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/vtKwQe2-3 laps on the Taylorville section then Eagle.
Time: unknown Map:
http://goo.gl/QMwM4dSunday, 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/Q4kmV6DON'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.jspEDIT - 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/lx2bpbGeneral 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=UU32S4xA7VNcop1YyAMLQN4QThe 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/
