Jim, Paul, Jeff and I took a ride out to CT to run the Farmington from Collinsville to Unionville with CT locals Matt, Scott and Aaron. You couldn’t have asked for a nicer day – sunny and warm. The river itself is a nice class II with lots of boulder gardens and a couple of fun rapids. At 1,700 cfs, it was as high as I had ever seen it. I took the only significant swims. The first was a long one - probably a quarter mile through the entire Crystal rapid. Here's Matt's description from P-net:
“My local run was quite high for a few weeks, and Aaron and I were paddling daily. The normal class II turned into a much different animal. So the weekend comes and I'm really up for heading out of town, trying something else, but I get an e-mail from my favorite paddling bud in the whole universe wanting to come over and play. Okay, we'll hit this run again. We come into the very start of the longest biggest rapid and this bud of mine goes into a hole and starts side surfing. Gee, I think, that hole looked too big all week, but hey, if my bud can do it, I sure can, so I start to eddy out and wait my turn. Well, all the sudden...WHOOOMP, and my bud gets windowshaded, paddle looking like a turbine fan blade, over he goes. Boat goes one way, buddy goes another at a rock, Jeff Budz rights the boat ONE HANDED, and only lets go when I tell him what's ahead. My anonymous bud has a long long swim. The rest of us eddy out at a bend, my spot takes me along a bank where a family is having a cookout. Eck’s canoe comes bouncing down the river, eddies itself out next to me. Two kids look at the canoe and ask "is that for rent?" I point to the blue helmet bobbing down the river, slightly bloody body attached, fortunately still alive and kickin', and say "ah, it's already spoken for."
My second was in the Boateater rapid trying to get a picture of Jim. Just as I snapped the picture, I hit a rock and went over. Jim thought it was funny as you can see by the picture below.
All in all, a great day with great company.
Links:
Jeff's video
River description from American Whitewater
