2011 Year End Review

For me, 2011 was another great year for paddling. I try to do at least one big trip each month, and here are some of the more significant ones:

• January – New Year’s run on Fife Brook
• February – Crystal section of the Farmington
• March – Otter Brook
• April – Quinapoxet, Quninsigamond
• May – Knightville section of the Westfield, Quaboag
• June – Sudbury
• July – Fife Brook again
• August – Easy Whitewater Trip in the Lower Deerfield
• September – Lower Millers
• November – Nashua, Lower Millers again
• December – Crystal again, Plummers Landing, Clear and Branch, Assabet

Unfortunately, I broke my monthly streak of continuous paddling in October due to my brother-in-law's passing. 

With last winter’s snow, I was also able to get in a little snowshoeing in 2011:

• Purgatory Chasm
• Lincoln Bikepath
• Diamond Hill
• Blackstone Gorge

I added a few new videos to my collection of Blackstone River videos. I now have the river pretty much covered from Riverbend Farm in Uxbridge down to the Slater Mill in Pawtucket. I also included a couple of sections of the Clear/Branch Rivers.

I had a great vacation in Narragansett – my first attempts at ocean paddling.

As for last year’s resolutions, I did OK. I did get out to paddle with SuAsCo Al – three times in fact:

• Scouting the Sudbury with Al
• RICKA Trip on the Sudbury
• Assabet with Al, Tommy and Jeff

I still need to work on my C1 rolling, and I need to do some overnight camping trips. It’s good to have some goals for next year.

Overall it was another great year, and there are still plenty of rivers I would like to paddle. Here is my RICKA Year in Review video.


RICKA Trips 2011 from Erik Eckilson on Vimeo.

Happy New Year everyone.