Nerepis

[canyak]

We paddled the Nerepis for the first time this weekend. Despite the popularity of this river I was surprised that a search on this site did not turn up any older posts, hence this trip report.

The water levels were at 0.95 m and were quite good for a casual paddle. My Tripper scraped a few times but did not require stepping out to drag over shallows. I'd expect levels less than 0.9m would mean more dragging.

We put-in about 6 km north of Welsford, off of a cell tower road visible from Hwy #7 (N45 29' 49" W66 19' 23"), and we took out at the Britton Road bridge (N45 23' 52" W66 17' 16"). This is about 20 km and took 3.5 hours for a very casual paddle with a child and pup. At the halfway mark in Welsford is the Cochrane Lane bridge, which could also be used either as a put-in or take-out, if you wish to have a shorter trip. Another option is to extend the trip by continuing down river through the silver maple flats to the Grandbay-Westfield bridge, a 7 km extension. However this stretch is a bit more prone to the prevailing SW winds common in late afternoon.

Even though I had heard about the Nerepis for years, for some reason I had low expectations of the river. But I was very pleasantly surprised at the beauty and quality of this river. This underrated river offers a nice wilderness feel and a good current. Definitely worth a trip. We'll be going back again!

[davidjeffrey]

Thanks for sharing! I've always been curious about this river as well.

[Ken Corbett]

On the old contour maps it shows a long stretch of bars across the stream. Unfortunately they are on the base territory. I always wonder if you could flail down the George?? stream and run down to Welsford. Musings while stuck in the car once more.

[fraserdw]

Once you get into the base the river becomes a series of pools and sand bar except in the Spring, I done alot a work with the military there in the 80s.