The Vermont Paddlers Club

It was a late day affair, after 2:00 pm. We met all met (sans Will) at the corner of routes 100 & 17 for a warm up on Mill Brook, the small rivlet along 17 that drains the slopes of Mad River Glen and Glen Ellen, better known as Sugarbush North. It was a playful, albeit bumpy level. The group was pretty fluid and aware that Brad was cutting his teeth on his first creek. The run went without any incident...one strainer and an unrunable final drop, due to low levels and we were all warmed up to bang out a run on the upper reaches of the White River (or more commonly known as Patterson Brook) to the south in Granville.

Will met up with us as we were taking off of Mill Brook and getting loaded up for the trek down to Granville. Brad decided to assist with shuttle and spectate as Patterson was a notch or two above his skills curently. So Will brought the number back up to 5 on the river. A good healthy number for such a small run. John (served as our guide) had run Patterson the day before several times and let us know it was a totally different river at a higher level... in someways less technical but more pushy. We were probably on this at the lowest comfortable boatable level (at least for me). Anyways, it was a gem of a run. We got out to scout the two major drops on the river although they probably could have been read and run today. The group was strong and kept a good eye out for the newest member to creeking. Paul was stepping up his limits on creeking and had a few swims. Amazing how nothing shakes Paul though and back in the boat after each swim he went to pick apart the next rapid.

If you have never had an opportunity to run Patterson - put it on your list. It has to be one of the most senic runs going. Have you boat on the vehicle though, because it only runs when the gods really open up and dump the H2O....