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

Sunday, July 9, 2023

Upper Millers – July 8, 2023

Heading out

With the torrential downpours on the 4th of July, lots of whitewater rivers were running this week. With my summer vacation starting next week, it really wasn’t a good time for me to take time off. I saw trips posted on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, but had to pass. Fortunately, the water lasted until Saturday, and I was able to do a rare summer-time run on the Upper Millers.

The Millers arises in north-central MA and flows west for 52 miles to merge into the Connecticut River at Millers Falls. There are two sections that are popular for whitewater boating – the Upper Millers from Royalston to Athol (class II/III), and the Lower Millers from Erving to Millers Falls (class II/IV). With the Upper Millers dropping, there was talk of changing the trip to the Lower Millers.

Above the first railroad bridge

Rather than dropping my boat at the put-in (Blossom Street in Royalston) as I usually do, I drove directly to the take-out (Crescent Street in Athol) in case the trip needed to move to the Lower Millers. The water on Upper Millers is controlled by releases from the Birch Hill Dam. It looked like the river would hold at around 1,000 cfs, so the Upper Millers run was on. We loaded up the boats and headed up to the put-in.

We had 8 boats - 4 canoes (Kaz, Rick, Dave and me) and 4 kayaks (Paddler Shawn, Andrew, Martha and Mary Therese). To me, 1,000 cfs is a great level for this run. The waves aren’t too big, the water isn’t too pushy, and there are tons of eddies to catch and waves to surf. It’s a nice class II+ run - just the way I like it. We got on the water at around 11:00 and headed out.

Buckman Brook Shelter

The first major rapid starts just below the put-in and continues down to the first railroad bridge – lots of waves and rocks to dodge. After some surfing and jet ferries below the railroad bridge we continued downstream. The next major rapid is Mile Long. As the name suggests, it is a long rock garden that ends at the shelter at the Bearsden Conservation Area. We worked our way down rock-hopping and catching waves.

After a quick break at the Buckman Brook Shelter, we continued downstream. There are a couple of class II rapids, including the wave train below the lunch spot and the island, before you reach the last major rapid – the Gorge. I had a swim at the Gorge last time I was here, but this time I made it through fine. We finished the run at around 1:30 with the class IV carry back to the cars. After shuttling Kaz and Shawn back to their cars, I was on my way home after a great summer-time run.