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| The first shuttle |
Some people said it was the last day of summer. Other people said it was the first day of fall. Either way, it was a great day to be on the water, and I spent it on the West River in Jamaica, VT at Westfest.
The West River runs 54-miles across VT from Mount Holly in the Green Mountains to Brattleboro where it joins the Connecticut River. While blocked by two large flood control dams – Ball Mountain and Townshend – there are still two sections of the West that are used for whitewater paddling during dam releases in the spring and fall – the upper West (class III) from Ball Mountain Dam to the Jamaica State Park, and the lower West (class II) from the Jamaica State Park to Route 100.
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| A typical section of the West River |
Westfest, held during the fall release, is the place to see and be seen for whitewater paddlers in the northeast. Just about everyone who paddles whitewater is there. The staff from the Jamaica State Park runs a shuttle on the upper section that allows paddlers to easily do 3 or 4 runs a day – a big draw for many people.
Since I started paddling on the West, I always paddled it with folks from RICKA. Over the years the group has grown, and then shrank. For the past couple of years it has been just Paul and I, but the great thing about Westfest is that there are always people that you know to paddle with.
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| Dave running Initiation |
We got an early start and arrived at the Jamaica State Park at around 8:30. We parked, unloaded our gear, changed up, and were on the shuttle for our first run at around 9:00. As we got on the water at the footbridge at Cobb Brook, we joined Paul G. for our first run. With the recent rains, the level was a little higher than usual – between 1,800 and 1,900 on the Jamaica, VT gage. At this level, the rocks were buried and there were lots of long wave trains.
The most difficult rapid on this section of the river is the Dumplings. The typical route is a “S” turn starting just left of some large rocks in the middle of the river, then right though some large standing waves. The turns were a little trickier and the waves were a little bigger, but we made it though fine. From there it is an easy run back to the Jamaica State Park for another ride on the shuttle.
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| Paul running Initiation |
We ended up doing four runs on the day. On the last run Paul and Dave D carried their boats up to the Ball Mountain Dam to run the most difficult rapid on the river – Initiation. Initiation is a half-mile rapid with continuous 3-foot waves, big rocks and nasty pour-overs. A misstate here usually leads to a long swim, so I decided to skip this rapid and take some pictures instead.
From my perch on a rock about halfway down the rapid, I saw Dave and Paul catch an eddy above a large pour-over upstream. From there they pealed-out, ferried around the pour-over, and bobbed down the waves though the rest of the rapid – nicely done. We ran the rest of the river and were on our way home around 4:00 after another great day on the water.
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| Erik and Dave approaching the take-out |
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