West River

We ran this section yesterday (5/6/2018), which we call the Londonderry Ledges section, as a planned Berkshire Chapter AMC Trip. At the level we ran it (medium low) it was a Class 2 - 3 difficulty. At higher levels it progresses to a full Class 3 level of difficulty. It should be noted here, that the link that this AWA website provides to the Army Corp of Engineering website is not working. The Army Corp has changed their web links to dam level inflow and outflows every so often for security and hacking concerns and the current AWA link above is not working. The link that does work as of today is: http://water.usace.army.mil/a2w/f?p=100:1:0:::::# but the Army Corp has shown the propensity to change the website address whenever they detect a security threat and there is no guarantee that this link will work in future years. However if this link doesn't work in future years, just go into the main Army Corp website and drill down into the menus on dam levels and you will eventually find the new web addresses.
Getting back to the matter at hand, we ran the river at a level of 900 cfs as the inflow to Ball Mountain Dam reservoir. As mentioned above, I consider this a medium low level but there was nothing scratchy about the level. The river becomes scratchy at inflow levels below approximately 800 cfs and becomes increasingly more fun and consequential at inflow levels above 1200 cfs. The ledges develop holes that will stop a boat if you don't run them at the right slots.
Currently, the Army Corp on the same website page is providing a link and information about a water level gauge they are calling 'West River at Londonderry, VT'. This gauge is actually in South Londonderry and is located downstream of the take-out for this section of river and gives an almost accurate reading of how much water is flowing in the section of river that you are running. Yesterday this gauge read 475 cfs as we were running the river. This gauge is not currently listed on the USGS Gauge Website. It is only accessible at this time from the Army Corp website.
Starting the trip at the new Post Office in Londonderry, VT., there are two good rapids in this section of river. The first one starts about a third of the way into the run and begins upstream of the Rt 100 bridge that is located between South Londonderry and Londonderry proper. The rapid is lengthy and extends below and for a distance downstream of the bridge. There are plenty of eddies to catch between the ledges to plot where to penetrate the next drops.
The second good rapid occurs immediately upstream of the take-out and starts about 150 yards downstream of the Rt 100 bridge in South Londonderry. Its character is again a series of ledges. It doesn't have the large boulders mid-stream that the rapid above has, but it does have eddies on the sides from where you can plan your route(s) thru the ledges. At higher water levels both rapids become pushy and the spaces between the ledges seem too short and the ledges come at you quicker then you may like. At the level we ran it, it was not pushy and we had plenty of time and eddies from which to plan our routes.