River trips

2.25 metres ........ 31 December 2006

Most of the river has few significant features caused by natural phenomena. However man-made obstacles do create some interesting features. It is also noticeable that whilst it is not too difficult to get the right line, getting the wrong line can dump you with big problems.

It is worthwhile planning to spend time playing at the Linn, and at the wave below Thistlebrig.

Linn

At this level, the Linn provides some interesting possible routes down it.

There are 4 seperate flows over the rocks, each one of which is a significant river in its right, however the two left channels are almost merging into one.

The most river left one, the main flow, has the usual significant diagonal standing wave, and at least 100 metres downstream of large whirlpools and boils. Maybe paddleable hard river left, but I couldn`t get a view of it.

The next channel has a nasty stopper along most of its width, however there might be a possible route hard river right - however I couldn`t see how big the hole was.

The next channel has a possible route down on the right.

The fourth channel, the most river right one, has two possible routes -

about 2 - 3 metres out from the left side
2 metres out from the right side

Avoid the middle of this channel, it is too rocky.

From my boat below this channel, I couldn`t see how big the holes were. However by climbing up on top of the big lump of rock on the right, I could look down on them. Both these possible routes had significant holes, but there wasn`t much of a back flow, so it should be possible to blast through them.

As I was paddling solo, and was having a bit of a bit of a bad hair day anyway, I didn`t paddle any of the above routes.

Linn bypass

The Linn bypass was running well, and provided a straightforward grade 2 river. The trees, were easily avoided, but it did need a bit of intensive route picking at the bottom end to avoid some rocks.

Wall

Water is coming over the wall.

Wave right hand side of wall

This was just about washed out, but there was a wave which could be surfed with difficulty. However you could only get to it by coming down from above, so you only got one shot at it.

Weir

The whole of the weir has water coming over it, and there are stoppers over most of the length of the weir.

The main chute produced a smooth green tapered wedge of water, and was the best way down. Provided you come right down the middle, it is quite straight forward.

However don`t be misled by this, the consequences of getting it wrong are severe. The stoppers at the bottom of the weir are not to be messed with - rescues for stuck paddlers would be very difficult.

The wedge of smooth green water is not easy to see from above unless you are close to the edge - if you don`t exactly where the middle shoot is, this is not a good time to learn.

It was also made a bit more complicated in that the water was actually running slightly diagonally down the green wedge.

If there is anyone about whom there is less than 120% certainty that they will get the right line down the weir, they should portage the weir. However this could also lead to problems, as after launching below the weir, you have to get right out to the middle of the river to avoid the groins.

Rapid down to Hell Hole corner

This section was mostly straightforward, with few problems if you come down the middle. The man-made groins coming out from the river left bank give rise to significant waves and stoppers which provide good play potential.

Hell Hole corner

The main rapid on the right is fairly straightforward.

The whole area above the drop on the left was quite confused and choppy, the waves below the drop are quite big.

Thistlebrig

Thistlebrig has the usual rough bits on the left, but there is an easy run down right of centre, past it all.

Wave below Thistlebrig

At this level there are two waves, both of them fast, short, and steep. Both of them had a substantial foam pile, almost down to the trough. The first wave was good for surfing, but it was tricky to keep still. The second wave was too short for my boat to surf on, the bow kept digging in. However the foam pile did enable a few 180`s.

On this occasion, these waves were the highlight of the whole trip, and I spent quite a long time there.

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