With 2011 drawing to a close I thought it might be fun to start a thread on personal first descents accomplished this past year. I was surprised at how big my own list was. It would be interesting to hear what our members have been paddling so please post your own list. Even if you are a new paddler with only one or two rivers and a pool session, let us know. Or, in the case of Wayne, if its the first time you’ve paddled a river in an open boat. It can be anything.
My own list:
- Harveys Creek with Ed Snutes & Jason Gould
- Savage River
- Rockway River (Boonton Gorge) with Ed Snutes
- Upper section of the Lamington
- Fish Creek with Ed Snutes, Neval, and Myles
- Bottom Moose
- Top Yough with Ken Voytac
- Upper Yough
- Beaver River Eagle section
- Brodhead Creek
- Raymondskill Creek with Wayne Gman
A couple of rivers on my radar for 2012 are: Hornbecks and Van Campens, the Popolopan, Great Falls of the Potomac, the Green Narrows and Geddes (I don’t know how I’ve missed one so close).
Enjoy the Holidays everyone and stay safe in 2012
Well, I don’t have quite as many as you do, but they were all memorable to me. It was an exciting year for us due to the constant rain (I am not complaining). That got us out on some rivers that we don’t normally have access to. Jack and I did the Brodhead for the first time with Jordan, Steve, Cameron and many others. Great river! I really loved it and it’s less than an hour from home.
We also did the Upper Stoney Creek on Memorial Day weekend when the Yough was too high. Another great river and very remote- it’s really out in the wildnerness. Then after Hurricane Irene, we did the Upper Rondout with Cameron and Jordan. That one didn’t work out so well. The water was a bit too low and there were trees down everyone. By the end of the day, it felt like we walked down the whole river. But it is very beautiful! There was a bit of problem with access too, we got into a confrontation with the landowner and had to move downstream a bit to put on.
Thanks to Cameron and Jordan for taking me down these things. I’m a bit timid the first time I do anything.
I really gotta start keeping track.
This year I started an excel spreadsheet to keep a diary of my paddling. Besides listing the date and the river, I list relevant gauge readings and whether the water was low, medium or high. I list personal first descents in red so they’re easy to see later on. My list is a bit shorter than Andy’s, but I got 8 this year.
Nice job Andrew. That’s a big list. I mostly stuck to the semi-local tried and true and only got a couple of new runs in (stony into the lehigh, wapwallopen) but still it was a great year for paddlers. You definitely need to get on Geddes. It is a ton of fun with good water. JUst one long bobsled ride. Keep an eye on the radar.
Had a few first time runs.. The Deerfield (fife brook and zoar gap), Mongaup, Musconetcong. Would’ve loved to paddle more, but life got too busy once the semester started! Hope to run the Ken lockwood gorge, and the Nescopeck and anything else in 2012. I’ve heard fun things about them! See you folks at the pool!
I witnessed your run through Zoar Gap. Congratulations! That was always kind of a rite of passage. I was pretty pumped up the first time I ran it. I hear it has changed significantly since hurricane Irene came around. Too bad that future paddlers will miss out on what was the first class 3 drop for many of us. I’ll get you out on Ken Lockwood sometime this year.
Sounds great. Will also try and get on the Salmon this year…