Tville - February 26, 2023

Paul D. at Cathy's Wave

It was 28 degrees, the sky was gray and snow covered the trees as I headed west on the Mass Pike near Worcester. I was thinking about all the great trips that I did with Matt and Scott in similar conditions back when I was starting out. Fortunately (or unfortunately), Hartford didn’t get as much snow as the Worcester Hills, and temperatures warmed into the high 30s/low 40s by the time we got on the water. It was still a great day.

It's been a long time since I’ve had my whitewater boat out, and my knee has been feeling better, so I sent an email to Paul D. to see if he would be interested in a Tville run. We agreed to meet at noon at the mill put-in since the gate at Tariffville Park is closed in the winter and parking there can be limited. After a quick catch-up we unloaded our boats and started getting ready. As I was putting on my drysuit I ripped a hole one of the latex booties. Oh well, it was old and getting tight anyway, so I ordered a yellow (Mantis) Kokatat Legacy.

Don running Bridge Abutment

After running the shuttle we launched just as another group was coming down from Tariffville Park. We ended up in a group of eight – six kayaks (Paul, Sean, Denise, Jo-Ann, Nathan and Ian) and 2 canoes (me and Don). The river was at a nice level – 2.1 feet, 800 cfs. With a hole in my drysuit I was pretty conservative in my paddling. I ran the rapids, but didn’t do a lot of surfing.

We had two swims for the day – Nathan who flipped in Klingon above the Playhole, and Don who flipped in the squirrely water below Double Drop (Inquisition Ledges). Nathan’s boat ended up pined on the rocks below the playhole. I was afraid it would be tough to get off, but it wasn’t. Don took the left line at the first drop in Double Drop, but missed the eddy. He ended up in the squirrely water after running straight through the second drop. I have flipped there before and it is not the easiest place to get back in the boat.

Nathan in the Playhole

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Tville Gage

River Description on American Whitewater

Millville Rapid - February 11, 2023

Millville Rapid under the Central Street Bridge

I didn’t see any trips posted for today, and the Papa Joe hike was out in Hingham, so I decided to stay local and take my canoe out for a few laps at the Millville Rapid. 

Millville is one of the oldest, and one of the youngest towns in Massachusetts. Originally settled in 1662, it was organized as Mendon's South Parish in 1766, and became part of the town of Blackstone in 1845. It wasn't until 1916 that it was incorporated as an independent town. 

Historic mills in Millville

Early in its history Millville was primarily a farming community. A saw mill and grist mill were operating along the river by 1725. By 1830, woolen mills lined the banks on both sides of the river and the Blackstone Canal had been completed linking Providence to Worcester (Millville Lock downstream). Growth would continue with the competition of the Providence & Worcester Railroad in 1847 (Triad Bridge site downstream). Millville would eventually become home to a large rubber mill, which would become part of the US Rubber Company (later Uniroyal) in 1892. Remnants of this industrial past can be seen in the foundations and mill races along the river.

My original plan was to paddle upstream from the Blackstone Gorge, but the current was strong and it was pretty windy. Instead, I drove up to Millville to put-in upstream of the Central Street Bridge. I parked on Bow Street next to the Post Office and carried my boat down to the river. The river was at a nice level – 3.8 feet on the Northbridge gage, 8.4 feet, 570 cfs on the Rt. 122 gage. I did a several runs, but wasn’t very good at catching them on video.

Millville Rapid from Erik Eckilson on Vimeo.

This one earned me another poem from Tom on p.net:

Sixty-four degrees of frost!!!

River bottom’s no longer tossed,

nor shaken, stirred, while on the rocks,

non-migratories stuck there in blocks,

along with depths once on the go,

now one big sheet of H-2-Nooo

you don’t take fresh air facial

or black-n-blue frost bites all glacial!

“I’m just going outside and may be some time.”

(be sure to bring the ponies in)

TW