Details

Written by Ryan McCall

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 13 September 2015

Hits: 134

Organizer(s): Ryan

Date: 2015-07-20

Kayakers (K1): Ryan and Justin

Predominantly: Advanced WW

Water Level: Medium high

Painted Gauge Height (ft) e.g. '3.3': 4.25

It was pouring the night before....  Inches and Inches came down.  The spring and ditch across from my house was flowing at a high level.  It was 75 degrees.  Go time....  sent a note to the boss that I'd be in late.

On my way to the put in to meet Justin - a tree had fallen across the road.  You have to be kidding me!  I pulled out my boat saw and cut a few branches to get through.  5 minutes late and we are off to set shuttle.  It didn't look all that high at the take out - but up at the put in it was thumping - he had actually caught the bubble right at the put in!!!!  BooYa!

Everything was super fluid and clean.  Hmmm - so this is what the NBW is like at a good level!

I can't describe all the rapids and how SWEET they are anymore than I've done the last dozen or so years I've been entering TRs on the NBW.  But at this level, with this temperature and early morning with a good boating partner.  Man this run is what VT creeking is about.

Third time is a charm - we hit it on the money, had clean runs and to cap it off - Justin is off to MO with his family for a new start in a new state.  He got 3 runs on the NBW this spring.  Come back and see us some time man.

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Want Add...

- In need of new Creeking Partner.  Must know how to handle a throw bag, not get upset at sporadic swims, likes to ELF from time to time.  Has good taste in beer (Mountain Brew is not good) for take out festivities.  Has solid boof.  Can make early morning NBW runs.  Willing to help cut wood out of runs.  Can take bad jokes.

Details

Written by Michael Mainer

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 30 June 2015

Hits: 123

Organizer(s): Mike

Date: 2015-06-23

Kayakers (K1): Scott, Clay, Billy, Adam

Predominantly: Advanced WW

Water Level: Low boatable

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Site: Ayers Brook

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Flow (cfs), e.g. '797': 200

Flint Brook is a tiny little creek that drops off the east side of Northfield Ridge.  It's even more obscure than other Northfield Ridge creeks.  Driving up the Second Branch of the White you don't see a whole lot - the creek diffuses into a big wetland before crossing the road, while nearby Sandusky and E. Granville Brooks clearly pour out of steep, deep appealing gorges.  And so Flint is one of those runs you'll find only if you're driving around somewhat lost.

Once you find it though you will immediately be interested.  The access road is incredibly steep to start with... steep enough you might pass the creek off as way too steep to paddle.  But then the road flattens out and you get appealing glimpses of decent-sized bedrock rapids.  If you pull over and try to get a look, you'll find things down in a deep, very steep forested canyon that is right at home in Vermont yet not at all typical.  Then climb down into the canyon and look at the last half-mile or so of the creek and you'll be pretty excited.  A few of use had looked at it over the past few years... but it had somehow remained pretty much untouched, at least as far as anyone knew.

June 23 offered yet another round of heavy rain though I doubted I'd have time to get out of work to enjoy it that day.  Ryan mentioned Flint in an email and that immediately got my attention.  I immediately made plans for a long lunch break and at 11 headed over with Billy to meet the rest of the crew.

At the bottom it looked pretty low... things seemed a little drier over there, but I knew most of the creek was bedrock and figured it'd be good for a first-time exploring sort of thing.  We drove up to maybe a quarter mile above the 4-way intersection to where the road was blocked, and unloaded.  There's more gradient upstream, but it's not as channelized and is mostly the standard bouldery/cobbly micro without much in the way of real rapids.

Right around the corner from the put-in there was a great, steep boulder garden.  It looked bumpy at this level but was surprisingly smooth and pretty aesthetic, ending in a bedrock slot between two sculpted walls.  Flint was definitely taking an early lead.  Then some sliding and bouldery stuff that needed a little more water and some wood removal to be prime but was still pretty good all things considered.  This widened a bit before the bridge but all went fine with the low water.  Score 2, 3 and 4 for Flint.  And on my initial scout the previous year I didn't even think we'd bother running this first section!

Below the bridge was a quarter mile of pretty dechannelized cobbly stuff that would probably pretty much never have enough water to be good, then two tributaries came in and the bedrock came back.  The first of these we walked because there wasn't a good line, but with just a bit more water it'd be a great boof.  There is a private bridge accessing a hunting camp here, and that might make a better low-water put-in in the future.  Below this Flint really started showing it's quality with many slides and ledges, one or two smallish falls and the odd boulder garden here and there... none of this was that big but it all seemed to be good quality and pretty much every time you turned around there was another good rapid.  Unfortunately there was enough wood we probably carried (at least partially) almost as many rapids as we ran... but without wood this would all go and all be really fun.

There were more rapids in this section than I remembered from scouting a few years previously, and a few I hadn't gotten a look at, and I was surprised at how deep the canyon felt despite the road being just a hundred feet or so up.  I think there's a bit over half a mile of this.

Then, the canyon really deepens and steepens and there is perhaps one of the finest sections of small creek in Vermont... first a long, lowish-angle, 5-part slide that you could probably run on a tube.  Then the creek turns a corner and there's another slide, a sort of folding slide-ledge thing, a great looking slide with a few giant boulders scattered around on it, then one more slide.  Unfortunately there were probably a dozen trees lying in this stretch so this section is still waiting to see polyethylene.  If you do run this (and I hope you do) know that this ends in a brief wider spot before dropping over a pretty big double drop that does a solid 50+ feet total... though the second tier is probably runnable.  Portaging or getting out of the canyon would be tough though still totally possible.  But... that will have to wait for some other day with less wood.

Without the wood Flint is definitely one of the best sections of Vermont microcreek that's more than a quarter-mile long.  Sure Texas Falls is sweet and that last section of Hancock has the goods... but we're basically talking park-n-huck distance.  If you were to do the whole run I think it's something like 1.3 miles at 350 feet per mile.  And all but 30 feet of that is pretty much runnable. 

Details

Written by Jim Poulin

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 13 September 2015

Hits: 21037

Organizer(s): Jim Poulin

Date: 2015-09-04

End Date: 2015-09-07

Kayakers (K1): KerryW, MelanieR, BrockR, PaulC, SueS, SarahC, BorisG, JimP

Doing Own Thing: DawnD and Kala The Mascot

Predominantly: Int-adv WW

Water Level: Medium low

Painted Gauge Height (ft) e.g. '3.3': -0.75 to -

Friday, September 4, 2015

Kerry and Melanie win the award for the first to arrive. Around 3:30pm. They opted to go for a swim down in the river. Jim and Dawn were the next in camp with our mascot for the weekend, Kala. This was the first trip for their Winnebago View. But not the first time an RV has graced this weekend. Ken and Leann drove their “Turtle” up a few years back. There was some, but not much, debate about doing a run of the Middle channel. Calmer heads prevailed and the four of us got down to drinking some tequila! In the first of many perfect timing coincidences, Boris meets Paul and Sue at the front kiosk as they pull in. They kindly show Boris to the Pet Haven Base Camp. There was a campfire with tall tales, old and new told. While everyone tried to stay up from Brock’s arrival some didn’t quite make it. Brock and Kim, er, I mean Sarah pulled into town about midnight. The river level was -0.75 but we didn’t care…  

Saturday, September 5, 2015

River level was -0.75.

This is arguably the best level for Garburator and since the World Freestyle Championships are being held there, this has been the consistent level reading all week long. Those that slept through it, welcomed Brock and Sarah to Team Vermont. If I can count correctly, this would be the first time in my memory that women outnumbered the men at the Ottawa. While there were four boaters of each gender, Shuttle Bunny extraordinaire, Dawn and the mascot Kala (female Standard Poodle) tipped the scales strong in favor of estrogen over testosterone. But don’t think for a second we skipped paddling to talk about our feelings. This is a paddling weekend! Our first run of the weekend was the Middle Channel. There was some time spent at McCoys. For both the veterans to scout and for the River Rookies to wonder how one would run this maelstrom. We all made it through one way or another and headed downstream. The Middle Channel proved to be a good warm up. Although the group did end up changing the names on some of the rapids. Henceforth, Butterfly will be called HOLY F$#K!!! Little No Name will be referred to as Wee No Nah May. And in the same vein, Big No Name will go by Ginormous No Nah May. At Ginormous no Nah May, Boris wanted to run the right side with Brock and Jim. He made the eddy but then started floating out the back of it. While Brock and Jim watched in horror/interest, Boris ran the second part of the rapid with no instruction. He did great! Dawn had the vehicles down by the take out and we hustled back to camp for lunch. We were trying to get to the Freestyle finals with the Women K1 at 3:00 and the Men K1 at 4:00. We put on at 2:00 and did not dilly dally. A quick bust out of McCoys, no scouting allowed, with minimal play we were off on the flat water death march. While we got there around 4pm, the men’s final was already over. I guess they didn’t see the need to wait for Team Vermont. From all accounts there were over 1,000 folks on the side of the river taking it all in! For those keeping score at home, this is how it all shook out:

OC1                Andrew Hill                Canada

C1                   Dane Jackson              United States

K1 Women      Emily Jackson             United States

K1 Men           Dane Jackson              United States

Damn, those Jackson kids are good! We continued downstream through all the meaty Main rapids – Lauren, Butchers Knife, Norman and Coliseum. As memory serves (which is always sketchy) it was a great run by all on a nice warm Ontario evening. In another amazing timing coincidence, Dawn, Sue, Melanie and Kala got to the take out at the very moment we pull up. And they have a cooler full of beer. They are our favorite people! We head back to camp with smiles on our faces. Exhausted smiles, but smiles just the same. There were many stories of the day’s event. I think at one point Brock mentioned that he had won one of the freestyle events! The stars were in full bloom and we all hit the hay a bit early.  

Sunday, September 6, 2015

River Level: -1.0

The Team opts for a Middle Channel start and we were on the river by 10am! Kerry and Melanie were looking to hit the road back to Vermont and didn’t want to start too late. At McCoys, Boris looked to run the right sneak but bit off a bit more of Phil’s than he planned. Brock tried the standard “thread the needle” line and caught a face full of Phil. The Middle was a frolicking good time as always. Back to Pet Haven Base Camp for lunch. We see Kerry and Melanie off. Now the gender lines are starting to even out with four to four (counting mascots of course). The Boys (Boris, Brock, Paul & Jim) and Sarah put in at The Lauren for a shortened Main run. Another beautiful Canadian evening for paddling. Sun hanging low in the sky and in the 80’s. Then around Normans a big ol’ thunderstorm blows through. Made Normans and Coliseum a bit more intimidating, like that’s really necessary! All I remember about Coliseum is fighting to get my line after the big center hole only to find Brock’s helmet (with head and body attached) right in the slot I was looking to run! So I needed to come up with a Plan B! And like quickly. It all worked out for the best and we got Brock packaged up before Dog Leg. The flat water slog after Black’s did not seem too bad. Everyone was thinking the same thing. Tonight is Tequila Night! We got to the take out and again there was a welcoming committee and they brought cold beer! Man, I could get used to this! So back to base camp and the tequila started to flow. There were many stories, some exaggerated and some not, OK, all were exaggerated! Don’t have too many memories but I do have a vague recollection of a light saber fight with Paul…  

Monday, September 7, 2015

River Level: -1.0

In the morning Brock mentioned that tequila has a smaller footprint than beer. I thought he was talking about the footprint inside his groggy head. But he was talking about picking up a few tequila bottles is easier than twenty or thirty beer cans. OK, that makes sense now. Over breakfast a plan was hatched. Brock, Sarah and Jim would hit the Main. Paul and Sue would head down the Middle. Boris and Dawn would provide shuttle services and then Boris would hit the road for his ten hour drive home to New Jersey. We cleared McCoys. Brock had his first ever successful “thread the needle” run!!! We do not need to go into how the rest of the rapid went. At the critical juncture where the Middle and Main split, Sarah says “I wouldn’t mind another Middle run”. Brock concurs and Team Vermont stays together for the Middle. Once again, Dawn is at the take out only moments before we arrive. Only no beer this time. Then it is time to hit the showers and grab some lunch. A quick tear down of camp and we were all on the road by 2pm. Another Ottawa trip for the ages!   jimp

Details

Written by Michael Mainer

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 25 June 2015

Hits: 8566

Organizer(s): Scott

Date: 2015-06-12

Kayakers (K1): Scott, Clay, Ben, Billy, Mike

Predominantly: Other

Water Level: Medium low

It took quite awhile for the 2015 rains to arrive, but when they did around the start of June, they did so with vigor and stuck around for awhile.  By the afternoon of June 12th the New Haven was headed north of 3000 and Billy was kind enough to get a Ridley visual, finding it too high... and there were at least two more heavy bands of rain waiting to nail most of northern Vermont.  We made plans to head north and find something to paddle... maybe Sterling, maybe the Green... but hopefully not getting flash-flooded in the process.