Roaring Brook

Saturday, 10/23/10 Taylor Krammen and Eric Adsit made what may be the first descent on an upper reach of Roaring Brook, near Lowville, NY.

We put on below a bridge on the Centerville Road. The first 10 minutes was a very low volume boulder bash through class 2 boulder garden. The river flows around a few bends and then drops over a large slide in the 20 foot range. We scouted this and the next 3 drops from river left.

The slide, known as Engraved Invitation, is best run down river left. Shortly after this is a 4-5 foot ledge that would develop a sticky hole in the center. Immediately after this is Make Your Vows, a V shaped drop that has a very small shallow landing. We chose to portage this on river left and seal launched into the boil before dropping over Unavowed, a U shaped drop that was bigger than we expected.

After that the gradient mellowed for a while until we came around another bend and found a slide with a small pool that fed into a low angle rapid with lots of reactionary waves coming off the left wall as it swept around a right hand bend. At our low flows, we were able to walk down around the bend and discover a pool before the next rapid, Cold Feet.

Cold Feet is so named, because if you get 'cold feet' and decide you don't want to commit to running a 30 foot waterfall, this is your last chance to get out. After paddling down to the pool above Cold Feet, we worked our way upstream on river left and climbed out of the canyon to scout the next series of drops. The scout here can be confusing. Once you climb to the rim of the gorge, walk downstream until you reach a thick stand of short pine trees. To your right, you can see that the wall slopes down and flattens out before dropping out of sight. I recommend using a rope to climb down to the flat area to scout Cold Feet and Balls Deep, the ledge after it. Cold Feet is about 12 feet and most fluid on river right, but runnable anywhere.

After you climb back to the thick stand of pines, continue down stream for about 5 minutes. I believe we crossed 2 tiny tributaries before we could actually see the big waterfall. Watch out for barbed wire, too. When you see a thin plume of water pouring between the cliff faces and pine trees, you'll get your first glimpse at One Whistle Falls.

Between Cold Feet and One Whistle Falls, the gorge walls are vertical with no hand holds. There is absolutely no way that I can see for you to escape without extensive climbing gear. Cold Feet is most fluid on the right, but runnable anywhere. Balls Deep is also runnable anywhere. One 2-3 foot ledge remains between Balls Deep and One Whistle Falls.

At our flows we were able to get out below Balls Deep and traverse along the river right wall to scout the entrance slide to One Whistle. This would be impossible with more water. Although it appears that you could hit the left wall while running this drop, neither I nor Taylor had any issue with it. I landed in a very flat boof that tweaked my back a little, and Taylor landed at a 45 degree angle, disappeared underwater, and surfaced without touching rock. Immediately below One Whistle Falls is a 6 foot double ledge runnable anywhere.

From here, the river is class 2 or 3 with boulder gardens and cobble bottom. Keep an eye out for strainers here, as well as in the upper canyon. When we ran this, the lower portion of the river was a scrapy mess. We took out at the first bridge we came to, on the West Road.

I can not emphasize the impact of high water, wood, or the committing nature of this gorge. At flows where the lead in to the gorge would be enjoyable many of the opportunities to scout would disappear, and some monstrous holes would probably form. Wood anywhere between Cold Feet and One Whistle would be nearly impossible to deal with. Finally, although the drops and rapids described in this report are relatively easy, the consequence of a swim or injury boost this run to at least a class V rating.

Feel free to email me at eric(dot)adsit(at)uvm.edu