Swift

Upper Falls is located in a tourist area called Rocky Gorge. From the parking lot at the put in class II-III water leads up to a 15' falls into a small box canyon. If you are running the upper section along with this section make sure you scout this area carefully. Pull out well upstream once the river starts dropping over small ledges with sticky holes. Carry around below the tourist foot bridge for an easy put in on river right or a 10' seal launch from either side of the box canyon. Should you choose to run the falls the usual line is from river right over a 45 degree slide to the 10' verticle drop below. Keep the nose of your boat up on the slide to keep from pitoning off protruding ledges at low water levels.

The biggest drop in this section, not including the put in or take out rapids, is Triple Drop; it is three 2' to 3' drops about 50' apart with a big wave/hole at the bottom. When the Kancamaugus highway disappears and is replaced with a high cliff wall on your right, make your way to river left just above the first drop and scout your line through the holes at each drop.

When picnic tables and tourist with sneakers and cameras appear on river right takeout and scout Lower Falls. The river gradually picks up pace and difficulty as one heads down through the entrance rapid. Lower falls is a series of 6' to 8' ledges that run parallel to the river from the center with the ledges dropping off from left to right. You must scout this drop. It is necessary to run a route through a series of blind drops. A far left route leads the paddler over a more gradual slide. But the approach requires you to punch two large stickey holes. The slide itself contains numerous holes and boulders along its path. The other route (the usual one) requires a precise drop over the 8' ledge between a boulder and some shallow water. Take a sharp left after this drop paddle hard to launch over the next ledge over a stickey hole at the bottom of the drop. Below lies a fairly large calm pool for an esier put in for the lower section.