Clearwater Brook

[mitchell]

Hugh and I ran Clearwater brook from route 108 this weekend. We put in on a small tributary off Route 108. It was boney with quite a few sweepers for about 2kms before joining Clearwater. River was high enough and clear of sweepers for the next 45 Kms to the miramichi. Of the six named falls, we were able to run salmon and lambert falls. A couple more may have been possible. There is only about 500m separating each of the falls. Burnt falls is definitely not runnable in an open boat...you don't want to run this one by mistake. An old and steep portage trail is on river left. Water level on both little and main southwest were at 1.95. The best campsite we saw was a couple Kms before the last bridge in river left. The river was much wider than I anticipated and flowed at swift and constant grade. There were only two camps on the whole river. This is a nice little gem tucked in the middle of nowhere, but be prepared to work a bit. Next time I would like to start right at Clearwater lake if possible.

Pics can be found here.

onedrive.live.com/?cid=A9032F5E2E53151C&id=A9032F5E2E53151C%216148&sc=photos

[Ken Corbett]

Thanks Mitchell, congratulations to you and Hugh. Wonderful trip report.

[cosmo]

Nice pics, visited clearwater bridge on the skidoo over the winter not far from the black hills.

[riveraddict]

Did you guys get in the first little trib (close to the lake) or second one (with the elevation marker on the topos) we talked about on Clearwater? I would have thought Irving had it gated or blocked to Clearwater Lake. Was there a way in there? I'm surprised it was bony, the North Renous was MUCH higher that weekend than last time we paddled it. I've been to that campsite above the bridge- is it worth it to start from there for a few rapids on a day run? Maybe not Burnt Falls from the look of it! Did you see another access upstream? The reason I ask is because you could drive through the gate to Rocky Brook/Falls Brook and drive up to there a lot quicker than to Route 108. But in the spring, the roads would still be a little soft. Thanks for the trip report and photos, always wondered about those drops.

[mitchell]

I don't think it was either trib you mentioned. It is the one further down the road that runs almost directly south for 2 Kms before joining Clearwater where Clearwater begins to turn south. The reason we chose this was because of an old trail that runs beside the trib all the way to Clearwater. If it was really bad going, we would have had an easier time walking back to the 108. Now that I have seen the river, the easiest looking launch would have been where a backwater of Clearwater extends to the 108. I have no idea if there is a trail from 108 to the lake.

You could certainly launch at the last bridge but the better Rapids and scenery is above this bridge. Below the bridge, besides than the falls, there wasn't too much other than fast moving water. There were two more bridges above this one. The first one was probably only about 10 Kms into the trip and would make a nice launch, provided you can get through all the gates.

[dbradford]

This looks beautiful!!! I am definitely adding this to my bucket list