Branch River Icebreaker - March 21, 2021

Up the Glendale Rapid

It has been seven-years since my last poling trip. From what I can tell, it was December 2014 with Matt McCay at Satan’s Kingdom. Not sure why I haven’t been poling since, but today I was out with Chuck, Mike and Matt H. for the annual Branch River Icebreaker, and it was a blast.

We were out on the Branch for the traditional third weekend in March, race weekend paddle. The weather was great – high 50’s and sunny. No ice to break on this trip. The level was low, but we have done lower. With a little rain on Friday it popped up to 2.5 feet, 150 cfs. It was a great level for poling, and the three drops (Whipple, Glendale and Atlas Pallet) were boney but runnable.

Running Glendale

Michelle dropped me off that the put-in around 10:00. Chuck and Matt were waiting, and Mike had already headed downstream. Matt and I poled up to the dam while we waited for Chuck to run the shuttle.

I was expecting to find a bunch of blow-downs above Whipple Drop, but those were gone. They were replaced by a bunch of blowdowns below Whipple drop. We made it through fine. We ran Whipple Drop with no problem, and took a short break at the Oakland Dam before heading down to Glendale and Atlas Pallet. It was a fun run.

Below the Nasonville Dam

Links:

My Pictures

Branch River Gage

River description from American Whitewater

Crystal - March 14, 2021

I hadn't been to Crystal for years, and now I have been there three times in two months. Nice run, easy bike shuttle, and a paddling partner in Paul who is great to paddle with have made this an easy choice. It’s also nice to get my whitewater boat out.

Crystal is the 3-mile section of the Farmington River from the Route 179 River Trail parking lot in Burlington to the recreational parking area on River Road in Unionville. There are eight rapids that start out easy, and get progressively more difficult as you move downstream. We tend to spend a lot of time surfing and ferrying through the rock gardens. River was at a nice level - 6.2 feet, 1,000 cfs. Paul’s GPS said we paddled 4.5-miles on this 3-mile section, so that is a lot of paddling into the current.

Links:

My Pictures

Crystal Gage

River Description from American Whitewater

River Island Park - March 7, 2021

It has been a year since the COVID lock-down started. The first trip I did after the stay-at-home order was issued was a solo run at River Island Park. It seems appropriate that I should be back there a year later for another run - especially after I got my mother her second COVID shot at Gillette Stadium yesterday. Nice level - 2.75 feet, 800 cfs. The hydro plant was shut down, so there was lots of water was flowing over the dam.

 

River Island Park from Erik Eckilson on Vimeo.

Links:

My Pictures