New England Part 2: Upper Pemigewasset

One week after our Big Branch trip, the temperatures in the North East shot up. Any drainage with snow left was gonna shoot up. That is exactly what happened to the Upper Pemi.

I highlighted our Monday water level in yellow and our Tuesday water level in green.

All I can say is "Wow". What an incredibly awesome river. Maybe the most unique river I have ever paddled. If I took a picture of the put it, the half way mark, and the take out you would NEVER guess they were the same river. Such a large variety of of rapids including long bolder garden rapids that remind me "The Gauntlet" on Tallulah only these were longer and in some cases steeper.

The water was all snow melt, meaning it was incredibly clean and the geology is very unique. Our first run started out with a little excitement.

One of the first rapids is called "The Basin". It starts with a six foot drop leading into the actual basin drop. The Basin drop has a very awkward and narrow approach, making it hard to get a good stroke at the lip (if you can even call it a lip).

When you land at the bottom, you are now in "The Basin", a 40 foot diameter granite pot hole. I landed flat off the drop, but flipped in the boil at the bottom. After rolling up, I began to paddle toward the river right channel that flushes the basin. I guess I did not paddle with enough urgency because I got pulled back into the eddy. The walls of the pothole are totally smooth and overhanging.

Here is what I saw (Left the audio in place and included some footage of another rapid)
To see a higher quality version of this video, click here






Anyways, I lost my Lendal breakdown paddle, and a little chunk of my ego. I did go back the next day (higher water) and style the drop. So I feel a little vindicated.

But that was not the only carnage I encountered on that first run.

The most intense rapid on the river is called "Wham, Bam, Thank you Ma'am". Here is a picture taken on that Tuesday.

The first 1/3 of this rapid is rarely run due to some serious mank (I guess you could say nobody runs "wham").

So we seal launched off the a rock on the river right bank and ran the "bam, thank you ma'ma" part.

Here is the same picture depicting Travis line.Notice the gap in the red line...that was his down time. He described it as having his whole body squeezed by a giant.


Here is picture of my line...green means I was upside down.



I took a really hard hit to the head and lost the skin off most of the knuckles on my left hand.

I walked all of Wham Bam the next day. Less so because of the bad line from the day before, and more so because I had gotten beat down in a massive hole in the rapid just upstream of Wham Bam during the second run, and my nerves were shot.

With all that said, THIS RIVER IS INCREDIBLE.

Peace
Toby