New England Part 1: Big Branch, VT

Let me rewind a bit. If you have read any of my previous post, you have heard me bitch about going to school in FL. Well that phase of my life is over! I graduated in December, and moved back to NY.

So I will briefly describe the events of that move, and then continue on to the main topic of this post, the Big Branch in VT.

My brother flew down to Orlando to make the drive up to NY with me. My car was packed with everything I own including all my kayaks and gear. Although I was happy to have him joining me, I was a little disappointed because there was a lot of rain falling all along the eastern seaboard, and everything in TN,NC,WV,NY, and PA was running or would be running in the next two days. If my brother was not with me, I could have stopped in every state along the way to paddle. Unfortunately he had to get back to NY to work.

No worries though, we could just book it back to NY, and I could get some paddling in the Delaware Water Gap in PA.

My car broke down an hour after we started driving. Six hours later we had a Uhaul with the car in tow.

Its raining hard the whole time we are driving. I speak to Dave on the phone, and he describes all the awesome stuff he is going to be paddling in NC/TN/GA.

We get to NY very late at night. Every creek in the Delaware Water Gap is running high. I beg my dad to borrow his car the next day. I meet up with people I have never me before and run Adams Creek.

Pictured above is the first drop on Adams Creek. I wont take the time to describe the whole run, just know that it is epic. Here is are links to a video with some footage of that day, as well as a blog write up about the run.

Blog Post

Video

Fast forward four months.

I meet Travis on North East Paddlers Message board. He shows me down the Beerkill in the Catskills at low water. Really fun run. Can't wait to get on it at higher flows.

A few weeks later we drive up to run the Big Branch in VT. The best comparison I can make to Big Branch would be if you took everything on the Green River Narrows below Sunshine, took away all the flat water and made it steeper.

Here is a little video I made of our low water run down Big Branch. Only the first few rapids are shown. My camera quit on me.





Well that is all. Stay tuned for New England Part 2: Upper Pemi, and New England Part 3: Guess What Creek I am Describing...

Peace
Toby

Dukes Creek

About two weeks ago I met Jeff up at Dukes Creek to put on for my first time. I had hiked and scouted this run several times previously but still didn't quite know what I was in for. The section we paddled is about 4/10 of a mile long, with nearly all the gradient at the very end where the bedrock creekbed drops nearly 200ft in 1/8th of a mile.

Looking up Dukes at low water

Today, after a night of light and steady rain I met Mac McGee at the putin for Dukes. We originally had plans for a day of lapping to score for the Southeast Gradient Showdown (SGS). Plans changed upon inspection of the gauge stick Jeff stuck in the sand a couple weeks ago, it was 1.5" higher today. 1.5" doesn't sound like much and wouldn't be much on almost any other run, but Dukes is . . . "finicky". We decided to put on and get out above the big stuff to see how it looked. After about 20 minutes of scouting and convincing ourslelves it was good to go, we dropped over the lip of the entrance, and committed to the next 5 drops.





If there is a crux move on this run, for me it's getting left at the 30 footer. There are now three ways I know of to make this happen. One option, which we did on the first lap, is to carry around the small ledges right above the drop and get in on the nearly boat-wide ledge right at the lip, with your bow hanging off the drop and seal launch. Another option, at low water, is to slide over the ledges, drop into the tiny one boat eddie at the lip and wheelchair against the left bank to line up. The third option, which we tried today for the first time, needs a little more water. After dropping into the small, boiling eddie at the lip you have two strokes to get enough momentum and get far enough left before rolling off.

The 30 footer

Alex Brantley on Dukes at lower water the day before

When we made it to the bottom we got out, walked the last big drop at the observation deck and took a breather before hiking up for another lap. We started checking out that last unrun rapid. Looking at it without much water it's obvious what has kept this drop from being run. Part of the shelf at the base pokes up into the landing zone.




We scouted from every angle we could find. From some angles it looked good, from others not so much. With the extra water we had today, that rock at the base was mostly covered up, with most of the flow landing to the right of it. We decided it looked too tight though, and to just go up for another lap.

Mac McGee running "For the Love of It"

The second lap went smoothly and before we knew it we were hiking again for a third. We checked the stick gauge one more time and saw it had risen another 1/4" or so. We boogied down and started to get things dialed in, making it to the takeout even quicker. I took another look at the last drop and had to give it a try. I told Mac, gave him my camera and walked back to my boat. I promptly peeled out and headed for the lip of my first 1st descent.

Getting a little sideways

Mac followed quickly behind me, nabbing the 2nd run and sticking one helluva boof.

Killin' it!

Like most drops with sketchy landings, the more water the better for this one. For more insight on Dukes Creek read Jeffs write-up on AW.

http://americanwhitewater.org/content/River_detail_id_5138_

That's all I got for now, Mac got a couple video clips so maybe he'll post those up somewhere. Adios.

-David Cohen

Stairway to Heaven

Just thought I'd post up the result of some photo stitching. You can begin to get a feel for the size of the rapid, even though you can't see the bottom drop in the photo.

High Water Bear

The last two days have contained some pretty darn good kayaking. Yesterday was my first time on Overflow Creek where we had a solid medium level that padded things out nicely. I can see why that river is such a classic, tons of fun. After a bit of a slow start today I made my way up through Chattanooga to Bear Creek for some high water action. We put on mid afternoon while the gauge read 21", although once on the river the general consensus was that the gauge has changed a bit and it felt more like an old 26".

Curt Lamberth at Fishbowl

Unnamed Boater commencing kayak evacuation

The author looking small atop Stairway to Heaven

Exiting the whiteout in Stairway

Pushy water and munchy holes were the order of the day. I ran everything and was fortunate to have good lines. There was however one swim(no names) and a few scary lines, but everybody made it down in one piece. It was one sweet day on the river for sure.

-David Cohen

Long overdue update and media dump

It's been months since I've even thought about updating this thing, but I have been very busy, paddling a lot, and there is now much to update about. I will try to keep the words to a minimum in this post, and let the pictures and video do most of the speaking.

It's been a long time since the actual trip, but I finally edited some of the video from the Ottowa last spring. The quality isn't the best, but here it is:

As you can see in the previous post, I raced in the eastern qualifier for the LVM Giant Slalom Series. I have done many flatwater races in the past, but this was my first whitewater racing experience. The race had two parts, a downriver portion from the Big Hungry confluence to right below Chief, and the slalom part which was two laps on the awsome course set up in the slides below Gorilla. The race was a blast, and when all was said and done I had made the top 20 and qualified for the final race, scheduled for the end of August. As you may know, the organizers were unable to secure the extended release necessary due to the drought, and the final race was cancelled. Provided there is enough water next year, I will definitely be out there racing again.

Racing through Zwick's in the downriver portion

Coming around gate #3

Later in the summer I had the oppourtunity to paddle the Raven Fork for the first time. I had been looking forward to this experience ever since hiking the Raven a year earlier. We wasted no time on the hike in or on the river, as is always the case when paddling with Jeff, so I didn't even take my camera. There are no words to accurately describe how amazing this place is, so I won't even try. I just can't wait to go back!

As summer came to an end and classes began, I started to focus on getting ready to compete in my first Green River Narrows Race. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a Green boat over the summer, and was excited to start training in it. Everything was going great until the weekend before the race when my boat cracked during a practice run. I owe a huge thanks to Ben Davis, who was layed up with a shoulder injury, for letting me race his boat this year. I decided to compete inthe Ironman, racing both long and short boats. This was a lot of fun, and made for a full day of paddling and hiking. I could go on for paragraphs about how the race went, but just check out the video.

It is now winter in the southeast, and that means true creeking season. A month or so ago I got up to the Lower Cullasaja at a fluffy 4.5 feet on the gauge. I put together a video with some of the footage that Alex shot and it was recently featured on Immersion Research's website. Here's the link:

http://www.immersionresearch.com/2008/12/17/when-it-rains-in-the-southeast/

And here's the video:

Recently we've had a pretty big rain even that has left many rivers still holding water. I got on Go Forth Creek at low water for a few runs after finishing my last final at school in the morning. When I got to Go Forth all I had with me was my Corsica, so oldschool I went:

The next day started at 5am as we headed for the Bear. Jeff, Cory and I put on at daylight with a fun level of 14 inches. I got three runs in before the cold go to me, Jeff and Cory did five. On the third day in a row of natural flow, I got two runs on Suck Creek. All was fine and dandy there until Kuckle Head on the second lap.

I flipped onto the rock at the top and rolled back up as I went over, tearing a muscle or tendon in my ribcage. It's only a minor tear so I was able to paddle to the bridge, but I'm taking a few weeks off to let it heal.

I may have written a litte more than I originally intended, but oh well.

Happy Holidays,

-David Cohen