This past weekend, about ~30 Vermont boaters convened for an AW sponsored FERC-relicensing flow study on the Green River in VT. The Green had been off paddler radars until the last couple years when Ryan McCall (et. al) happened to find it running one day when the power company that owns the dam happened to be running a capacity test. After a bit more investigation, it turned out the dam was coming up for relicensing, so local boaters and the Vermont Paddlers’ Club contacted AW and the power company and arranged for a weekend of releases to assess flows.
If it's not 40 degrees and raining, it's not paddling in Vermont. We wouldn't be enjoying it quite as much, either. The Comp LX Drytop and Comp Pants were a good choice on this day! Photo Morgan Boyles
Turns out it’s a really great class IV run with a handful of fun class Vs. 3 miles long, two ~10′ boofs and a ton of smaller but just as fun ones. We had 4 different release levels, all of which were very boatable.
Me, happily paddling away from the biggest dam-release hole in Vermont (not that we have many). Photo Boyles
The highest release was definitely the most fun, but a number of paddlers opted out of that one due to the greater “availability of powerful hydraulics.” I’m not quite sure what the right answer is, but the AW flow study surveys kept asking how we felt about that. I think my answer was “Acceptable” across the board, although they were definitely more available at higher water.
Christian Woodard considering the availability of powerful hydraulics on the Green River
It’s in a beautiful, roadless gorge tucked into Northern Vermont (unfortunately pretty far from anywhere that isn’t Vermont…and far from quite a lot of Vermont). At about 3 miles long, it’s one of the longer runs in the state (I know, make fun of us all you want), and having it as a dam release river will make it a reliable option when there isn’t necessarily other paddling to be had. Scheduled releases are probably a couple years out, at this point, but the power company releases water for generation fairly regularly and has agreed to let paddlers know when that happens, which is great.
Christian hanging out below the Pothole Gorge rapid
Thanks again to Ryan, Bill Hildreth, the Vermont Paddlers’ Club, and Kevin Colburn from AW for organizing the flow study and putting in the work to help us secure releases in the future. Maybe someday there’ll be a Green River Festival in the summer when everything else is dry.
Brad Croteau flying through the boof rapid
“Andrew” Billy Wagner on the best 2' boof in the world
See everyone at Moose Fest!
Nick Gottlieb
Can you be more specific on the location of this green river. I guess it is not to be confused with a second Green River in south eastern VT, near Brattleboro.
It is in Hyde Park, Vermont, within a few miles of the junction of Route 15 and Route 100 — next to Morrisville, about 15 miles north and east of Stowe, and less than 30 miles south of the Canadian border (as the crow flies).
See http://www.applecheekfarm.com/contact (the farm that hosted us).
It's up in Morrisville, VT on Route 15. Way up there.