- Details
- Written by Christopher Weed
- Category: Trip Reports
- Hits: 92
- Organizer(s): Tony Shaw / Chris Weed
- Date: 2017-04-11
- Kayakers (K1): Chris Weed, Jamie Dolan, Paul Carlile, Noel Bailey
- Canoers (OC1): Tony Shaw, Steve Melamed
- Other Personal Watercraft: Eric Bishop
- Predominantly: Int-adv WW
- Water Level: Medium high
- Estimated Flow (cfs), e.g. '600': 700
- Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Site: MAD RIVER NEAR MORETOWN, VT
- Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Flow (cfs), e.g. '797': 2300
- Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Height (ft), e.g. '2.96': 5.74
- Primary Realtime USGS Gauge URL: https://waterdata.usgs.gov/vt/nwis/uv/?site_no=04288000&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060
On April 6, one of us (Chris Weed) had been browsing the Mad River Valley on Google Maps, and noticed a stream that comes down along North Fayston Road, called Shepard Brook. In an email exchange that day it was discovered that Jim Fecteau had run it many years ago. When Jim was included, he replied with one sentence: "Yes, boulder garden and somewhat steep in spots with a smattering of waterfalls on the upper side of the run."
The following Sunday (4/9), Chris and Jim talked about it at the Lower Mad takeout. Later that afternoon, Chris drove up North Fayston Road to explore. When Tony proposed that I paddle something with him on his day off (Tuesday, 4/11) I got to thinking about Shepard and Mill Brook, which comes down along Route 17 (and is better known).
Chris, Tony, and Eric carpooled early from Richmond to allow time for scoping out Shepard and possible put-in and takeout locations. It quickly became clear that the creek had plenty of water in it. It also became clear that the chances of encountering strainers was high. Exactly how high would soon become evident.
The takeout selected was a small bridge adjacent to a house just up from Route 100. The put-in options were by a bridge where Center Fayston Road crosses the brook, and farther up the mountain at the Hedgehog Trailhead (Big Basin Road). We tentatively chose the Center Fayston Road bridge to propose to the full group. It is 4.6 miles upstream of the takeout. The trailhead parking area is another 1.1 miles upstream.
With that assessment we headed back to Route 100 and up Route 17 to look at Mill Brook. We then headed back to the junction to meet the rest of the group at the Valero convenience store. The conclusion of the discussion was that Shepard Brook was too interesting to bypass, and might not be runnable after that week, whereas Mill Brook would be benefiting from ski trail runoff for some time. We organized the shuttle and headed for North Fayston Road.
After leaving vehicles on the shoulder near the takeout bridge we headed up to Center Fayston Road, which peels off where North Fayston Road ends. At the bridge we discussed whether to put in there or farther downstream at another bridge, where Airport Road crosses the stream. There was real trepidation about the speed of the flow and the lack of eddies, with the possibility of river-wide strainers on everyone's mind, but we decided to stick with the initial choice.
Within minutes after heading downstream, we encountered our first river-wide strainer (2 closely spaced logs) and had our first swim. By the time the situation was resolved, two members of the group (Steve and Eric) had elected to get off the river, head down to the next bridge, and assess what was to come. The remainder of us started a somewhat difficult hike in calf-deep snow on river-right, on what seemed to be an old logging road. Another river-wide log was visible downstream, followed by another. Most of didn't consider putting on again until Jamie gave us the all-clear, after probing some distance downstream.
The brook at this point was little more than class 1, but was moving at a good pace. We were all on edge in anticipation of more strainers, but encountered none that forced us out of our boats until we arrived at the Airport Road bridge. By that time the gradient had markedly increased, and the whitewater was continuous class 2, shading into class 3.
Approaching the bridge, Steve and Eric signaled from shore that we need to pull out and do some scouting. The reason was another river-wide log, followed by a much bigger and more complicated assemblage of big logs farther downstream around the next bend, on the river right side of a long boulder/gravel bar. On river left was a yellow house. Its occupant came out to cheer us on. (We later discovered that he was the son of the owner, and the house was the former home of Rob and Kay Henry, founders of Mad River Canoe.)
It was becoming clear that the flow was increasing. This worked in our favor, because it produced a runnable flow on the river left side of the boulder bar that allowed us to sneak by the jumble of logs. Otherwise a portage would have been unavoidable.
At this point the gradient increased more. We were now in fast-moving class 3, with the same ever-present concern about wood. The next example was a large log suspended above a right-to-left bend, with a pourover on river left formed by another log mostly buried in gravel and cobblestones. The big log was high enough to run underneath, as long as one didn't get too far right. Behind the pourover was an eddy, where we gathered our wits for what would prove to be the most intense whitewater of the run—solid class 3 shading into class 4, with a flow of at least 700 cfs. During this sequence we had two more swims, which prompted the swimmers to end their runs. (One of them had taken a hard shot to the head in the initial capsize.) The rest of us (the kayakers) finished out the run at the takeout bridge. It should be mentioned that near the finish was yet another river-wide tree with attached branches, mostly submerged, that provided a reasonably safe slot to pass through towards river-right. At lower water this might not have been an option.
Later examination of Shepard Brook's course on Google's terrain map indicated that it drops about 360 feet from the Center Fayston Road put-in, i.e., over a distance of 4.6 miles. Only about 60 of those feet occur in the first 1.75 miles or so, so the gradient in the remainder of the run is about 100 feet per mile.
TO BE CONTINUED...
- Details
- Written by Tony Shaw
- Category: Trip Reports
- Hits: 96
- Organizer(s): Tony Shaw
- Date: 2017-04-09
- Kayakers (K1): Noel Bailey, Mike Beers, Jim Fecteau, Chris Frost, Nick Kovacs, Jim Poulin, Tony Shaw, Chris Weed
- Canoers (OC1): Steve Melamed
- Other Personal Watercraft: Eric Bishop
- Predominantly: Intermediate WW
- Water Level: Medium
- Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Site: USGS 04288000 MAD RIVER NEAR MORETOWN, VT
- Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Flow (cfs), e.g. '797': 725
- Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Height (ft), e.g. '2.96': 4.25
- Primary Realtime USGS Gauge URL: https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=04288000
This trip was scheduled for the Upper Mad, and trip reports from years past have us on the Upper Mad at flows as low as 750 cfs, though 1100 cfs is more of a medium level for the Warren to Waitsfield stretch. Not to be deterred, the Lower Mad is a nice consolation prize when the Upper Mad is off the table.
We let the day warm up, meeting at noon for a ~3 hour paddle - out long enough to get a sunburned nose if you (like me) forgot about sunscreen. When the day dawns below 20 degrees it is easy to forget the sun on April 9th is as hot and high overhead as it is on Labor Day.
The level dipped below 700 cfs ever so briefly before turning upward again with melting snows higher up, and the mercury in Middlesex had reached 60 degrees by the time we took out.
There were too few women on the trip - zero in fact - but otherwise it was an upbeat and handsome bunch. No one ran Horseshoe river-right, but the throw bags saw some action anyway, there and further down as well. In all, a very pleasurable knock-the-cobwebs-off season opener.
- Details
- Written by Michael Mainer
- Category: Trip Reports
- Hits: 94
- Organizer(s): Bob
- Date: 2016-11-06
- Kayakers (K1): 15
- Predominantly: Int-adv WW
- Water Level: Low boatable
- Estimated Flow (cfs), e.g. '600': 1100
Never one to be happy with the weather, all week I had been looking at the forecast and surprisingly, there was a solid 1+ inches of rain forecast for Friday morning. I say surprisingly because most of VT was in a severe drought and we'd only seen appreciable rainfall once since April. We had a Green release Saturday which got me thinking... we could have a Missisquoi release on Sunday!
Bob got in touch with Enel and they were on board and even willing to drop to minimum generation to get us enough water.
I showed up around 9:00 and found a decent minimum boatable level already going over the dam. The dam operator, Travis, showed up a little later and gave us a little extra water. Enel has a lot of this automated and I think they can do this all remotely, but they always send someone up just to make sure everything is good with us. Good customer service and we aren't even customers of the normal sort!
There were about 15 of us and per Missisquoi tradition we did laps as a giant group. The level was on the lower end, but that's fun because you can go for a lot of different moves that might be a little to exciting for higher levels. I think we did 4 or 5 laps.
As an FYI, this was our first release up there this year (largely due to the drought, which has meant this was the first weekend there was enough water for a release). Still, we don't nearly use up our allotment of release days in a given year, so if you want a release up here, let us know!
- Details
- Written by Michael Mainer
- Category: Trip Reports
- Hits: 92
- Organizer(s): MWL
- Date: 2016-11-05
- Kayakers (K1): Lots
- Canoers (OC1): A couple
- Deck Canoers (C1): A few
- Doing Own Thing: Mike M
- Predominantly: Advanced WW
- Water Level: Medium low
- Painted Gauge Height (ft) e.g. '3.3': 2.8
- Estimated Flow (cfs), e.g. '600': 180
There's been a lot of talk about the Green and our ongoing appeal on the river. This trip report is not about that.
This trip report is about a whole bunch of boaters having a great time on a great river.
So MWL was kind enough to get us a release day this fall, and even better, they said they'd probably get both tubes running. Up until now, we've pretty much only gotten one tube (140 cfs) for a release - which is fun, but pretty low. I got to the put-in early and was happy to see the gauge around 2'10" - about 1-1/3 tubes, so a little bit less than we thought but still plenty of water. I skipped the first lap to say hi to folks, make sure they didn't mess up the parking and get donations/AW memberships. There were tons of folks up here - some folks said nearly 100 but I think it was closer to 70 or 80. Regardless, folks came from far and wide. It was actually fun to see folks coming off the river - a lot of folks were sorta wide-eyed and pretty surprised at how good the run is.
I hopped in with the usual group for the second lap. Nothing much to say other than that the added water was just great - it's a really high-quality IV+ creek at that level and it reminded me why I was so excited 5 years earlier during my first runs here. With the low-volume, schist ledge-drops and mossy woods around, it really is a classic VT run with a classic VT feel that you just won't find anywhere else.
At the take-out folks hung around socializing for awhile then headed for Morrisville for a beer and some food. I got a little lost finding Lost Nation, but as I drove around town I was pleasantly surprised to see cars with boats on the roof all over the place. Downtown Morrisville establishments were literally full of boaters enjoying some classic VT wining and dining after enjoying some class VT creeking.
Now that is how to have a scheduled release. A sign of things to come? I hope so!
- Details
- Written by Tony Shaw
- Category: Trip Reports
- Hits: 96
- Organizer(s): Tony Shaw
- Date: 2016-10-15
- Kayakers (K1): Paul Carlile, Jamie Dolan, Bob Malinowski, Brock Richardson, Tony Shaw
- Other Personal Watercraft: Eric Bishop
- Predominantly: Intermediate WW
- Water Level: Low boatable
- Painted Gauge Height (ft) e.g. '3.3': 1
- Estimated Flow (cfs), e.g. '600': 100
The sky above was robin's egg blue, the trees enshrouding the diminutive NB P'Cat were all decked out in their fall finery, and their leaves were falling by the bushel like multi-colored snowflakes, piling up on nearly every horizontal surface, including our spray skirts. For a tiny river with a scheduled release at the end of one of the driest New England summers on record, the P'Cat was surprisingly uncrowded. It was the inaugural trip here for all 6 of us who met up for the trip, and we were a little disappointed to discover that the release would not be as generous as in years past (though for obvious reasons). Honestly, I would be surprised if we were getting more than 150 cfs out of the Lake Horace dam tailrace. Still, it was adequately fluid for our morning and our afternoon runs (and never particularly threatening).
We got some not-so-great advice on where to take-out, and as a result we missed a few features that grace the river in the last 2-3 miles to the Lake Everett dam impoundment. The 4 mile stretch we did run (twice) was plenty of fun, with a gradient averaging 50 feet per mile including lots of continuous class II punctuated by several steeper pitches. Self-rescue, when needed, is quite a lot easier in such low-boatable conditions, but then, too, the rocks aren't nearly so well covered if you do happen to swim!
The good folks from the Merrimack Valley Paddlers had been to Weare mid-week and spent a solid day or two opening up channels where river-wide strainers had taken up residence, which made the whole day more enjoyable for all. One full-size tree trunk did somehow manage to strand itself (pointing upstream like a shish kabob skewer) in the hole at the bottom of the first drop, "Slab City", between our first and second run. And because of the horizon line as you approach (and the clean line we enjoyed there that morning) we didn't know about (or anticipate) it's presence until it was too late. It flipped Eric, and I think maybe Brock as well, but Brock got his revenge - wading right out beside the hole with his long legs, roping the log like a feed lot steer, and liberating it from the hole before it could upend any more unsuspecting boaters.
It is an easy ~2.5 hour drive to Weare NH from Richmond VT. I would certainly be game to run the P'Cat again when it is releasing next fall, getting to know it at a somewhat higher level next time, Mother Nature willing.
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