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Written by Tony Shaw

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 25 May 2019

Hits: 193

Organizer(s): Tony Shaw

Date: 2019-05-25

Canoers (OC1): Tony Shaw

Other Personal Watercraft: Eric Bishop

Predominantly: Int-adv WW

Water Level: Medium low

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Site: USGS 01074520 EAST BRANCH PEMIGEWASSET RIVER AT LINCOLN, NH

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Flow (cfs), e.g. '797': 725

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Height (ft), e.g. '2.96': 3.6

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge URL: https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nh/nwis/uv?site_no=01074520

We got home from our day of boating - and bike shuttling - last night at dusk as the next (umpteenth???) overnight rainstorm approached New England, and I see online this morning the EBP real-time gauge has doubled to 1500 cfs... and climbing. The East Branch of the Pemigewasset River (or EBP) along NH's Kangamagus Highway near Loon Mountain is a quintessential New England whitewater run, and we were surprised that we couldn't interest anyone else in this trip.

This gem is an exuberant mountain stream with clear flowing water, littered with clean, smooth, rounded boulders of all sizes that are mercifully not slippery underfoot. You can't help noticing the 4000 foot mountains rising on the horizon in almost every direction. Likewise, the many vacation homes and condos near Loon Mountain are hard to ignore, but parts of the run still feel remote and pristine.

I don't recall ever running the EBP as low as is was yesterday (750->700 cfs), but it was plenty challenging, dropping - as it does - 70 feet per mile for 6 miles, with innumerable small and medium sized holes to toy around with, and a handful of large holes to try and avoid. In Eric's honor I paddled the Outrage (OC1), and only truly once had a boatful of water (no swims). I wish I could say the same for Eric, but he still had a good time and would do it all over again, I'm sure. Early in the day I commented that the inflatable kayak with Eric at the helm seemed like a perfect match for the EBP, but as the day progressed its penchant for sticking to rocks, wrapping around rocks, and getting sucked into retentive holes helped Eric justify his audacious ice cream cone (a "small") at Big Cones in Wells River. Order a large at your own peril!

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Written by Tony Shaw

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 27 April 2019

Hits: 195

Organizer(s): Tony Shaw

Date: 2019-04-20

Kayakers (K1): Noel B., Jim P., Tony S.

Predominantly: Intermediate WW

Water Level: High

Estimated Flow (cfs), e.g. '600': 750

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Site: Ranch Brook at Ranch Camp - feeder

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Flow (cfs), e.g. '797': 240

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Height (ft), e.g. '2.96': 2.44

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge URL: https://waterdata.usgs.gov/vt/nwis/uv?site_no=04288230

All three rivers that flow west through the spine of the Green Mountains to Lake Champlain were at flood stage by the end of 4/20 on account of a soaking rain Friday night on the heels of a warm and windy Thursday/Friday that set the stubborn snowpack in the deep woods up the feeder valleys a-melting. North Williston Road and Rt. 15 in Cambridge were under water by day's end. And although I never laid eyes on Joe's Brook I'm positive it was too high for any of us to want to run it. So instead I spent the morning driving around up north looking for something that seemed reasonable when virtually everything was too high. Call me weird, but I have to say road scouting 8 or 10 raging rivers with coffee and doughnuts on board was almost as much fun for me as actually paddling one. By 11 am, after looking at Mill Brook (in Jericho), the Lee R., the Browns R.(in Underhill), the Seymour R., the Brewster R. (all probably reasonable), followed by the NBL @ ~4 feet, the Gihon, and the Green R. @ 4.5 feet (none of them reasonable), I drove up the Mountain Road in Stowe (VT108) as far us Notch Brook Road, and shared my plan to run the West Branch of the Little River (WBL) in a group text.

More rain arrived as we were suiting up to paddle, but once you're in your drysuit it really doesn't matter. There is a convenient put-in eddy under the VT 108 bridge on river right, upstream from the Matterhorn Restaurant and Bar, at the confluence of Ranch Brook and the West Branch, with a place to park vehicles at the foot of Ranch Brook Rd. At high water the paddle from this confluence down to Taylor Park (the "Stowe Peace Park") is 2.5 miles of non-stop, FUN boogie water. FU rocks and strainers were a non-issue, except for one obvious river-wide (large) tree trunk a few inches above the waterline, where the river and rec path converged.

The main stem of the Little River in Stowe Village had crested just over 3000 cfs at 9am, pretty big for such a little (get it?) river. The one WBL feeder stream with a real-time USGS gauge - Ranch Brook at Ranch Camp - had crested overnight at 360 cfs (dropping to 240 cfs when we met at 1pm). The WBL only dropped 1" during our run (according to my rudimentary stick-in-the-mud gauge at our Rusty Nail/W Br Sculpture Garden take-out).

We ran into Ben and a crew of hair boaters as we were changing back into our street clothes after our run. They were setting shuttle to do the same thing, except they were going to start even higher up, on Ranch Brook. Prior to our run, I walked up to look at Bingham Falls, which was quite impressive.

It was a fun day!

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Written by Eric Bishop

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 29 April 2019

Hits: 193

Organizer(s): Tony Shaw/Eric Bishop

Date: 2019-04-21

Kayakers (K1): Jamie Dolan, Jim Poulin

Canoers (OC1): Tony Shaw

Other Personal Watercraft: Eric Bishop

Predominantly: Intermediate WW

Water Level: Medium low

Painted Gauge Height (ft) e.g. '3.3': 1,6

Tony, Jamie and Jim showed up on Easter Sunday and we had an enjoyable paddle. This is a 4 to 5 mile stretch of the New Haven above the Ledges section, with lots of class II and three pretty challenging Class III drops.  This would be a good section for someone ready to move up to Class III as all three of the challenges can be carried and/or scouted.

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Written by Jamie Dolan

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 31 March 2019

Hits: 189

Organizer(s): Jamie

Date: 2019-03-31

Kayakers (K1): Mike Will Jim John Chris (2) Jamie

Predominantly: Intermediate WW

Water Level: Medium high

Painted Gauge Height (ft) e.g. '3.3': 2 - 3

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Site: Brooksville

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

What a fun and exciting day! The LNH was at a nice mediumish level to start (2 ft on Gilbert Gauge) and it was raining lightly but still around 50 degrees. There were 7 thinking about running it and two opted out immediately. Not a bad choice as it was pretty much the first run of the season for both of them. Mike, Will and I had done this run the day before at a much lower level. Jim P and John G were both doing their first run of the season. A lot to be said for the first and second and …well just about any run of the season.

The water was moving at a good clip and getting splashed proved bracing. There were floaters in the river but not too many and they weren’t really a concern. And the rivers’ edge was fairly clear of ice, in case there was a swim. The opening rapid on the LNH is always an eye opener. What a way to start the paddling day. The run proved uneventful from a swim / roll perspective but what a hoot! When we got to South St Bridge Jim P decided his fun quotient was filled and got off. John G decided to keep him company. Meanwhile, as I pulled into the current to start down the rapid I began to hear people yelling my name. Good thing I’m hard of hearing and only heard them just before it was too late. Apparently, just as I entered the flow a large tree came in behind me. When I looked back to the guys yelling at me, I saw the log hitting my stern, Yikes! It turned out, both the log and I had good lines. I scooted far left, the sneak route at this level, with out issue. The log took the center line and ended up rolling a few times but always came up OK. We ended at Lover’s Lane bridge pretty happy with the level. Mike observed that the lower New Haven will undoubtedly become extremely popular in short order as there is a new micro brewery (Hogback Mountain) on its banks. Here's hoping that growlers are available there.

John G unfortunately left his boat a little too close to the river. During our run the river came up to 2 ½ ft. When he went to collect it at the South Street Bridge, boat and paddle were gone. After about 1 ½ hours he and Jim P were able to find and collect the boat. The paddle remains missing in action.

Onto the second half of the outing. Chris W and Chris F both had done this section before though maybe not at these levels. We started out at 2 ½ ft and ended at 3 ft. Our take out would be Eagle Park (the ledges put in). On our way to the put (just before the corner of Ripton Rd and S Lincoln Rd.) we scouted for both dangerous ice ledges (there really weren’t any), river wide strainers (none) and drops (three). On our scout of the ledge drop there was an easish line down river right. At lower water this line could be IV. But at this level it would be straight forward (HAH!). And due to the river side ice and water level, there was no stopping and scouting. You either ran it from the start or walked it.   We also checked out a few other drops. Once we put on, which was downstream of the normal spot due to snow / ice, we had an easy warm up to the first III rapid at Garland’s Bridge. We got out and looked at and each chose a different line. I took hard right, Chris W took hard left, Chris F took the dry way. Each line worked out okay though the first two had a little bit more excitement then expected (read that as we screwed up a bit). The next rapid is where the river splits due to an island. The left line was open and it usually isn’t. So we opted for the left This line involves getting by strainers on the river left bank (which you are beiing pushed into by the water), pushing past the flow which is driving right at this point(you want to go left) and lastly ensuring you don't broach on the rock that is at the head of the island (or the rock that is just past that as well), We all managed with varying degrees of non-finesse. But we were upright. After this we had relatively flat water until the ledge drop that we had scouted earlier. We were all set for our easy river right line but little did we know that due to the increase in river volume the rapid changed. No longer was it the easy tongue with small curlers. But we were in it and, wow, suddenly there are some big irregular waves, some noticeable curlers / holes and nary a tongue. I was able to watch Chris F come through the meat of it looking very stable. After this we were treated to some nice wave trains and hole avoidance through to the take out. Chris W gave us some excitement right at the end when he wet exited a bit prematurely but no harm, no foul. The run is officially recorded as no swims / no rolls.