Quinebaug - Danielson to Canterbury - February 23, 2022

Erik

The forecast was for temperatures in the mid-60’s (it actually hit 70 in Hartford), so I decided to take the afternoon off to paddle the Q2 (Quinebaug, not Quinapoxet) with Paul. After seeing my post on Facebook, Dave decided to join us as well.

The Quinebaug River arises above East Brimfield Lake in Sturbridge and flows generally southeast for 60 miles through MA and CT to Norwich where it joins the Willimantic to form the Shetucket. We would be running the 10-mile section from Danielson to Canterbury. You can also shorten this trip to 5.3 miles by taking out at the CT DEEP Fish Hatchery.

Paul

I met Paul and Dave at noon at Wayne R. LaFreniere Memorial Field at 39 Wauregan Road in Danielson for the shuttle down to Robert Manship Park at 50 Lovell Lane in Canterbury. We got on the water around 1:00 and headed downstream. The gage was offline, but based on intermittent readings it looks like the level was around 6’, 2,000 cfs – plenty of water and no rocks to dodge.

This is one of the longer, more challenging sections of the Quinebaug with flatwater, lots of quickwater, and easy rapids at the broken Dyer Dam (2-miles downstream, rebar river right - run center or left) and the old Wauregan Dam above the Wauregen Road Bridge (5-miles downstream). The trip took up about 2.5 hours, but it would have gone faster without the wind.

Quinebaug River - Wauregan Bridge from Erik Eckilson on Vimeo.

Links:
My Pictures
My Video
Putnam Gage

Quinebaug River Paddle Guide (see page 21 for this trip)