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Post by tickles on Jun 9, 2009 19:01:41 GMT -5
Water was at 607CFM Still runnable in a canoe or kayak, but it took the fun out of little falls. A customary USA chopper fly over is always welcome. Had enough beer to share with them if they landed. Nothing too exciting for photos. I am slowly converting canoers to kayakers since 2006. good-times.webshots.com/album/572934033wctPSt
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Post by drideough on Jun 27, 2009 11:40:35 GMT -5
Nice pictures..what's your boat? I'd love to do a piece of the St Croix, but I have a 16'7" poly sea kayak, not the most manoeuverable! I've done some easy Class 2 (in a smaller boat) so I'm okay in fast water. Unfortunately only get home for 2 weeks in August, not really hte best time to do the St Croix. Thinking of doing the lakes this summer tho.. Cheers
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Post by ryanward10 on Jul 6, 2009 10:50:07 GMT -5
St. Croix Day Trip July 5, 2009 2000cfs
Six of us did the run from the train bridge to Scott Brook yesterday, a 17.4 Disco, 17ft Tripper, 11ft Cayuga, 16ft Cayuga. The gauge was reading 1990cfs, we were six hours the water, but could have done it in 4 easily if we hadn’t got sidetracked. I’ve never seen this river this high, there were 2-4ft standing waves in 2 places above and 2 below Little Falls.
There wasn’t a rock to be seen anywhere on Little Falls. My sister and I in the Tripper caught a sidewave off that big rock between the two drops on river right in Little Falls and flipped, this being her 1st time in a canoe she asked if she could stand up, and I yelled frantically “No, get your feet up there’s another drop!” She took a rock to her back side, I got a bad hit on my thigh which has left a bruise the size of 2 hockey pucks.
Everyone else came through no problem, my wife said the 16ft kayak handled waves great, it just didn’t turn fast enough for her liking. My friend in the 11ft kayak did the left side and even successfully crashed through that big hole at the bottom on river left. We took out there to eat, and met a group of 14 summer campers aged 12-14 and camp councillors aged 18-20 from Southern Maine that were on a week long trip from Spednic Lake to Calais. They had kindly paddled out and pulled my sister and I out of the current at the bottom of the falls and were on their way about 15 mins ahead of us as we ate.
We dried off, geared up and prepared to run the short 6-7km from Little Falls to Scott Brook to finish our day. Not 2 bends around the river from Little Falls we sighted our 1st casualty. A kid was perched on a rock in the middle of the river, and as we got closer we noticed there was a canoe badly wrapped around the rock under him. 1 canoe and 1 kayak stopped to assist while the rest of us continued on to chase their gear. Around the next bend we spotted 4 more heads bobbing in the current clinging to rocks. We argued with them for 5 minutes to let go and swim to the relative safety of a nearby island. I carried a 12ft pole with me that I had purchased at the Woodsman Museum earlier thanks to a tip on this site. Many times we beached on rocks to collect kids, gear, free boats, and were able to use to pole to great effect to push off, battle upstream against the current and dislodge sunken boats. Back at the wrapped canoe, a total of 4 foolish souls eventually swam/walked out against fast current and managed to dislodge the poor boat and get it to shore. In the end 4 of their 7 boats flipped and swamped. Thanks to the fearlessness of the councillors and some of the more courageous boys the final losses were only a shoe, hat, coat, and paddle. Oh, and one badly mangled Disco 169 that the oldest councillor insisted on paddling down to Loon Bay even though he could barely keep the thing straight and it would clearly never run a river again.
I noticed what I consider to be some mistakes by the campers; no extra paddles or life jackets, nothing in any of the boats was tied down, they had no throw ropes, no ropes tied onto their canoes, no bailing cans, no whistles, no knives, no poles, and they let their group get so spread out that they weren’t in a position to assist one another. For us, leaving Fredericton at 8am, hitting the water at 11am, taking out at Scott Brook at 5pm, completing the shuttles by 730pm, driving back to Fredericton, unpacking, and getting to bed at 11pm makes for too long of a day for this guy. I see now the wisdom in doing a two day trip. Sorry no photos yet, the underwater disposable got misplaced in all the excitement.
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Post by tickles on Jul 6, 2009 16:29:59 GMT -5
Wow sounds like you had a Awsome/Interesting time. Im Glad everyone was ok and hope all parties did not get hurt to badly. Sounds like fun with that much water.
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