Wonalancet

Frank Harrison and Sean Reese paddled the middle section at med-low level this weekend. We looked at the painted gauge and it was approximately 0.5 ft, which also touched the gravel that was built up against the bridge abutment on the bottom of the gauge.  The correlation gauge on AW indicated 0.6 ft and the water level was dropping through the day, so it was accurate.  The entire first half of the ~4 mile run (from Paugus Brook to Tamworth Center) was clean and the most fun with technical class 2+ drops, perhaps a class 3 moment here or there at this low level.  We counted 7 trees in the river.  The downed trees were distributed over the bottom 2 miles, closer to town.  5 of them are passable with a 6 to 8 ft opening at one end and not difficult for Class 3 paddlers to access, even in higher water. Just need to pay attention.  The other 2 trees were river-wide and required portage.  There is a large tree that blocks the left fork around a large island about a 1/2 mile from the town center.  The tree is more safely portaged on river right, but the right fork is low water and we had to walk a good portion of it.  Next time we would probably cross the island find a spot to drop back into the left fork.  As for scouting drops, there was only one we had to scout for wood, as described above (Tamworth Falls). Looks like the center drop would be the best choice at 1 ft and higher.  At this med-low level, the only passage without significant scraping was through a tight jackknife drop on river right. We had to enter with the kayak pointing at 2 o'clock, then conduct an immediate spin to the 10 o'clock position to avoid a piton boulder. It was a fun challenge at the end. After this drop, the river widens and becomes shallow and slow. We look forward to get back there and experience the river at 1 ft.