Paul and Jeff tell me that it is good for the soul to go to “river church”, so I hooked up with some yakkers from the Yakkers facebook group yesterday to run the Scantic in CT. We ran the 4-mile section from Somersville (Somers) to Hazardville (Enfield).

This was my second run on the Scantic. The first 2 miles is quickwater with a couple of easy class I rapids. After portaging the Springborn Dam come three more challenging class II+/III rapids – Stokers, Chimney and Staircase.

Stokers is a ledge with a 3-foot drop and a rocky shoot 6 to 10 feet from the left bank. When I ran this rapid last spring I swam it twice. I didn’t do much better this time. I lined up on the shoot, made it through the first big drop, only to take a swim a little downstream. I did do a nice self-rescue though.

The next major raid is Chimney – an “S” turn rapid that starts off as a series of small ledges with a larger drop at the end. I made it through Chimney fine.

The final rapid is Staircase, which is exactly what you’d expect - a series of ledges that look like a staircase. The largest ledge at the bottom has a nice wide shoot on river left.

Fun run with a great group – I recommend that everyone go to river church on occasion. Few pictures here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eckilson/sets/72157644844644895/