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| Below the Harrisville Dam |
As a nod to all the years that RICKA ran the Branch River Race, we always try to run the Branch River on the traditional third weekend in March. We call it the "Branch River Icebreaker", but there hasn’t been any ice to break for the past few years.
The Branch River Race/Rhode Island Whitewater Championship was established by RICKA in 1980 and was always run on the third weekend in March. It was the first race of the year on calendar of the NECKRA Downriver Series. The race continued for 25 years, but was eventually discontinued due to the high cost of insurance and problems with river access.
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| Running Whipple Drop |
For this year's Icebreaker we had eight paddlers in seven boats – three poling, three paddling solo and two paddling tandem. Mike H. joined us with his Royalex Wildfire, so I brought my Yellowstone Solo. With the low water it would have been easier to pole, but the Yellowstone was better for the portages.
We met at the put-in at the Stillwater Mill at 10:00 to run the shuttle. Since the usual take out is still posted “No Trespassing”, we were fortunate to be able to take out at Mike’s house. The river was low at 2.5 feet, 100 cfs – a good poling level, but not a great paddling level. Not the lowest that we have done, but pretty close.
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| Poling the Glendale Rapid |
The first half of this trip is actually on the Clear River. There were a couple of good-size blowdowns in this section that we needed to carry over. I looked at Whipple Drop and took a pass. Everyone else ran it down the center and did fine. We continued downstream to Oakland, where the Branch is formed at the confluence of the Clear and Chepachet Rivers.
We took a break for lunch at the Oakland Dam before heading down to Glendale. With construction at the Victory Highway Bridge, we had to portage around a work platform floating in the river. The Glendale Rapid was shallow and very boney. Only Chuck was brave enough to run it – poling no less. The rest of us waded down the left side.
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| Running the Atlas Pallet Rapid |
The quickwater section from Glendale to Atlas Pallet was very low. The polers did OK, but the paddlers bounced off rocks and struggled to find deep water. If you picked the wrong line you had to get out and drag you boat to deeper water.
The Atlas Pallet Rapid looked OK, but it was also very shallow. I went first, took my usual left of center line, and go hung up on the rocks. I eventually worked myself free and made it down. The rest of the crew found deeper water on the left and had better luck.
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| Below the Nasonville Dam |
It was easy paddling below Atlas Pallet as we got into the deadwater behind the Nasonville Dam. After portaging the dam, we were back in shallow water bouncing off rocks. Once we got past the Douglas Turnpike Bridge the water got deeper with the deadwater from the Slatersville Reservoir.
The take-out at Mike's house was a little muddy, but worked out fine. We dragged out boats up the path along the mill trench, loaded our boats and were on our way after another great trip.
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| The crew at the Oakland Dam |
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