Open Boat, Moving Water - A Paddler's Journal: Tville

Monday, February 27, 2023

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.