Branch River Icebreaker - March 21, 2021

Up the Glendale Rapid

It has been seven-years since my last poling trip. From what I can tell, it was December 2014 with Matt McCay at Satan’s Kingdom. Not sure why I haven’t been poling since, but today I was out with Chuck, Mike and Matt H. for the annual Branch River Icebreaker, and it was a blast.

We were out on the Branch for the traditional third weekend in March, race weekend paddle. The weather was great – high 50’s and sunny. No ice to break on this trip. The level was low, but we have done lower. With a little rain on Friday it popped up to 2.5 feet, 150 cfs. It was a great level for poling, and the three drops (Whipple, Glendale and Atlas Pallet) were boney but runnable.

Running Glendale

Michelle dropped me off that the put-in around 10:00. Chuck and Matt were waiting, and Mike had already headed downstream. Matt and I poled up to the dam while we waited for Chuck to run the shuttle.

I was expecting to find a bunch of blow-downs above Whipple Drop, but those were gone. They were replaced by a bunch of blowdowns below Whipple drop. We made it through fine. We ran Whipple Drop with no problem, and took a short break at the Oakland Dam before heading down to Glendale and Atlas Pallet. It was a fun run.

Below the Nasonville Dam

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Branch River Gage

River description from American Whitewater