2024 Year End Review

Stokers on the Scantic

The year started with a strokes practice at the Manville Dam, and ended with a year-end camping trip at the Burlingame Canoe Campsites. In between, it was another great year for paddling.

My whitewater season started in January, and I got out on some old favorites and some new runs including the Salmon River (1) (2), Sugar/Croyden Brook, Scantic, White, Pemi – Woodstock, Deerfield - Fife Brook, Farmington – Tville (1) (2) (3), the West and the Pcat. Unfortunately, I missed a lot of trips in April dues to family obligations.

Point Judith Pond

I did a lot more paddling in my sea kayak this year including Providence, Meeting on the Water - Fort Wetherill, Point Judith Pond, Slocum’s River, Bristol Ferry and Wallum Lake. I also got out for three great training sessions with the RICKA Sea Kayak group including Rocks and Rescues at Fort Wetherill, Level 3 Step-up at the URI Bay Campus and Incident Management at Fort Wetherill.

I went to Blackstone Valley Paddle Club trips at Pawtuxet - Hope and the Blackstone - Manville Dam. I led flatwater trips at Pawcatuck – Bradford to Potter Hill, Providence and Point Judith Pond. 

RICKA Picnic in Wickford

I did 54 trips including 19 flatwater, 15 whitewater, 18 sea kayak and 2 camping, which equals my 10-year average of 54 trips. I had four swims - Salmon, Scantic, Pawcatuck and the West. Bill and I received the Rubber Ducky Award for our swim at the Bradford Fish Weirs (see 0:20) on the Pawcatuck.

Here are some of my more significant trips:

• January - Blackstone Manville Dam, Salmon River (1) (2)
• February - Hunt River, Blackstone - Plummers Landing, Blackstone - Martin Street Bridge
• March - Quinebaug – Danielson to Plainville, Sugar/Croyden Brook, Really Upper Millers, Scantic
• April - White
• May - Blackstone - River Bend Farm, Pemi – Woodstock, Pawtuxet - Hope, Quinebaug – Danielson to Plainville
• June - Blackstone - River Island Park, Blackstone - Manville Dam (1) (2), Deerfield - Fife Brook, 
• Farmington – Tville, Blackstone – Central Falls Landing, Pawcatuck – Bradford to Potter Hill
• July - Providence, Meeting on the Water - Fort Wetherill, Point Judith Pond Rocks and Rescues – Fort Wetherill
• August - Level 3 Step-up - URI Bay Campus, Slocum’s River, Bristol Ferry, Rocks and Rescues – Fort Wetherill
• September - Pawcatuck - Potter Hill to Westerly, Lincoln Woods, Nashua – Peperrell to Nashua, Incident Management – Fort Wetherill, West River, Wickford Harbor
• October - Blackstone Gorge
• November - Pcat Drawdown, Wallum Lake, River Bend Farm, Tville
• December - Nashua - Leominster to Lancaster, Year-End Camping at Burlingame

Here is the video of some of my favorite trips of 2024.

 

I paddled almost every day of my summer vacation on Great Island including the RICKA Meeting on the Water and Point Judith Pond.

 

Hiking at Gardner Hill

I didn’t do much hiking this year – just one trip at Gardner Hill with Papa Joe. I also wasn't able to get out for any big camping trips this year. I did get out for a Bastille Day overnight and a Year-End overnight on the Pawcatuck. 

In terms of resolutions for 2024, I did OK on some, but not on others. I did get out in my sea kayak in rough water conditions, and I did quite a bit of whitewater paddling. Unfortunately, I didn’t do much camping, I didn’t get back to the Dead, and I didn’t practice rolling.

Bastille Day Camping

In terms of resolutions for 2025, they are just like 2024.

• Keep practicing with my new sea kayak – I need to get out on more level 3 trips.
• Do more camping – I’d like to get back to the Allagash, or maybe the St. Croix or the Bonaventure, or the Maine Island Trail in my kayak.
• Keep paddling whitewater - as long as my knee holds up.
• Get back to the Dead – always a great trip.
• Practice rolling – I’ll keep including it until I do it – maybe in the sea kayak.

There are still plenty of rivers to paddle, plenty of trails to hike, and plenty of places to go camping in 2025 - looking forward to it. Happy New Year everyone.

Paddle Map for 2024

Here is my year-end paddle map for 2024 - yellow is sea kayak (18), light blue is flatwater 19), dark blue is whitewater (15), red is hiking (1) and green is camping (2).  

I didn’t make it to ME this year. I did a few whitewater trips in NH and VT, but most of my paddling was local in RI, CT and MA.

Year-End Camping at Burlingame - December 28-29, 2024

Heading up from Bradford

After last year’s successful year-end camping trip, we decided to do again this year. We had 9 for an overnight at the Burlingame Canoe Campsites – me, Bob, Chuck, Jose, Aaron, Matt, Jim, Burr and Joe. Usually for winter trips you have to deal with snow and ice, but for this trip we had rain and mud - steady drizzle with temperatures in the 40’s during the day and 30’s at night. 

I met the group at the Bradford Landing at 11:30 for the 3-mile trip up to the Burlingame Canoe Campsites. Once there, we decided to camp in the field again this year. We hauled our gear up from the river and set up camp. The tents went up first, then the tarps, then the kitchen. We got the fire going and enjoyed Jose’s chili for lunch. After lunch we sat around the fire until supper, which was Swedish meatballs with chocolate cake for dessert. We turned in for the night around 10:00 as the rain was picking up.

Camp is set up

I stayed warm and dry in my tent, and before I knew it I heard someone moving around outside. It was Bob getting the morning fire started. I reluctantly climbed out of my sleeping bag to join him. After warming up by the fire, I fired up my Dutch oven to make a batch of my grandmother’s cinnamon rolls. Bob cooked bacon, sausage and home fries in his Big Daddy Skillet, and I cooked Jonathan’s eggs-in-a-hole.

After breakfast we packed up camp for the trip back to Bradford Landing. Great trip and a nice way to end the year.

The crew at the morning fire

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Jim's Video

Nashau River - Leominster to Lancaster - December 20, 2024

Put-in at the Veterans Park

Ozzy was looking to do a Winter Solstice paddle on the Nashua River from Leominster to Lancaster. After a busy month with family issues, I decided to join in. We had four boats, all polers – me, Bob, Dan and Ozzy.

The Nashua River has two main stems. We would be paddling on the North Branch, which arises west of Fitchburg and flows generally south for 30 miles until it joins the South Branch in Lancaster.  The South Branch arises at the Wachusett Reservoir in Clinton and flows generally north for 56 miles through north-central MA and southern NH before emptying into the Merrimack River in Nashua. 

Below the first broken dam

I have done most of the Nashua River over the years including the Leominster to Lancaster section of the of the North Branch back in November 2011. I have also done the confluence of the North Branch and South Branch in Lancaster, and the Oxbow Wildlife Refuge in Harvard and the Ayers to Groton, Groton to Pepperell, and Peperrell to Nashua sections on the South Branch.

We met at the take-out at Johnny Ro Veteran's Memorial Park (720 Mechanic St, Leominster, MA 014530) to drop our boats and run the shuttle down to the take-out at the Ponakin Bridge at the Pellecchia Conservation Land & Canoe Launch (MA-70, Lancaster, MA 01523). The river was low – 2.5 feet, 115 cfs on the Leominster gage, but a nice level for poling.

Lunch at Cook' Conservation Area

We started off by poling upstream past Route 2 before turning around and heading down stream. The river twists and turns as it runs through the Johnny Apple Seed State Park and the Lancaster State Forest. We portaged the first broken dam that we ran back in 2011 since it was low and it looked like there might be wood in it.

We took a break for lunch at the picnic area at the Cook Conservation Area. Snow as falling as Ozzy cooked up a nice spread of pierogis and kielbasa with onions and peppers. We had brownies, chocolate chip cookies and donuts for desert. With the furnace fueled, we poled the last section in the snow, including the second broken dam that we ran to the left. The drive home in the snow was brutal, but it was a great way to start off the winter.

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Bob's Video

Leominster gage

How’s this for single blading - Tville – November 30, 2024

Chris running Initiation on the West

Back in September I ran the class III section of the West River. The first rapid just below the dam is called Initiation. It’s one of those rapids that is relatively easy if you take the right line, but usually ends in disaster if you don’t – at least for me. I was standing off to the side taking pictures and watching folks go though when I see this guy coming down on a paddle board. I think he’s going to swim for sure, but he picked the perfect line and made it through fine. That’s the line I took. I figured if he can do it on a paddle board then I should be able to do it in a canoe.  

Well, it’s a tradition around here to get out on Black Friday to paddle off some of that Thanksgiving turkey. With the rain on Thanksgiving Tville was up, but I didn’t see any trips on Friday. Instead, I got together with Paul D. for a low level (1.5 feet, 500 cfs) run on Saturday. We were joined by Chris - the guy on the paddle board from the West. He was amazing to watch – ran every drop, surfed every hole and made it look easy. When he did fall off he just jumped back on - easy recovery. Almost makes me want to try a SUP - almost.   

Chris running the top of Double Drop

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