Details

Written by Tony Shaw

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 23 April 2015

Hits: 14749

Organizer(s): John and Jamie

Date: 2015-04-21

Kayakers (K1): John Atherton, Paul Carlile, Jamie Dolan, Jody Stilwell, Justin Worth

Canoers (OC1): Tony Shaw

Predominantly: Intermediate WW

Water Level: Medium high

Estimated Flow (cfs), e.g. '600': 400

After a full day of rain Monday and more on Tuesday (through noon and beyond), we agreed the steep 1/2 mile of the Browns River below Old Pump Rd. would be prime for an after work outing. So at 5pm, I met JAMIE, JODY, JOHN, and JUSTIN for a JOLLY JAUNT in JERICHO. If only JIM had showed up it would have been some kind of harmonic convergence. But PAUL showed up instead, and things went downhill from there. Well, sort of. I suggested we drive up to scout the big drop below the OPR bridge. I have never run this stretch at such a high level, and the way the water was surging and swirling and reflecting off the rock walls at the hole half-way down made most everyone queasy.

By this time it was getting close to 6 pm, and with no other class III options in close proximity the group drove over to Barber Farm Rd. to set shuttle at the VT 117 bridge to run Mill Brook in Jericho. Since Tropical Storm Irene, Mill Brook has been virtually unrun, due to landslides into the river in at least 2 places leaving behind a jumble of trees in both cases. Even before Irene, Mill Brook had a reputation for sporting big wood in inconvenient places.

With all the water in the brook this afternoon, we were able to put-in way up on Nashville Rd., a hundred yards above the big waterfall "that nobody runs". Our better judgement was to leave it that way, at least for this day, and we carried around on the left or the right. A route certainly exists for running this falls, bouncing down the far right side, or perhaps even the far left.

From there down to Fitzsimonds Rd., where we called the trip on account of darkness, one encounters seemingly endless class II rapids with one short III just below the Field Rd. bridge, but there is a ton of wood in the river. More specifically, there are tons and tons of wood in the river. Thankfully, we were an experienced, nimble, and good-spirited group, able to size up the hazards, lift or boof over several of the logs, and make quick carries where that was impossible.

I was having a really good time, with something new to contend with around each blind corner. That said, this type of run is certainly not for everyone.

My feet are still sore from the mile plus walk up Browns Trace and down Tarbox Rd. to where we had left our nearest shuttle vehicle. It was close to 9pm, and pitch dark, by the time the last of the boats was loaded and we all headed for home.

Details

Written by Tony Shaw

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 18 April 2015

Hits: 22427

Organizer(s): Tony Shaw

Date: 2015-04-18

Kayakers (K1): Nick Kovacks

Canoers (OC1): Tony Shaw

Other Personal Watercraft: Eric Bishop

Predominantly: Novice WW

Water Level: Medium low

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Site: LEWIS CREEK AT NORTH FERRISBURG, VT

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Flow (cfs), e.g. '797': 250

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Height (ft), e.g. '2.96': 2.9

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge URL: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv/?site_no=04282780&agency_cd=USGS

The fishermen and women out-numbered the paddlers today on Lewis Creek, but I'm pretty certain the paddlers were having more fun. The three of us put on a good show for them at the series of high, sloping ledges in North Ferrisburgh, where a downed tree in the river-left current at the bottom forced us to go either center or right - scraping some as we went. The hydraulic on river left there at the bottom was looking none too friendly either (but then, it never does). The rapids, aside from the (optional) narrow slot east of the Prindle Corners Covered Bridge (III) and the falls in North Ferrisburgh (IV), are predominantly class I-II. After scouting, we all lifted over the lamprey interdiction dam in the upper section, with ease.

The banks and the woods beyond are for the most part unspoiled, and lovely. We heard peepers, saw some beautiful wood ducks, red tailed hawks, and a big bard owl en route to our take-out at the old RR bridge abutment west of US7. Nick had some trouble above the Quinlans Covered Bridge when he (and Eric) attempted the more technical left side of the island and Nick got tangled up with some tree branches that were blocking the current. It all turned out fine.

The temperatures dropped from the 60's into the 50's after a little squall passed through about the time we put in, but the sun came back out for the last half of the run and it felt super. I know Lewis Creek can be run at lower water levels, but as it was I thought we did our fair share of scraping today - medium low is what I think you'd have to call it. Just under 3 hours, on the water. Nice.

Details

Written by Jamie Dolan

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 21 April 2015

Hits: 77

Organizer(s): Jamie Dolan

Date: 2015-04-19

Kayakers (K1): Sarah C; Tad M; Jamie D

Canoers (OC1): Tony S

Other Personal Watercraft: Eric B

Predominantly: Advanced WW

Water Level: High

It had the makings of a wonderful day. Five experienced paddlers on a sunny day on Joe’s Brook. Well, it was a wonderful day but not as first imagined. The water was at a stout level. Water was flowing well over the gauge rock and the turbines adding their share. We encountered wood from the get go.  Mainly trees bowing in the river that we were able to paddle around or through.  But there was also plenty of random logs in the water.  There also were plenty of ice shelves.  The first rapid, island rapid, had a healthy combination of both, with a fair amount of water juicing it (there was no island at this level).  Nothing too hard but consequences (ice shelves) could be vexing.  Tony was particularly concerned with the ice shelves.  While I ran it without mishap it apparently did not inspire any confidence. All others decided to walk.  Island rapid is quickly followed by S turn (where we had to portage last year due to wood).  Oddly enough, this river trip got interesting on the portage.

I was on river left waiting for others to get back on. Eric was the first to come over and indicated he had his fun factor filled for the day.   He was ready to walk out. The river was much higher then he had ever run it and he was in a new boat that he was still getting used to. Again, Eric and I were on river left, everyone else on river right. Tony indicated (I thought) he and Tad were ready to call it a day and were going to walk out river right. I relayed this to Eric (on river left) and he decided to crest the steep bank and put in the class II downstream to cross over and join Tony and Tad. During this Sarah lost her boat into the river while she was portaging.  She lost her grip on it while trying to climb the steep uphill on river right. I saw it float past but wasn’t able to help as I was out of my boat. Sarah got my attention and indicated she was off on boat retrieval. We were now five people in four different places, none within sight of the other.  Nice! Suffice it to say we eventually regrouped, retrieved her boat from the middle of the river (class II rapids), walked the next two drops (the three foot ledge and a small slide) and took out at the first bridge we came to. While Tony was particularly interested in going on to the covered bridge (two more significant rapids) where we had left a car, we called it a day.  We had gone maybe three miles in 2 1/2 hours. Paraphrasing Sarah “We used a lot of skills that day though paddling wasn't really one of them”.

Details

Written by Jamie Dolan

Category: Trip Reports

Published: 14 April 2015

Hits: 76

Organizer(s): Jamie Dolan

Date: 2015-04-11

Kayakers (K1): Jamie Dolan

Tandem Kayakers (K2): Justin Worth

Predominantly: Nov-int WW

Water Level: Low boatable

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Site: Moretown

Primary Realtime USGS Gauge Flow (cfs), e.g. '797': 800 - 900

We were in the mood for some exploring and that is what we did. Neither of us had been on the Upper Warren section of the Mad and so we decided to try it. Our information was that it would be good to go between 700 and 1,100 cfs. It turns out the our run was done with the Moretown gauge running between 800 and 900 cfs. Italos turns out we both thought that was too low by probably a couple hundred cfs. Rivers change. We scrapped an awful lot and pushed off the bottom a couple of times too. We drove south on 100 and when the river was looking too closed in with snow we pulled over and dropped off the boats roadside so we could set shuttle. We continued driving south looking for a place to turn around. Within 100 yards we came to picnic area pull off. Okay, so we weren’t felling particularly bright about that. We dropped a car at an old Bobbin Mill where the Lincoln Brook joins the Mad. The run was about 3 miles total. After dropping the car at we went back to the boats a few easy drops downstream of the parking area. We didn’t try to catch the first two drops as one was snow capped and the other wood choked. While not exactly a theme for the day we did end up carrying maybe six times due to snow / ice ledges / wood. Not too bad. The first drop should have been relatively straight forward but it was NOT. I got caught in an ice shelve. Though remaining upright the whole time, it was very unpleasant and a more than a little unnerving. Fortunately, I’m a “trainable” and I learned my lesson well. Justin found out how slightly undercut rocks are hard to lean into. It wasn’t a good start for either of us. Throughout the ride we found lots of slightly undercut rocks (and tons of ice shelves that we avoided). The rest of the trip was mostly II maybe a couple of easy III’s. Warren Falls was definitely not going to be run due to an ice bridge right at neck level just beyond the lip. There may have been t a couple of III’s that we had to walk around due to snow or wood. The only thing we saw of consequence was Warren Falls. So, not much of an adrenaline rush (other than the opening drop). But the woods and rocks / ledges we were around were definitely worth it, at the least for one round. And there were some interesting houses (huge) that we passed that were definitely not your McMansion.