Ware River Poling Cruise - November 18, 2023

A nice collection of poling boats

I don’t do a lot of poling, but I do try to get out a couple of time a year – usually the Branch in the spring and something else in the fall. Last fall we had a nice group on the Souhegan. This year we were back on the Ware River.

The Ware River flows 35-miles through central MA before joining the Quaboag River to form the Chicopee River. There is a class II section in Gilbertville from Hardwick Furnace Launch to the Ware-Hardwick Covered Bridge that we poled on a snowy day back in 2009. I’d like to do that section in my whitewater boat sometime. Today we would be poling the 6-mile section from the South Barre Dam (42.3864 -72.097) to Hardwick Furnace (42.343812,-72.157774) that we last poled back in 2013.

Below the Wheelwright Dam

I arrived at the put-in at around 10:00 to find Matt, Oz and Bob waiting for us on the river. They had put-in early and poled up from the put-in. The rest of us – me, Chuck, Dan, Chris and Jonathan - still had to run the shuttle. The river was at a nice poling level – 3-feet, 45 cfs on the Barre gage. 

This section of the Ware is pretty with lots of twists and turns down to the backwater from the Wheelwright Dam where we stopped for lunch. As we played in the quickwater below the dam, Kaz, Rick and Dave paddled upstream - they used the put-in at the Wheelwright Road Bridge (42.38012870629823, -72.11359100862931). For us, it was a short trip down to the Hardwick Furnace take-out. 

The crew at Wheelwright Dam

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Barre Gage

Upper Ware River - December 1, 2013

Matt and Santa Mike

I got up early to go to the gym, and saw Santa Claus walking down Diamond Hill Road.  He didn’t have a big bag of toys, but he was carrying a Price Right bag full of groceries (only in Woonsocket).  When the day starts like that, you know it has to be good – and it was.

After much back and forth by email, I got together with Santa Mike, Chuck, Marshall, Doug and Matt for a poling run on the upper Ware River from So. Barre (42.3864 -72.097) to Hardwick Furnace (42.343812,-72.157774) – about 6 miles.  We had run the lower section from Hardwick Furnace to Church Street a couple of years ago.

Marshall takes a break

I met Mike and Chuck at McD’s  in Uxbridge for the ride out to the river.  I saw two accidents on the way to McD’s due to black ice, but the sanding trucks were out on the highways by the time we hit the road.  Its a good thing we got a little later start.

We arrived at the river at around 10:30 and ran the shuttle. With last week’s rain, the river had come up to a decent poling level – 3 feet, 50 CFS on the Barre gage. This section of the Ware is pretty with lots of twists and turns.  We stopped at Wheelwright Dam for lunch, and played for a little while in the quickwater below the dam. We arrived at the take out at Hardwick Furnace at around 4:00. 

 

Santa Mike

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Barre gage

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Clause - December 6th

I saw him yesterday poling a Mad River Explorer on the Ware River.  He sometimes goes by the name Mike, and he was accompanied by seven elves – Chuck, Tommy, Marshall, Matt, Sean, Mena and me.

We had a fun day on the Ware River in Gilbertville, MA. Eight boats (six Explorers - Mike, Chuck, Tommy, Marshall, Matt and Sean, one Dagger Reflection - Mena, and one Mohawk Whitewater 16 - me) put-in at Hardwick Road and poled down to Upper Church Street – about eight miles.

When we arrived at the put-in at around 10:00, the area was covered with a thin blanket of snow - not as much as we had received in RI, but still pretty. The river starts off as flatwater with an occasional riffle.

About a mile above Gilbertville the rapids begin. The AMC guide and American Whitewater rate them as class II/III, but that is dramatically overstated - at least at yesterday's water level (Ware River near Barre, MA - 3.5 ft., 110 cfs). At the bottom of the first set of rapids there is nice ledge to practice attainments. Sean pushed up with no problem, as did Mike, Tommy and Matt. I made it half way up, only to get spun sideways and pushed back downstream.

Below the Route 32 Bridge the river is shallower and picks up speed – avoiding rocks becomes a major challenge as Tommy found out the hard way. Not wanting to ruin my perfect record, I also took a swim a little further downstream.

After loading the boats, we reconvened for pizza and beer at Hardwick House of Pizza - another great day.

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River Description from American Whitewater
Directions to put-in from Google Maps