Little Tobique May 2016

[stewie]

Folks,

Here's the GPX file of my latest trip down the Little Tobique. This is the first time I took a GPS with me. There are a few things, like a couple beaver dams and small snags I forgot to mark, but the major stuff is there. I'm posting this up here to help people who are thinking about running this river but can't find out any information on it. For what it's worth the water level at the start of the three day trip was 1.99m on the gauge at Riley Brook and 1.92m at the end of it. FYI, we spent more time arguing about how to get around or through the worst of the log jams than we did actually dealing with them. 

It should go without saying that the next spring freshet could and probably will alter the location of some of these snags.  On the other hand, some of them have been there since I started running this river nearly ten years ago, so YMMV.

Little Tobique Canoe Trip 2016.gpx (378.42 KB)

[riveraddict]

Nice- thanks Stewie! Just a heads up about the gauge- the Dee, Don, and Serpentine Rivers all have water control dams on them so it is possible for NB Power to be releasing water through them depending on demand for water at Mactaquac. This would give a high reading on the main stem of the Tobique where the gauge is while the Little Tobique (which is not dam controlled) is very low. It would be great to get information on flow releases to allow predictable canoeing on those rivers even in the middle of the summer... So far I have only done the Dee.

[Ken Corbett]

What do you open this file with?

[stewie]

Ken,

It's a GPS Exchange file.  You can upload it to your GPS, or put it in a mapping program like Garmin Basecamp or Viking on Linux. Here's what it looks like in Viking.

[Ken Corbett]

Thanks, Stewie. I remember the log jams well. Don't they move every spring ice run?

[stewie]

Ken,

From what I can see, the major ones are permanent structures. The make up shifts around from year to year as does the layout. Sometimes I've been able to sneak around, other times I've had to lug. The last one is where the river splits around an island, and the right hand branch has always been plugged solid. I've never had a problem with the left branch until this year. I think something shifted and moved down this rather narrow channel and stopped it up solid. That one was a lug. We swamped out a rude portage trail on river left of this branch. Fortunately it was rather open terrain, as far as alder swamps go. Below the Green Bridge camp site, there are places where it looks like it could jam up badly and there's lots of timber lying around. Knock on wood, so far nothing that hasn't had a way through it.

[cosmo]

I bet the scenery is awesome, skidoo up that way some. See any moose?

Can save those gpx files then open them with www.gpsvisualizer.com/ btw

[thatsapaddlin]

Thanks Stewie. We were going to run this on the May long weekend, but the outfitter up there told us it was too early. Sounds like you had a great trip and maybe next year for me! -Grant.