Thinking about paddles - February 24, 2019

My "go-to" paddles

I have lots of paddles that lean against the foundation in my basement and collect dust, but I have three that I use all the time.  My "go-to" paddle is a 58” Werner Bandit. With a “T” grip and spooned blade it’s great for “cab forward” paddling – forward and cross-forward strokes with a minimum of correction. Most of my boats are set up for kneeling so I can paddle them like whitewater boats.

When I got my Wildfire I wanted to try some freestyle moves, and quickly realized that the Bandit wasn’t good for that. With the spooned blade I couldn’t do palm rolls, and it was tough to place the paddle for bow prys or jams. Based on advice I got on Pnet, I got a 56” FOX worx. With a pear grip and large blade, the Indian Stroke with a palm roll and in-water recovery is the easiest way to move forward, and bow prys are the easiest way to turn the boat. The large blade makes cross forward strokes a little more difficult.

The only boat that I can’t kneel in is my Spirit II, which is set up for "sit and switch" paddling with tractor seats and foot braces. For that boat I have the original 54" Race Mate bent shaft paddles that my father bought with the boat in 1988. They are a little beat up, but I still use them.  

I went out to the Manville Dam yesterday with my Wildfire and the FOX worx paddle, and tried to paddle like I usually do with lots of cross forward strokes. I realized that it wasn’t going to work - Indian strokes and bow jams it is. I guess the old saying "when you have a hammer everything looks like a nail" works with paddles too!

Above the Manville Dam

The Might Quin - Hiking not Paddling - February 23, 2019

Joe, Conrad, Tim, Roberta and Erik

If you can’t paddle it, you might as well hike along it. There didn’t seem to be any paddling trips today, so I joined the Papa Joe hike along the Quinapoxet River in Holden.  Smaller group, but still a great hike – lots of crunchy snow under foot.

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Back to the Bog – the Quaboag that is! February 16, 2019

Heading out

One of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2019 is to step up my whitewater paddling by getting on some more challenging rivers. One of those is definitely the Quaboag - about an hour away, it starts off with a class II warm-up, and then runs through a series of class III rapids.  The last time that I ran the Quaboag was in 2011. When Conrad posted a trip there, I was in.

We met at 10:00 at Lucy Stone Park (235 Old West Brookfield Road, Warren) for the shuttle down to the take out on Route 67 in Palmer (281 Boston Rd, Palmer). We had eight boats - two canoes (me and Brooke) and 6 kayaks.

Easy class II rapids

The first half of the trip is easy with a couple of miles of quickwater and class I/II rapids. The river was 4.4 feet, 475 cfs on the West Brimfield gage - a medium low level that is perfect for me in my open boat. The river is more technical at this level, and we did have to scrape over a few rocks (especially the last rapid at the bottom) and wiggle through a couple of strainers in calmer spots, but it doesn't have the big holes and waves that develop at higher levels.

The first class III rapid is Mouse Hole. There was a large old rotten tree blocking most of the usual line through right side. The log dammed up enough water so that we could run the left side, which is usually too boney at this level. I made it through the big drop, and was able to catch the eddy on river right to empty out my boat. 

One other open boat

Shortly after Mouse Hole is the Trestle Rapid. I went left under the trestle, and eddied out under the bridge behind some rocks along the center pier. I then pealed out into the main flow and caught the eddy behind the rocks on river right about half way down. From there, its an easy run through the rocks at the bottom.

After a few more class II rapids and some surfing at the play spot, we portaged the large dam. Just downstream is the broken dam that I ran left of center.  Below the broken dam is the Angel’s Field rapid – nothing difficult, just big waves. After the Angel’s Field we entered Devil's Gorge. The gorge has three distinct rapids. The first is the most difficult and terminates with a 3-foot drop known at the Quaboag Drop, which is run on the right. From there its waves and rock dodging down to the take out.  

Lined up at the play spot

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Quaboag River Gage at West Brimfield

River Description from American Whitewater

Browning Mill Pond - February 10, 2019

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Michelle and I decided to do a hike this afternoon. Our original plan was to go to Stepping Stone Falls, but we couldn’t get down the dirt road at Falls River Road - it looked like someone had gotten stuck there last week. Instead, we hiked around the Browning Mill Pond. It’s a 1.6-mile loop. The trail is well maintained with boardwalks to get over the muddy spots, but a few rocks and roots to be careful of. It took us about an hour.   

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Martin Street Bridge - February 3, 2019

Ferry out, surf, repeat - a great way too paddle 30' of river and never get bored. I had been thinking about a Crystal run all week, and figured someone would post a trip. When they finally did the river was dropping (800 cfs) and the meet-up time was noon, which meant that I wouldn't get back home until around the start of the Super Bowl. I wasn’t up for that, so I decided to stay local. I went down to Berkley to paddle the ledge below the Martin Street Bridge. The river was 1,000 cfs, 3 feet on the Woonsocket gage.  Here's an hour-and-a-half compressed into three minutes.

Martin Street Bridge from Erik Eckilson on Vimeo.