St. Francis

Floated this on 27-28 April 06 (Roselle

Gage = 3.5)in my Wenonah Rendezvous with a spray deck and a full load of gear for a shakedown cruise. Have floated the Current, Gasconade, and Mississippi, but found the Saint to be the swiftest and most obstruction filled stream I've ever been down. The boulder fields through which the stream flows in a couple places required me to line my way through. The flat topped boulders just under the surface are particularly hard to read. Did get dumped, and the boat pinned (which required me unloading it, retrieving it and then reloading it) which was a chore. The generally shallow water kept the river from being really dangerous, but wading around in the boulder fields is a good way to sprain an ankle, or break a leg (which I gage as the main danger on this stream). I did bang up my knee pretty good on a submerged angled faced boulder. After lining my way trough one particularly steep and long boulder field, I ran out of big boulders to 'hop' along, so relaunched and ferried to a spillover between two large boulders to complete the rapids. As I floated between the boulders and started the drop I could see a vortex (2' dia spitter) at the base of the spillover. Woops! The spraycover took some bigtime splash over the deck, then we went through about three big follow-on waves (not whitecapped). We made it through still sailing upright and OK. Parts of this stream should be given a difficulty III (or at least a II+)in my opinion. Should have floation bags tied into the bilge of your canoe on this one, and wear a helmet.

Very Educational.