Details

Written by A J Seibel

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 09 May 2012

Hits: 5087

Organizer(s): AJ Seibel, Ryan McCall, Alden Bird

Date: 2012-05-05

Kayakers (K1): Alex, Wade, Bill, John, Paul, Ryan, Justin, AJ

Deck Canoers (C1): Alden, Tony, Sam, Josh

Predominantly: Advanced WW

Water Level: Medium

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Site: Wells River @ Wells River, VT

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Flow (cfs), e.g. '797': 245

This marked the first time the VPC has hosted a clinic specializing in creek boating. The clinic turned out to be a great success, minus one cracked boat. Students learned the basics of steep creeking, advanced stroke concepts, and capped the day with a special treat, courtesy of the O-Face hole!

Rain brought the river up to a fluid 240 or so CFS for the clinic, and Mother Nature graced us with sunshine that got better and better as the day went on. The class began with stroke technique for draw strokes and a few slalom-inspired draw stroke drills courtesy of Alden Bird. Students then ran the first drop, Brett's Mom, with no paddle stroke to get a feel for entry speed and angle on a drop and how to interact with the various currents. Then, we all hiked back up to try it again! The second attempt taught the basics of the "Boof" stroke, and completing the drop with a strong forward stroke at the bottom. Then, we ran it again!! The 3rd time down the drop worked across the current, and had students catching the RL eddy as though it was a "last chance" eddy on a tight creek. Everyone handled these three exercises very well!

Next up was our first run of "The Sweetness". This drop introduced hydraulics, cross currents, and boof ledges. A few folks didn't navigate the cross current very well, and John decided that the drop was so easy to run forwards that he did a rock spin and attempted a back boof. A snappy roll finished off his freestyle approach to class IV!

One of the main topics for the day was about slowing down the river, catching eddies, and having strong entrances to the drops. In "Labyrinth", the class practiced eddy catches and navigated the exit slide to thread between a couple of sticky holes. Shortly after this drop comes "Elevator Shaft" and all students got to practice their boof technique again on a clean 3' drop towards river left. Another run of the same rapid bounced students down a fun slide on RR.

Then came the fun... El Salto Falls. This is a chunky 12' cascade on river right, and we had all students approach it as a slide. Entry angle, loose hips and a neutral body position were emphasized. A few folks were spun sideways while dropping down the cascade, but all rolled up at the bottom. Most folks had better lines than expected, and it was the biggest drop to date for many of the participants. Alden showed us how awesome the river left line can be. Twice.

With everyone upright and smiling, we headed downstream through the boogie and eddied out at the top of "Tantra", the final rapid in this beautiful stretch of river. Tantra has two lines, one RR and one RL. The RR is more straightforward, simply requiring a point and shoot (and some balance) to get down the two-pitched slot. The RL line is more involved, requiring a boof over a seam, and a hard charge to river center or a big hit in the O-Face hole at the bottom. The RR line was, once again, not sporting enough for John and he decided to do yet another rock spin and run that drop backwards as well! Paul blurted some profanities while pitoning on the RR line, and folks who chose to run the RL line did so very smoothly, or with some fun-for-spectators carnage.

This concluded the morning session, and we all headed back to the put-in for a quick lunch.

After lunch we got back on the river to continue exercising the participant's newfound skills - changing the lines on the first drop, and working on turning boofs in the second drop. A fun little boof was introduced in labyrinth, with a RR exit over the "race line" to avoid the hole at the bottom. Everyone styled El Salto again - some ironing out the kinks from their morning attempts of the run. Downstream we went through the boogie towards Tantra, and then the fun began!

For the last run of tantra for the day, everyone chose to run the more difficult RL line. The seam/hole at the top served up a nice helping of roll practice, and the hole at the bottom (the O-Face hole) provided multiple (close to 70% of the class!!) swiftwater rescue training moments. The hole (and eddy that so kindly feeds you back into the hole) can be very sticky - at any level. It was a fine finish to an otherwise perfect day - reminding everyone that creeks can be intense, and the river is not always on your side.

With gear recovered and smiles still on everyone's faces, we concluded the day with a BBQ and some fine Vermont ales.

Personally, I can't wait to be part of the next creeking clinic. Its awesome seeing class III/IV boaters step it up and learning how to work with the river to make class IV fun and manageable. Thanks to all of the participants and instructors, and to all of the photo/video hounds that documented our every move!

Until next time... boof!

Details

Written by Dave Stanley

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 30 April 2012

Hits: 385

Organizer(s): Dave Stanley

Date: 2012-04-28

Kayakers (K1): Dave Stanley, Jim Poulin

Canoers (OC1): Tony Shaw

Predominantly: Int-adv WW

Water Level: Low boatable

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Site: N Troy takeout-Big Falls

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Flow (cfs), e.g. '797': 520

As we had welcome rain Th-Fri and the gauge went up into the 800's, it was nice to see I would have a medium flow for my first trip on the Upper Miss without the Hildreths to guide. We had done it Wed at 400cfs with no sun which always subtracts from the having fun factor. Now to find a few boaters as the Green had a weekend release, more on that later! Tony, Jim and myself met at the Jay General Store at 11 am on 242 near 101/105 and noted at least 30 out of state Porsche enthusiasts spending money helping the economy. It is a 5 minute drive to the Vielleux Covered Bridge where you make a left and go downstream about 1.5 miles to the takeout at Big Falls where the gauge is located, as you exit the river note it is a must make eddy! After the short drive upstream to the takeout 2 miles upstream of the Vielleux covered bridge we put in at the first spot where the road and river come together, the first rapid Raven's Perch is read and run down the middle, there is house overlooking the rapid. You can see from the top of this rapid at 800 cfs the mist rising from the 2nd drop John Little Falls, get to the right for the slide, can be run done the middle at lower levels. John is a teacher at North Country, you may have seen him at a Telly Festival in his retro 80's gear! A short ways and you come to scout worthy Ironing Board, another geologic feature where the river has broken through, over 800 cfs you want to scout from the right side, at the top you will see a brook come in river left coming in from a downstream angle. When you see this rapid over 1500 cfs on the scout looking down into the drop have some TP handy. It is an easy 100 yard Cl 2 approach to get to the right cliff side and down the 15 foot wide Ironing Board chute but it offers lots of exposure for newbies. It was a good level to see the features of both of these rapids without the high water consequences. After a short stretch of flatwater water the next rapid is usually run down the left which ends in a bounce over an irregular pourover. I have been wanting to do CanAm, a route that I've seen Bill do which is a left to right chute that is lined on the upstream side by a 5 foot rock wall in the middle of the river ending at the bottom right of the drop. On my approach from above I ended up grounding out in the low water and had to get out and direct traffic for Jim and Tony. Thanks Tony for not taking any pics of me hauling my boat and body thru the bony approach. Jim aced the move I wanted and Tony did the Turnstile Boof as he exited CanAm halfway down and cut left in a 360 spin move off a boof rock. Both nice moves that I have had my eyes on for a few years, they one upped the guide. After several more drops and flatwater we came to the Vielleux Covered Bridge, off to the west loomed the upper runs of Jay Peak which had a covering of an overnight 6" of snow. There then was about a mile of flatwater before 4 more drops, all of which we boat scouted and had peeked at from the shuttle road just upstream of the takeout. The gauge station on river right is the must takeout. All in all a nice day and thanks to the sun, almost warm. On Sunday I filled Bill in on the trip as we did the Green at 2.4 finding only Dos e Dos pretty wanting for more water to smooth it out. Two good days of boating in a dry spring.

Details

Written by Richard Larsen

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 08 May 2012

Hits: 373

Organizer(s): Richard Larsen

Date: 2012-05-06

Kayakers (K1): Chris Weed, Rich Reynolds

Canoers (OC1): Eric Bishop, Len Carpenter, Richard Larsen

Predominantly: Novice WW

Water Level: Medium low

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Site: East Georgia

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Flow (cfs), e.g. '797': 1400

The trip was scheduled for the Lower Hudson, but there was confusion about Saturday vs Sunday - and little interest in driving to the Hudson - so we moved it to the Lower Lamoille for Sunday May 6. None of the open boaters had been on the river this year, so we all had to find our gear and hope we did not forget anything. We had minor problems - one guy's car rolled down his hill before he was in it, and had to get a tow truck before coming to the river. Another person, who will not be named, managed to show up with his wife's wetsuit, his wife being 8" shorter and 80 pounds lighter. (Was able to get it on to about mid-butt, but there was a lot of neoprene binding in some positions.)

So, the preparation was more exciting than the river. The flow was acceptable for late May, but pretty low for May 6. The temperature was pleasant, and we had a good float down the river - except for the wind gusting upstream. The long flat sections were hard on the open boats, with their higher profiles, and we sometimes found ourselves heading upstream in a gust. We got to the rapids, negotiated them without problems, stopped for lunch, and got to the takeout between the bridges after about 2.5 hours on the river.

Details

Written by Paul Carlile

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 18 April 2012

Hits: 4967

Organizer(s): Paul Carlile

Date: 2012-04-18

Kayakers (K1): Paul C

Canoers (OC1): Tony S

Other Personal Watercraft: Dan S

Predominantly: Int-adv WW

Water Level: Medium

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Site: Essex

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Flow (cfs), e.g. '797': 1500

High temps on Monday had me hoping there might be just enough water for the scheduled Lower Mad Trip this week but the bottom dropped out. Little River was releasing, and a possible option, when Chris Weed suggested Winooski Falls between Burlington and Winooski. Tony and I hadn't paddled there in a number of years and I've been looking for a chance to have Chris show me around his back yard. Based on the signs below Chace Mill [northwest parking lot] on river left threatening death to kayaker (ok fine - no river access especially for kayakers) we decided to put in off the river walk on river right. [Don't worry about those signs by the northwest lot. The property manager who put them up is long gone. – Chris]

It was a beautiful evening for paddling . Tony and I were changed and scouting when Dan showed up around 5:30 - still no Chris. We opted for a far left route sneaking the first ledge almost against the shore and cutting back right to run the main drop. At higher water the first ledge sneak would have been dangerous but at this level there was not the much water going into the mill race. After a clean run we carried up over the rocks toward the right side of the river. Dan was changed and opted for a class II sneak route along the right. As Tony and I were getting ready to go Chris showed up and approved of our route but suggested following the main left flow over both drops. Tony repeated our first line and I followed Chris' suggestions. It was a very clean line, straightforward but definitely exciting. Tony and Dan did a quick carry and ran a bumpy slot left of the horseshoe before we did our third run. On this pass, I ran Chris' line again and Dan followed Tony down our original line. It's short but some very nice water and certainly an easy shuttle and short commute for me. I'll definitely be running this one again soon.