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Post by shawnq on Apr 5, 2012 13:45:54 GMT -5
Last year about this time i was planning a trip with some friends when i found " my secret river " after carefully reading about every river i decided the serpentine looked like a great adventure so we decided for the long weekend in may we would try it. Saturday morning we arrived in riley brook asking for directions to the river when we were told u don't wanna go there nobody canoe's the serpentine lol.... they insisted we go down the Tobique instead , we planned on doing the tobique on day 2 , so after ignoring the warning we set forth on our adventure ! I had been a little worried about the river due to the fact the water levels were extremely high this year and i knew the river would be running fast but i put on a brave face for the rest of my friends that were having second thoughts about our choice of river. As we put the canoe's and kayak's in the river we were off like bullets by far the fastest river i have ever been on, the river running down a constant down hill grade threw the mountain valley's and soon realized this wasn't a beer drinking river !!! This river kept us on our toe's steering around huge rocks the size of an Suv and fast corner's and it also made stopping almost impossible. During the first hour only 1 kayak had flipped during an attempt at downing a beer when he had hit a rock side ways and the girls we had with us were having second thoughts since we didn't hit the falls we had herd so much about yet. "The first falls " wasn't much due to the fact the river was so high but had me worried when my canoe almost got stuck on a ledge going over it but we made it ok but then the second was a monster with rapids that where much higher then the side's of the canoe and much bigger rocks right after it, i screamed loud to my wife in the front of the conoe to paddle hard as we had no warning of the falls until it was to late , it was a rush to say the least we all made it fine except for a canoe full of water and as we headed for shore to empty the conoe a kayak flipped a foot from the bank when they decided to grab a hanging tree to stop , bad idea in such fast moving water. The last few miles of the river was less event full giving more time to take in the wildlife as a bunch of ducks decided to join the group and float down the river with us .Never seen a sole on the river and 1 camp in 25 miles it was perfect , ive never seen such beauty going down a river with the high mountains on each side with overflowing streams pouring into it .
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Post by davidjeffrey on Apr 5, 2012 18:36:34 GMT -5
Right on! I love reading these chaotic stories... us maritimers seem to get into these situations all the time. Gotta love it!
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Post by shawnq on Apr 5, 2012 18:48:56 GMT -5
thanks glad u enjoyed it , i've been looking at a few of your video's .. very nice , i see you do a lot of rivers down charlotte county way that's where i'm from
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Post by davidjeffrey on Apr 6, 2012 6:56:42 GMT -5
Ya my old man and brother live in St Andrews, so I spend a good amount of my weekends down that way, plus I just love it down there. The rivers and terrain are unlike anywhere else. You paddle any of them down that way?
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Post by shawnq on Apr 6, 2012 13:00:29 GMT -5
I paddle the magaguadavic river alot . was gonna try the st croix but ive heard its over crowded and thats not my cup of tea. been looking for something close for the long weekend in may wanna do a 2 day trip with a night of camping. any suggestion's ? nice day on the mag pic
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Post by davidjeffrey on Apr 6, 2012 21:38:06 GMT -5
I've always thought a 2 day run down the Digdeguash would be a great trip. There's a few serious rapids that should or could be portaged, but at the same time they are all runnable. I've done them all except the final huge falls into the passamaquoddy bay... and they were all done with whitewater kayaks and proper gear. I've heard stories of locals trying to take their colemans through the wymans mill section and having complete destruction of the canoe as the result. These rapids are all fairly easy portages in my opinion. The calm sections are beautiful as well. There are some mellow rapids that any open canoe full of beer coolers could handle as well.
The best put-in is way up above lawrence station at the barber dam area... there's a perfect spot for a put-in once you've driven up the old dirt road a few kms... it's pretty much an old campsite with a fire pit right on the banks. I'm thinking if you get a start at sunrise, you could be done the whole stretch by sundown the next day. The worst sections is between the wyman mills bridge and the tryon covered bridge, and the final section after the stillwater near the end. There you'll have three sets of rapids/falls, each one consecutively getting bigger and more intense. The first one you could pull off with some serious skill and finesse, but the second (hidden falls) is best left for ww kayaks and canoes because your boat will be going under water. The final falls are just ridiculous and I don't have big enough balls to try them.
Just have a look through my videos, there's definintely some digdeguash videos on there somewhere... but mostly just the whitewater sections.
Oh, in case you're interested... In May, St Andrews hosts Paddlefest every year. It's a super fun time with a couple nights of live music and parties all around. During the day there is paddle events organized. This year I believe there is a dedicated whitewater run being organized, and there is also a mellow paddle for those not looking for madness. I don't know any details for it yet, but if your on facebook you'll see info on it for sure. Google it as well. It's well worth going, super fun every year.
That's enough from me, I'm going to be thinking about paddling trying to get to sleep now!
Oh, and if you're looking for just mellow stuff, there's plenty of it on the Digdeguash, I just get excited about the whitewater too much.
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Post by shawnq on Apr 8, 2012 19:12:38 GMT -5
thank you for the info on the digdeguash , looks like a great close river for a 2 day trip but going to try to avoid the ww sections as i will have some newbie's with me. thinking on paddling from below the cover bridge in rolling dam down to the small bridge just after still water ,looks like a tame section from google maps , hopefully get 12 or 14 hours of paddling ,7 first day and 7 the next, i will be taking the kayak's up in the next couple of weeks and scouting the trip before i bring canoe's full of gear !
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