| Summary | |
| Owner | MITOC Gallery Administrator |
| Creation Date | 2006-07-31 12:08:03 UTC-0400 |
| Description |
Fife Brook section of the Deerfield River July 30, 2006 Peter Wong, Alison, David Liu, Noah Smick, Tony Zhang, Mike Broderick, Summer Austin Leading/cleaning up: Greg Wallace, Chris Glazner, Martin Jaspan, Dave Hublebank(RPI), Matt (RPI), Dan (Cornell) Intro to Whitewater Paddling Final Exam: Fife Brook section of the Deerfield, Class II-III+ After four mid-week lessons on local rivers and ponds to hone basic whitewater skills, it was time to tackle real whitewater. This late in the summer, most whitewater is dried up, so we travelled out to the Deerfield in far western Mass. for a damn release on the Fife Brook section of the Deerfield, a frequent first river for many paddlers. We left Cambridge early, picked up Mike along the way, and meeting Greg, Dave H, Matt, and Dan out there (the Deerfield Festival was the day before, focused on the Class III-IV Dryway section). We had quite the flotilla--15 kayaks in total! Because no eddy was large enough, we split into two groups. As soon as we put in, we were faced with the first rapid--Hangover Helper, a large, forgiving rapid with a little wave train action. This was the first real whitewater for many folks, and there was a lot of flipping :) After making it through, we eddied out and practiced out ferries, which didn't go super well (ie, more capsizes). A couple outsiders thought that Dave Hublebank worked for Zoar he was doing so many recoveries (you think the pirate flag would give him away). This rapid really drove home many of the lessons we learned, and taught that things are different when the water really picks up. We spent a lot of time at Hangover Helper, so we didn't have as much time to spare to play on the rope swing (although Greg and Dave H in my group played on the wave there for a bit, and I took pictures). That's the down side to dam releases: the water turns off at a certain time. The river has a few easier rapids separated by longish floats, so we had time to talk and horse around after running rapids. We pulled out at one large eddy for a while and several of us rolled and practiced surfing a little. After trading boats with Dave, I realized that I like his X (an older playboat) much more than Matt Weldon's creek boat (LL Huck). A bit farther, and we took out before Zoar Gap. Greg talked about the rapid, showed us a good line, and then ran it so we could see. Some of the folks felt up to the challenge and hopped in their kayaks and made their way down. Most of us got trashed at some point in this III+ drop, but I hear that Tony and Mike made it through ride side up. I *think* Tony was the only person to not swim on this trip. The secret of his success: "luck, pure luck!" he says. After watching some more, we loaded up the cars and went into Charlemont for pizza, and then a long, long ride back to Boston. Everyone on the trip had a blast. |