Thanksgiving paddling

[Cone Bone]

Who paddled over the holiday? Whad did ya paddle?

I had two fine days of paddling over thanksgiving. I ran a couple of class II/III stretches (the Green and the Nisqually) in my wheelie boy. Really fun.

Much of WA was flooding, but these two dam-release stretches were each in their prime. I missed a lot of surfing opportunities 'cuz I paddle sloppy, but the waves I did catch were pretty sweet. Some of the bigger rapids confirmed that the WB is a good battleship to run a little hairier water in. I really feel comfortable in that boat on the river.

Are you easterners freezing yet? Any river reports?

[Heidi]

ice covering the thwarts when we took-out just before sunset. Paddled the Fifebrook section of the Deerfield in Western Mass., a class 2 with a 3 run. We've had an unusually dry Fall. Rain finally brought up some other runs, but to flood stage. With solid rain all day today and strong winds, not even the hearty were biting. I'm not calling it a season until the ice-shelves start forming.

[racer x]

paddled on the Potomac in (some of) our nation's capital this weekend on the artificial course at Dickerson. My favorite part was working on upstream gates in holes. Wasn't too cold, but the top hand does get a little chilly sometimes from the wind. Fortunately the water is still warm enough. We haven't even had our first frost yet!
Alden

[dixie_boater]

Several days of rain before Thanksgiving gave us great paddling over the long weekend. Most runs in AL were at floodstage so the steep creeks were at prime levels. Northwest GA got pounded so the Cohutta streams ran

In Friday my friends got in runs on the Upper Conasauga, Holly and Mill Creeks...all in one day! On Saturday they joined us over on Sand Mountain in NE AL for a great run on the South Sauty. Saturday's weather started with a cold rain, but that changed to partly cloudy conditions. The rain pumped things up and padded out everything very nicely. South Sauty is excellent class III+ to IV- creeking. It is very popular with the Birmingham and Huntsville area paddlers. There is a state park campground at the takeout with hot showers. My favorite winter time run! The parking lot was full at noon. There were at least twenty five paddlers, which included five open boaters.

This southeastern winter paddling season got kicked off to a good start. Hopefully we'll continue to have good rains. Looking good so far!

[montana c-1]

Paddled thanksgiving day with a little snow on the rocks here in Montana we couldn't have asked for anything else to be thankful for except great water. Still kinda warming up though. KEep paddling

[the great gonzo]

No holiday up here, but a few of us paddled anyway on Sat/Sun.
Sat we were on the Magnetawan, the only river running in the area. Mostly class 2 and 3, with one clasas 3/4 and one good class 4 rapid. Water was low, but still perfectly runnable, and we even had tailwind on the flats! Temperatures were o.k, around freezing, and the snow on the ground should make for great pictures.
Sun we were on the Ottawa for some park and play at the Lorne, really sweet, nobody else there but us, so no lineups at any one of the playspots, and the little side creek on river left was runnable, too!, Lot's of fun!

martin

[Jan_dettmer]

Here on Vanc Isl we had good waterlevels. Paddled the Copper Canyon run on the Chemainus which is a fun class 4/4+ run inside
a very remote and impressive deep canyon. Some must paddle drops
keep you excited.
Sunday just me and my buddy Joe went and paddled the upper and middle Gordon run which is another classic 4/4+ with a couple 5s that you can easily walk. Deep canyon with lots of bedrock features
and one 4+ drop you have to run --- tons of fun.

Hope everyone is having fun winter paddling. It was very cold (read: west coast very cold) but sunny.

Cheers, Jan

[bearboater]

i was lucky enough to get out this weekend. Did a small stretch on the bitteroot in montana. nothing big, mainly a cruise, but its always nice to get out.

then the rest of my weekend was spent eying over, and beginning to outfit the fink.
-isaac

[JSR]

We paddled the Kilches (sp?) in the OR coast range. Beautiful crystal clear water 3+ to 4 nearly continous for about 10-12 miles. It was a bit bony at the top, but worth every scratch.
-J