Little Ossipee

The little Ossipee put-in is not at Balch Pond. I am unsure of what the level was at the time as I was having a hard time trying to find a good gage but the week I ran it had rained a lot and many rivers were runnning. Putting in at Balch Pond was narrow but seemed wide enough to manage, with the awareness of strainers. Shortly after I put in, the river kept branching off into up to 5 branches at spots which made an already narrow river very narrow. There were too many trees to truely navigate this section of the river (sometimes some every few feet). The water was low enough that it wasn't pushing into strainers but any higher and it would have been dangerous. I spent many many hours pulling my boat over or around strainers. There was a lot of carrying through the swampland. Eventually about 2 miles or so down the river, the river opened up into a beautiful beaver pond. But the east paddling didn't last long. The section between the beaver pond and Shapleigh Pond again had many strainers. After the pond, there's a dam that needs to be walked with very little access to the river. All the sides are posted. After the dam some easy rapids begins and the water gets more pushy, still having trees. There is a small road shortly after the pond, after this is a section of narrow probably class 2 rapids (Not super maneuverable in the open solo canoe). At this point, I was getting pretty frustrated with the run. When I can up to rt 11, there was a very difficult portage around another dam for flood control on the road. This is when I decided it was no longer worth my effort. I pulled up boat up the revine and called it. My guess from my scouting is that shortly after this, the river becomes run able but this upper section is not worth the effort. But this upper section was never able to been seen from the road. But I the river down stream seems to widen and have pretty regular class 1 with the exception of the final rapid at hardscramble rd which can be easily scounted. If you do happen to run this river, find a new put-in downstream of rt 11. Potentially it might be easier to start on the other side of Arrowhead Lake.

Last Drop on the Little Ossipee. Saco was running around 2700.

Fun river, but unless you are up for a long flat-water paddle (through nice area at least - very sparse houses) put in & run the top rip and carry back up and drive to the bottom (Not far from 25 on Hardscrabble Rd. just before Limington Rips). Parking enough for 2-4 vehicles @ bottom rip and plenty of room at the top.

Entrance to Class IV @ top

Last Rip, Class III+/IV before the Little Ossipee Hits the Saco just below Limington Rips.

River-wide surf wave real pushy @ flood flows great relaxing warm-up in normal water just above the first big Rip

Robby made it!