Details

Written by Ryan McCall

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 22 April 2016

Hits: 50

Organizer(s): Ryan

Date: 2016-04-09

Kayakers (K1): Henry, Chan, Will, Griff, Mainer, Anders, Adsit, Ben and Cath Schott, Billy, George, Ryan

Predominantly: Advanced WW

Water Level: Low boatable

Painted Gauge Height (ft) e.g. '3.3': 5.2

Joes...  10 miles, 1000 feet of vertical.  Best whitewater run in VT - Maybe?

I woke up early and called GMP to see what the gauge was reading at the dam and how much they were running through the penstock that morning.  The operator said the bladder was 1/3 deflated, the gauge was reading 5.2 and they were at full power generation.  That should correlate to a good amount of water in the river bed.  We rally 12 folks up there for a 10am put on and are all shocked at how low the water levels are.  NUTZ!

Well, we are here, so lets go slide down some lubed up rock.  The fact is it was too low, but still fun enough  to enjoy the rapids.  So 12 of us put in at the power house and got to it.  The first 3 or so miles is beautiful with ledges rapids here and there through a cedar swamp.  The only strainer that needed portaged is the same one that was there 2 years ago.  It's massive and you are best to eddy out on river right. 

As things start to pick up we came into the biggest slide on the regularly run stretch.  The only option was to run the meat of the current on river right.  All that ran it ran it cleanly and we were on our way to Greenbanks Hollow and the beginning of the Miracle Mile section of Joes.  Several of us ran the covered bridge rapid, most were clean, some not so much...but no swims.  From there it was slide after slide after slide....  Shallow slides, but they went.

Morse Mills section was up next and that was a pretty busy section of water too. Still too shallow to really get the feel for Joes, but fun, with some convoluted rapids to get after.

The only true gorge on the river was the next section of note, it was pretty mellow and clean this day due to the low flows - every one styled it....

Last up was the rapid at the bottom of the run under the green bridge.  It was the only rapid of the day that was fluid.  It was the only rapid of the day that produced a swim too. 

It was a sunny andd fun day on Joes - Everyone ended the run wanting more.  Hard to believe a 4 hour run didn't quench everyone's desire for the day....  Next time it will have to be with more water.

Details

Written by Ryan McCall

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 22 April 2016

Hits: 54

Organizer(s): Ryan, WIll and Ben

Date: 2016-04-16

Kayakers (K1): Fourty Eight Kayakers

Predominantly: Advanced WW

Water Level: Low boatable

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Site: New Haven and Brookville

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

The 8th Annual New Haven Ledges Race  

To be or not to be, that was the question... Vermont had its worst winter in history and our spring runoff didn’t exist this year. In spite of no watery goodness from our standard snow pack, we were getting weekly deluges that would spike our rivers to fun flows and beyond, only to flush out in a day or two. This was the cycle for late March and early April.  

During the week leading up to the 2016 Ledges Race we began to get lots of inquiries about the race. As social media was buzzing about levels being too low for the event, we got one of our weekly drubbings of rain the Tuesday before the race. I think every creek boat in VT was on a car roof the afternoon of that storm headed with its owner to a favorite creek for a lap or two. By the next morning most of the rivers had dropped out and were unrunnable, but the New Haven Ledges was at a low but raceable level. The Race Committee needed to make a call, hold tight or bump the race out a week. The long range forecast wasn’t looking any better if we made a decision to bump the race out a week hoping for more rain. The call was made to stand fast and race on 4/16 and hold our breath. We headed to the Ledges the day before the race to set up the start ramp. Myself and Will Seegers, fellow co-organizer, and Ben Schott put in a lap at the lowest we had ever run it to see what race lines would be in or out. All of the drops were boatable, but definitely not raceable.

Time to improvise…. We decided it was best to cut the race course in half. This required some creative thinking for the ramp placement. Ultimately we put the ramp in just above the Ledges section of the run. The ramp installation made for a long and steep angle to the kicker that landed you feet from the entry rapid to the Ledges section. We were very happy with the location and installation. Now we just needed to have the water hold for another 24 hours.  

Saturday came bright and cold with the mercury predicted to head upwards of 65 degrees. At 7:30 when I arrived the levels looked to have held. Game On!!! Will and I got to it setting up the registration table and sipping some nice hot coffee as racers began to trickle in. The standard comment was, “Man, it seems a little on the low side” and “Are you sure we can race this at that level.” Both Will and I sort of grinned and said “Get suited up and take a practice lap”.  

As the registration numbers rose above 20, Will and I were pleasantly surprised because we didn’t expect any more than 20 due to low water levels. Ultimately we had 48 racers signed up by 10am, ready for the pre-race meeting. 48 racers is our highest number of registrants since 2011. The low flows didn’t seem to deter the racers from donning a race bib and getting on the start ramp.   

The lower levels and shorter race course this year brought the intensity down some for the day. This is probably part of what was behind the number of participants as well. The boating was relaxed -instead of charging each hole to punch it, folks adopted a more fluid style, looking for the deep pools where they could dig and stayed light and fast where they had to bump and grind through the shallows. Folks with a slalom background were prevailing. There were a few bone-zoners that were holding their own in the rankings as well.  

What was obvious from the beginning of the day was that everyone was on board with having a good time, enjoying the sunshine and what flow we actually had to boat on. I’m pretty sure that there wasn’t a single person without a smile on their face by the time the last racer crossed the finish line.  

Something of note for the 2016 Race was that we had 7 women race this year. We have never had more than 3, ever! It was awesome seeing these women on the course and hammering it out as fast if not faster than a number of the “dudes”. I also think they were smiling bigger than any of the guys.   

Our sponsorship was once again top notch, we had our usual suspects that have been long time supporters and we picked up a new one. Our sponsors really make the event legitimate with the prizes that they so generously provide. Our original two sponsors Mountain Khaki and Shred Ready were once again happy to step up and provide us with schwag for our local race. Werner Paddles, Five Ten, Astral Buoyancy, Liquid Logic, Stohlquist Waterwear, NPMB, Watershed Zipdry, Immersion Research and Otter Creek Brewing all have been helping us with the race the last two to three years and the racers are always excited to see them on board as sponsors. Also, we had a new comer this year with Darn Tough Socks. It was very cool to have another local VT sponsor. We rewarded online registrants with a free pair of Darn Tough socks. Lastly, our local club, the Vermont Paddlers Club sponsors the race every year in a number of ways. Without the VPC’s support this race wouldn’t be nearly as smoothly run as it has over the last 8 years. Thank you to all of our sponsors!  

Winners – Anyone that shows up to race is a winner. I am pretty sure we had enough schwag and prizes on hand that even with 48 racers everyone went home with something, even if it was just a Beer Coozie or two. Interestingly enough, it seems that if you have a background in Nordic ski racing you are on the podium. This year, Culley Brown, a Nordic ski racer, was blistering fast on his 2nd lap posting a 2:23. Justin Beckwith (another Nordic ski racer) is a three time winner but couldn’t find the extra 3 seconds to out run Culley, posting a time of 2:25. In third, we had a tie between Cody Wasuta and Cameron Fearey at 2:28. The women were in the mix with Becca Austin ripping a 2:46 as the fastest female, bringing her in ahead of a vast majority of the men that entered the race.   There were other awards handed out at the race including best carnage, youngest racer, oldest racer, longest drive, etc... We had a lot of fun with the awards!  

The future of the New Haven Ledges Race…. Look for it in 2017. We once again were light on our feet and made the race happen in spite of challenging conditions with flows. A lot of the racers liked the shortened course, the longer and steeper starting ramp and even some prefer the lower flows. We, the organizers, appreciate that folks keep showing up and keep having fun. Without the racers we have no race, DUH! We want to keep the racers having fun so they can give us feedback about what they want to see in the race, keeping it fresh and relevant.  

It’s a tradition to be the first Creek Race of the season, its family and friends that look to knock the cobwebs off on the Ledges and get their season started proper in VT. We like that and we’ll keep it coming if you keep coming…..

Details

Written by Ryan McCall

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 22 April 2016

Hits: 87

Organizer(s): Ryan

Date: 2016-04-12

Kayakers (K1): Mainer, Anders, Kevin, Noah, Adsit, Schott, Beckwith, Vickers, McCall

Predominantly: Advanced WW

Water Level: Medium

Painted Gauge Height (ft) e.g. '3.3': 4.2

NBW on a Tuesday night after work... Perfect way to cap a day long staff meeting at the office!!!!

Rains were plenty and the NBW had popped to a good fluid level.  Emails were flying back and forth for the afternoon.  We had two solid groups on the river, mine with two never-evers for the run.  Always fun to show a newbie down this river because of the progressiion with how it builds to the bigger drops.

Big Bouncy and the Final drop were a little low for them to be fluid, but they both went well enough.  Some of had cleaner lines than others at each of those signature drops - but they were all fun for sure!  The final drop is quickly becoming a high water only drop with the tree that is choking off the river left option which is a bummer because that may be one of the better lines on the river.

All in all a great evening on the river.  Some of the guys had so much fun that they ripped up to the put in for a second lap.

Details

Written by Ryan McCall

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 07 April 2016

Hits: 107

Organizer(s): Henry Shepley

Date: 2016-03-26

Kayakers (K1): Chan, Henry, Lawlor, Ryan

Predominantly: Advanced WW

Water Level: Low boatable

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Site: Wells River

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Flow (cfs), e.g. '797': 220

We saw substantial rain on Friday so figured it would be a good day to get after some goods on Saturday.  Perfect day for it.

Chan and Henry were in route and gave me a shout, so I headed out and met them at 1pm at the F&W access area.  The water was clear and cold. No one was anywhere around, which was surprising considering that nothing else was really running in VT at the time.

We put on and paddled up to a regularly unrun rapid above the normal put in.  Nice way to warm up and get the blood pumping...

On our first lap when we got to the second rapid Mike Lawlor wa on shore looking to join us but not in his gear yet.  We said we would rip out a quick lap and meet him at the take out.  A few rapids after seeing Mike we were at El Salto.  Right line went cleanly and we were off to the bottom with a few more fun rapids in there for good measure.  The bottom rapid, Tantra had a tree in it and we wasted some time trying to remove it...  Better left to the Dartmouth kids to trim. prior to the Wells River Rumble coming up on 4/24.

Lap 2 Mike joined us and we sessioned just about every rapid twice.  The sun was out and we had the river to our selves.

We rapped with a beer and headed to P&H truck stop.  I grabbed a pie to take home to the family and the boys scarfed some of the best home cooked truck stop food in the Upper Valley!