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| Stokers - from the Scantic Splash website |
I met up with Paul and Ed at the take-out at the Powder Hill
Barn off South Maple Street in Hazardville to run the shuttle. Tim would meet us at the put-in off
Quality Avenue in Sommersville. We
had 4 boats – 1 canoe and 3 kayaks.
The river was running at 70, which I am told is good. The weather was beautiful – high 30’s.
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| Chimney - from the Scantic Splash website |
We put in from a dirt road off Quality Avenue in
Somerville (Somers). For the first 2.5
miles the river meanders though a pretty hemlock forest. It’s mostly quickwater with a couple of
easy class I rapids and a few leaning trees to avoid. After the Route 191 Bridge and a railroad bridge, we
portaged the dam at the Springborn Center on river left.
Just downstream from the portage is the first major rapid –
Stokers. This is a ledge
with a 3 foot drop and a rocky shoot 6 to 10 feet from the left bank. I lined up on the shoot, made it
through the first big drop, only to hit a rock and take a swim a little
downstream. The consensus of the
group was that I didn’t have enough momentum going though the drop, so I
portaged my boat back upstream to run it again – this time with more
speed. Unfortunately, the result
was the same. Rocks don't move no matter how hard you hit them. I didn’t try it a
third time.
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| Staircase - from the Scantic Splash website |
The next major raid is Chimney – an “S” turn rapid that
starts off as a series of small ledges with a larger drop at the end. I made it through Chimney fine,
although I did fill up my boat in the drop.
The final rapid is Staircase which is exactly what you’d
expect - a series of ledges that looks like a staircase. The
largest ledge at the bottom has a nice wide shoot on river left. We all made it through fine and decided
to do some surfing. The run ended
at the Powder Hill Barn of South Maple Street in Hazardville (Enfield).
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