West Brook
Snake Den Rd. to Magee Rd.
| Difficulty | IV-V |
| Length | 2.2 mi |
| Avg Gradient | 190 fpm |
| Gauge | West Brook Near Wanaque Nj |
| Flow Rate as of 1 hour | 8 cfsbelow recommended |
| Reach Info Last Updated | January 27, 2019 |
River Description
West
Brook into Wanaque Res.
This is the rare tiny creek with a gauge within
a mile of the takeout. John Greer and I ran this on Oct. 28, 2006.
It was running at about 500cfs which seemed to be a good medium
level.
What a great stretch of creekin! After a few hundred
yards of class 3 warm up, the creek gave us 2 miles of tight,
steep, continuous, class 4 boogie, punctuated with an occasional
class 5 drop ( a few in a row just below the bridge). Keep your
eyes open for wood and horizion lines, as both seem to jump up
on you frequently.
Recent
Precipitation Map (MARFC)
MARFC
forcast (the next 24 hrs)
MARFC
forcast (the following 24hrs )
Look for 300cfs as a minimum
on the West Brook at Wanaque gauge.500-700
would be a great range.Above 800 and things will start
happening very fast on this run.
Put-in
where the creek comes out of the small lake. Or downstream where
Snake Den Rd. crosses the creek.
Take-out
where the road crosses the creek. Be careful. there's a Snooty fishing
club which owns all of the land around the last 1/2 mile of the
creek and has lots of No Trespassing signs up. I've been told they
have cameras mounted in the trees to monitor tresspassing (I'm not
kidding)
Another option would be to take out above the horse
farm and climb up the bank to the road. It's not a bad climb, the/
River Features
Put In
Put in upstream of Snake Den Rd. on River Left. There's a small ditch / tributary to put onto.
Michael's Monkey
After some class 2-3 boogie this is the first distinct ledge. Watch out for wood.
Happy Ricky
After going under West Brook Rd. and making a bend to the right. the river makes a turn to the left and you come to a nice boulder/ledge rapid. Scout on left or right.
The Lizzy Monster
About 100 yards after Happy Ricky, keep an eye out for the Lizzy Monster. It's the biggest drop on the run. It starts with a bouldery lead-in and finishes with a big ledge. The ledge has a boulder perched at the top which splits the current and forms a hole on the upstream side. Pick your line based on the level, wood, etc. and go for it. Rapids continue for a bit afterward and then begin to drizzle away to class 2 stuf for the last few hundred yards.
Take Out
Take out where Magee Rd. crosses the creek.
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportmade a side trip here after scouting the Pequannock River...wish i would have seen it the day before when it was about 4' high
I've been keeping my eye on this one for awhile. From the gage statistics it only breaks 400 cfs on average 1-2 times a year, so you better be ready to call in sick. If you're up for this, consider a possible first descent on Posts Brook from Glenwild Ave/Otterhole Rd. to a hike out to East Shore Dr.
This shows what most of the run looks like. With a few tougher drops thrown in. We ran it on a beautiful fall day.
(unless someone else has named it something else already)
If anyone knows of someone else who has run this creek, I'd love to hear from them.
This is the big drop below the bridge. You can see it from the road as you drive up to the put in. After the bridge there's a little island, then this is just below.
The boulder which splits the flow at the top of the last drop of this has a good hole right in front of it.
This map shows the location of the closest rain gauges to West Brook and Posts Creek