For days, forecasters promised that the rains would come, and we would be joyful paddling New Hampshire and Western Maine Rivers Class III-IV. But Saturday’s scattered showers barely bumped up the river gauges and paddlable rivers were in short supply. Bill Stafford and I headed west to New Hampshire and joined Ryan to escort Mason Galway on his first run on the Contoocook. The gauge had risen overnight to 7.7, a medium level. There were nice surfing waves and fewer rocks than the 6.9 gauge level trip in March. With warm temperatures, it was a beautiful (sunnier than Maine) day on the river.
The Contoocook rapids are progressive starting with class II and building up to the Class III+ finale. As you can imagine, Mason in the Galway tradition didn’t need any warming up or escorting. He sailed down S-turn and Freight Train like an old pro. Only the TC got into trouble by investigating the bony river right line on an early rapid. He was lucky that the river gravel didn’t shave off his beard. We’re looking forward to a rainy season to flood us with paddling opportunities.
TC: Kenny DeCoster