Fife Brook in River Trippers - June 14, 2026

Bob has a group doing a wilderness trip on a remote Canadian river next month and wanted to practice whitewater in river trippers, so he organized a trip on the Fife Brook section of the Deerfield. With my sore knee, tandem paddling sounded great, so Aaron and I headed up with my Mohawk Whitewater 16.

There are two sections of the Deerfield with summer releases that are popular for whitewater paddling. Advanced paddlers often head to the Dryway in Monroe Bridge. This is a class III-IV section of river for experienced whitewater paddlers. We would be paddling the Fife Brook section, which is mostly class II, with the exception of Zoar Gap in the middle which is class III. This would be my 23rd run on Fife Brook, but the first in a tandem.

Aaron was at my house at 7:30 to drop off a new-to-me Mad River Explorer 17 (more on that later) and head off to the Deerfield. We met the crew at 10:30 at the Fife Brook put-in to run the shuttle down to Shunpike. The release was 800 cfs. from 11:30 to 2:30, so we practiced ferries and eddy turns/peal outs at the put-in before heading downstream.

Just downstream from the put-in is the first rapid known as Hangover Helper - a ledge extends across most of the river resulting in a 2-foot drop followed by a long wave train. We ran the drop and played in the waves before moving downstream.

The next rapid - Carbis Bend - is similar but smaller. A ledge extends out from the left side of the river producing a couple of easy surf waves. Aaron and I did a couple of surfs, but there were too many kayakers cutting our place in line, so we moved on.

Just downstream from Carbis Bend is Freight Train, which is a long wave train that ends with a large surf wave. The rapid takes its name from the speed that many people build up running through the waves, and the railroad bridge just downstream that carries freight trains across the river. We missed the tight eddy on the right, but were still able to get on the big surf wave.

After Freight Train we took a break for lunch at the Bridge to Nowhere before running Pinball. Pinball is a rock garden that’s a great place to practice eddy turns, peel outs and ferries. Aaron and I ran the entire rapid backwards ferrying from rock to rock

After Pinball is the Island Rapid. As the name describes, the river is split by an island. The usual route is to the left with large waves and fast moving water where the river reconnects at the end. Aaron and I were able to catch the eddy on the left and get some pictures of others coming through.

After the Island Rapid comes Zoar Gap – the largest rapid on this section of the river. We scouted it from the road and confirmed the usual line - just right of center down the shoot at the top, then left down the shoot at the large boulder.

Aaron and I went down last. We caught an eddy on the left on the way down, and then headed over to catch one of the of the rocks on the right. We ended up further downstream than I expected, and before I knew it we were in the Zoar Gap rapid.

Fortunately, Aaron had a better sense of where we were than I did. He guided us down the first shoot and lined us up perfectly for the second drop. Always trust your bowman. My record at Zoar Gap is now 23 attempts with 13 successful, 6 swims and 2 walks. I have been successful on my last 6 attempts

After the gap, we continued downstream to the Shunpike Rest Area. On the way home, we stopped at the Picnic Area in Shelburne Falls for Ozzy’s hot dogs and potatoes. Here is Aaron's video of the run.

There are a lot of unnamed rapids, but here are the named ones as best I could identify them:

Hangover helper 0:37
Carbis Bend 1:08
Freight Train 2:07
Surf wave below the RXR bridge 3:51
Minefield (ferry practice) 7:05
Mimi Beach 9:38
Island Rapid 10:02
Above Zoar Gap 10:54
Scouting Zoar Gap 11:33
Running Zoar Gap 12:17
Running Zoar Gap - Slo-Mo 12:54
Mini Gap 13:55
Bam Dance 14:30
Spin Out 15:04
Conjunction Junction 16:05
RXR Bridge on Lower 17:04
Waves on left before take-out 18:10

Links:

My Pictures

Aaron's Video

Fife Brook Release Schedule

Charlemont Gage
River Description form American Whitewater