Pat Cavanagh and I are planning to go to the annual release of the the Upper Millers River in South Roaylston, MA. The Millers river delivers some of the best class 2-3 WW in MA. On the Lower Millers section, it's a wave palooza with a 4 stuck in for good measure, that can be scouted and/or portaged, but it's very fluid. Seeing it's an Easter weekend, Sat will be the day of reckoning. We will meet at the Put-in at 11:00 on Blossom St., South Royalston then go to the take out. The Lower Millers is a 20 min shuttle away and we'll do that section after the Upper. Each section is apprx. 7 miles long. Do one or both. They'll be plenty of others and a few rafting companies on the Lower.
Great trip yesterday led by Paul and Pat on the Upper Millers, and for some the Lower Millers. This was a joint trip for RICKA and PPCS (“Chowderheads” for short). We had four from RICKA (Paul, Pat, the new guy Ben and me) and three from PPCS (Kenny, Ryan and Brendan). All three of the “chowderheads” were paddling open boats, so the open boats outnumbered the kayaks on this trip 4 to 3. The water on Upper Millers is controlled by releases from the Birch Hill Dam. The river was cranking along at 1,650 cfs, just under 7 feet on the South Royalston gage – the highest I have run it.
There are three class III rapids. The first starts just below the put-in and continues down to the first railroad bridge – lots of big waves, just the way Paul likes it. The second is a little further downstream at Mile Long Rapid – a long class III rock garden. I don’t remember Mile Long being that difficult, so maybe it was a little washed out. The last is the Gorge that begins below the big waves at the lunch spot. I took a dump going over a pour-over at the top. I grabbed my boat, but after seeing what was downstream I decided to let it go and concentrate on getting myself to shore. From there, it was a long walk down a well-worn trail to the bottom of the rapid where Pat had corralled my boat. Great day just the same – thanks Paul and Pat.
