First Swim of the Year – Piscat Step-up Paddle – March 6, 2022

Downstream from the put-in

With the COVID pandemic, I’ve done a lot less whitewater paddling over the past two years. When I saw that the NHAMC was doing a series of class III step-up trips aimed at class II paddlers, I registered right away. It seemed like a great opportunity to kill two birds with one stone – ease back into some more challenging whitewater and paddle some rivers up in NH that I don’t get on very often.

I did my first whitewater training at the NHAMC Whitewater School back in 2005. Since then, I haven’t paddled with them as much as I would like, so this would also be a good opportunity to reconnect. The trips are limited to 6 student paddlers with a 1:1 coaching ratio on 8 different rivers in March and April. Some of the rivers that caught my attention were the Suncook - Suncook Dam to Center Barnstead, Souhegan - Greenville to Route 101, Ashuelot - Gilsum Gorge to Shaw's Corner, Croyden Brook - Newport, Swift - Bear Notch Road to Rocky Gorge, and the Ammonoosuc - Bretton Woods to Twin Mountain and Twin Mountain to Pierce Bridge.

Lots of ice on the banks

The first trip was originally schedule to be the Upper Souhegan, but it had to be moved due to ice and low water. Instead, we went to the Piscataquog River in Goffstown. This was the first trip that I did as a Whitewater School graduate in 2005, so it seemed appropriate. I have padded it many times since then at the annual Piscat Drawdown and BBQ.

We met at the Greggs Falls Dam at noon and ran the shuttle down to the parking lot for the Goffstown Railtrail at the Hillsborough County Offices. The day was warm but it was pouring rain as I drove up Route 3 to Goffstown. Fortunately, the rain cleared and the sun came out by the time we launched our boats.

Surf wave above the bridge

We had 10 boats – 9 kayaks and one canoe (guess who). The river was lower than the usual release level. The gage was 5’, 500 cfs when I left home, but dropped to 4.5’, 300 cfs by the middle of the day. It was boney in places but there were still surf spots to find.

We surfed the first rapid below the put-in before heading downstream. At this level, I was able to surf the wave below the powerlines. We had two swimmers at the ledge above the bridge – including me. In typical fashion, I got turned sideways and window-shaded. We had one more swimmer in the recirculating eddy downstream. We took out below the rapid behind the prison, and dragged our boats up the hill to the cars. It’s a class IV take-out, but it was definitely worth it.

The crew at the put-in

Links:

My Pictures
River Description from American Whitewater
Goffstown Gage