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| That's me |
Over the years, I’ve done a lot of trips on the Lower Deerfield. I can remember my first RICKA trip here with Jim Cole, Alan August and Henry Dziadosz back in 2006. I started leading RICKA trips here around 2010, and have done 10 “easy whitewater trips for flatwater paddlers” in the last 13-years.
The release from the Fife Brook Dam controls the water in this section of the river, and timing is everything with this trip. Launch too early and you will out run the water. Launch too late and the water will out run you. Either way, you will end up high and dry. Launching 3-hours after the scheduled release is about right. For this trip we had an early release due to Deerfieldfest, so timing wasn’t an issue.
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| Ozzie in Blam Dance |
We would be running the section from the Zoar Picnic Area to Charlemont Academy – about 7 miles. The group was small since the trip coincided with RICKA's annual ADK trip. We had 5 boats and 6 paddlers (1 kayak, 1 poler, 2 solo canoes and 1 tandem canoe) - a nice size group for this run. Jonathan and I paddled tandem in my Mohawk Whitewater 16. Bob poled pretty much the entire run. The release was scheduled at 800 cfs, and the Charlemont gage was around 1,000 cfs.
We met at 11:00 at the take out near Chalemont Achademy and ran the shuttle up to the Zoar Picnic Area. As we prepared to launch, I was a little worried that that the bubble hadn’t made it down yet, but I felt better when a group of tubers from Great Outdoors showed up. We had plenty of water and would be dodging tubers for most of the run.
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| Bob poling Spin Out |
This section of the Deerfield pretty much has it all. There is a little flatwater so you can take in the scenery, a lot of quickwater to keep you moving, and a couple of easy class I/II rapids to make it interesting. Most of the rapids come early in the trip with three easy rapids just downstream from the put-in.
Directly below the Zoar Picnic Area is the Blam Dance Rapid – we had one swim here when Jonathan and I were ferrying over and cut off Ed who was trying to peal out - whoops.
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| Dan at the top of Conjunction Junction |
Below that at a the sharp curve to the left is the Spin Out Rapid. We rescued a tuber who was stuck in the recirculating eddy here, and had one swim when Ozzie was trying to surf the fast moving current.
To the left of the island with the squirt line at the bottom is Conjunction Junction. We took a break for lunch here. I took a swim, but it was intentional. Bob and Dan did a lot of surfing.
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| Bob poling at Conjunction Junction |
After that, it is mostly quickwater with an occasional short rapid. I did my best not to dump Jonathan, but I did get him wet in the short wavetrain across from the campground near Shunpike. We had one more swim going into the eddy on the right in the fast moving shoot above Zoar Outdoors.
After the run, we decided to check out Deerfieldfest at Berkshire East. We were a little early, and there were more bikers than paddlers, but I did my part and bought and American Whitewater tee shirt. After a bite to eat we were on our way. Another great day on the water with a great group of paddlers.
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| Taking a break at Shunpike |
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