave at the bottom. At higher levels it would be terrifying on river right and maybe even terminal. Below this we could see mist blasting up....had to be the big unrunable. We were caution not to get sucked into the lead in and hopped our way down to it with a couple of other quality rapids. You portage the big one on river right and then carry down to one of the better drops in VT. IT is a double drop of two 10 footers back to back. We all looked at it long and hard but decided that it was late in the day and weren't feeling all that studly at the moment (gotta get back there to give it a go though). Below this there were several cool bedrock drops to the take out - but the middle section above the big falls was top notch and worth the drive up there!

Like I said it is a long haul up there but if you are up in the area and the water is up - you really need to check out this beauty of a brook...I know Mike Clay and I will be back in there....

Details

Written by Ryan McCall

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 06 May 2014

Hits: 248

Organizer(s): Ryan McCall

Date: 2014-05-04

Kayakers (K1): Ryan M, Mike M. Clay M, Nick G, Daphnee T, Will S, Taylor K

Predominantly: Advanced WW

Water Level: Medium

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Site: Sheldon Springs Dam

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Height (ft), e.g. '2.96': 223

We had 7 boaters and a pro photographer show up. I got munched in one hole on my first run and then had a very clean run on my second run. The guys I was with did a speed lap so I could grab some lunch and then we all headed out of there for some steep creeking. The north country got slaughtered Saturday night in to Sunday and the rivers were on the rise (even the Missisquoi was rapidly rising while we were on it....the amount of Cow Poo in the water was astonishing.

I think we have established a base flow for a fun and SAFE run - 1000cfs in the channel. Much lower would be very dangerous from what we could tell after looking at this channel carefully before any water was released and the lines that you would need to boat at a low level. That said - at 1000 it is a fun and quality run, but at the higher levels 2000 and higher the run really is a special and unique run to VT and maybe anywhere in New England other than some of the bigger stuff in Maine. We should talk about how to work in all of the different flow levels and it seems pretty easy for Scott to manipulate that right at the dam or even remotely for that matter...

Scott and Ralph were super accommodating and Scott stuck around and made sure we were all set. Also we learned a little about how much CFS is spilling over the flash boards and through the flapper gate. Their flash boards are set at (I believe) 222 so we were trying to get the level stabilized at 222.7 (487 cfs) and 1/2 of a flapper at 440cfs and then they have a small turbine in the dam that spills 70 cfs. Our first run we started at ~1000 cfs and it felt pretty good but was coming up at close to 50 cfs every 15 minutes.

Here are shots from the Day - http://www.kayakingphotos.com/

AND A HUGE THANKS TO THE GUYS AT ENEL!!!!! Things are shaping up nicely

Details

Written by Ryan McCall

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 06 May 2014

Hits: 8261

Organizer(s): Mainer

Date: 2014-05-06

Kayakers (K1): Mike M, Clay M, Scott G, Ryan M

Predominantly: Advanced WW

Water Level: Medium low

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Site: Ranch Brook - Stowe

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Flow (cfs), e.g. '797': 160

If anyone looks back at the Message Board for May 6, you can see it was silly busy and a Mainer was the instigator. We all wanted to get on the river though and boat. All the flow was north of the I-89 corridor, but Mike had a hunch that Ridley would be running with his correlation to Ranch Brook in Stowe. He was right!

We all arrived at the take out by 5:15 and suited up. Those guys had all been down this river multiple times pre and post Irene. I had only seen pictures and driven up Camel's Hump Road a few times to hike or ski up there. Never really seen any water in the river bed. There was today and I could feel my sphincter starting to tighten...never mind my stomach up in my throat! The guys (Mike, Clay and Scott) were pretty cavalier about the run and were joking around at the put in. Scot, Clay and I put in a little up river from Mike and worked our way down into the first succession of drops. Very quickly I found that this was the type of boating I luv. Tight steep and shallow, My trusty Huka was built for this stuff and I'm an ELF (cracking myself up right now). Anyways, once on the river the guys did a good job of giving me beta on the rapids and drops without over doing it. We all were running clean lines and working our way down to Bathtub. I eyed it and carried down to the bottom and set safety and took video. Mike styled it, Scott hopped in and did the same and then Clay smoothed the lines out after seeing the other guys.... All three of them cleaned the Bathtub and made me second guess my decision to walk it. Maybe next time.

From the Tub we worked down to Backyard and Video. Mike and Scott ran Backyard and then took out above the crux. It was pretty messy and may have had wood??? We all put into the gorge and ran it. OH MY GOODNESS. What an amazing piece of whitewater! That is one unreal stretch of beautiful river! After the gorge was a couple more rapids and then out.

Now that is how you end a Monday. I can now tolerate work with that run in my back pocket on a Monday Evening!

For the record - Boating with these three guys is a pleasure... They are talented and gracious with lesser boaters on the river. If you haven't had the pleasure to boat with Scott Clay or Mike... Do so, you'll be a better boater for it.