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Written by Michael Henry

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 01 December 2003

Hits: 76

Organizer(s): Mike Henry

Date: 2003-11-29

Kayakers (K1): Mike Henry

Predominantly: Int-adv WW

Water Level: Medium

Took advantage of the soaking rain in S. Vermont on Friday to paddle these two rivers I've been hoping to hit for some time.

I paddled the last mile or so of Wardsboro Brook down to the confluence with the West. This was a great run, with some good surf waves. My improvised ride looked dissappointed to have his kid for the day, and lamented about the difficulty of finding a good baby sitter. He informed me that the upper section also has some good rapids and that Ball Mtn Brook was running at a fun level.

Ball Mtn Brook is a lot of fun, pretty much continuous rapids for 4 or 5 miles. The only hazard of note were some river wide strainers on "Elwoods Corner" (at the base of a land slide). It is fast run and seemed to get harder as it progressed. Or it could have been the fact that I couldn't feel my hands. The lady at the Jamaica Store took pity and invited me in to warm up and have a free cup of coffee, for which I was most grateful. An older gentleman, who was a kayaker "many moons ago" gave me a ride back to my car.

All in all a great day of whitewater and meeting some fantastic folks on the country roads of S. VT. Until spring.....

Details

Written by Alden Bird

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 25 November 2003

Hits: 55

Date: 2003-11-01

Kayakers (K1): Ed Clark, Fred Coriell, "Huntington" Mark, "Waitsfield" Kenny, Katie Hawkins

Deck Canoers (C1): Alden Bird

Predominantly: Advanced WW

Water Level: Medium

A sunny Saturday morning. It was warm and majestic in this Gorge of Gorges. At the put-in I looked down, and, after a week of serious rain and serious paddling, realized that my equipment was in tatters! My boat was coming unzipped at the seams, my secondary paddle cracking and my skirt ripping. How did this happen?

I noticed that I had broken my favorite paddle and only dimly recalled the incident. There was an amount of duct tape on my paddle jacket that appeared to have been applied in haste, perhaps while in a rapid. Yet . . . how could I give this much thought, with such a river at hand?

Two in our party chose to meet us below the Birth Canal, so it was four of us who sank our teeth into the tasty rapids from the top.

The ragged, torn skirt that I noticed I was using kept popping off, which worried me less than one might imagine. Ah, to have run class V for a week straight!

I felt in control and excited during the dramatic passage into the Birth Canal. Our descent from here was careful and smooth, culminating in all four of us "cleaning up" Rebirth and out of the crux.

We met up with our two friends below here, and ran down to Tester, today's hardest drop. Three boats portaged and three ran. Fred took two runs and had one right-side-up run -- the only one of the three of us!

From here we chased each other down the endless class IV drops of the lower gorge. I eddied out several times just to enjoy the early scenery. This is a place that only kayakers can visit.

At the takeout I persuaded Katie to join me in running the 42-footer (jumping off the 125 bridge) which we both "ran cleanly!"

This river has haunted me ever since I began boating, and today for the first time I felt at peace with it. As a freshman I used to joke that running the Gorge would be the "pinnacle of my boating career" but who would have imagined me actually running it someday? and in C-1? Not me, not for an instant.

Details

Written by Tony Shaw

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 26 November 2003

Hits: 107

Organizer(s): Tony Shaw

Date: 2003-08-29

End Date: 2003-09-01

Kayakers (K1): John Barrows, Marvie Campbell, Rick Covill, Maura Crandall, Paul Kenyon, Eric Rossier

Canoers (OC1): Eric Bishop, Bob Campbell, Ken Glusman, Andy Meilleur, Sam Nijensohn, Fritz Senftleber, Tony Shaw

Tandem Canoers (OC2): Marvie Campbell/Tony Shaw, Eric Bishop/Bob Campbell, Eric Bishop/Tony Shaw

Other Personal Watercraft: Peter Herman

Predominantly: Intermediate WW

Water Level: Medium

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Flow (cfs), e.g. '797': 900

An eclectic group of boaters and outdoorspeople met up north for a Labor Day Weekend of hiking, biking, flatwater, and whitewater boating. In addition to the Magalloway class III participants listed above, we also enjoyed the company of Faith Knapp, Lucille and Dick Allen, Becki Bates, and Lynn McDermott, who opted in turn for novice whitewater stretches of the Androscoggin River around Errol, eagle and loon watching on Lake Umbagog, and a leisurely Upper Connecticut River trip en route back to Vermont on Monday.

For the first time the VPC maxed out the cabin capacity at the private and secluded Johnson Brook cabin. 10 of us enjoyed a roaring fire in the woodstove, a starry night, a filling meal, and some old fashioned northwoods revelry. Evening guests waxed eloquent on subjects like what can happen when you DON'T let your teenagers jump off of bridges, and what can happen when you DO let your parakeet fall into the mayonaise jar. Becki treated us to a heaping dose of corny humor ("Really...you saw a fox driving in? What was he driving???"). Dick brought along his copy of the Hoagland essay "Walking the Dead Diamond River", which embraces a conservation ethic for these private mixed-use woods. Those who slept on the screen porch and those in the Aziscoos Campground in Wilson Mills were greeted with near freezing temperatures Sunday Morning, though it warmed to near 70 each day and didn't rain. Some heard coyotes yipping in the night, but none observed any big game during the weekend. Still, signs of moose and deer were abundant.

Eric B. and Tony detoured on Friday through South Danville VT to dismember several deadfalls obstructing Joe's Brook with Eric's chainsaw, in anticipation of a Joe's run this fall if weather permits (or next spring for certain). The rest of the Friday group arrived after dark, and some were less than impressed with the patchwork of divergent College Grant logging roads, the printed Dartmouth Outing Club directions, and the accompanying map. Can you say "SUCK"???

By daylight, at least, everyone seemed to enjoy their elected outdoor activities: Saturday, Sunday, and even Monday. Bob and Marvie returned to paddle the Errol section of the Androscoggin, where they got their first whitewater instruction about 20 years ago. Eric B. rode west by bicycle on Sunday for 50 miles or so before his motor transport (a.k.a. Andy Meilleur) caught up to him. And Tony completed his 'Around Vermont in 30 Rivers' odyssey on a scratchy class I Connecticut River float from Colebrook to Bloomfield with Becki and Lynn.

Most assuredly there is something for everybody during the VPC Magalloway weekend. Hope you can fit it into your schedule in 2004!

Details

Written by Alden Bird

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 25 November 2003

Hits: 54

Organizer(s): Alden Bird

Date: 2003-11-19

Kayakers (K1): Jim Zamecnik

Deck Canoers (C1): Alden Bird

Predominantly: Advanced WW

Water Level: Low boatable

Jim and I had seperately wondered about this run for a long time. The Mill had caught my fascination ever since I first drove over it on Rt. 7, just south of Rutland. We had both done some scouting, and we were both eager to see things from the water.

The first gorge, from the put-in where the Long Trail crosses 103, was fun class III. The water was low and the rapids were fun, distinct and bony.

There is next a long section of class I broken by the three-stage class IV cascade just above the covered bridge. an extremely fun rapid. we got to the bottom and Jim said excitedly, "Wow, that's the biggest thing I've ever run!"

There is another half mile of class I, which was bony. Then there is a sharp left turn and the rock walls rise up, signaling the start of "Devil's Gorge."

The first drop is an injury-making class V at low water, and is, according to good sources, class VI at all other levels. I gave it a good hard look and decided to risk broken bones on the steep portage rather than in the pothole filled rapid.

The rest of the second gorge is narrow, ledgy class III with one class IV. These drops are fun. In one place the walls close in to less than 10 feet. We took out just before the Rt. 7 bridge.

All in all, a great run in two massive gorges. This run has been done very infrequently. I doubt it's been run by more than 10 parties. But there's good stuff in there, and it can be run when other stuff isn't going. Otter Creek in Rutland was running at 644 cfs.