I’ve been looking for a tandem river tripper in Royalex that can carry a big load. Now I have one - a Mad River Explorer 17.
Mad River’s most popular canoe, the Explorer, was introduced in 1975. With its shallow-V hull for stability, moderate rocker for maneuverability and symmetrical shape for solo paddling, the 16’ Explorer has been called one of the most versatile canoes ever built.
My new-to-me canoe (HIN MADHX402F191) is a Royalex Explorer 17 built in 1991. The Explorer 17 was designed for wilderness tripping and carrying big loads. It’s a big boat – 17’ 2” long and 37” wide. It will hold a lot of gear – can’t wait to try it, but first I need to figure out where to store it.
Bob has a group doing a wilderness trip on a remote Canadian river next month and wanted to practice whitewater in river trippers, so he organized a trip on the Fife Brook section of the Deerfield. With my sore knee, tandem paddling sounded great, so Aaron and I headed up with my Mohawk Whitewater 16.
There are two sections of the Deerfield with summer releases that are popular for whitewater paddling. Advanced paddlers often head to the Dryway in Monroe Bridge. This is a class III-IV section of river for experienced whitewater paddlers. We would be paddling the Fife Brook section, which is mostly class II, with the exception of Zoar Gap in the middle which is class III. This would be my 23rd run on Fife Brook, but the first in a tandem.
Aaron was at my house at 7:30 to drop off a new-to-me Mad River Explorer 17 (more on that later) and head off to the Deerfield. We met the crew at 10:30 at the Fife Brook put-in to run the shuttle down to Shunpike. The release was 800 cfs. from 11:30 to 2:30, so we practiced ferries and eddy turns/peal outs at the put-in before heading downstream.
Just downstream from the put-in is the first rapid known as Hangover Helper - a ledge extends across most of the river resulting in a 2-foot drop followed by a long wave train. We ran the drop and played in the waves before moving downstream.
The next rapid - Carbis Bend - is similar but smaller. A ledge extends out from the left side of the river producing a couple of easy surf waves. Aaron and I did a couple of surfs, but there were too many kayakers cutting our place in line, so we moved on.
Just downstream from Carbis Bend is Freight Train, which is a long wave train that ends with a large surf wave. The rapid takes its name from the speed that many people build up running through the waves, and the railroad bridge just downstream that carries freight trains across the river. We missed the tight eddy on the right, but were still able to get on the big surf wave.
After Freight Train we took a break for lunch at the Bridge to Nowhere before running Pinball. Pinball is a rock garden that’s a great place to practice eddy turns, peel outs and ferries. Aaron and I ran the entire rapid backwards ferrying from rock to rock
After Pinball is the Island Rapid. As the name describes, the river is split by an island. The usual route is to the left with large waves and fast moving water where the river reconnects at the end. Aaron and I were able to catch the eddy on the left and get some pictures of others coming through.
After the Island Rapid comes Zoar Gap – the largest rapid on this section of the river. We scouted it from the road and confirmed the usual line - just right of center down the shoot at the top, then left down the shoot at the large boulder.
Aaron and I went down last. We caught an eddy on the left on the way down, and then headed over to catch one of the of the rocks on the right. We ended up further downstream than I expected, and before I knew it we were in the Zoar Gap rapid.
Fortunately, Aaron had a better sense of where we were than I did. He guided us down the first shoot and lined us up perfectly for the second drop. Always trust your bowman. My record at Zoar Gap is now 23 attempts with 13 successful, 6 swims and 2 walks. I have been successful on my last 6 attempts
After the gap, we continued downstream to the Shunpike Rest Area. On the way home, we stopped at the Picnic Area in Shelburne Falls for Ozzy’s hot dogs and potatoes. Here is Aaron's video of the run.
There are a lot of unnamed rapids, but here are the named ones as best I could identify them:
Hangover helper 0:37 Carbis Bend 1:08 Freight Train 2:07 Surf wave below the RXR bridge 3:51 Minefield (ferry practice) 7:05 Mimi Beach 9:38 Island Rapid 10:02 Above Zoar Gap 10:54 Scouting Zoar Gap 11:33 Running Zoar Gap 12:17 Running Zoar Gap - Slo-Mo 12:54 Mini Gap 13:55 Bam Dance 14:30 Spin Out 15:04 Conjunction Junction 16:05 RXR Bridge on Lower 17:04 Waves on left before take-out 18:10
This boat is going to Aaron Rouby. It’s a 1993 Dagger Cascade C1 with original outfitting, Voyageur bags, and Hydroponics spray skirt. It was originally owned by Jim Cole. I’ve had it for about 10-years, but I could never roll it, and now I can’t kneel in it even with the pedestal raised to 7-inches. Its a fun boat, but not for me. I think it will have a good home with Aaron.
Lincoln Woods is RI’s oldest state park. It opened in 1909 after acquiring farmland and woodlots from the Olney, Arnold, Comstock, and Mitchell families. Over the years, it has grown to 627-acres around Olney Pond bordered by Route 146 to the west, Breakneck Hill Road to the north and Great Road/Route 123 to the east.
We would be hiking the Lincoln Woods Trail, which loops around the northern end of the park. It is a very pretty woodland littered with large glacial erratics. It is also a maze of unmarked trails and we pretty quickly got off course. We still did about 3.5-miles, and then went out for breakfast at 9 Twenty Cafe in Lonsdale.
I joined last night’s Blackstone Valley Paddle Club trip on the Nipmuc River – one of my favorites. The Nipmuc River arises in Burrillville at the confluence of Round Top Brook and the Chockalog River, and flows south about 3-miles to Harrisville where it flows into the Clear River.
We had 16 boats with 3 canoes. The river was low but runnable – 3 cfs. 2.8 feet. We paddled up a couple of miles over three beaver dams, including one that was built since the river was scouted last week. Unfortunately, the top section is clogged with trees. From there it is a quick trip back downstream. Nice night.
The weather has been sunny and hot, so I decided to take my sea kayak to the RICKA trip at Potter Cove. This was a joint trip for the Flatwater and Sea Kayak groups.
The RICKA Sea Kayak group assigns levels to trips, not to paddlers. Trip levels range from Level 1 (no previous skill required) to Level 5 (long distances in extremely challenging conditions). It is recommended that newer paddlers start off with Level 2 before moving up to Level 3. Level 2 trips tend to be protected coastal paddling, while Level 3 trips tend to be open water with bigger swells and longer crossings.
Heading out from Potter Cove
This would be a level 2 trip. The plan was to put in at Potter Cove and follow the shore though Jamestown Harbor to the Dumplings and back. We had 15 boats for the trip, and it was nice to see several new faces. We had a couple of folks who attended our “Get to Know RICKA Night”, and a couple who were just looking to check things out. Winds were from the SW 10 to 15 kt with waves of 1-2 feet and a high tide at 1:00 p.m.
We launched at around 9:30 into the calm waters of Potter Cove. Potter Cove is a long sandy beach facing the East Passage of Narragansett Bay. The beach and Taylor Point, which is just south of the beach, are both part of a town park that is popular for swimming, fishing and boating, so parking can be difficult. On days when the wind blows out of the south, which is most days, Potter Cove is somewhat protected. We knew the conditions would change once we got around Taylor Point.
Taylor Point and the Newport Bridge
As you round Taylor Point the amazing view of the Newport Bridge rises up in front of you. The Newport Bridge was completed in 1969 and is the longest suspension bridge in New England. The main span is over 1,600 feet long, and the road deck is more 200 feet above the water. The towers themselves are over 400 feet tall. Its massive size allowed large Navy ships to access the old Newport Navy Base. The big ships are gone, but Naval Station Newport with the Naval War College is now the Navy’s premiere learning center.
As expected, the wind and waves picked up as we came around Tylor Point. We paddled under the Newport Bridge and into Jamestown Harbor with some light chop and a strong headwind. We took a break near the East Ferry Boat Ramp to make sure everyone was feeling OK. From there we headed out into Jamestown Harbor. It is early in the season, so the mooring field was still relatively empty. You could see the masts of large sailboats still sitting onshore in the nearby boatyards.
Clingstone - the House on a Rock
At the southern end of Jamestown Harbor lies the Dumplings – a grouping of rocks just off Bull Point. These jagged, granite boulders were deposited at the end of the last ice age and resemble dumplings in soup. They are often covered by cormorants and other shore birds.
The most prominent of the Dumplings is Clingstone or the "House on the Rock". This massive post and beam home was built in 1905 and has been recently restored.
Into the open water of the East Passage
We took a break at an isolated beach on the southern end of Jamestown Harbor with great views of the Newport Bridge, the Dumplings and the sailboats out in the East Passage.
After the break we paddled out around Bull Point to get a better sense of what it is like to paddle in the open water of Narraganset Bay. We paddled into a strong headwind with 1-2 foot rolling waves. We paddled around the small island off Bull Point before heading back into Jamestown Harbor.
Newport Bridge on the trip back
From there, we headed back in the more exposed water at the edge of the mooring field. We now had a tail wing with 1-2 foot rolling waves The views of the Newport Bridge were amazing, but you definitely needed to pay attention to your paddling. Larger boat wake is also more common in the open water, and we had a couple of 2-3 foot waves come through. Everyone made it back fine.
As we came around Tylor Point into Potter Cove it was like a different world with flat, calm water. We helped each other get boats and gear back to the cars before getting on our way after another great trip.
It has been a while since I paddled the upper section of the Wood River, so when I saw that Sharon had a trip on the RICKA Flatwater calendar, I decided to join.
We had 9 paddlers for this trip – 4 canoes and 5 kayaks. We ran the shuttle down to the Wyoming Dam at 10:30, and were back at the put-in launching our boats by 11:00. The level was low, but still fluid - 2 ft, 70 cfs at Hope Valley gage; 3 ft, 35 cfs at Arcadia gage.
Below the put-in, the river twists and turns through the woodlands of the Arcadia Management Area. In many spots, there was just enough water to float over, and there were numerous blow-downs to maneuver around. We passed several fishermen trying their luck on this popular fly-fishing stream. After a couple of miles, the river opened up as we paddled into Frying Pan Pond.
Take-out at Wyoming Dam
We stopped for lunch at the Barberville Dam, which is also the headquarters for the Wood Pawcatuck Watershed Association. There are two portages around the Barberville Dam. The right portage allows paddlers to avoid the quickwater directly below the dam. We all went right since there wasn’t enough water to run the small rapids on the left.
The quickwater continued below the dam until Skunk Hill Road where the impoundment for the Wyoming Dam begins. It was an easy paddle down to the Wyoming Dam, but the pond's infestation with milfoil was very apparent. It would probably be difficult to paddle across later in the season. We finished up by around 2:30. Great trip.
