Pimmit Run

We ran the last section of this creek from a bit below Kirby to above Glebe (1.35 miles of paddling) on November 24 during a delightful rainstorm that dumped about 1.5 inches in 6 hours. The Four Mile Run gauge was around 1750 cfs, and Pimmit was at full flood stage. It was fast, fun, and scenic, but not particularly difficult, mostly moderate wave trains and scattered holes. We’re calling it class 2 to 3+ in technical difficulty, but with the fast current (we averaged 6 mph without any effort, max speed 14 mph), relatively few and small eddies, significant strainer potential, and possibly very bad consequences for a swim (the low-water dam/bridge at Glebe Rd. was a nasty looking 10-12’ pourover with a massive hydraulic, and the drops below Glebe could do plenty of damage also) it would be good to have at least class 4 skills before running this section at similar levels. We took out about 0.2 miles above Glebe Rd. and hiked out the last part, missing out on a fun-looking class 3+ drop and hole about 200 yds above Glebe. We had scouted before the rain started and saw one log stretched all the way across the stream about 5’ above the normal low-water level, but at flood stage there was only about 18” clearance near the banks and none in the middle, which gives an idea of how much the water rises. WARNING: the AW River Description above says there’s “adequate clearance” under the Kirby Rd. bridge, but that’s not necessarily true -- when we looked at it after our run, there was maybe 12-18” of clearance under the bridge, which is located around a blind corner in a fast-running channelized section of the stream with no eddies, so if we’d run that section there would have been no real option other than to flip over and run the bridge upside down (and hopefully not roll up until after clearing the bridge). So if you’re paddling the full run at high water, be sure to scout both the Ranleigh Rd. bridge (very ugly, as described above) and the Kirby bridge, and the best course is probably to portage from above Ranleigh Rd. all the way across Kirby (unfortunately on private property).