River Report: Zoar Gap

River: Deerfield River
Section: Fife Brook
Discharge: 850 CFS
Gage height:
Class: II
Date: 3-July-2011

Out first trip of the season to the Fife Brook section of the Deerfield River in Massachusetts. This section is dam controlled and due to the recent rain the release was running all day. As we neared the river, heavy rain was falling By the time we reach the put-in the rain had mostly passed and we met another group of paddlers we recognized from the Farmington River.

Once on the river, the first rapid, "Hangover Helper", did it's job as the cold dam released water woke us up. We let the commercial rafting trips pass us as we paddled downstream. There was a steady fog and slight drizzle lingering in the air. The weather must have deterred most people from the river as we only encountered a few other groups on the river as we paddled the 6 or 7 miles downstream towards the Zoar Gap.

While most of this section of river is class I-II, the the Zoar Gap is said to be class III making it the hardest part of this run. Erin and I were well ahead of the group at this point and decided to read-and-run the rapid. I led the way and dropped into the eddy at the top from between the two rocks on river left. Erin followed but dropped over the ledge a bit further left. Erin continued to make it safely through the holes at the bottom of the rapid with a great run. I however, proceeded to flip in a similar place as last year. This time thought, I was armed with my new and improved roll and in spectacular fashion (according to Erin) managed to roll up onto a sloping rock face on river left before being washed back into the water, upside down. My second roll was clean and I caught the eddy below the rapid to catch my breach.

We decided to run the rapid again by carrying our boats back upstream. For the second run I took a similar line as Erin and finally made it through the Zoar gap without flipping. By the time our third run came, we had been joined by the rest of the group. I took another slightly different line and again made it through without incident.

Here's a video of our final run through The Gap: