Raquette 8-21

Another summer weekend, another trip to the Raquette...This time, Ben had had an unfortunate fight with some pavement at 2am the Thursday night prior and had 15 stitches in his forehead. But, we figured it'd be fine and he came along anyway. We encountered a moose on Midd Gap who seemed pretty unamused, but stood there while we took his picture:

Moose. (Photo Ben Peters).

We also took a new route to the Raquette with my apparently amphibious Outback:

Ben's new toy thinks my car is a boat. (Photo Peters).

Unfortunately, it turns out that having fifteen stitches and a badly bruised shoulder is not conducive to class V, so Ben didn't make it more than one rapid, though his boat continued right on through to the top of the next rapid, Colton Falls. It pinned pretty solidly in the lead-in and we couldn't get it off, but a heroic young Middlebury student named Morgan came by, pinned himself on the boat, unpinned it, and then ran the horseshoe boof in Colton from the wrong side backwards, freeing the boat.

Me (Nick Gottlieb) airing it out on the horseshoe boof at Colton. (Photo Chris Zentner).

Later on lap one, we get to Particle Accelerator and Alan explains the line to Chris as, "Don't flip over." Moments later, upside down, it was clear that Chris had forgotten the line and rolled up at the bottom with a badly scraped up arm. Meanwhile, I almost swam in the eddy at the bottom of the drop after washing up onto a rock and falling over.

Me driving over the boof on the slide on Colton (Photo Peters).

By lap two we'd already lost two paddlers (Chris and Ben). Lap two went well for most of us but Simone had a wicked piton in the Tubs followed by a missed line (he flipped over) in Particle Accelerator that left him bracing in the pool with two half paddles.

Alan Panebaker with some airtime over the horseshoe; me in the eddy. See if you can scout the beer bottle in the photo (Photo Peters).

For lap three we lost another three paddlers, but fortunately gained three more. One of them flipped on the slide in Colton. Then Christian Woodard (who was more drunk than he should've been from the takeout beers he'd been consuming when we found him) tried to freewheel the 3' boof at the nothing rapid two after Colton (Mushroom?) and pitoned, getting worked in the hole and losing his paddle and swimming. A quick regroup and we routed through the Gnarrows only to have Christian and Morgan both get surfed in the middle hole of the Tubs but manage to sneak away OK. Clean lines through Particle Accelerator and that last little drop. The Raquette can certainly dish it out when it wants.

USFS Project on the Big Branch

A few NH/VT boaters and I have been in an email conversation with the USFS for a few weeks about a proposed project to place large woody debris (LWD) into the headwaters of the Big Branch. Naturally, we were all pretty concerned -- LWD is the kind of thing that kills boaters. The USFS has been very receptive to our concerns and altered their plans to try to minimize impact on us and offered to meet with local boaters at the Big Branch to discuss the project. Today, Adam Herzog and I drove over there to meet with them and check it out. Would've been nice if a few other boaters had showed up, but at least we were there.

A shitty picture of Adam on one of the bigger drops of the Upper Mile at 4'.

They were very informative and overall, it sounds like their project won't affect paddlers. They are going to be dropping logs into upper stretches of the Big Branch and into parts of another tributary, Ten Kiln Brook. Typically, they only drop logs that are longer than the river is wide. They want the wood to stay put as much as we do, or the whole project will have been pointless. All the logs on the Big Branch itself will be above a culvert, meaning even in large floods they probably couldn't make it through into the stretches we paddle. The Big Branch wilderness -- and much of the Green Mountain National Forest -- was logged and otherwise torn apart 100+ years ago. Many of the trails in the area are on old road beds. There's one that runs down river right from the putin through below cave drop that's pretty obvious. The whole forest up there is very young so the stream doesn't have the dead trees falling into it that it should, meaning the river habitat needs some pushing and prodding to get back to its natural state.

Xavier Engle boofing Cave Drop.

A couple things to note. First, they mentioned that because of the age the forest is reaching, we should expect to see more and more trees naturally falling into the river -- so be careful. Second, they're happy to collaborate with us on all their projects. You can sign up to be notified of any river projects they are considering (or actively pursuing) and contact them if you're concerned about the impact they may have on paddlers. Finally, they're very receptive to our concerns so if you ever have an issue, send them a polite email or give a call and they'll be happy to discuss it.

Assorted boaters cruising down the last drop by the takeout bridge.

Also -- one of their current projects is on Bingo Brook, and one of the guys there mentioned the idea of building a whitewater park there in a way that would help both fish habitat and whitewater boaters. I doubt they have a ton of money, but if anyone else has any other ideas for whitewater parks inside their jurisdiction, it might actually go somewhere if you get in touch with them.

They also suggested we check out Lake Brook, a tributary of the Big Branch at the end of one of the forest service roads up there. Turns out it's definitely a wide enough river bed to be runnable. Gotta look a little closer to decide if it's ever worth it (based on gradient), but if you get up to the Big Branch and it's over the gauge sometime when the road is open, well...give it a shot, drive up to the end of the road and put in. Could be fun.

Summer is Boating Season in New England?

In a shocking twist of events...it turns out summer is boating season in New England. The New Haven has run at least once a week for the last month, and northern VT went huge on Wednesday (5" of rain in places), with another big storm coming through southern VT on Thursday. Not to mention dam releases.

So -- Wednesday, No. VT got anywhere from 2-5 inches of rain. Ben couldn't leave till 4pm, so at 4, we drive up to Joe's Brook, find a good low side of medium level. We drove up to the dam to check out the slide up there -- didn't end up hiking down to see the BF Slide, but I liked the looks of the dam-slide right below it and will be taking a look at it the next time I'm up there as well...It's a bouncy 40 or 50' slide that's pretty steep. Major issue is the mandatory piton/boof onto rocks that is the dam above, and there's no way to put in between them. We headed down and put in at the bridge about a mile above the covered bridge. Covered bridge rapid was great. I had a massive piton on the first lap so hiked up again and eddy-hopped down the thing the second time around. We don't have a lot of pictures since we ended up taking out early due to it being pitch black and 9:30pm.

Here's me on the last drop of the Covered Bridge Rapid. Photo Ben Peters.

Thursday, So. VT looked like it got a lot of rain. Arlington claimed 2", Big Branch rain gauge claimed .07", but we decided to head there first anyway. Lo and behold, the Big Branch was lower than I have ever seen it. Definitely mountain biking level. So we kept driving south...and every drainage was just about dry. Eventually, we got to the Roaring Branch in Arlington and it looked barely runnable, so we drove up till it was too small and put on. There were a few fun drops and a lot of very shallow boogie.

Friday night, Ben and I drove up to Colton, NY for the Raquette release on Saturday. After a late bacon filled morning, Alan, Simone, and Erik met up with us at the putin. It was Ben's first time so we scouted Colton and watched the usual crowd of boaters mess up the line every which way and turn out just fine, so we put on and routed it. On lap one, we took out river right after Particle Accelerator and hiked back up. Lap two, paddled all the way to the conventional takeout (which apparently nobody uses anymore) and luckily managed to hitch a ride with some locals. I ran shuttle for lap three, the other guys took out river left at Particle Accelerator and hiked up the tube to the road. As always, more pictures are available on my Picasa.

Me being steezy on the boof-to-slide at Colton. Check out my one elbow pad. Photo Erik Debbink.

Ben Peters on the first drop of the Tubs.

Alan Panebaker on the second drop of the Tubs.

Erik Debbink cruising down the slide part of Colton Falls. Alan and Simone Orlandi in the eddy.