Austin Stream

Below the falls are about five miles of continuous Class III boulder gardens (at medium levels, around 6.5' on gage) to the Stream Rd bridge in Bingham. Nice scenery and a remarkably consistent gradient. At lower levels, this is Class II-III, higher (1000+?), III-IV. There is another take-out a couple miles down on the Kennebec.

The strainers were there last summer as well. They are not going anywhere. Pretty much a non factor at lower flows when only the 'gorge' section goes (see picture for an idea). At higher levels, the strainers could pose a big problem. Definitely set safety. Also, it looks like the vertical waterfall downstream of the strainers goes at these levels.

The run looks like it maintains an average 100 fpm of gradient all the way down to Bingham. I would suspect it would make for a pretty good Class IV-V run at appropriate levels, although we couldn't motivate for a late afternoon start after running the E. Piscataquis in the AM the one time I was there at higher flows.

Even a very small amount of rain will make the 'gorge' section worth doing if you are in the area. Look for flows on the Carrabassett to be above 2000 and on the Piscataquis to be above 600 before attempting the entire run.

We looked at this on May 13, 2007. There was a very large tree forming a serious strainer in the drop after the crux. I think the strainer will be there for a long time due to the size of the tree.

This is the crux drop of Austin Stream.