The New Left Tour in VT

So RLP has been laying low for quite a while again mostly because we've all been spending our time working and trying to pay our bills in these hard economic times. But besides working at our regular jobs we've also been working on our own little project. The New Left is a film that I've been working on for a good amount of time now and is due out by the end of June. The film will include some boating in New Jersey, West Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. It also features some of the sickest creeking Vermont has to offer. I had returned a week ago from VT with a team that included TJ Crawford, Daniel Mayer, Tom Randis, Jason Mcmullen, and myself. We were lead by the imfamously known guide in Vermont, Ryan McCall.

The New Left!

The trip started out at Mclovin's house where we loaded up the tour bus and drove about six hours to where we met Tom Randis at a hotel in upstate New York. The next morning we drove another five hours to the West Branch of the Deerfield which was a sick class four creek with some good boof moves. TJ and I both had a rough time in the first rapid which was a series of boof moves which led into a narrow gorged-in hole. It was probably the hardest rapid on the river besides for Tunnel Vision which was pretty much unrunnable due to the low level. We drove the rest of the way to our hotel in Vermont and slept that night for our next busy day.

Chillin' in the back of Tour Bus! Haha.

The next day we did a quick run with Ryan on some creek (forgot the name already) and then went to do a run on the Big Branch which is comparable to the Upper Blackwater in West Virginia. It was a very low level but made the boofing but was all the better for boofing. We did have to walk a couple of rapids which included BLT and Cave Drop but the rest of the river was solid. We took off the river around eight and it was almost pitch black on the last rapid making it very difficult to see and extremely scary.

Jason boofing on the Big Branch.

We slept in the next day and then traveled two hours south to run Joe's Brook. Ryan had warned us that he had only run this at higher levels so he was unsure of what kind of dangers (sieves or undercuts) might appear down the river. Fortunately we were lucky enough to scout our way down the river in a timely manner and only had to walk one major nasty rapid. The rapid would have definitely been runnable at higher levels but all of the flow was going right into a sketchy-looking hole. The rest of the run was fun with nice big slides that are comparable to Swallow Falls on the Upper Yough. The last rapid was my favorite, it was series of small holes and waves that were seperated by wide turns through a walled in gorge.

Hippie Dan with the moves!

After an exciting night of partying in Montpelier Hippie and I decided that we wanted to go out with a bang and make our last run of the trip Middlebury Gorge because it is considered the crown jewel of white water runs in Vermont. Unfortunately, Jason and TJ were not at their best and Ryan had never ran the creek before so we backed out. Lucky for us we found something better. It's known as Texas Falls and it has supposively only been ran by a handfull of people. It looked good to Jason and I so we prepared for our run while TJ, Hippie, and Ryan walked into the gorge and got safety ready. One guy who met up with us earlier at the Middlebury Gorge put-in followed us there and propelled into the gorge to take pictures of us. You can check them out at http://www.kayakingphotos.com/. The run was successful and we got a good amount of video of paddling the gorge.

Jason running the Falls.

The trip ended with some minor partying and a long drive back while looking for some possible 1st descents along the way. Hope to tell you guys more about the trip at Cheat Fest. Until then paddle hard and be safe!