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Post by wfeandsig on Feb 13, 2012 15:36:30 GMT -5
I am looking at a weekend canoe trip to test the skills of my Venturer Scouts in May. I am thinking of the North Oromocto from Little lake to Oromocto. Is this doable with a drop off at 6 PM, two hours on friday, 6 on Saturday and and 6 more on Sunday? Where can we camp, room enough for three 4 person tents? How technical is the route, any required portages. I think the ledges in the Junction are well within their skills.
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Post by fraserdw on Feb 13, 2012 17:54:07 GMT -5
Yes, camp at the falls. I have only backpacked it from Little Lake but others have canoed.
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Post by Ken Corbett on Feb 13, 2012 19:44:13 GMT -5
I've run it twice, once I camped at the falls, once I ran the falls on river left. It should be an easy run, no other "sharp drops" except the ledges in the Junction. You may have to be less than choosy finding a campsite down river from the falls, I always went all the way down to civvy town from the falls.
Ken
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Post by dbradford on Feb 24, 2012 13:04:28 GMT -5
I have run this river a couple of times. Last time was with my 12 year old daughter and we did fine. I would recommend taking the valuables out of your Scouts' canoes at the 'falls' or portage. At very least get out on river right and have a good look. I didn't camp at the falls because there were tons of gasperau running and there was lots of bear sign around. About 45 minutes below the falls we found a lovely campsite river-right up on a bluff. There would be plenty of room for all your tents. We started at the outlet Saturday morning around 10, camped Saturday night, and arrived in Tracy about 2 pm Sunday but we took our time. Here is a little clip I took at the falls of the gasperau; might give you an idea what the 'falls' look like. www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3L_NhQ9bcE
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Post by fraserdw on Feb 25, 2012 17:58:12 GMT -5
I love tha clip, I have got to see that before I die!
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Post by Ken Corbett on Feb 25, 2012 21:25:09 GMT -5
Biff and I once were there when the gaspereau were running. At first we thought they were trout, and that we were living a dream, then we recognized them as gaspereau. Still it was quite a sight, there were clouds of them in the eddy below the rocks, just like in your vid.
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Post by riveraddict on Feb 28, 2012 11:27:37 GMT -5
To Oromocto may not be doable within your time frame if there is a headwind in the tidal portion. You could get out at Pride's Landing in the Junction which would fill your time for sure and if you wanted to stretch it out a bit you could start at the boat landing in the Basin instead of Little Lake. It is easy to paddle into Little Lake from the river (although not obvious) or camp just past the falls at Otter Brook as dbradford mentioned (maybe not in two hours from the Basin). There is another smaller spot just upstream from Otter Brook on the right which is decent also- in a bunch of Spruce. For sure scout the 'falls', if you wipe in high water (over 1.3) you may not see your gear for a bit..... Apologies for all the ramblings and brackets!
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Post by wfeandsig on May 9, 2013 8:18:05 GMT -5
So I was very bad and never posted a trip report for this. Run went well. We put in Saturday Morning above Tracy. Just pulled into one of the cottage lanes and asked the owner who was out gardening if we could use his stairway and launch. Getting to tracy was like lighting, made it to the meadow above the falls at the junction in about 2 hrs. Had lunch, left and got out river right at Gasperaux falls. Everything before that was fast , deep no real challenges. I shot the falls with all my gear on my own in a 18 Ft Aluminum Grumman. What a riot. My guys were in a 16'9 Discovery and not very good paddlers, we went down river right and they hung up on the ledge, flipped, lost all thier gear, inlcuding a boot that was never recovered in the pool below. Gear came through, duffles and all floating down the river which I recovered. They scrambled to shore on the gravel bar and reset. The rest of the rapids down to the ledges at the bridge were fun, the ledges were a little shallow but they did okay I had a hoot. After the ledes under the bridge the next ledge was very shallow, had to push the canoes and walk them along. Should have taken out at Prides landing, the meadows were fast going in and then slowed to a crawl, Ended up camping in the meadows, several hundred bug bites later we awoke to a dismal day of paddling through that huge stretch of absolutely slow water, only excitement was watching the juvenile bald eagle fishing for Gaspereaux. Stopped and talked to a few boaters and the Gaspereaux fishing guy finally pulled into French lake at 430 PM exhausted from paddling all day. Overall trip was good but that stretch from the Junction to the Lake was reallly reallllly reallly long.
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Post by Ken Corbett on May 2, 2014 11:56:27 GMT -5
I would recommend tying in your gear the next time, you may not lose gear and not have to scramble after it in the current. Gaspereau Falls was the first rapid Biff and I ever ran, I remember sliding and scraping down the ledge sideways in low water, teetering on the edge of a swim.
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