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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Lined up at the play spot |
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