Dead River Maine June 9/10

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cgr
Posts: 1123
Joined: Thu May 10, 2007 7:41 am
Location: Stoughton

Dead River Maine June 9/10

Post by cgr »

Last week I led an AMC trip on the Dead River in The Forks, Me. This was a class 3 trip, about 13 miles of whitewater each day.

I didn't take any pictures of Moose, Eagles, or Chipmunks(and couldn't find any good pictures of Bullwinkle & Alvin to stick in here). Water levels were supposed to be 3500 cfs on Sat & 2400 cfs on Sun; with heavy rain on Fri afternoon and earlier in the week it added another 500 - 300 cfs.

One of the paddlers has a contour camera, and this is his video from the two days. The first part is from Sat @ 3500, and the second is from Sunday. Dave did manage to capture some of the excitement in Lower Poplar rapid, which is the final rapid.

http://vimeo.com/43866157
noseykate
Posts: 734
Joined: Thu May 17, 2007 6:50 pm
Location: South Weymouth, MA

Re: Dead River Maine June 9/10

Post by noseykate »

Interesting! Where are all the boulders? It's not at all as I'd imagined. Gigantic flush! I would not have liked the ride in the big hole. The rest looks fun, if exhausting... not many eddies. I wonder if I'll ever see this river....
cgr
Posts: 1123
Joined: Thu May 10, 2007 7:41 am
Location: Stoughton

Re: Dead River Maine June 9/10

Post by cgr »

The lower the level the more boulders you see; weird huh! Obviously the camera never shows everything, but at 3500 there are fewer eddies behind rocks, but there are micro eddies & slow areas behind holes. Also the river is so wide that usually one section (left, middle, right) is more conducive to a paddlers strengths; so it's just a matter of reading the water and heading that way.

This is especially true in upper & lower poplar(where steve had his swim), there is a double fall line so most of the water goes to the left as well as downstream. So the biggest waves, with a couple of holes snuck in are on the left.

Most of the rapids are like the quaboag gorge, the biggest hits are just before you hit the pool - and you can't always see the drop until you are upon it. Saturday I was leading someone through the bigger rapids, so I took easier lines threading between the holes. On Sunday I was able to paddle for myself and play with different lines.

Kate, I think that you would enjoy an 1800 cfs release level, lots of eddy hopping available. It's a long river, but there lots of opportunities for rest.

And I forgot to mention the butterflies! We had a bunch of monarchs who stuck with our group most of the way down. And when we took a break where Enchanted Stream enters the river(go figure!) there were hundreds of them gathered on the shore!
noseykate
Posts: 734
Joined: Thu May 17, 2007 6:50 pm
Location: South Weymouth, MA

Re: Dead River Maine June 9/10

Post by noseykate »

No wonder they call it enchanted stream!
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