WCP Online Newsletter

Upper Green Trip Report for 12/26
by Garret A. Mooney

Contributed 12/28/2005  Responses:  0

Here is the second stage/trip report on the efforts to clear the Upper Green. This report was composed by Brent Sumerfield. It gives you a clear understanding of our collective efforts.

-Garret Mooney

On Monday 12/26/05 Ken W., Garret M., and myself went to the Upper Green to run the river to clean and assess the future cleaning needs. Our plan was to run the section to Baylessâ?? and start doing some cleaning below it. However that changed as we ran it. We removed easy stuff and opened up access where needed.

We removed the blockage on the narrow right channel around the island above Baylessâ?? so the section to Baylessâ?? can now be run without getting out of your boat. You do have to pull across some trees.

There is one large tree across the river between the scouting take out point for Baylessâ?? and Bayless'. The trail has a lot of trees down and would be very difficult to use to portage a boat. I just got back in my boat below this tree but you maybe able to Boof or pull over this tree.

Baylessâ?? is clean. There is a new tree down stream of the little surfing waving below Baylessâ??. Only comes into play if you flip while surfing and makes it a little difficult to get into the right hand staging eddy above Wandaâ??s Hole.

Wandaâ??s Hole is clean however there are several trees down right below the nice surfing wave that is below Wandaâ??s Hole. We did do some work on these trees but decided not to waste time on these since it would be easier and safer to walk in and clear these while the water is off. You can get around these trees on river right.

The drop at the bottom of the S-Turn had two large trees across it, which would have required a portage. We removed these trees. (When I say we, We helped Ken. Ken is a workhorse. At the I-26 blockage, 6 hours later, as the sun was going down I finally had to tell Ken we could not continue to work on every tree. I was starting to wonder how I would survive the night in the gorge and was having visions of my wife calling out a rescue team to come find us in the middle of the night.)

From the S-Turn, we worked our way down cutting accesses under and around trees.

The spot where the large tree is down from the Hurricanes a year and a half ago has a new large tree parallel to it about 15 feet up stream. I portaged it but a kayak might be able to boof /pull over it.

Under the I-26 bridge is a large blockage. We worked on these trees but the current is strong and the water is deep. Needs to be done with the water off. We finally cut an opening on the left side of the trees to make the portage easy. Other wise a portage at this point would be almost impossible since the terrain is steep on both sides of the river and the foliage is thick. This was the first time I thought it was easier and faster for us to cut our way through than it would be to portage.

There is a large blockage about a hundred yards up stream of Pin Ball. We cut an opening through it on the middle left side. Requires getting out of your boat but it is now easy. At this point two kayakers met up with us. One came in behind me as I was getting back in my boat. The other guy went around the right side. Did not see how he got through but he may have found an opening to pull through without getting out of his boat.

At Pin Ball there are two large trees down from the left side right at the top drop. We cut the top off one tree mainly to open up a portage on the right side. However, it did not appear to be a safe way to portage down the rocks on the right side since they are so slick. The two kayakers started to portage on the left side. It looked very difficult and something I did not want to try. They must have felt the same way since they quickly decided it would be easier to run the right side of the top drop since we had just cleared it and dropped into the right side eddy between the two drops. They made it look easy. However I was in my C1 and that drop could require a brace on my off side. Not having a strong off side brace and the requirement for a quick roll, I decided the potential rough slide down the right side of the second drop if I were up side down did not feel appealing. So the next easiest solution I saw was to walk down the left side of the river, carry my boat over the tree trunks and drop it into the eddy between the two drops. Then run the last drop. This worked well.

We continued to the take out working around and under trees.

Thanks to the Narrow MEN, they did a very nice job of clearing the take out trail for the Upper Green BOYS.

There still remain about five portages but you maybe able to find a way to get around, over or through these without getting out of your boat. They are easy and fast so you should now be able to do the run in about the same amount of time as before.

Brent