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| Harrisville Dam |
With the 2"-3" of rain that we received on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day all the rivers were running this weekend. With family obligations and my self-imposed limitation on car-shuttles, though, my options were limited. The Branch was up, it's close to home, Paul was available, and Michelle was willing to run the shuttle for me, so the Branch it was.
The Branch River technically arises in Oakland at the confluence of the Clear and Chepachet Rivers. From there it flows east for approximately 10-miles through Slatersville and Foresdale to its convergence with the Blackstone River in North Smithfield.
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| Whipple Drop |
The first half of this trip is actually on the Clear River. The Clear River arises in the swamps southeast of Wallum Lake in Burrillville and flows generally east for approximately 10-miles through Pascoag and Harrisville before converging with the Chepachet River in Oakland to form the Branch. The Nipmuc is a major tributary of the Clear River, converging with the Clear in Harrisville above the dam.
We met at the put-in below the Stillwater Mill at 12:30 and were on the river around 1:00. The river rose to 7.5', 2,000 cfs on Saturday, but was down to a more reasonable level of 4.75', 650 cfs on Sunday – still the highest level that I have paddled it. The day was sunny and warm, at least in the early afternoon when the sun was high.
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| Oakland Dam |
We paddled the short distance up to the Harrisville Dam before heading downstream. We hit a couple of river-wide blow-downs above Whipple Drop that we had to portage. I ran the Whipple drop to the right avoiding the rocks and big hole in the center. I did a little surfing below Whipple Drop, once again avoiding the biggest wave in the middle, before heading downstream.
There was one blow-down between Whipple Drop and Oakland that I decided to portage. Paul was able to work his way through on the left. When we arrived, I was glad to see water flowing over the Oakland Dam. Last time we were here the dam was high and dry with all the water flowing through the old Oakland Mill and down the raceway. A big log now blocks water from flowing though the gate into the mill, but it was unclear whether this was random piece of debris or was placed there intentionally.
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| Atlas Pallet |
After portaging the Oakland Dam we did a little surfing below the dam before heading down to Glendale. The Glendale Rapid was big and fluffy, and I ran it to the left, once again avoiding the big rocks in the middle. From there it is a nice quickwater run down to Atlas Pallet. I ran Atlas Pallet to the left and made it through fine. Paul went a little more to the right, and hit some rocks on the way down. After a little surfing below the rapid we headed downstream.
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