An afternoon off in Simsbury and Tville - June 23, 2016

Drake Hill Flower Bridge

It doesn’t happen often, in fact it’s never happened before, but it’s nice when my work schedule and paddling schedule align.  It happened on Thursday when I had a morning meeting in Simsbury, and then was able to take the afternoon off. 

The afternoon started with a flatwater paddle on the Farmington River in Simsbury.  I put in at the Route 185 Bridge and paddled down to the Drake Hill Flower Bridge.  It’s a pretty section of river that would be perfect for a RICKA Flatwater trip.  Everyone seems to know the Route 185 put-in as the one with the big tree – the Gifford Pinchot Sycamore, which is the largest tree in CT.

Heublein Tower

Visible on the ridge high above the river is the Heublein Tower in the Talcott Mountain State Park.  After the paddle I still had some time to kill before heading over to Tville, so I decided to hike up.  It’s a mile and a half in, and almost 1,000 feet up, but definitely worth the trip.  The views from the ridge of the valley below are great, and from the tower you can get a great view of Hartford. 

By the time I got back to the car it was time to head over to Tville for a Thursday night run with the CTAMC.  The river was low – 1.35 feet, 400 cfs, but still fun. Here's a view from the sidelines of some to the surfers in the playhole. I did get in there once – got spun around and filled up the boat, but didn’t swim, so I figured I’d quit while I was ahead.  

Links:

My Pictures - Farmington River and Heublein Tower

My Pictures - Thursday Night Tville

My Video - Thursday Night Tville

Pawcatuck – Richmond to Bradford - June 12, 2016

I joined the RICKA flatwater crew for a trip on the Pawcatuck River. We did the section from Richmond to Bradford, which is almost like two different rivers. Above it’s convergence with the Wood River in Alton, the Pawcatuck is narrow with lots of twists and turns. Below Alton, it is big and flat with the Burdickville Dam providing the only excitement. The river was low, but still fluid  - 100 cfs, 2.3 feet on the Wood River Junction gage. 

Below the Burdickville Dam

Links:

My Pictures

Cheryl’s Pictures on Facebook

Wood River Junction Gage

Assabet - Acton to Concord - June 4, 2016

We had a nice group for our annual RICKA trip on the Assabet River.  We ran the section from Acton to Concord.  The river was definitely low (1.6 feet, 35 cfs), so we got some new scratches on the composite boats.  The Damondale Dam was runnable on the left.  There were lots of blowdowns, but we only had to portage one, and we probably would have made it over that one if there was more water.  Would have been a great level for poling.

Running the broken dam at Damondale

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My Pictures

Maynard Gage

Moose River “Bow Trip” - May 27 to 30, 2016

Holeb Stream

I had heard that the “Bow Trip” on the Moose River was one of the most popular canoe camping trips in Maine, and now I know why.  This trip has it all – a fun river, some lake crossings, great scenery, and easy camping.  Just to make it interesting, our trip also had thunderstorms, torrential downpours, swarms of blackflies and mosquitoes, and a difficult portage – something for everyone.

The Bow Trip is located in 19,000 acres of wilderness managed by the Maine Department of Conservation on the Moose River
and Holeb and Attean Ponds. There are 21 campsites along the 34-mile route.  When I heard that Joe would be leading a trip there on Memorial Day Weekend, I jumped at the opportunity to join.

Moose River

We had a small group of 5 paddlers – 3 solo canoes and 1 tandem.  We decided to use a shuttle service and skip 7-miles of lake travel up the Attean and Holeb Ponds, and more importantly, the 1.25-mile portage between the two lakes.

We drove up on Friday morning, and met our driver from Cry of the Loon at around 2:00 at Attean Landing on Attean Pond for the shuttle to Holeb Landing on Holeb Pond. We put in at the Holeb Landing and paddled across Holeb Pond to Holeb Stream.  We then followed Holeb Stream to its confluence with the Moose River, and paddled down the Moose River to Camel Rips where we set up camp for the night.

Running Camel Rips

As we settled in around the campfire, we started to hear thunder rumbling in the distance.  We got the rain tarp up just as the downpours began.  Thunder and lightening were cracking around us as we sat in relative comfort around the campfire.  Fortunately, the storms passed in a couple of hours.  Friday we paddled about 5-miles.

We awoke Saturday morning to a beautiful day with bright sunny skies.  We paddled down the Moose River to the quarter-mile portage at Holeb Falls.  After the portage, we had lunch at the Holeb Falls campsite before continuing down through Mosquito Rips to Spencer Rips where we set up camp on river left. There are also campsites on river right, but with drive-in access, we were told that they could be loud and busy.

Running Spenser Rips

With the calm skies and a sunny day came an abundance of blackflies and mosquitoes.  No amount of bug spray could keep the bugs at bay, and I had to resort to putting on my head net.  Finally, after reconstructing the fire pit, we got a smoky fire going, and that seemed to help.  Saturday we paddled about 9-miles with the quarter-mile portage.

On Sunday morning I was content to lie in my sleeping bag until I heard Joe outside my tent – “Hey Erik, you better get up.  Looks like rain so we need to get an early start”.  So much for a lazy morning. We packed up camp and headed downstream to run the rapids at Attean Falls. Attean Falls consists of two class I/II rapids – the first can be scouted from river left, the second from river right. We made it through fine, and then continued a short distance downstream to where the Moose River enters Attean Pond.

Crossing Attean Pond

Since the lake looked calm, we decided to cross Attean Pond and camp at one of the campsites on the northern shore.  After the crossing, we chose a site with a large beach out front.  We quickly set up camp, and had just finished setting up the rain tarp when the downpours began. We retreated to our tents until the rain finally stopped.  It may not have been a lazy morning, but it was definitely a lazy afternoon.  After emerging from our tents, we gathered some firewood, cooked dinner, and settled in for our last night around the fire. Sunday we paddled about 10-miles. 

On Monday morning we broke camp early.  It was a short half-mile paddle back to the Attean Landing. We stopped at Three Rivers in the Forks for breakfast before the long drive home.



Links:
My Pictures
My Video
Chuck's NFCT Trip Report on the Moose River and Attean Pond
Cry of the Loon Outdoor Adventures 
Phone for Campfire Permits - Maine Forest Service at 800-750-9777

Thursday Night Tville – May 19, 2016

My whitewater boat hasn’t been out in a while, and I knew that I couldn’t paddle this weekend, so I took the afternoon off and headed down to Tville for a weeknight run.

I met up with a group from the CTAMC that does this run every Thursday night.  We had 14 boats – 2 canoes and 12 kayaks.   The run itself is short - just 1.5 miles - but the water runs most of the year, and there are play spots for paddlers of all skill levels.   At yesterday’s level (1.6 feet, 600 cfs), it was an easy class II.

The river starts off easy with the few small ledges and nice surf waves.  As you enter the gorge the intensity picks up a bit with the Bridge Abutment Rapid (ran right) and the Playhole (ran left).  The Playhole was at nice level, but I was still too chicken to try.

Below the Playhole are a couple of small ledges that I ran to the left.  Below that are a couple of bigger ledges.  I ran the first to the right (avoiding the big hole in the center).  From there, I ferried left to run the second drop. It took us about 2 hours to do the run.



Links:

My Pictures

My Video
Tville Gage

Canal River Loop - May 15, 2016

There were lots of people on the bike path, but as usual, I had the only boat on the water.  I put-in in Lonsdale to do the canal/river loop.  The fish were jumping and the turtles were out sunning themselves as I paddled up the Blackstone Canal.  I followed a Herron up the canal, until he finally got tired of me and flew off.  The river was at a nice level (2.5 feet, 600 cfs) - especially for the play spot below the Martin Street Bridge.    

Links:

My Pictures

Trip Description from the BRVNHC

North Branch of the Pawtuxet – May 10, 2016

Henry, Rosco and Cheryl

The Blackstone Valley Paddle Club began it's season with a joint paddle with the Southern New England Paddlers on the North Branch of the Pawtuxet. We put in above the Hope Furnace Dam (15 Hope Furnace Road in Scituate) and paddled upstream to the Scituate Reservoir. 

After a week of cold rainy weather, it was great to get out on a relatively warm evening – it almost felt like spring.  There is no gage in this section of the river, but the gage on the main branch of the Pawtuxet in Cranston was 4.3 feet, 335 cfs. We had about 14 paddlers in a mixture of boats,

Spillway from the dam

We paddled upstream into the backwater of the Hope Furnace Dam.  Eventually the river narrows as you approach the Scituate Reservoir Dam.  It got shallow in spots, but we all made it up to the dam.  With last week’s rain, there was a lot of water coning to the dam’s spillway – it looked like a waterfall.  From there we turned around and came back down. 

Heading back

Links:

My Pictures

Gage - Main Branch of the Pawtuxet River – Cranston

River Description from Rhode Island Bluejays

Southern New England Paddlers

Blackstone Valley Paddle Club