Dartmoor Weekend

So after a few years of low water conditions it finally looked like we were going to hit Dartmoor with some water!

Driving down on the Friday night the met office app was showing rain coming across from 11pm till 4am, at times being heavy. We arrived at the Powder Mills Bunkhouse just before 8pm, quickly unpacking and headed to the pub in Princetown.

SATURDAY

Rainchasers notifications, the
following morning doing there job.

Waking up on Saturday all the Dartmoor rivers were huge or high so we made the call to head over to the Tavy to paddle the Hill Bridge to Harford Bridge section. According to the gauge this was still at huge (1.2m) but as it was a grade 3 (4) we hoped that it would still be runnable. This section is also supposed to rise and fall very fast therefore not easy to catch at a good level.
When we got to the river it looked fast moving but not unmanageable, there were also a few other paddlers who had just got off saying that it was OK to run. With that in mind we headed to the get in and kitted up.
The river was very much like the Washburn, narrow, fast and with trees lining the bank all the way down, this made for very few eddies.

Unfortunately Conor had a little swim after one of the drops, but managed to recover all his kit and jump back on. Just round the corner the river picked up speed and in the distance you could see that a tree was down. With this in mind I made slow progress down to the tree. 

Rob enjoying his new Burn MkIII LARGE

Getting closer I could see that it wasn't blocking the river but you had to be on a good line to go round it. Dan followed me down and I got out to show the others where to go. Conor was next down but got flipped by a hole just above the crux of the line and came out. I quickly got a line to him which he grabbed before heading into the tree. However his boat was heading down the river with Dan chasing it. I jumped back in my boat and gave chase. We managed to catch it up, Dan pushed it into an eddy and I jumped out and dragged it onto the bank. The boat had been re-split on the front, putting an end to Conor's days. Fortunately the main road isn't too far away from the river so we decided that we'd carry on down, run the shuttle and pick him up from the road. This worked well as by the time we had run the shuttle he had just got to the river.

All loaded up and changed by 12pm we decided to head to Dartmeet to see if the river had dropped. Getting there it looked higher than I had ever seen it, but with a solid run behind us we decided to get on.

Within the first 200m you could tell that the river was high as we didn't hit any rocks and were going through waves and holes.

Within the first 200m....

First "Boulder Garden" section

Before we knew it we were at the first Boulder Garden section, however due to the river level all the rocks were covered. This turned the section into a hole boofing paradise, picking the line was relatively easy as most ways were going!

The first ledge drop.

The last ledge drop and channel.

With the river charging we were at the Island split, where the gun barrel is. Normally I take the river right line and drop back into the main flow. But due to the level being high the stopper above this might have been a bit sticky so we decided to stick river left and power straight through. With the river joining halfway down it made a tricky little side wave which you had to negotiate.

Breaking out at the bottom of the gun barrel.

After breaking out at the bottom of the gun barrel I looked back up stream and could see that Molly had taken a roll, unfortunately she had three attempts before coming out after the last wave. I managed to get her on the back of my boat, but by this time we were heading down the start of the Mad Mile. Paddling as hard as I could I got dragged into a hole which Molly still on the back, she let go but by this time Danny had caught up and chased after her. I got out of the whole and picked up her paddle putting it on the river bank to then start chasing them back down. By the time I had got to her again she had swam nearly all the Mad Mile, but just before the Slides we managed to get her out. Fortunately her boat was forced into an eddy and Dan managed to get out and recover it.

Dan finishing the Mad Mile.

Slides just after the Mad Mile.

Molly decided to walk round the slides but got back on just after. The rest of us headed river left down the slides making it through the stoppers and tow back. Next stop was Euthanasia Falls, but before that where a couple of ledges and drops to negotiate. Everyone had made it down until Dan got caught in the last stopper river right. A nasty recirculating boil had got a hold of him. After numerous attempts at rolling he bailed, straight after this he flushed out but we were all in our boats. I jumped out to try and get a line to him but by the time I had he had shot past. I run down the side of the bank to find that he'd managed to get himself to the side but had lost his boat and paddle. I kept running after the boat and by the time I'd caught it up it was pinned at Euthanasia Falls, but with no sign of his paddle and GoPro which was attached to the front of the boat.
I left Dan down at Euthanasia Falls to do safety whilst I ran the rapid to get onto the centre Island where his boat was. The others got out above the falls and walked round. Lucky enough another Kayaking was recovering a boat in almost the same place. We managed to rope the boat off and I walked it down to the bottom of Euthanasia to reunite it with Dan. In the meantime Danny had built up his pair of splits for Dan to use for the rest of the run. 

The group was all back together and heading towards Pandora's Box. Rob, Molly and Dan decided to portage the rapid, leaving me and Danny to run it. At this level the whole rapid was washed out. I could see the rock you normally head for, but instead of it being a rock it was forming a small pour over. Shooting past this you could see the letter box drop, taking a boof stroke just above saw me landing on the foam pile but being pushed slightly to the left wall. Danny had a similar line but didn't get pushed left, instead his Tuna launched him upwards and out of the rapid.

After Pandora's Box it was a straight forward run to the get out, although it was fast moving all the way. Getting off the river just after 4pm we had just started to loose the light, any longer and things might have become even more interesting. The level was just short of reaching the first step.

Fortunately for Dan, another kayaker had seen his paddles coming down the river at the get out and had managed to rescue them!

Spot the difference....

When we got back to the bunkbarn we looked on Rainchasers to see what the level had been like.

Rainchasers level, Saturday night.

We had got on at about 1:15pm, which shows approx 1.48 and were off at 4pm when it was about 1.00.

SUNDAY

Sunday night there was a little more rain. We were hoping that the rivers might have been topped up but unfortunately not. We finally decided to run the Upper Dart again, this time it was medium to low on the gauge. Due to Conor not paddling we didn't have to run shuttles so we got straight on and paddled almost non-stop to the get out. No incidents just good fun paddling. Down in around an hour and fifteen we packed up and headed home.

Video of the weekends fun to follow.....