CdB Forum
CdB Whitewater Paddling Club Discussions => Paddling => Topic started by: lafreniere.luc on September 01, 2014, 11:32:34 AM
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Hello everyone,
Decided to start a new thread now that we have a more solid plan.
This Saturday, Sept 6th, we will be paddling the Taylorville section and then the Eagle section of the Beaver river. BeaverFest is now over, so crowds should be minimal. Water release is schedule from 10:00AM to 2:00PM for Taylorville, and 1:00PM to 5:00PM Eagle section.
Meet Up (Taylorville Takeout):
Time: 10:30AM Map: http://goo.gl/vtKwQe
2-3 laps on the Taylorville section then Eagle.
Time: unknown Map: http://goo.gl/QMwM4d
Sunday, Sept 7th, we will be paddling the Black river in Watertown.
Meet Up (Black River, Watertown to Brownville section, Takeout):
Time: 10:30AM Map: http://goo.gl/Q4kmV6
DON'T FORGET PASSPORTS!!! Also, please make sure you have travel insurance and make sure you have the right contact info in case something happens. Just let one of your buddies on the river know where the card is. If you don't have travel insurance, Yannick kindly pointed out that MEC offers discounts on such travel insurance for high risk sports, even for only a few days! Bottom of the page here: http://www.mec.ca/AST/ContentPrimary/Services/Membership/MECMemberDiscounts.jsp
EDIT - Jon and I are planning on camping Friday and Saturday night here and NOT at Maple Soft Campground after all. Apparently Labour day weekend was their last weekend open. Instead, this location is inside a National Forest, free but more rugged. Outhouse, picnic table and that's about it. So bring your own water and gear otherwise. It's somewhat in the boonies. You will be travelling on dirt roads a lot, once you see a sign on the right for something about "Independence", it's the next right slightly up a hill. The road is very windy and goes for a km or two in. Just look for us, red Dagger Nomad and blue/white Jackson Villain on a dark Hyundai SUV.
Map: http://goo.gl/lx2bpb
General Information:
Both the Taylorville and Eagle sections are part of the Beaver river which on a scheduled water release. These sections can only be paddle a few Saturdays in a year mostly during September.
Taylorville is a fantastic creeking run with lots of variety but is very short. No point in bringing playboats, bring your creeker. Full face, elbow pads, etc. are not absolutely necessary, but most people wear them for this section. You can read all about each rapid here: http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/detail/id/2612/
The Eagle section is definitely only for the more advanced boaters. It has potential serious consequences and is considered a class 5 run. Full face helmet, elbow pads, etc. are highly recommended for this run. If you don't want to run the Eagle, you can easily come and watch to entertain yourselves. DON'T FORGET YOUR THROWBAG! The paddlers would appreciate people on shore having their throwbags ready just in case. Read more here: https://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/detail/id/2614/#main and my video from last year here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ogzqV-fC_4&list=UU32S4xA7VNcop1YyAMLQN4Q
The Black river is located in Watertown, NY. It's about 1h20min away from the Beaver and 2h from Ottawa. This river is playboat friendly, although from memory, the only real play feature is the play hole called Hole Brothers right at the put in. So I'll probably be bringing my creeker to run this. This river has one more important class 4 rapid called Knife Edge (easily portaged) that should be scouted if you've never run this. There's a fun little waterfall, Glen Park Falls, about 8ft tall that's a lot of fun to run and practice your boofs. Read more here: http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/detail/id/1255/
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I'm tentative. How long is the drive from Ottawa to the Taylorville takeout?
Adam
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How long - depends on your starting point
http://goo.gl/maps/00rSy (http://goo.gl/maps/00rSy)
It's a good intro to slides, boofing and creaking ...
Larry
I'm tentative. How long is the drive from Ottawa to the Taylorville takeout?
Adam
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I should be in. I am free around 13:00 on Friday. I've camped in this forrest before, with the Montreal crew. You need drinking water, the campsite is nowhere near water.
--C.
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"It's a good intro to slides, boofing and creaking ... "
Feeling the effects of old age already Larry?
--C.
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I will be on the taylorville Saturday with a few other open boaters from Ottawa.
Yannick.
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Awesome Yannick. Generally, with minimal border crossing issues, and a very quick pit stop, you should be at the camp spot around 3h. The Taylorville takeout is about 2.5h away. But this depends on lots of variables as Larry pointed out.
Someone I met this past weekend will also be joining us (Edwin). Christian is definitely correct on the water front. Bring lots.
As for meeting up there, whoever gets there first, find a decent spot (it's first come, first serve) and as each car arrives, make sure to drive towards the end to find our group. The end is a roundabout type of thing, so you'll know when you've missed us. :) The specific site I stayed at this past weekend was very large, outhouse and big fire pit with picnic table. Lots of camping spots. So shouldn't be a problem.
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PS: My car is a Mitsubishi, not a Hyundai. :-*
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hi folks,
I may join you on Sunday for a run of Black.
Level is presently great at Hole Brothers for playboating, before or after running river.
Seamus
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Seamus, awesome.
Alex Maggs would love to come on Saturday only, but needs a ride to/from her place in Ottawa (1788 Haig St., Ottawa, ON). She's just signed up for the forum, but is still waiting on approval from the Membership Coordinator before she can post. I offered to post in the mean time so she doesn't miss out on Sat if possible.
Anyone able to give her a ride?
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She can post now...
I believe a lot will be discussed tonight!
--C.
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I'm going up for only Saturday. I can give anyone a ride who needs from Ottawa.
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Hey World! I'm finally on the forum! (Thanks Larry)
Hey Chris! I would love to get a ride on Saturday!
Luc already posted my address, if PM's are a thing I will PM you my phone :)
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Sounds good, yea send me your number.
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Hey World! I'm finally on the forum! (Thanks Larry)
Hmmm.... I did the approval...
--C.
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BTW, I can give a ride to one person, leaving around 7:00 Saturday and likely coming back after the day. 613 355 2470.
--C.
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not to get picky ...
yes you approved Alex to the board.
someone else changed her setting to member2014, so she could post messages.
Hey World! I'm finally on the forum! (Thanks Larry)
Hmmm.... I did the approval...
--C.
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Biggest mistake yet. ;D
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So from the sound of it, not many are camping with us. If you are planning on camping, can you post here please? Give us an idea whether we should try to get a bigger site or a small site will suffice.
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I am on the fence about my weekend plans... I may join. Are you guys leaving tonight?
Annie
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re. Black River on Sunday:
Does anyone that is planning to go on Sunday know this run fairly well? Do they know anything about the water releases from Glen Park Hydro? I've only paddled this run a couple times a really long time ago, and my head has been hit too many times since then to remember all the details. But it seems to me that paddlers need to get some water released from the dam part ways down the run in order to run the 2nd half of the river. Can anyone confirm or deny this?
AW's page on the Black makes it sound this way:
http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/detail/id/1255/#tab-flow
"Boaters can schedule their own releases on days when water is available (Wednesday/Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday in July or every day except Tuesday in August) by calling Glen Park Hydro at (315) 788-9121 a minimum of 48 hours in advance of your desired trip. However—if you schedule a release—you will be expected to utilize the water. Boaters who schedule a release and waste the water by failing to show or neglecting to call and cancel the release will be hunted down like dogs and hung from the nearest tree with their throw-rope."
I just tried calling that number and only got to their voicemail, and I did not leave a message.
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Annie, Jon and I are leaving right after work. So yes. You're more than welcome to join us either tonight or on the day of.
Dave, I'm no expert, I ran the Black twice, but I remember it pretty well. To my knowledge, the water is runnable in a variety of water levels. Based on AW, you need a minimum of 1000cfs for the section of Watertown to Brownville, we're currently sitting at 2250cfs and with the amount of rain forecasted for Saturday, I suspect this will go up somewhat by Sunday.
So I don't know what you mean by "the second half"... the portion that is proposed is Watertown to Brownville. You start in town, at the play hole called Hole Brothers and you finish after the Poop Chute, near a plant of some sort on river right. Personally, I feel quite comfortable running this from memory, but I am planning on stopping to check out Glen Park falls and Knife Edge. The rest is boat scoutable. Knife Edge is a little farther downstream of a few various class 2 drops before hitting the big portion, so hence why it's worth scouting to make sure you know the line. There's no turning back once you've started going down this section.
If Christian joins us, which I believe he is, he's also done it multiple times.
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"So I don't know what you mean by "the second half"..."
That's starting at the big dam, all the way to Brownville. Not sure about releases on Sundays, but Saturdays are usually on.
--C.
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This is definitely complicated. I've spoken to someone at Whitewater Challengers (rafting company) and she says there usually releases on weekends, a "pulse" release at 9AM. BUT that changes all the time and can even change the day before?!?!?!
I'm trying to find someone to talk to somewhere... but this seems very complicated. So unless I post more details about the Black, I would suggest we hold off on that river. It would suck to drive all the way there and have no water.
So for the BLACK RIVER ONLY, HOLD OFF! Until/if I'm able to sort this out.
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For the Black, one can see this partly dewatered canyon in the imagery that Google Earth uses. On that day (May 26th) there appears to be still enough water in the canyon to get a decent run in, but most of the water is bypassing the canyon. The sometimes dewatered section is only ~1km long, but it contains a few of the better rapids on the river. If it was totally shut off then one could probably easily float the pools and walk the drops; but that is no fun.
There is some additional information here about the Black:
https://wiki.queensu.ca/display/~ryan/Yak+attak
They also suggest that Hole Brothers is good up to 3000 cfs. One could always potentially just park and play if they were getting skunked from running the whole thing.
Anyhow, I'm not sure if I'm going to make it to the Beaver in the morning. So don't wait around for me.
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There should be enough water for the town play spot, though.
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Ok folks, Black River is back ON. Same meeting place, same time. I have firm confirmation from an employee that said they have paying customers and there WILL be a release scheduled for 11 Sunday. Last wifi reception before disconnecting. So we will meet at the takeout for 10:30
Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk
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So... Does anybody need a ride for tomorrow morning, coming back tomorrow afterwards? I have room for one person in my car. Does anybody want to car pool? My number is 613 355 2470, I will be up for a while...
--C.
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I'm here in Watertown. I'll see you guys tomorrow at Taylorville.
Adam
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hey Luc,
Sorry I did not meet up with you this morning. The KWP picnic at Burleigh Falls yesterday got the better part of me.
I hope you are enjoying the run down the Black.
Seamus
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thanks all for the fun day on the Black!
here's the link for the pictures I took, including photos of the awesome fossils!
http://imgur.com/a/CONyC
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Great day on the water. Very nice pics!
Thanks for helping me.
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Is there a repeat this weekend, now that I can go?
--C.
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No can do this weekend for me. :-\
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Neither can I. I promised my wife I'd go to the cottage after two straight weekends of paddling. Sorry.
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Anybody up for it?
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Alright, this topic should thus be 'unstuck'... Or is it 'unsticky'? But I like 'unstuck', reminds me of the memorable opening sentence of a certain novel...
--Christian
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Quite a weekend!
Taylorville section
A little too much excitement at the 'Great White Slide'. Alexandra showed us how to do it upside-down (I was in pain watching her descent from shore. I think she was trying to outdo Paul P's staircase run!). I hope her finger is OK. Thankfully, a strong tuck left no other major injuries. "Motocross" gloves and full facemask helmets are not options when creeking - imho.
Thanks guys especially Jacques for helping me down the Taylorville section. I was like a newbie.
Lessons I learned from Taylorville
1) a creeker does not handle like a playboat - practice in a creek boat before creeking or you'll get stuck in the first hole (my first swim of the season)
2) use your best paddle (one that you are most comfortable with) rather than an old one that you don't like or you'll get stuck in said first hole
Eagle section
Luc showed us how to go down the second slide backwards. A couple of "fcks!" and Jon running along side, "You're OK! You're OK!" (to make him feel better) I'm thinking, no he's not! But in the end, he was OK!
Jacques and another paddler (sorry I don't know his name) showed us how two people can get jammed in the same hole above the second slide. I've never heard anyone yell "rope!" with more urgency. Good scramble with the rope, Dave!
Black River
My first time on the river, lots of interesting features. Some where along the way Luc managed to crack his boat and paddle - tough break.
Other lessons
From Watertown, Taylorville and Eagle sections are off the GPS - so if you think you are lost, just keep going for another 20 minutes until you are really lost and then it's just on your left! ;)
Great weekend!
Adam
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You forgot the "Oh Shit" moment I had in the first little, teeny, tiny hole above Beaverator on my second run. That's right, I ended up getting spun around sideways as I went over the second little hole you usually punch on the right before the bigger hole of Beaverator itself. I ended up stuck in it, side surfing for at least 60 seconds if not more (some guys just above the Great White Slide had time to notice what was going on, paddle back to the bottom of Beaverator and watch for a little while). After working to get myself out of that little hole, the only way out was backwards towards the center of the channel, of course, perfectly lined up for the bigger hole afterwards. Got myself out, then back into the big hole. Got worked a bit, then flushed out and rolled.
A few 'Mericans were very surprised I didn't swim. Some of our guys (JON!) were getting impatient when I was stuck in the little hole. It WASN'T INTENTIONAL!!!
Next day: "Why is my left arm hurting every time I take a stroke"... Jon: "Didn't you side surf in that hole with your left arm for super long?" ;)
Also, Glen Park Falls on the Black when there is a water release is HUGE! None of us had the guts to run it. It is VERY different and scary. There's even a relatively large hole after a second ledge above the falls that you can get worked in. Case and point, he gets stuck in the hole ABOVE the waterfall. This is what it's like when there's a water release... not for the faint of heart: https://vimeo.com/104974974
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So it's the Beaverator! Lariza said that you were doing well in that hole! Instead of "Oh shit" I said "Awh fck it, I'm out of here!" (swim). Next time I'll get my creekon - practice surfing in my creek boat - very different from my jitsu.. very different.
Often having 'no guts' means you get to paddle another day. If you ain't feelin' it, don't do it! I'm trying to learn that one 'cause after Alexandra, I wasn't really feeling Taylorville section - glad it went well.
Anyway, an extremely entertaining weekend!
Adam
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You forgot the "Oh Shit" moment I had in the first little, teeny, tiny hole above Beaverator on my second run. That's right, I ended up getting spun around sideways as I went over the second little hole you usually punch on the right before the bigger hole of Beaverator itself. I ended up stuck in it, side surfing for at least 60 seconds if not more (some guys just above the Great White Slide had time to notice what was going on, paddle back to the bottom of Beaverator and watch for a little while). After working to get myself out of that little hole, the only way out was backwards towards the center of the channel, of course, perfectly lined up for the bigger hole afterwards. Got myself out, then back into the big hole. Got worked a bit, then flushed out and rolled.
A few 'Mericans were very surprised I didn't swim. Some of our guys (JON!) were getting impatient when I was stuck in the little hole. It WASN'T INTENTIONAL!!!
Next day: "Why is my left arm hurting every time I take a stroke"... Jon: "Didn't you side surf in that hole with your left arm for super long?" ;)
Also, Glen Park Falls on the Black when there is a water release is HUGE! None of us had the guts to run it. It is VERY different and scary. There's even a relatively large hole after a second ledge above the falls that you can get worked in. Case and point, he gets stuck in the hole ABOVE the waterfall. This is what it's like when there's a water release... not for the faint of heart: https://vimeo.com/104974974
That dosn't look so bad, it just likes the taste of kayaks. You guys went all the way out there and didn't run it?
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Trust me, it was big. I know very few people that would have tried it. Also, it can't be seen in the video, but much of the water on that side of the falls gets pushed into a corner where there are rock cliffs all around you (i.e. not easy to get out). The current was so strong in fact, we were doubtful that we would have been able to get ourselves out of the large "corner eddy".
As for driving, all of us were already camping in the states because we were on the Beaver. So it wasn't very far (about 1h from the camping spot and others were staying right in Watertown). Some came from Kingston. From Watertown to Ottawa, Google estimates 2h and that's what it was including the border cross on our way back home.
So all in all, definitely worth it.
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Trust me, it was big. I know very few people that would have tried it. Also, it can't be seen in the video, but much of the water on that side of the falls gets pushed into a corner where there are rock cliffs all around you (i.e. not easy to get out). The current was so strong in fact, we were doubtful that we would have been able to get ourselves out of the large "corner eddy".
As for driving, all of us were already camping in the states because we were on the Beaver. So it wasn't very far (about 1h from the camping spot and others were staying right in Watertown). Some came from Kingston. From Watertown to Ottawa, Google estimates 2h and that's what it was including the border cross on our way back home.
So all in all, definitely worth it.
I do trust you :)