The Vermont Paddlers Club

Sunday Apr 27, 2025

I warned pretty much everyone ahead of time there could rain showers, snow showers, and "low, good" water levels, and I wasn't wrong.

I was nervous, barely sleeping the night before, because I have this new (to me) short and sporty Blackfly Option OC1 and I had little confidence I could/would paddle it well my first time on Joe's in nearly a year. Not only the canoe, but at 66 I do sometimes feel stiff, weak... and let's be clear: old.

Fast forward to Sunday on the water, where the entire crew, 11 kayakers and myself, had really good runs and didn't seem fazed by the rain/snow/cold. We ran from the GMP powerhouse to the first bridge crossing after the lower gorge, something like 10 miles in something like 5 hours, averaging 75 feet/mile. The covered bridge section (1.8 miles) drops 180 feet/mile!

The young bucks including Jamie and Ryan ran the class IV (V) covered bridge rapid - no flips or swims there. Everyone ran the waterfall drop without incident and without scouting first.

There was only one spot right out of the gate where we wished we had scouted for strainers, but didn't. See " Wood", below.

If I invoke the 5 second rule I can honestly assert that there were no swims the entire day (the less said here, the better)! The open boat only filled with water up to the gunnels 2 or 3 times all day, but conveniently it has a battery operated pump (installed expertly by my OC1 provocateur and pal Mason Overstreet), which sucks the Option ~dry with the flip of a switch after punching any hole.

The young bucks, all new to Joe's, ran the serpentine take-out rapid, IV (V), not noticing our signals to stop/scout, followed by Ryan and Neal, and as Jamie put it: "While no carnage, one chose to run it in an unorthodox manner, as synchronized swimmers say, bottoms up!".

Long story short, ya gotta love Joe's Brook!

See Wayne Wheeler's YouTube video from our outing, if you have 30 minutes to spare.

Some other gauge correlations: The Joe's Pond height was 5.19' early Sunday, the dam was spilling, and GMP was generating a full load (125 cfs). The Wells peaked overnight around 3.5' (over 500 cfs). The Passumpsic R @ Passumpsic peaked overnight around 7.7' (3700 cfs). The E Br Passumpsic R peaked overnight around 5.5' (917 cfs).

* Wood: There were no river-wide obstructions from the power plant to the first takeout below the lower gorge Sunday 4/27/2025. HOWEVER, at the very first horizon line be sure to start right/stay right of the tree in the water that is out of sight (until it’s almost too late), a heinous strainer on river left. One other (obvious) tree trunk blocks the right channel at a small island in the section below the Greenbanks Hollow covered bridge. There, go left and live.

Saturday May 10, 2025

There are paddlers I’m sure who would relish the Hudson Gorge on a day when it’s cresting above 7 feet on the gauge and the mercury never reaches 50 degrees. I’m not one of them. I imagine we will get to the ADKs for some boating in the weeks ahead.

Meanwhile, today I lured 6 kayakers to join me for a delightful, sporty bog-down run on the NBL @ ~2.75’ on the Montgomery Rd. painted gauge. I adore the NBL above Belvidere when it goes, especially with a crew of solid boaters. The drizzle and light rain didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s spirits. All who ran the road-side cascade in Belvidere styled it, as well as the slide above the Back Rd. covered bridge, and the crux move in the lower gorge. Watching Wayne go completely (deliberately) straight up and over the big boulder below the crux was a highlight for me, the boulder that (most days) sticks up high out of the water.

All were sated by the time we reached the Montgomery Rd. take-out, leaving the final Waterville ledges section for another (warmer, sunnier, and lower) day.

For reference, the Lamoille@Johnson gauge rose from 800cfs to almost 2800cfs in the 24 hours ahead of our run; side streams and freshets everywhere were pumping. 

Paul's Garmin recorded the following:

Saturday-Sunday Jun 7-8, 2025

Instructors: Paul Carlile, Chris Weed, Maddie Clark, Jim Poulin, Sue Strang, Eric Bishop (OC)

Students: Lucian Avery, Ben Bookwalter, Hans Brown, Ethan Ely(OC2), Hannah Mangham(OC2), Eloise Girard, Blaine Martin, Selina Rooney, Morganna Stanworth, Lydia Riddell, Chuck Bookwalter

Middle Mad Saturday (315cfs)

Lower Mad Sunday (275cfs)

What a fabulous clinic we had! This was VPCs first novice clinic since COVID and we were very excited to be back at it. The weather forecast heading into the weekend was a little sketchy but turned out to be very nice. Saturday morning we met at Ward swimming hole in Middlesex on the Mad for the flatwater portion. After getting equipment assigned and adjusted, we did our regular routine of wet exits, boat control/balance, paddle strokes and T-rescues. Ward is great place for the morning session as there is plenty of flat water but a little gentle current to introduce eddy turns, peel outs and ferrys. The group was particularly strong with everyone having some paddling experience with flatwater or a bit of moving water. Sue and Eric provided us with lunch where we discussed river running, hazards and shared some other general information.

 

For the afternoon, we paddled the Middle Mad putting on in Moretown (below the gorge) and taking out at Wards, about 4.5 miles. We had just enough water for that section (315 cfs). We spent a good deal of time at a feature just below the put-in practicing peel-outs and ferrys and then headed on down river. The Middle offers some great water for novices and everyone had a great time practicing their newly learned skills. We even had a very gentle feature that everyone was able to try out surfing. In the lower section, a class I boulder field provided opportunity for everyone to work on river line reading and catching eddys in moving water. Near the end we hit Graduation Rapid (II) our biggest of the day and all had great runs. We made it through the whole afternoon without a single swim!

 

With such a strong group, we felt that most of our regular options would have been a bit of a let down so we decided that the Lower Mad at 275cfs would be a great choice. This is the second time in my tenure that we've had a strong group and the right water level to do the Lower Mad. We had beautiful day with sun and temps in the mid 70s. Our tandem canoeists had commitments on Sunday and could not join us. We scouted the first rapid before putting on and only had one swim. We then got out and scouted S-Turn/Double Drop. Everyone ran that successfully but a couple of people got caught in the squirrely water at the bottom. We used the flat water section to work on paddle strokes, which helped everyone down the river. We did a bit of surfing at the spot on the right side of the island above Horseshoe. At this level the entrance to the left side of Horseshoe is blocked but there is just enough water going over the lip of the drop. One by one we got the students into their boats in the pool and every single student ran the drop. Smiles were huge! Washing Machine was it's usual rush with one casualty in the run-out boils. We finished the day with a bang with everyone cleaning the last drop!

 

Tremendous thanks to all of the instructors for all of their hard work and loaned equipment. Special thanks to Sue and Eric for lunch and to Eric for stepping in to instruct canoe. Finally, thanks to our students who brought such positive attitudes and were very helpful moving equipment and helping with the shuttles. I really enjoyed this group and hope to paddle with all of them in the future.