Raquette River
Helenbrooks Hole
September 23, 2025
Trip to Helenbrook’s hole
| Reporter | Owen Keal |
| Flow | Medium Flow |
This section of river has a dam release of 2500cfs every week day from 4-8pm. I have gone 4 times at various levels, at 500cfs it's quite low and not really fun, at 1500 cfs there is a nice wave train on the left side of the river there is a really nice wave that forms in the last 200 feet of the rapid depending on the level of the higley flow reservoir there are some shallow rocks below the wave, At 2500cfs (which is the level 90% of the time) there is good 3 foot wave trains on the left and right side. And the wave in the final 200 feet of the rapid is still there but not as prominent.
the put in has parking for about 8 cars, Make sure not to park in front of the house. If you put in next to the parking lot there is a deck that looks out over the small lake above the rapid. There is also an actual put in about 300 feet down the road which has signage saying class 2 rapid. All of the rapid can be viewed from the bridge. The take out which is a quarter mile away has no parking at all, I recommend walking back or leaving a bike. As always respect the home owners.
Bonus rapid, if you paddle upstream there is a waterfall (not sure if it's runnable, and a small class 2 section below that is about 75 feet long. This does not get the same water as Helenbrook's hole because of the hydro electric station but I ran it during a drought and it was pretty fun.