P-netters on the P-Cat in NH - October 24, 2015

You never know where you’ll meet another P-netter. I’ve been paddling the P-Cat Drawdown and BBQ on the Piscataquog River in Goffstown, NH for years. In fact, it was one of the first whitewater trips that I did when I started paddling back in 2005. It’s a short class II with a great BBQ after.

I usually attend this trip with the local RI crew, but none of them were interested this year. Instead, I signed up for the trip with the NHAMC and ended up in the “open boat group” – 4 tandems, 3 solos, 2 duckies and one kayak. One of the leaders was HikingMike (hope I got that right) from P-net. The river was at it's usual release level - 5.5 feet on the Goffstown gage.

I paddled tandem, which was a nice change. I got the bow, and Jonathan (also a solo open boater) got the stern. We made a good team and clicked pretty much right away catching eddies, ferrying and surfing. To me, the highlight of this trip is a playspot that has a habit of pulling open boats in sideways, and then spitting them out. I’ve had lots of practice demonstrating how not to side surf in this particular hole.

I warned Jonathan about my luck, but he was willing to venture in anyway. We did pretty well on our first attempt – stayed straight and backed out without incident. Now figuring that a 16’ tandem wouldn’t get pulled in sideways, we got a little more aggressive on our second attempt. As the bow got sucked down into the hole we immediately got spun sideways. We lasted for a couple of seconds before getting “window-shaded”. My 100% swim rate at this hole is safe for another year.  Great trip as usual.

Surfing with Jonathan

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Goffstown Gage

Charles - Wellesley to Needham - October 17, 2015

Bill and I had agreed to do some tandem paddling, so I loaded the Spirit II on the rack and headed off the to the Charles River. We joined RICKA for a round-trip from the Elm Bank Reservation (900 Washington Street) in Wellesley to the Cochrane Dam on Fisher Street (Charles River Peninsula Access Road) in Needham – about 11 miles. The river is relatively undeveloped except for a few large houses, and the foliage was great with lots of yellows, golds and reds. Nice trip.

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Lower Otter Brook - October 3, 2015

Marlene

I was suppose to lead an overnight camping trip at Burlingame on Saturday, but the forecast didn’t look promising – cold, rainy and windy.  Of the 12 campers who originally signed up, I was down to 3 when I cancelled the trip on Friday night.  But how does that old saying go – “when one door closes another opens”.  While rain isn’t good for camping its great for whitewater paddling.

I got an email that a group would be running Lower Otter Brook on Saturday, and now I was free to join in.  Lower Otter Brook is a small class II run in Roxbury, NH (outside of Keene).  The level is controlled by the huge Otter Brook Dam built by the Army Corps of Engineers.  We had six boats– 2 canoes and 4 kayaks.

Eric

The morning was cold and windy when I arrived at the put-in. I was glad that I brought my drysuit and gloves.  The level was around 350 cfs, which was slightly more that the typical spring release of 300 cfs.  We worked our way downstream dodging rocks, catching eddies and just having fun. 

I went through the Otter Ledge first, bouncing off the wave at the bottom and into the eddy below the ledge - prefect.  I was in great position to get some pictures, but couldn’t get the water drops off the lens in time.  Oh well…

Heading to the take-out

There was good flow coming out of Minnewawa Brook where Otter Brook joins to form the Branch producing long wave trains along Route 101.  We arrived at the take-out around 1:30, and debated a second run.  For me the answer was easy, I needed to be home around 3:00.  Looking at the gage, it looks like they shut the water off at around 1:30 anyway.

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Otter Brook Gage

Description from American Whitewater

Ninigret Pond - September 19, 2015

Paddling with Bill in the Spirit II

Although I have done a lot of paddling in South County, I had never paddled Ninigret Pond in Charlestown.  That changed when the RICKA Picnic was held there last Saturday.

Ninigret Pond is the largest of Rhode Island’s South County salt ponds, which include Point Judith Pond (a tidal estuary), and Green Hill, Quonochontaug and Winnapaug Ponds (coastal lagoons).  Like all coastal lagoons, the Ninigret Pond itself is separated from the ocean by a barrier island.  It is also connected to Green Hill Pond by a small channel

Taking a break at the beach

We put in at the boat launch at Ninigret Park and paddled west along the barrier island.  Other than a few houses on the north shore along Route 1, it is quiet and undeveloped.  We hiked across the barrier island to take a quick swim at the beach before heading back for the picnic. 

It was a nice trip, and nice to paddle tandem with Bill in my Spirit II.

View across Ninigret Pond

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Paddle Guide from Rhode Island Blueways

Fife Brook - September 6, 2015

We did our RICKA trip on the Lower Deerfield a few weeks ago, but it has been quite a while since I paddled the Fife Brook section.  I was able to get out yesterday with some folks from the NHAMC.  Release was 1,000 cfs – nice level.  We had 3 canoes (me, Joe and Abby) and 4 kayaks.  I took the right line at Zoar Gap and made it through fine. 

Zoar Gap

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Lower Deerfield – August 22, 2015

Sandy and Earl

We had canoes and kayaks, long boats and short boats, paddlers, one poler and one dog.  We spent most of the day dodging tubers and rafts, but you still couldn’t have asked for a nicer day. 

Once each summer, RICKA runs and “easy” whitewater trip for experienced flatwater paddlers on the lower Deerfield River. This year, we decided to do the 7-mile run from the Zoar Picnic Area down to Charlemont Achademy.

The lone poler - Fred

The Fife Brook Dam controls the water in this section of the river, and timing is everything with this trip. We launched around 1:30, two and a half hours after the scheduled release, and hit it just right.

We had 11 paddlers – two canoes and nine kayaks. Most of the class I/II rapids come early in the trip, and everyone got through with no problem. It took us about 3 hours to finish the run down to Charlemont.  On the way home we stopped for BBQ at Smokey Joes – good day.

A little surfing

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Dead River – August 8, 2015

Waiting for the shuttle

Sometimes it doesn't pay to play it safe. At least that's what happened to me yesterday on the Dead.

I wasn't able to run the Dead in June or July, and knew that things would be busy in September, so decided to head up to the Forks for the August release. I wasn't sure who I would paddle with until I saw that Charlie Sweet was leading a trip for the Boston AMC. It turned out to be a small group (Charlie, Rich, Josh and me), but all open boaters.

Rich does some surfing

With the large group of MVP'ers at the Forks for Family Step-up Weekend, the shuttle took forever. We finally got on the road around 10:00, and got to the river about 45 minutes later. With two trailers attached to the bus, they stopped at the top and made us carry down the hill. We finally got on the water around 11:00. 

The release was 2,400 cfs with another 100 cfs coming from Spencer Stream - a nice class II/III. We ran through Spencer Rips, Minefield and a bunch of other unnamed rapids before stopping for lunch at Hayden's. After lunch we ran Hayden's, Gravel Pit, Elephant Rock, Mile Long and Upper Poplar in quick succession. Before we knew it, we were set to run Lower Poplar.

Charlie below Minefield

I followed Rich into Lower Poplar taking a middle right line along the seam of the rapid. About a quarter of the way down, Rich went left into the rapid, but I went right along what I thought would be an easier line into the rock garden. Before long, I got hung up on a shallow rock and flipped. Fortunately I was close to shore, so I was able to get my boat to shore quickly. Soon I was back in my boat and finishing the run, but like I said, sometimes it doesn’t pay to play it safe. 

We were back in the campground around 5:00 - a six hour run that was a lot of fun.

Kelly runs the slot at Elephant Rock

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Spencer Stream Gage
River Description from American Whitewater