St. Regis, Middle Branch

This past weekend some paddlers out of Ottawa were on the St Regis and encountered a well hidden log. One of the paddlers has a POV video and some comments here:

http://onlineluc.com/blog/2013/4/14/a-close-call-on-the-st-regis-river-a-broken-paddle-ny-video
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Some other comments on our forum: _________________________________________________________________________________________________

'Another fellow paddler wasn't so lucky and went through the exact same spot behind me and did get caught in it. He apparently was very close to pulling out his knife to cut off his spray skirt. He was also lucky and managed to get himself freed and ended up swimming. _________________________________________________________________________________________________

'For the record I did not get caught, or pinned, on the log (I wouldn't necessarily call it a strainer as there, luckily, were no branches on it). _________________________________________________________________________________________________

'What happened to me, was seeing the log, but without enough time to go around it, I leaned into it and climbed on top / over it. In an attempt to roll my boat over the log, a part of the log protruding out caught my skirt at the top of my cockpit (near the pull) meaning that I was unable to finish sliding over the log. As I was unable to pull my skirt, and wiggling out of it upside down would have compromised my comfortable head out of the water position I considered cutting the skirt. Fortunately I was able to shift the boat enough to get out (both myself and my boat were downsteam of the log at this point, having traveled overtop of the log).' _________________________________________________________________________________________________

Saw the tree today (the following day). Hard to spot, and it was the natural place paddlers would find themselves on the river, on the outside of a turn. _________________________________________________________________________________________________

Saw the strainer in question today, near boulders just above Nicholville bridge.