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- Feb 28, 2025
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Up here in Maine, the last few weeks have given us enough rain to raise the rivers to a somewhat reasonable level. A local favorite paddling spot was brought back to life just in time for some late season poling. On this section of the West Branch of the Union River there are several unnamed rapids which are short Class I affairs and one named waterfall, (Tannery Falls) which is probably a Class III when it has enough water to be runnable. Alas the gift of rain was not quite enough water to run the falls without excessively battering my 40+ year old canoes, there was in fact a nearly perfect amount of water for canoe poling. So I set out over the weekend to make the most of it!
Pictured below: Tannery Falls at a low runnable level. The ledge on river right is a good indicator of when the falls are runnable in an open boat:
-No water over the ledge = not enough water
-Some water pouring over = a bumpy ride
-Water pouring over all sides = good Class III run
There is a second set of rapids above the falls that looked tantalizing as I went by it the other day, but upon heading out with the wife and baby I found that there was not quite enough water for the combination of my skills and boat handling to make a meaningful ascension. The entire river bottom was large irregular boulders which made for many places to get stuck and only a few good places to plant a pole. I had greatly anticipated showing off in front of my wife, but was rather humbled by the river that day. (Many such cases!)
Pictured below: a tantalizing rock garden above Tannery Falls and some downstream snubbing.
Having been a little morally bruised but not entirely dissuaded by the perceived loss above the falls I returned to the section below the falls just before the bridge the day after.
Pictured below: Tannery Bridge over West Branch Union River
Here I would find something a little more my speed. While I wasn't successful in pushing up the main chute of the current here, I did over the course of the outing make it up and down around a dozen times. Once I had gone upstream I performed a modest, "Rock-Hop" to turn myself around and get my weight forward of the center yoke for downstream snubbing. Each time I did so I felt better about the boat, the water, pole position and trusting that my yellow tripper wouldn't slip out from beneath my feet like a big old banana peel. I failed to set the camera in a spot to capture the action of catching an eddy with a pole, but I suppose that can be arranged on another day.
Pictured below: Poling and snubbing through a small rapid.
Linked below is some of the footage I captured from these two outings. Unfortunately due to technical issues the footage from above the falls suffered from some pretty bad compression when moving from one device to another.
It was a good learning experience and I was just happy to be on the water again. The snow coming in at the end of the session reminded me that the canoeing season is rapidly coming to a close.
Pictured below: Tannery Falls at a low runnable level. The ledge on river right is a good indicator of when the falls are runnable in an open boat:
-No water over the ledge = not enough water
-Some water pouring over = a bumpy ride
-Water pouring over all sides = good Class III run
There is a second set of rapids above the falls that looked tantalizing as I went by it the other day, but upon heading out with the wife and baby I found that there was not quite enough water for the combination of my skills and boat handling to make a meaningful ascension. The entire river bottom was large irregular boulders which made for many places to get stuck and only a few good places to plant a pole. I had greatly anticipated showing off in front of my wife, but was rather humbled by the river that day. (Many such cases!)
Pictured below: a tantalizing rock garden above Tannery Falls and some downstream snubbing.
Having been a little morally bruised but not entirely dissuaded by the perceived loss above the falls I returned to the section below the falls just before the bridge the day after.
Pictured below: Tannery Bridge over West Branch Union River
Here I would find something a little more my speed. While I wasn't successful in pushing up the main chute of the current here, I did over the course of the outing make it up and down around a dozen times. Once I had gone upstream I performed a modest, "Rock-Hop" to turn myself around and get my weight forward of the center yoke for downstream snubbing. Each time I did so I felt better about the boat, the water, pole position and trusting that my yellow tripper wouldn't slip out from beneath my feet like a big old banana peel. I failed to set the camera in a spot to capture the action of catching an eddy with a pole, but I suppose that can be arranged on another day.
Pictured below: Poling and snubbing through a small rapid.
Linked below is some of the footage I captured from these two outings. Unfortunately due to technical issues the footage from above the falls suffered from some pretty bad compression when moving from one device to another.
It was a good learning experience and I was just happy to be on the water again. The snow coming in at the end of the session reminded me that the canoeing season is rapidly coming to a close.
