It’s been a terrible fall for kayaking up in New England. All the rain the normally falls over the course of a few months decided to fall over a few hours, devastating Vermont and NH and making for a horrible kayaking season.

“The Dewey Mills dam on the Ottaquechee during Irene.“

Moosefest was fun as always. The high water dished out some serious carnage on the Bottom, and I got to run the whole Independence for the first time. Pretty cool river…it’s no Moose though. Some nice, cold rain kept us hoping that the Oswegatchie would come up, but no dice, it just made us cold and miserable instead.

“Greg Sokol coming down the Independence slide.”

“Ellen Ludlow snapped a photo of one of my many laps off Agers.”

Over Thanksgiving, we finally got a rainstorm, except in Vermont it was a snowstorm…So I packed up my car with boat, skis, and dog and drove south for the holiday. I skied a quick lap at Pico in Vermont on the way home and spent the next two days boating in Southern New England. On Thanksgiving Day, Jeff Sharpe, Greg Sokol, Alden Bird, and I rallied to the Popolopen Creek, a little-known class V gem that is genuinely only 45 minutes from New York City. Rumor has it Eric Nies used to come up here and solo this while in med school years ago. Water was on the lower side, but as always, the run was great and we all made it back home in time for traditional Thanksgiving dinners…at 1pm

“Greg Sokol paddling down the Popolopen gorge. Every now and then you hear explosions from the military training base upstream.”

Thankfully, despite there being no water in New England this fall, I live in Lebanon, NH just a six minute walk from the Mascoma River and a short stretch called “Downtown Hair.” Some people don’t like this run: “There are too many shopping carts to dodge,” or “I just don’t feel like being stabbed with rebar today.” But those people don’t know the smooth lines down it…really, Downtown Hair is a class IV/V quarter mile that keeps me sharp through Falls like this one. And, when I’m walking 6 minutes from my house to go kayaking, I can’t complain.

“Me, boofing the big hole of the run around 800cfs. Photo Brian Seitz.”

“Alex Toth getting a huge stern ender in our miniature, rebar filled Golf Course. Photo Seitz.”

Anyway, while I wouldn’t say no to another rain storm or two, I’m really hoping winter begins in earnest up here soon. Till next year…

-Nick Gottlieb

This past weekend, about 30 Vermont boaters convened for an AW sponsored FERC-relicensing flow study on the Green River in VT. The Green had been off paddler radars until the last couple years when Ryan McCall (et. al) happened to find it running one day when the power company that owns the dam was running a capacity test. After a bit more investigation, it turned out the dam was coming up for relicensing, so local boaters and the Vermont Paddlers’ Club contacted AW and the power company and arranged for a weekend of releases to assess flows.

If it’s not 40 degrees and raining, it’s not paddling in Vermont. We wouldn’t be enjoying it quite as much if the sun was out, either. Photo Morgan Boyles.

Turns out it’s a really great class IV run with a handful of fun class Vs. 3 miles long, two 10′ boofs and a plethora of smaller but just as fun ones. We had 4 different release levels, all of which were very boatable.

Me, happily paddling away from the biggest dam-release hole in Vermont (not that we have many). Photo Boyles.

The highest release was definitely the most fun, but a number of paddlers opted out of that one due to the greater “availability of powerful hydraulics.” I’m not quite sure what the right answer is, but the AW flow study survey asks how one feels about that. I think my answer was “Acceptable” across the board, although they were definitely more available at higher water.

Christian Woodard contemplating the availability of powerful hydraulics on the Green River.

It’s in a beautiful, roadless gorge tucked into Northern Vermont (unfortunately pretty far from anywhere that isn’t Vermont…and far from a lot of Vermont). At 3 miles, it’s one of the longer runs in the state (I know, make fun of us all you want), and having it as a dam release will make it a reliable option when there isn’t necessarily other paddling to be had. Scheduled releases are probably a couple years out, but the power company releases water for generation regularly and has agreed to let paddlers know when that happens, which is great.

Christian hanging out below the Pothole Gorge rapid.

Thanks again to Ryan, Bill Hildreth, the Vermont Paddlers’ Club, Kevin Colburn from AW, and all the volunteers that helped out with the day. The Vermont paddling community owes all of you gratitude. Maybe someday there’ll be a Green River Festival in the summer when everything else is dry.

Brad Croteau flying through the boof rapid.

 “Andrew” Billy Wagner on the best 2′ boof in the world. He’s actually still going up from the launch pad in this picture.

Post by Nick Gottlieb

Labor Day weekend marks the beginning of the Fall boating season in New England. There’s boating all summer, but as the leaves start to change and ‘peeping’ season begins in earnest, the rain starts to actually bring rivers up for more than a few hours at a time. I’ve been to the Labor Day Beaver/Raquette releases for a few years now, and they’re always a blast. This year, we rallied up Friday night straight to Colton. After a healthy breakfast at the local diner, we spent all day lapping the Raquette, the Northeast’s summertime classic.

Me, boofing the flake on Colton…it hurts a bit, but it’s just so fun. Photo Brian Seitz.

Some of the spring flooding changed Colton Falls a bit, making it a slightly harder rapid (the eddy in the middle is more challenging to catch than it used to be), but no worries, you can surf out of the hole at the bottom of the slide.

Boofing the horseshoe above the slide. Photo Brian. Nothing like man-boating class V…don’t flip over.

After 4 (or 6, for some of us) laps, we headed over to The Finish Line, a bar (the bar) in Colton that had a sign out front reading, “Welcome Kayakers.” They’d put together a great pulled-pork buffet for about $7/person, the town really supports kayakers on the river and is doing their best to be friendly – I hope everyone who goes up there for summer releases next year spends some time/money in town. On Saturday, we rallied down to the Moshier section of the Beaver. I wasn’t feeling the put-in slide this year, but Christian, Tripp, Morgan, and James all were.

Christian Woodard firing a huge boof off the top of the rapid…About half the rapid, maybe less, is visible in this photo. Photo Morgan Boyles.

James Duesenberry about halfway down. Photo Morgan.

Lines were mostly good and everyone was stoked to be at the bottom. The rest of the Moshier section is basically fun class IV. Two waterfalls, a lot of flatwater, some class III, and a really fun continuous rapid at the takeout called Moshier Falls. This is always a circus on Labor Day Sunday – people getting worked everywhere, about 50-100 folks on shore either watching, scouting, portaging, or hiking back up to run it again. I ran six laps on the first waterfall of the run and five on Moshier Falls…they’re great rapids.

Picture perfect on the first waterfall on the Moshier. From last year. Afterwards, we headed over to the Eagle section where I snapped a few photos.

Geoff Calhoun handpaddling drop #3 on the Eagle.

Anonymous paddler entering the same rapid.

Anyway, looking forward to a great paddling fall in New England (not that Summer wasn’t good). I’ve been out a bit since Irene – a lot of the classics have changed dramatically, and most good rivers are still suffering from “You can’t get there from here” issues. Roads are slowly reopening though, and I’m excited to paddle our ‘new’ old rivers. I already ran the Big Branch last week – no pictures, as I was in a rush to get off the river and get back to work quickly – it’s completely different. An entirely new river. Still awesome though. I’ll check back later this fall with some pictures of the new rivers up here.

It’s been a great spring here in New England. I started out in March with a 20 day trip down the Grand Canyon and got back just in time for one of the best melt seasons we’ve seen in years. I’ve run a lot of new creeks and waterfalls and hit a bunch of laps on some of the old favorites.

While on the Grand, Christian Woodard, Owen Cadwalader and myself hiked 7 miles and 2000+ vert feet to run Tapeats Creek (because the campground at Tapeats was taken so we ended up at Deer Creek), which turned out to be a great class III run up until the final gorge which was steep and constricted blind IV/V (also great).

I’ve paddled all but four days since I got back, and it’s been phenomenal. I’ve lapped the Big Branch, got back on the Middlebury after a few years, lapped the New Haven probably over twenty times, scouted a number of new runs and waterfalls and run a couple of them. Two of the best I’ve run include a ~50′ total drop, a dam into a 30 footer, called Dewey Mills on the Ottaquechee River. It’s 20 minutes from my house at the putin for a great class II-III run and I’ve been looking at it for years but finally got the right water level. It was so fun I had to hike back up and run it again! This past weekend, I headed up to Northern VT and ran a perfect 25′ boof on Milton Falls on the Lamoille River, and topped the day off with four laps on the New Haven.

The season has been great so far, and although it’s winding down here in VT and NH, it’s only just starting in Maine and Quebec. I’m headed up to NY this weekend for spring Moosefest — hopefully the Oswegatchie and other great rivers will still be running.

Me running Dewey Mills Falls on the Ottaquechee River in Vermont. Photo Brian Seitz

Me on Milton Falls on the Lamoille River. Photo Justin Crannell.

Scott Lacy boofing a raft on Hermit on the Grand Canyon.

Alden Bird in the foreground, Adam Putnam boofing. The Big Branch, Vermont.

Billy Wagner running Bingham Falls in Stowe, VT.