Pawcatuck River Overnight - September 28-29, 2019

Putting-in below the Alton Dam

I put in below the Alton Dam, and paddled down the Wood River to the bootleg campsite at the convergence with the Pawcatuck River. I thought I would be the first to arrive, but when I got there I found the RICKA crew already there and busy setting up camp.

Each year the RICKA Wilderness group does an overnight trip on the Pawcatuck to give members a chance to experience “wilderness” paddling in an easy setting. I did my first “wilderness” trip with RICKA back in 2012, and I've been hooked ever since. This year we had 10 folks on the trip including 6 newbies.

The tents are set up

The rest of the group met at the Jay Cronin Access in Richmond at around 10:30 for the paddle down to the campsite. That was a little early for me, so I put-in at around 2:00 below the Alton Dam. The group was well along setting up camp by the time I arrived, so I started gathering firewood for the evening fire. Before long we had a large pile that looked like it would last through the evening, with plenty left-over for the morning. 

After gathering wood (a sweaty job), I set up my tent and got cleaned up for the evening. When Bill arrived about 5:00 we got the fire started and enjoyed appetizers until around 6:30 when dinner (spaghetti and meatballs) was ready.  After that, we sat around the fire until around 10:00 when the last of us called it a night.

The crew ready to leave Sunday morning

I woke up at around 5:00 but didn’t get out of the tent until around 6:30 in order not to disturb others who might still be sleeping.  As it turned out, almost everyone was awake anyway. I started the coffee and the fire (in that order), and then started cooking breakfast – potato, onion, pepper, sausage and cheese frittata in the dutch oven. Some of the group took a hike over to see the osprey nest after breakfast (no osprey in residence), but I started breaking camp.

We go on the water for the trip down to Bradford at around 10:30. The river was low, but Bill and I were still able to do a relatively fluid run through the broken dam at Burdickville.  From there it is a short paddle down to Bradford.  Fun trip.


Camping on the Pawcatuck River from Erik Eckilson on Vimeo.

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Westfest – September 21, 2019

Below the put-in

I headed off with Paul for our annual trip to Westfest. I was looking forward to getting my new Outrage out in some real whitewater.

I met Paul at the usual place at the usual time – McD’s at 7:00. I decided to follow Paul’s advice and take the back roads up to VT. Our route took us up Rt. 140 to Keene and then across Rt. 9 to Brattleboro. One of the reasons that I prefer the highway is that you don’t have to worry about speeding tickets as speed limit gets reduced though residential areas. Well, it happened – I got nabbed with ticket somewhere south of Keene on a short section of road where the speed limit dropped to 35 mph.  

Running the Dumplings

Our slight delay meant that we were late getting into Jamaica State Park. We got in line for the shuttle at around 10:00. Others were already lining up for a second run. The line was long, and we got on the water around 11:00. The new Outrage felt a little twitchy at first, but soon settled down. It does a great job of bouncing over waves (seems dryer than my old Encore), but I found that I needed to hold the lean longer on eddy turns and ferries.

My first run through the Dumplings was a little low, and I just missed the big hole on the left, but I made it through fine. The line for the shuttle was even longer for our second run. We ended up doing four runs total. We did our third run with Dave D, so that tradition continues. The river peaked at 1,500 cfs. at around 1:00, and started its slow decline. It was noticeably lower by our last run at around 3:30.  Good time as always. 

Happy paddler

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West River Gage

My old Impluse has a new home – September 2, 2019

Glendale Rapid on the Branch in 2006

With the purchase of my new Outrage, it was time to make room in the boathouse by passing on my old Impluse to a new paddler, and Danny seemed like the perfect choice. I met him this morning at Lincoln Woods and he took it for a spin – deal done.

I bought the the Impluse in the fall of 2005 after taking the NHAMC Whitewater School in the spring. The first trip that I did in this boat was the fall draw-down at the Pcat, which I have done many times since. The next trip was the icebreaker trip on the Upper Winni the following spring, and then I did my first trip on the Branch with Bill Luther in June. The first picture that I have in this boat is running the Glendale Rapid on the Branch.

Shepaug in February 2008

In the fall of 2007, I started paddling with Matt and Scott, and took many trips to CT to run the Farmington. One of my favorite pictures in the Impluse is a winter shot from February 2008 on the Shepaug.

In 2008 or 2009 I bought my first Encore, and the Impluse became my spare boat. I used in for a few months in 2011 when my original Encore got stolen. Fortunately, I was able to purchase another Encore from Tommy, and the Impluse went back to being my spare. I think the Impluse will have a good new home with Danny.

Danny in his new boat - have fun!

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Pawcatuck – Lower Shannock Falls to Alton – September 1, 2019

Running Lower Skannock Falls

I sent an email to Bill and Jonathan to see if they wanted to paddle on Sunday. Jonathan wanted to do something with current, so we decided on the Pawcatuck from the Lower Shannock Falls down to Alton. Bill wanted to paddle tandem, so I brought the Mohawk.

We met at 10:00 at Alton Landing to run the shuttle. The day was beautiful – sunny and warm, and the river was at a nice level – 2’, 70 cfs. on the Wood River Junction gage – low, but still fluid.

Lunch at the Carolina Canoe Campsite

We checked out the rapid at Lower Shannock Falls, and Bill and I decided that it was a little too low to run in the tandem. Jonathan ran it in the Courier, and made it look easy. From there, we continued down through the Carolina Raceway (moving pretty well) to the Carolina Canoe Campsite (getting overgrown) where we stopped for lunch. The Richmond Dam was too low to run, but the surf wave below it was prefect.  

Last year I ran a trip from Richmond down to Bradford, and the section below Richmond was full of blow-downs. Fortunately the WPWA has been in there with chainsaws and cleared a path. It was a bit of work paddling up the Wood River to Alton, and I felt bad for Jonathan paddling solo, but as always he managed fine.  Great day!

The crew at the take out below the Alton Dam

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Wood River Junction Gage