Nick is an avid Northeast paddler that we welcomed to the IR Team earlier this year.  He has a pretty impressive resume under his belt, and recently joined one of our business associates, Boyce Greer, on a trip to the Romaine.  Here is a recap of Nicks 2010 paddling season as he writes it:

“It’s tough to sum up the year when the fall season is still in full swing in New England, but it’s been a good year. I started out the year with a two-week trip to North Carolina, filled with Green laps and a personal first time down the Elk River. Still have a few rivers to check off my list down there, though…hoping to catch Linville, Toxaway, and Horsepasture when I head down in December (here’s hoping they’ve got water).

Just as spring quarter at Dartmouth was ending, Quinn Connell and I drove to Quebec to run the infamous Taureau river, which is everything it’s cracked up to be. 15 miles, mostly phenomenal class V, and a heinous shuttle. A few days later, we left for a summer-long kayaking road trip courtesy Dartmouth College. Stopping in CO on the way to California, we got some solid time on the Front Range mank hitting Joe Wright, Spencer Heights, and other sections of the Poudre, as well as Boulder Creek, Clear Creek, and the North Saint Vrain. Then we headed west to check out Yule Creek in Marble, CO. Unfortunately we ended up putting in a little too high…and some irresponsible decision-making led to me finding myself in a tiny eddy at the lip of a 40’ horizon line hanging onto the gorge wall, no idea what was downstream, unable to do anything but run it blind. Three hours later, I’d driven myself to the Glenwood Springs hospital and been diagnosed with a broken collarbone. So I headed back to NH to take classes for the summer and spent the next five weeks self-medicating my sorrows away.

Five weeks out, though, I started boating again and the rest of the summer held some pretty good creeking. I caught a few laps on the ever-classic New Haven River in VT as well as the releases on the Raquette in NY every second week. Just after summer classes ended, Labor Day weekend came with its releases on the Beaver River in NY, and I had a great time, finally firing up the slide at the top of the Moshier section, along with something like 20 boaters this year. That Monday we raced the Raquette River which turned out to be tons of fun…hope I can be there next year. Thanks again to the Five2Nine guys for putting the race on.

A week or so later, I left for the Romaine River in Quebec, a 6 day self-support that has only seen a few groups each year for the last few years. Fortunately, we had Romaine River gurus Greg Hanlon and Boyce Greer with us and it made for a great trip. They’re damming this river, and the construction sites were well under way. That said, the Canadian government recently decided to halt construction until further studies about the area are done, which is great news. Check out Five2Nine’s video about the Romaine:http://five2nine.ca/currents-episode-7-quebec/.

Since then, the fall has been great. I’ve run the Big Branch ten or fifteen times. We’ve had two Biblical rain storms and I’ve chocked off two first d’s in the area, one of a very cool 35’ waterfall in central VT, and one of an absolutely horrendous five hour schwackspedition. Even made a trip up to Lachine just to confirm how terrible at playboating I am. The fall is still going strong, and as soon as I graduate in December I’m headed south for a week or two to get some last boating in before ski season.”

Here’s a few shots!

Nick