Contoocook

Guage was 2.90'. Hit a few rocks at the start continually. I would not say this was 'easy class 2' - it was solid class 2 with lots of rocks to dodge and 2 larger drops (1-2') in which I 'disappeared' from my partner's view. Sweeper along the way didn't look serious but my partner got dumped out of her boat. Upper 3 miles most serious in terms of rapids. I don't know what boat I would take other than a packraft - lots of small pinning rocks. 50-60F air temp we were in dry suits and wet suits and all appropriate gear. Here's the deal on the gorge: We got out *after* the bridge at the start of the gorge and had to ferry across to woods along the river - it was a bit of a challenge to make that and not get swept into gorge. We should have gotten out BEFORE the bridge at the top of the gorge, but we hesitated. We then proceeded to scout from the flattest shore we could find. The gorge is actually a mill site with high stone walls and a huge rock at the bottom exit area. We never got pictures of the gorge. Some of the massive flows through the mill races looked like they could dump someone right on a pinning rock. My 2007 AMC River Guide suggests you could hop pool to pool but the flow even at 2.90' (the bottom of the listed range for green) was crazy frothy in the gorge with a large log across the middle - maybe you could duck under it but I wouldn't want to find out. We ended our portage by putting back in just below the big rock at bottom of mill site an had an exciting ride down into quieter water. The good news on this section of the Contoocook is that the scenery is just beautiful, and, although the river is narrow, you can see quite a ways ahead to boat scout the drops.

Level was decent for packrafts - didn't hit many rocks. We started at outlet to Noone Pond, putting in below the big rocks, river right, behind industrial buildings, and went to the Peterborough Plaza in 1 trip and in a second trip went from Peterborough Plaza to the mill pond above the 202/Greenfield Road - careful to get out in the small park above dam quickly as flow was pushing us towards the dam. In the middle of this leg, we portaged the dam near Main Street on the left.

We felt the river from Noone Pond was generally easy class 2. From the Plaza downriver, mostly fastwater with only a couple class 2 moments.

We scouted the rest of the run above our run, from Cheshire Pond and this level seemed doable with packrafts. Probably need the recommended level for canoes/kayaks.

The only portages we needed were for dams - there was no wood in the river and minimal sweepers.

This section contains a class IV rapid about 1 km after the Hadley Rd bridge and immediately after a private driveway bridge.