Amid nationwide ‘drought’ conditions we drove through the rain on Friday evening down through Wales and England to our destination for this ‘nearly-summer’ weekend. A whole bunch of people from canoe clubs up in the North and our friends from 1^st Wet & Wild in Hull, were getting together to celebrate our friend Rod’s 60^th birthday. Whilst setting our tent up in the rain Dave and I cussed the fact that we still had not got around to converting our Berlingo into a sleeping van, but soon we were in the pub having a drink and warming our cockles – whatever they are!!

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Tony G starting things off right on the West branch of the Sacandaga

I won’t sugar coat it.  It’s been a tough spring here in the northeastern United States.  A low snow year this winter combined with a significant lack of precipitation this spring have left us with flows in the rivers that are far from desirable.  We’ve all been doing what we can to make do.  This weekend we resorted to enduring a really long shuttle and rough portage for the chance to run some real whitewater in a real wilderness.  The West Branch of the Sacandaga is a short, remote run, with fairly reliable flows, but forces you to earn it with a 40-mile one way shuttle, hike-in, and stout portage.  Embracing the opportunity to run this stretch of river may be the only positive aspect of such a low water spring.

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Check out the Video

The JED is the best Pyranha playboat of all time.

Myself and Jason Raper recently succeeded in completing a full decent of the River Ure, 160 miles. I can only assume the list of people to achieve this is fairly short and it was not high on our list of things to do. Unfortunately the tragic loss of a friend whilst kayaking on New Years day pushed it to the top of the list.

The Ure flows right across England biggest county, Yorkshire. I would imagine the scenery is what people  who don’t live in the UK, expect of the English countryside, with rolling fells and drystone walls. This is true for the majority of the river Ure as after 74 miles it changes it name to the Ouse. From here, the countryside gives way to 2000 years of beautiful architecture found in the city of York. Not far beyond this the river becomes tidal and the architecture soon gives way to what is left of a heavy industrial history and some which has stood the test of time. As the river increases in size, so do the vessels using the river and after a only 52 miles it changes its name yet again to the mighty Humber. The Humber is over a mile wide at its start point where the Trent and Ouse meet. The land is flat and the water is heavily silted. It is also one of the UK major deep water estuaries and one of the busiest and fastest-growing trading areas in Europe. Nearly a quarter of the UK’s seaborne trade passes through the Humber and includes 25 per cent of England’s natural gas and 25 per cent of its refined petroleum products.

With the ports of Hull and Immingham and the fifth largest suspension bridge in the world the scenery is very different from where the trip began. The trip finishes with something just as special as the English countryside it began in, Spurn Point. This National Nature Reserve, Special Protection Area and Heritage Site is something unique in a fairly ordinary part of the UK.

Anyway, I hope I have described it adequately as we didn’t take any pictures. We were too busy smashing down it in 3 days raising money for the Air Ambulance that tried to save your friend life. If you are interested in any more information on our trip, please visit http://www.justgiving.com/paddletheURE.

  

So this year has been my last with my uni canoe club, and rather that putting footage out each time we’ve paddled something cool we decided to save all our footage to make a wee film that captures the variety of whitewater in Wales.

Rhaeadr Mawddach

Three of us who are (hopefully) graduating this year are heading off in June for a 6 month  paddling expedition starting in the western Himalaya in Pakistan heading east and finishing in Arunachal Pradesh in India, which we are super greatful for Pyranha lending us a hand getting some Everests for those oh so long multi-days.

So sit back, turn HD on, turn up the music and enjoy the video: