Crystal - June 7, 2025

Punch Brook

My original plan was to do the RICKA Flatwater trip on the Upper Wood River, but it got cancelled due to rain. My second option was the RICKA sea kayak trip at Potter Cove, but it got postponed until tomorrow. I needed to paddle today, so I sent an email to Paul D. to see what he was doing. We decided to do an early run on the Crystal section of the Farmington River to beat the rain.

The Farmington arises near Otis, MA and flows generally south and east for 47 miles through Connecticut until it flows into the Connecticut River near Windsor. There are several sections of the Farmington that are popular for whitewater boating – New Boston - class III/IV (1, 2, 3), “Tville” or the Tariffville Gorge - class II/III, Riverton - class I, Satan’s Kingdom - class I/II(III), and of course Crystal - class II.

Ledge above Route 4

I met Paul at the put in at 9:00. We unloaded the boat and ran the shuttle down to the Red Barn. The river was running at 6.5 feet, 1,100 cfs – a great level with lots of play spots. The run is a series of class I/II rapids that start off easy and get more difficult as you move downstream.

The first major rapid is the site of the Punch Brook Slalom. From there, the rapids continue as a series of rock gardens and wave trains. We spent a lot of time surfing and ferrying through the rock gardens. The largest rapid is the ledge above the Route 4 Bridge that we ran to the right. The run took about 3-hours and I was on the road back home by 12:30. We beat the rain on the river, but it poured on the way home.

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