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Written by Ryan McCall

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 30 April 2015

Hits: 5358

Organizer(s): Ryan

Date: 2015-04-12

Kayakers (K1): Ryan M, Jason M, Dan M, Jamie D, Justin W, Chris I

Predominantly: Advanced WW

Water Level: Low boatable

Painted Gauge Height (ft) e.g. '3.3': 2'4"

The Green was still running so seemed like the logical thing to get the day started.  My group from Saturday met up with Ingram, Worth and Dolan.  Time to get it on and 4 of us fired up Moonshine (my first go at it).  Three of us cleaned it and one went deep with no boof - surprisingly hitting nothing.  The group worked and poked our way down through the rapids walking The ice locked Young Buck and all firing off of Humble pie.  The remainder of the run went well also with no incident, lost gear or swims.  The level was up around 2'4".  Its amazing what two inches in the gauge for that river will do.  It was still silly low, but much more forgiving from the rocky nonsense.

Next Jason, Dan and I scoped out Waterman's to see the level (too low), so we beat feet to the NBL slides and had a quick run of them.  Low level, but fluid, made for a nice splash in the sun.

Headed back to Montpelier, I wanted to check to see if the NBW was up and running.....BINGO it was at bare minimum and was mildly constricted with ice, so the lines were fluid.  We picked off the season opener on the NBW.  It was unreal how much snow was still on the ground in there and just how damn pretty that run is dressed in whites.

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Written by Ryan McCall

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 29 April 2015

Hits: 53

Organizer(s): Ryan

Date: 2015-04-11

Kayakers (K1): Ryan M, Jason M, Dan M

Predominantly: Advanced WW

Water Level: Low boatable

Painted Gauge Height (ft) e.g. '3.3': 2.3

PA to VT Ed VIII........

Jason and Dan rolled in late the night before the spring Green Release.  We got off to a late start so missed the crowds form early day on the Green.  Sounds like they did a good bit of ice-breaking on the river.  We waited for the sun to come out.

The first drop - Moonshine - went with out incident for Jason (Dan and I skipped it), as did the rest of the upper drops.  Young Buck was socked in with ice so was closed out for the weekend.  Old buck, Humble Pie, Do-si-do, and everything down to Lumber Yard was low in flow, but high in fun.  Down to Lumber Yard - there was ice the regular line, so gave the right line a go - holy boat abuse.  Jason ran the left, regular line and got hammered and went for a swim.  Easy boat recovery and off we went through a couple of s-bends and then the manky little falls.  This leads into Runway.  The line of choice is down the left and off the lip for a super fun boof.  The only problem is there is a massive ice bridge with all of the water going under it on that line.  Jason was out in front and was barreling down that line.  Like a cat he was out of his boat and clinging to a rock...  PURE LUCK or athletic ability!  Boat and boy was a-0K.  Paddle not so much, so if you see an H2O paddle on the green with a silver bent shaft, give me a shout.  We ripped on down to Piton with clean lines and Jason using his break down paddle. 

That was just the beginning of the weekend.......

Details

Written by Ryan McCall

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 30 April 2015

Hits: 93

Organizer(s): Ryan

Date: 2015-04-26

Kayakers (K1): Jamie S, AJ S, Ryan M

Predominantly: Advanced WW

Water Level: Low boatable

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Site: EB Pemi at Lincoln Woods

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Height (ft), e.g. '2.96': 450

All good plans....  have a back up plan.

The original plan was to get on Patterson (Upper White in Granville, VT) early morning and then snag something in the Dog River drainage.  Maybe Stoney or DWB.  Then when the flows weren't cooperating, we knew we had the Green all weekend with a single tube release, then that went belly up and we thought we could sneak in a double trouble of runs in Baker Valley and it was too cold so the bottom dropped out of the runs in that area......  What to do....The Wells???  Na, that would be Way Too Fluid!  Lets go beat the bottom off our boats and hike into the upper the EB Pemi from Lincoln Woods and run it down through Loon proper to lower village......and that is exactly what we did (beat the bottom of our boats in and hiked up from Lincoln Woods.

As we were hiking in, AJ stated that it really isn't as low as it looks, its just that the water is so clear that it looks shallow.  That really didn't make any sense to me, but I was already in with boat feet and a mile up the trail to our designated put in.  So I trudged along dragging my boat behind me trying to recall my only run on the EB Pemi from 2006.... that was like 9 years ago, how did that happen I thought to myself.

We got to a location that seemed as good as any to get in the water, so we did.  What a nice slice of water through the White mountains.  The upper portion of the EB Pemi is so picturesque, in the tight river valley between the looming White Mountains.  The Rapids were mellow at the level we were plying today.  The run felt more like a class II run up here than a III/IV....  GOtta luv ELF boating. 

Once we hit where Hancock Branch came in, the flow bumped up some and the river valley opened up some along the Kanc.  About every 200-300 yards there was a nice bolder choked rapid.  Most were clean and playful.  If you read it right you could poke in and out of various channels and sneak your way through tight slots.  I was taking this to the extreme and ended up in a sticky spot where I had to paddle down, but knew I was going to get housed, pinned or otherwise.  THere just "weren't" enough room for the SCUD to sneak through.  Trying to drive up on and over a guard rock, my stern was sucked down and I pinned vertically, then floped on my side and was now pined horizontally and up stream, then flipped and was up side down pinned....  TIme to swim.  Thankfully the current was meager and I could just stand up and toss my boat and paddle into an eddy.  HOLY SHIT the water is cold, even in my Drysuit it was bloddy bitter.  That was a wake up call to not horse around too much and work on staying up right and making clean lines...

We all stayed upright and dry the remainder of the run even with a couple of botched lines at the old USGS weir and a really ugly brace at the take out.

A decent run with AJ and Jamie - those guys are a fun pair to be on the water with.  Jamie had to jet after we wrapped the run and AJ and I went to the Woodstock Brewery for some suds and wings.  Great way to wrap a long run in the Whites. 

Details

Written by Paul Carlile

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 25 April 2015

Hits: 4329

Organizer(s): Paul Carlile

Date: 2015-04-12

Kayakers (K1): Paul Carlile, Jim Fecteau, Max McGregor

Predominantly: Intermediate WW

Water Level: Medium low

Painted Gauge Height (ft) e.g. '3.3': 1.75

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Site: Lamoille River at Johnson

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

A beautiful sunny day and the first real paddling weekend of the season brought out a group of 3 paddlers. New to area Max McGregor joined Jim Fecteau and myself for  run down this Northern Vermont jewel. Due to a mix up in meeting time,  Jim and I had time to scout  the Waterville ledges while waiting for Max. We agreed the ledges needed a little more water but it was  sunny day with plenty of snow up high which promised more water as the day went on. We put in at the school as the upper section would have been too scrapey. There was ice that blocked only a few of the side routes but the main channel had no ice that came into play. The water was crystal clear and we had a blast paddling the gorge section.  The gauge was at 1-3/4 when we passed it; low but fluid.

By the time we got to the ledges there was indeed enough water. We took our time scouting three of the drops. Though there were a couple of scarey lines inadverntantly taken, we ultimately had a great run and a fitting end to a beautiful day.