Thursday Night Tville - June 13, 2024

The crew

Spring will soon be turning to summer, and I had yet to get out for a Thursday night Tville run on the Farmington River with the CT/AMC. With temperatures in the 80’s (first trip in shorts and a tee shirt), I decided that this would be the day.

The Farmington River arises near Otis, MA and flows generally south and east for 47 miles through Connecticut until it reaches the Connecticut River near Windsor, CT. There are several sections of the Farmington that are popular for whitewater boating – New Boston (class III/IV), Riverton/Satan’s Kingdom (class I/II), Crystal (class II), and of course “Tville” or the Tariffville Gorge (class II/III).

Cathy's Wave

Tville is one of the best-known whitewater runs in southern New England. It is the site of an annual spring slalom race, and has hosted national and Olympic trials. The run itself is short - just 1.5 miles, but the water runs most of the year and there are play spots for paddlers of all skill levels. At yesterday’s level – 1.5 feet, 550 cfs - it is more of a class II run, at least the way I run it.

We met at Tarrifville Park and ran the shuttle down to the take-out at Taxis Avenue. We had 13 in our group, and met up with 6 more along the way. There was plenty of water at Cathy’s Wave and Brown's Ledge. I ran the Bridge Abutment Rapid first and got some pictures of the rest of the group coming through.

Typewriter

As usual, I ran the rapids above the Play Hole to the left, and got out to get some video of folks surfing. It was cool to watch Kieth in his C1. Below the Playhole are three ledges that I run to the left. I did get some pictures of folks running the bigger drop on the right. I headed down to Double Drop behind Erin. It looked like she was going center, so I took my normal line to the right.

As I approached the drop, I could see Erin’s kayak upside-down right in the center of my line. She had flipped in the hole and was in the process of rolling back up. Fortunately, I was able to sideslip further to the right to avoid running her over. After I passed, Erin rolled up no worse for wear. We did some surfing at Typewriter before heading down to the take-out.


C1 Playboating at the Tville Play Hole from Erik Eckilson on Vimeo.

I posted this video on canoetripping.net, and Glenn MacGrady posted this remembrance of the old days at the Tville Play Hole.

There was a time when the line of boaters playing in the Tville hole every weekend and often during the week included no C1s and only a rare kayak—but just open canoes. It was where I learned to ride surf, side surf, slide surf, spin surf, and use cross strokes for downstream bracing. There were, of course, no three dimensional aquabatics in an open canoe, but some paddlers could and did roll open canoes in the Tville hole. Sue Burgess used to stand on the gunwales of her Blue Hole OC-A while side surfing in the hole, and then lower herself and rotate her body 180° upside down until she was headstanding on her seat, all while still on a balanced side surf.

Maybe I need to get back in the hole and practice.

Links:
My Pictures
River Description from American Whitewater
Tville Gage