Piskahegan (Easter Weekend 2010)

[mitchell]

Nine of us paddled the Piskahegan this past weekend. It would have been hard to get better weather in June. We had 2 days of 25 degree weather with some nice rapids and some lazy dead water. Here is a video of Hugh and Mike again.


Mark did a collection of videos in one.



Here are some pics of the weekend.

mitchellamos.spaces.live.com/

[ryanward10]

It was a wonderful trip, great weather, great company, and running a stream few people have heard of. Here's the crew (Mitchell snapping the photo is missing) From Left to Right: Stephanie, Hugh, Me, Mike, Kyle, Dustin, Dave, Mark



Kyle and Mitchell make everything look easy.





Mark & Dustin show us how to paddle a 1/2 full canoe.



I show you how to swim,



the weather was so nice I was warm in 10 minutes and didn't bother to change until we made camp.

The legend of Mike and Hugh continues to grow, those guys are great fun, and they don't pack light so if you forgot something, they probably already have 2.



Thank you all, it was great fun.

[liar197]

Thanks for sharing....I always look forward to viewing your trips....

[Ken Corbett]

So did you start at the highway out of Blissville? Where did you take out?

[ryanward10]

We started on the 785 and took out at the Mine Bridge, same run as described on your site Ken. I'd love to see the last 8kms to the Magaguadavic river, but i'm not sure that's doable except in a whitewater kayak and by someone with more skill and bravery than I possess. That bit under the mine bridge would eat a canoe. And the topo map shows the stream dropping 150ft over the next 4-5kms, we had dropped 220ft over the preceeding 32km! By comparison, the Nasis Stream drops 70ft over 6kms, and the early part of the Tay which never slows down travels 9km before dropping a total of 150ft. Maybe we could contact some of those crazy creekers and see if they'd like to give it a go with a helmet cam for us?

[dbradford]

My cousin and a couple of his friends did that last stretch two years ago. They said the drops are fantastic, but I doubt a canoe would survive it. They almost ended in disaster as they encountered a log-jam and one of them got tangled up in it.
Ryan, grab that little boat of yours and maybe we can talk David in to joining us with his helmet cam! I'd definitely be up to that

[davidjeffrey]

That wouldn't take too much to talk me into that! I've been wanting to do that for a couple of years now, and those falls under the bridge have been taunting me for long enough!
Ready when you guys are!

[Ken Corbett]

The fall under the bridge is the first of three before the stream turns west to meet the Magaguadavic. Tom Lemmon ran it oh maybe seven or ten years ago, he's the only soul I can name who has run it. There are low-water pictures on my site of this stretch, taken by Aaron Fraser.

Ken

[dbradford]

We might just end up doing it, er, today...well later this morning
Sounds like fun...we'll let you know how it pans out.

[ryanward10]

Remember that part in my response where I talk about someone with more skill and bravery than me? How about we try this one in the summer after a rain when the prospect of hypothermia doesn't loom as large. Although those pictures on Ken's site don't look like anything killer in a little yak so long as you wear a helmet, nasty looking rocks everywhere.

[Ken Corbett]

Actually, I was hoping you'd take the hint. There are other rivers that offer better kayaking than the last stretch of the Piskahegan.

However, I do understand the urge to run this stretch.... gotta see what that canyon looks like, eh? The runout past the third fall to the Magaguadavic might be spectacular, who knows? I feel the same way about quite a few stretches on different rivers around here.

Ken