Open Boat, Moving Water - A Paddler's Journal: Branch River Icebreaker

Sunday, March 22, 2026

Branch River Icebreaker - March 21, 2026

Heading downstream

As a nod to all the years that RICKA ran the Branch River Race, we always try to run the Branch River on the traditional third weekend in March. We call it the "Branch River Icebreaker", but there hasn’t been any ice to break for the past few years.

The Branch River Race, later the Rhode Island Whitewater Championship, was established by RICKA in 1980. It was the first race of the year on calendar of the NECKRA Downriver Series. The race continued for 25 years, but was eventually discontinued due to the high cost of insurance and problems with river access.

Running Whipple Drop

RICKA has continued the tradition of running a spring trip on the Branch River race course. This year we had three boats with four paddlers - me, Chuck, Mike and Aaron. The river was at a nice level - 4-feet, 400 cfs. The day was mostly sunny and relatively warm - it felt like spring.

We met at the put-in below the Stillwater Mill at 10:00 to run the shuttle. Since the usual take out along Nasonville Road is now posted “No Trespassing”, we decided to take out at the state boat ramp on the Slatersville Reservoir.

Running The Glendale Rapid

We put in and paddled up to the Harrisville Dam before heading downstream. The first half of this trip is actually on the Clear River. There were a couple of blow downs in this upper section, but nothing that we had to portage around.

We ran Whipple Drop down the center and continued to Oakland, where the Branch River is formed at the confluence of the Clear and Chepachet Rivers.

Weaving through the strainers

After a break for lunch at the Oakland Dam we headed down to Glendale. The Glendale Rapid was flowing well. We all took the line generally left of center. I went a little too far left and had to back paddle off the rocks near the shore.

From there it is a nice quickwater run down to the Atlas Pallet Rapid. There were a lot of strainers in this section including one that we had to portage, and one that we ran but probably should have portaged. Aaron lost his camera into the river twice, but was able to recover it both times.

Running Atlas Pallet

I ran the Atlas Pallet Rapid left of center and made it through fine. I sat in the big shore eddy and got some pictures of Chuck, Aaron and Mike running the right of center line. The surf wave at the bottom wasn’t very retentive, so we continued downstream.

We portaged the Nasonville Dam and bounced out way down the rest of the easy rapids to Victory Highway. From there it is mostly flatwater as we paddled into to the Slaterville Reservoir to the take out.