With the recent summer storm through Saturday night and Sunday Morning we headed out to treat ourselves to a classic Lakeland triple – Sprint, Clough and the Kent.
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/71356323 w=600&h=338]Video edit thanks to Sam Gregory.
clough
I’m still here!
It has been over 5 months since I posted. Until yesterday my last post was the last time I paddle something other than the Kent or the Leven. This winter and beginning of spring has been terrible due to lack of rain. To the non kayaker the weather has probably seemed miserable, unfortunately for the kayaker the weather was just never quite miserable enough to get the rivers pumping.
Thankfully this week some heavy rain arrived. Sunday night I managed to paddle the Roeburn again, this time at the highest level so far. Still holding out for even more water in this continuous grade 3 local gem.
Then on Wednesday more rain arrived to the East of Lancaster. So I headed over to Settle to paddle the upper Ribble for the first time. I found the river at a solid medium level, which made the first 2 km very continuous grade 3+. Fairly big volume by UK standards. I will definitely be heading back to do this river again. After this I headed on up to Sedbergh to paddle the Clough. The drive up wasn’t looking promising, Barbon beck, Lune and the Lower Rawthey were all empty. Thankfully (and strangely) the Clough was flowing at a nice cruisey medium level. The Rainchasers gauge for the Clough is actually on the lower Rawthey below several other tribs so in my opinion it is highly unreliable.
Lastly, its 10 days and counting until I head off to the Alps!! I will be out there for 17 days, the first half based in Val Sesia in Italy and then the 2nd half heading back towards the French alps to paddle the classics around Briancon etc. Can’t wait!! Stay tuned for videos and pictures from the trip.
A triple to kick off New Year’s Eve
Lots of rain was forecast through the night. This time it arrived 🙂
The plan was simple, enjoy some of the classics with plenty of water in them. We started of with the Sprint, 0.9 on the gauge and holding. This provided a quality opening to the day, with only “slot and drop” being portaged by myself and Sam. The rest got through with a right to left line.
After this we headed over to Sedbergh to paddle the Lower Clough. At the get out the Rawthey looked pretty big, this made me a little apprehensive. I knew after my last outing on the Clough in high water that the ledges can dish out a beating (https://lakesboaters.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/when-it-goes-wrong/). So I decided to have a quick look at the gorge before we got on. Thankfully it wasn’t as high as I had thought, I say probably a perfect level.
After the Clough we headed back over to the Kent to finish the day off. It turned out to be at the highest level I have paddled it, 1.2 on the gauge. At this level water is coming over the rock in the middle of Force falls but not quite enough for the boof line to be on.
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When it goes wrong!
With rain falling all day three of us headed over to the lower Clough. It was high but we had all done it at a similar level before. We didn’t make it to far tho, the 2nd ledge drop caused 2 swims and a lost paddle, I had made the eddy above it and couldn’t see what had happened but saw the messy hole and walked around. Unfortunately due to miss-communication I walked by them and got on (as I couldn’t see them and thought one was boat chasing). By the time I had got to the entrance to the gorge I got out and waited. Half an hour later and a few relieved faces all round we were reunited and discussed how that epic had happened. It was our own fault as we didn’t scout, and my fault for not fully checking the bottom of the drop to see if they were there. Lessons learnt.
Sam’s view of the river:
My view:
Shap Film Festival
Here is the film I made for the festival (unfortunately I couldn’t go, so don’t know if it was actually shown). All the rivers featured are with in a 40 minute drive of Lancaster, some considerably closer. Enjoy.
0:00 – Kent – Force Falls
0:17 – Sprint – Garnett Bridge
0.28 – Troutbeck
0.40 – Artle Beck – 1st rapid/ledge
0.48 – Wenning Wave
1:07 – Doe – Beezley Falls
1:11 – Kent – Gunpowder
1:23 – Hindburn – Double Drop
1:33 – Doe – Beezley Falls
1:37 – Clough (upper) – Ledge Drop
1:41 – Brathay – Skelwith Force
1:46 – Artle Beck – Weir Drop
2:01 – Leck Beck – 1st drop
2:06 – Kent – Force Falls
2:16 – Clough (lower) – 2nd ledge
2:21 – Sprint – Garnett Bridge
2:29 – Doe – 3rd drop
2:37 – Leven – Backbarrow
2:41 – Birk Beck – Docker Force
2:46 – Sprint – Slot and Drop
2:52 – Leck Beck – Drops 1,2 and 3 in the gorge
3:10 – Dee – Ibbeth Peril
3:15 – Clough (upper) – Lemmings Falls
3:26 – Doe – Kiwi Pot
3:31 – Leven – Backbarrow Weir
3:37 – Leck Beck – 4th (last) drop in gorge
3:41 – Sprint – Sprint Mill falls
3:51 – Clough (lower) – exit drop from gorge
3:57 – Kent – Force falls
Upper Rawthey, Upper Clough and the Lower Clough
Rain fell all eve and night in Lancaster and pretty much most of the Lakes. So we (Ant, Craig, Lil Tom, Jonny, Pilky and Rob) decided to head over to Sedbergh. A few of us had never paddled the upper Rawthey (me included) so we went there first, at the get out the Rawthey was flowing well. So I was a bit disappointed with the level at the top. I would say it was at the low end of medium and to be honest it was a bit of a drag. To give perspective of the level, at loop falls not all the rocks were covered. (unfortunately we didnt take any pics). I imagine with more water it would speed up the flatter bits and make the rapids more meaty.
After the Rawthey we headed up the other valley to the upper Clough (the water at the get out had to be coming from somewhere). As we approached we saw the good medium levels (the boof on the first drop was just on). With several fence portages and the portage around Lemmings fall as none of us fancied taking on the rather large hole that had formed at the bottom, this again was turning into a bit of a drag. However, the last 1km made up for it. With several ledges and 2 smaller drops (which saw some back looping action) we all got to the bottom with smiles on our faces.
Ant first drop on the upper Clough
Jonny
To finish the day off we quickly ran the shuttle to the lower section (avoiding the 4km of flat) and jumped on. We were faced with quality medium (high) levels. The lines were all nice a clean and the gorge was nice and pushy.
A little vid of the drop out of the gorge:
So to compare the levels we found to the gauges. Well the gauge is on the Rawthey below the confluence of the Clough and the Dee and from my observations there was definately more water being contributed by the Clough. I guess this will always cause a problem as I have been up there many times to find one of the 2 running but the other one not.
Gauge reading
Random Rain!
We had planned on going ghyll scrambling (due to the lack of rain) at Hell’s gyhll near the top of the upper Clough. As we approached the area Craig said the Lune looked brown but I just thought he was being his usual optimistic self. However, as we drove over the Rawthey to our amazement it was pretty high. No questions, the ghyll scramble was off and the lower Clough was on.
The next problem was finding me a boat and paddle. So to solve this we sent Dave back to Dent to get his broken Jefe which we hoped would survive the trip without me having to empty it to often.
With everyone now with a boat etc we jumped on and had a great paddle, made even better by the fact it was completely unexpected.
The only drama of the day was a swim by myself. This came about by me dropping in sideways into the last hole in the gorge trying to avoid Dave who was getting a good working in it. All credit to him as he eventually came out of it still in his boat, unlike myself! 😦
Upper Clough
A lot of rain arrived through the night on Sunday so we decided to head over and have a look at the lesser run section of the Clough on Monday. The team consisted of me (Anthony), Craig and Sam. We had all ran the lower Clough many times but Craig was the only one to of done the upper. His reports of fences underneath bridges on blind bends didn’t particularly fill me with masses of enthusiasm but he reassured us that the levels were much lower this time so they shouldn’t be a problem.
We got on and the first obstacle is a 3m riverwide bedrock slab. River right is a boof into about 18 inches of water and the left is a bounce down some steps into a bush. Unfortunately the boof wasn’t on due to the low levels so the bounce down the left was taken.
Craig checking the Depth
Craig bouncing down into a bush
After this we continued down river over several smaller bedrock rapids, and under several bridges which three had fences across. We had to portage two of these.
2nd fence
3rd fence, trickier in higher water to portage.
After the 3rd fence it was not far until we reached Lemmings Falls, at these levels good fun. After Lemmings the river continues in much the same nature as before, with small bedrock drops and couple of larger ones underneath bridges.
Larger drop under bridge
Final larger drop at the get out
A good day was had by all, but we all agreed that it could of done with a bit more water. Not to much tho as Lemmings can get a bit tasty!!
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