River trips

1.45 metres ........ 29 December 2006

At this level it is worth spending time up at the Linn and the wall, as there is as much fun to be had there as there is on the rest of the river.

The Linn

The Linn is good at this level - there are several roots down :-

The main channel on the left - The usual diagonal wave, very fast, with the usual boils and whirlpools below it. Usual route down hard river left.

The next channel - there are two neat routes down -

hard river right - follow the main flow close to the rock wall on the right, or run it diagonally, right to left, skirting the hole
just left of centre - a neat 1 metre drop over a lip of rock in to what turned out to be quite a plungey bit of aerated water

The 3rd channel - this provides a nice bit of micro creeking - it looked good, but turned out to be quite straightforward to run, but more rocky than anticipated.

The fourth chute also provided an interesting possible route down, which looked to be fairly straightforward, provided you don`t get caught in the significant hole at the bottom.

Linn bypass

The Linn bypass is probably runnable at this level, but beginning to get a bit stoney at the bottom end, so probably not worth doing.

Wall

The wall - okay, but not at its best - tailies were not easy to achieve.

Wave right hand side of wall

There is a surfable wave, but again, it`s not at its best at this level.

There was an interesting wave just downstream of the wall, which isn`t usually there.

Weir

The weir was covered over most of its width, but only just. The run down the main middle chute is very straightforward, as it is almost flat below the weir, no waves at all. As there is water coming over most of the weir, there are a lot of stoppers, some of which are quite benign, and some a bit more meaty. Rescues wouldn`t be too difficult if a stopper proves to be a bit too sticky, so these stoppers could maybe provide some good play spots or practice spots for side-surfing.

Rapid down to Hell Hole corner

At this level, this rapid is totally featureless. The only features were those caused by the man-made groins coming out from the river left bank. All of these groins were just covered, so quite hard to spot as you come down the river. But each of them had significant turbulance below them, so these provided good playspots. Less competent paddlers should come right down the middle, where they will meet nothing that will cause them grief.

Hell Hole corner

The main flow river right is just a bit rough. The wave extreme river left is playable, the green wave just below it was good, but there is now a tree stuck just above it. If the tree moves down stream a few metres, it will screw up a big chunk of the play spots at Hell Hole corner.

Mill hole

The hole just up from the mill is forming at this level, and looked good. I screwed up my approach, and managed to miss it altogether.

Thistlebrig

The rocks in the centre of the river just above the narrows are just beginning to show, so they create a confused area above the narrows. The rough stuff at the narrows provides the usual challenges for playing in, but the less experienced paddler can easily bypass everything by coming down the easy water river right - stay close to the right bank as you go through the narrows.

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