September, 2005
No Umbrella Goes to the Deerfield
By Nick Callanan
Back in 2001, while guiding rafts full time for Moxie Outdoor Adventures, my boss Cliff Stevens sent me on a trip to Charlemont, Massachusetts to guide the Deerfield River, Dryway section.
This was my first experience on that river and, though it was a shorter river trip than the Kennebec, Dead or Penobscot, I enjoyed the trip and my visit to the area.
The Dryway has a diverse range of eddies, playspots and holes packed into a three mile run. This is not a big water run, so you don’t get the huge waves you see on Maine’s dam-controlled rivers, but there’s plenty of fun features to play in.
It was on that trip that I first heard wind of the Deerfield Riverfest.
This event is an annual American Whitewater fundraiser - and a great chance to paddle a different river, get together with other boaters, buy or sell a kayak, and get down to some good music.
So, back in mid-June, I decided that I would go to the 2005 Deerfield Riverfest, set up a No Umbrella tent and paddle the Dryway once again.
When Friday, July 29th arrived, Zeke and I were in Portland, just finishing up our monthly, four-day, 550-mile delivery jaunt around Maine. (I like to call this effort “Issue Outage”).
So, with the red Nissan pickup full of No Umbrellas, T-shirts, Kristen’s killer river art cards plus some food and paddling gear, we pointed the truck south on I-95. We met up with I-495 north of Boston. We were headed for Charlemont, Mass. on the Mohawk Trail.
It is in this part of Massachusetts where you can find some of the oldest and biggest trees in all of New England. Visit the Mohawk Trail State Forest, if you don’t believe me.
We pulled in to the site of the Riverfest at about 11 p.m. Friday night. Greeting us were two relatively exhausted American Whitewater representatives, Ben Van Camp and Kevin Colburn.
It had been a long day for these two hearty river-runners turned river activists, but the Festival site looked great, with plenty of space, vending tents and a good weather forecast.
Ben and Kevin were generous with their laughter and information. They both had big days ahead of them, so they hit the sack, but they sent Zeke and I back into town in search of the Riverfest’s unofficial pre-party, the Beerfest.
Local paddler and just generally good person, Mary M. hosts the annual Beerfest at her house in town. By the time Zeke and I showed up was a raucous group of friendly paddlers sitting around a keg of Steel Rail Ale, watching kayak porn.
(*Important note with regards to purchasing beer in Massahcusetts: Out-of-state licenses are not accepted as a valid form of ID. If you want beer in Mass, either bring it in from Maine or carry your passport, or head to the Beerfest).
Though Zeke and I were unknown, loud and thirsty - and we arrived after midnight - we were welcomed in and encouraged to sample the local hops by-products and kayak videos.
There was one video in particular that was very cool: Over the Edge by Balzout and Falling Down Productions. This one is a few years old, but it has some sweet Maine creeking footage: Parlin, Gulf Hagas, Nesowadnehunk, Pierce, Katahdin streams. Check it out.
The next morning, after breakfast, Zeke and I headed up to the river.
The Dryway on Riverfest weekend has a pretty easy shuttle: There are hundreds of cars going from put-in to take out. On the way to the put-in to drop off our boats, we saw old friend Tom Christopher with his thumb out at the takeout (called Dunbar Brook picnic area). We made room for him and rode three across on the bench seat up to “Number Five Dam” in the village of Monroe Bridge.
The water is about ten degrees colder than the Kennebec, but still plenty warm enough to “Man Boat.”
Here’s Zeke to tell you a bit about the Dryway his first trip.
The run was continuous “Class fun“ boogie water. Low volume, many rocks, and shallow for the most part. Lots of eddy lines to play with, and a few good play holes/waves. It was relatively easy read-and-run whitewater. What stuck me most was the amount of other boaters to contend with. For most of the run, Nick and I played “dodge the rafts,” which was actually really fun, meanwhile, not waiting in too many lines for the surf spots. We were time-conscious, for we had important off-river work to do, like give away raffle tickets, and sell Nick’s creekboat. My favorite rapids came at the end of the run. It seemed the rapids got progressively harder as the run went on, the last three heightened my sense of awareness and boater instinct considerably. They had more of an elevation drop than the others and the moves were tougher as we eddy-hopped on down each of them. The most exciting moment of the river came when Nick and I entered Dragon’s Tooth rapid, the second to last rapid of the day, also the spot of the underground rodeo that goes on each year (so there was a bit of a crowd). Nick led our two boat trip and I followed at what I thought was a pretty safe distance behind. Apparently I misjudged my brother’s ability to move down the river. As he tried to punch this one hole river middle (Dragon’s Tooth), he was thrown on a right brace, slowing him down a great deal, and the distance between us dwindled. He noticed he was dropping into the rodeo hole a bit sideways at that point and tried to straighten it out to punch through. Good call, bro. He definitely got surfed bad, right into my line. As I could anticipate the collision, I tried to sort of boof off the bottom of his boat, so I could still make the eddy. To no avail. Nick never flipped over, so I crashed into his bow with everything I could, trying to kill him, and I missed the eddy, and knocked him right into it. Apparently, no surfing for Zeke. As karma always does, though, it bit Nick in the ass, and he didn’t even catch the hole. Sucker. We did get a roar of cheers from the peanut gallery there, and some cool pictures. Smiles all around.
With no flatwater, plenty of fun moves, a few good rides, lots of sun, and a lot of really happy people, the Deerfield Dryway was a great river trip.
Thanks Zeke. After the river trip, we hustled to the Festival site to set up our booth. Plenty of time. We were set up by 2:30 p.m. and it was 4 p.m. before the Festival got busy.
I’d estimate that over 800 paddlers came through the gates between 4 and midnight. They enjoyed two bands, a beer tent, food for sale, a portable climbing wall, a 25-foot slip’n’slide provided by the Northeast Paddlers Message Board (who was that one dude who kept sliding off the friggin thing and knocking cups over? Seriously, man, keep it on the plastic), a stump where a rousing game of Nails went deep into the night, used boats and gear, and great vendors from throughout the Northeast selling all types of paddling and outdoor gear.
The event was a success for our company, as we sold enough river cards and T-Shirts to pay for gas, and we met hundreds of paddlers, who now all have No Umbrellas.
American Whitewater also rated the event a success as they managed to sign up over 100 members on the day.
See you there next year!
Email nick [at] noumbrella [dot] com with your questions, comments and concerns.
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