4/06/2006

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!


4/05/2006

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.