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Season Opener on Stoney
Thursday April 10th, 2014Organizer: Ryan
Predominantly: int-adv WW
Water Level: low boatable
Author: Ryan
Internet Gauge (cfs): 750
USGS Gauge Name: Dog River
Kayakers (K1): Ryan M. Henery S.
Canoers (C1): Alden B.
It's always nice to open the season on something other than the Lower Mad. Nothing wrong with the Mad - but by mid May it gets a little long in the tooth. So having the opportunity to poke down a rarely run Micro in the Dog River drainage was a treat.
Stony is an ideal intro to Creeking/getting wet again after a long winter of skiing...run.
The Dog was at about 800 and dropping - I had never run Stony that low, in fact I had never even looked at Stony when the Dog was below 1200, but we were all game and decided to get out there and give it a go.
It was surprisingly boatable. The run is approximately 7 miles long and is a full on gem with a bunch of different drops and distinct rapids that really break the run into three sections. The upper is very tight and is more or less a mini gorge, The middle has some boulder type rapids and the bottom is predominantly a ledge style creek.
We all had a great run and were chasing daylight to the take out - The last drop called Junior's House is a total blast and was slightly constricted due to some residual ice and snow still along the banks. We all ran different lines but they all went - Alden smoothing it out and mine with way too much of a boof....
I am willing it will be draining the Northfield Mountains for at least another week - go get after it folks. There are three specific pieces of wood to be warry of...... So be on your toes.
Cheers...