West Branch, Westfield River, Beckett, MA 5/13/06

We were supposed to meet at 10:30am and all was to be good. Brian and I drove together and arrived at the put-in about 10:15am. Shortly after, about 8-10 guys show up to put-in and Brian and I watch everyone get dressed and haul their boats to the water's edge. We are waiting for Ben and Bob to arrive so we watch everyone snap their skirts on their boats and float away. I turned to Brian and said it feels like we are grounded and unable to "play" today. So we find a seat on the tailgate and proceed to watch where the cars start to show through the leaves on the trees up the road. Brian says how long should we wait and all I can say is I don't know, Bob is not usually late. 5 mins go by and we decide that in 15 mins we are going to put-in at 12:15, not 3 mins later and we see a silver Subaru with two boats coming through the trees. Yippee, we are going boating. Almost 2 hrs later than expected but who cares?

We had a great run down the West Branch and then had time to head over to Walker Brook, which was a story in itself.


Put-in with the first group paddling away while we are long-faced.

West River, VT Spring Release, 4/29-30/06

Fife Brook, 4/1/06

Fife Brook
Deerfield River, Charlemont, MA
Class II-III
914cfs(lower level)

John in his Nitro.

"Bear" and DR. John

Bob's first time on fife brook? He was a little rusty but made it without joining DR. J and John's swim club. Yep, we had two swimmers on Fife Brook and it wasn't me. Bob throwing blades in every direction.

Miss Emily's roll sequence, looking good!

Poestenkill, NY 3/14/06

Poestenkill River
Class III-IV
Hoosic River @4610cfs
Med/High level
Bob(tm)&Toddo

This was a PFD for me. We put in below Barbersville falls, certainly a class VI drop if ever anyone tried it. It steps down onto a very shallow ledge and then slides to the pool below into a nasty hole at the bottom that who knows how deep or whether there is a nice boulder waiting to kiss/grab your bow?(no thanks, but I'm sure some crazy will do it and fire it up making it look like a class IV drop)


Barbersville Falls (VI)

This is a real short run, only 1.5 miles but it starts out active and steps it up a notch for a short bit and then delivers you to the take-out without a thouth of flat water. It's pretty crazy putting in below the falls, the winds coming off the falls are incredible, it feels like your paddling through a hurricane. This gets your juices flowing a little before you even get to the moving water. Around the bend to the left and you have found nice active water with some hole dodging/punching and just good clean III boogie water. The river starts to pick up a little after a few more bends until you come to a mild horizon line. Bob had run this before and knew there was one spot we wanted to look at, so we exited river right and it all looked pretty good to go. We re entered the river and proceeded down a little farther until we reached the spot from the last trip. Now Bob says there is alot more water today. There's a couple holes above the second drop and none of it looked inviting to be upside down so long story short we decided to save it for a warmer day. (we walked it) River right was is where we scouted from but we ferried across to the left and portaged on the left via the foot trail. After this some more ledges and one last one that yours truly did a little crawl stroke practice. Yep, once again my butt is wet, so I cranked out the camera and asked Bob if he wanted to run it again and take some photos. Another great run within 30 mins of the house, can't complain with that.

Bob on the last drop.

Black River, Stephentown, NY 2/4/06

Black River, Stephentown, NY
Class II-III+
Med. level
Timmy and Toddo


Timmy's photoshop work, looks good.
This is the "one" drop on this run. It is about 1/4 mile in lengh with all of the runout, maybe class IV with the mank factor but pretty straight forward. This river is very small volume and runs away from the road for a good amount and makes it feel like a wilderness run with easy access.

Tims new diesel making it look good and keeping things on line. This was a Saturday, it rained all night and on Sunday we had twice as much water ... the most ever, what a treat.

Hubbard Brook, MA 1/19/06

Hubbard Brook, Ma
Tolland, Ma
Class V
High/med level

This is Kory's sequence on Michaud's Falls. He started out with a vertical entrance that looked a little squirrely but he cleaned it up and looked pulling a nice boof off the big rock after the initial drop. Then it looks like he found a rock to slow him down and that's when the meltdown began... he kept it together, and kept his head down and rolled her up with some tender spots on the shoulders and back. Nice job Kory! I wish I would take your lead sometimes.

Now I feel like a real screw ball, i show up this time and it is pumping, so I'm not sure I want to hit it. "I'll see how the first run goes for everyone"...It was big and I was happy to take a hike and get some nice photos of Michaud's Falls. Mollie enjoyed the hike and my butt stayed dry so everyone was happy.

Paul's "fallin' down"

In the background you can see the wild man himself scoping out the right line, he said the right only comes in at higher water.

White-out!

If you look close you can see he has taken his glasses off for this drop. Granpa Michaud cleanin up the fresh lines, awesome.

Another white-out but on the opposite side of the river, no sneaks on this one.

Walker Brook 1/14/06

Walker Brook, MA
1/14/06
Med/High level
Class IV-V(-)


Dislocation/ Larkham's Rock

Rob had his "incident" here and seems to always have some excitement at this spot. Just upstream from here, after the bridge above the campground is where I got into the left bank which was up in the trees. I got in the trees once and pushed myself out and then I was again in the trees except this time upside down. I pulled my skirt and stepped out holding onto my boat and paddle while Rob and Kory paddled through. As Rob was fighting to help me, I said "I'm good to go/I'm fine" and later he said he wasn't sure if I was being sarcastic or not. I guarantee you will know if I need your help, and also, I usually save the sarcasm for the take-out or at least an eddy.

After fighting the river to empty my boat and trying to get back in the river I was exhausted. I look over my shoulder and Carl is standing over me looking down from the road like God in the clouds. My first thought was... "how in the hell did some tourist find me along this river" The crazy things that run through our minds?

I threw a rope up to Carl and he helped pull me up to the road and I called it a run. I was upstream from Larkham's rock about 300 yards...go figure.

So the swim is the reason I have all of the rest of these photos.

James, Rob & Kory

James, right of center on the second to last drop right in Chester, MA.

Kory is boofing and Rob is lining it up.

Rob's sinkin' it, and Kory is in the back.

Check out the paparazi on both right and left banks.