Paddling the Wonalancet River

Summary
OwnerMITOC Gallery Administrator
Creation Date2007-04-30 00:27:06 UTC-0400
Description


Paddling the Wonalancet
April 29, 2007
Greg, Chris, Sam, Rachel

It feels good to be in a boat again!
It's time to seriously consider that spring is upon us! Greg and I originally hoped to go skiing up in Oakes Gulf, since he missed it last weekend (sucker!). Then, rain was forecasted for the weekend. While most skiiers and hikers might frown, we did a high five: it meant the paddling would be awesome. Note: This is known as outdoor recreation porfolio management. You need a portfolio of sports that you enjoy so that you can have fun outside, regardless of the forecast.

I joined Sam, Rachel and Greg at the Dunkin' Donuts (Semi-official sponsor of all MITOC trips) at exit 23, then we headed to check out the Bearcamp and the Wonalancet (actually, it's called th Swift, but paddlers call it the Wonalancet to cut down confusion with another river nearby called the Swift.) The Wonalancent was prime, and when it's good, it's hard to turn down. We ventured another mile or so upstream from the normal put in to the first place the Wonalancet passed under 113A. Good call! It was well worth it.

The Wonalancet is a FUN river. It's class III, but very creeky. It's very narrow and quick. It kicked my butt last year (I swam twice and got hung on a scary strainer another time). This year, I handled it with the greatest of ease. We all had a blast hopping around eddy to eddy, running little drops, and weaving our way through rock gardens. We had one larger drop of about 6 feet near the end of the run that was fun and easy.

We had to portage thrice on account of river-wide strainers (trees across the river). I'm not complaining--the scenery was amazing, the water temp wasn't too cold, and the water level moved us along.

It was a great day paddling any way you look at it. The Wonalancet really is one of the most fun Class III rivers out there. Such a blast!

I'm sorry the pics aren't better. I'd try to run something, then quickly hop into an eddy, open up my PFD, pull out the Otter Box, then get out the camera, turn it on.......by that time I was usually rushing to get off a quick snap of Rachel finishing the tail end of the rapid!