Normanskill Out of the Drainage

Left the Drainage Friday March 18th

Normanskill: Dutch for Norwegian Creek. The Normanskill flows from Duanesburg to Princetown and then down into the Hudson River south of Albany, NY. Got an e-mail string Friday AM from someone looking to paddle.  It was going to be another unseasonable warm day and I had already skied two beautiful spring like days at Gore Mtn.

I responded, “let me know when and where”… I knew it wasn’t going to be close to home as we still have four feet of snowpack in the woods and the creeks are still iced in. I get a phone call back from the perp… Normanskill at 3:30, so that the M-F people can get out of work and then paddle.  I’ve never been there so I get directions and then call a buddy from the Drainage to see if he’s interested… of course he is… everyone wants to get out on a sunny 60 degree Friday in March to paddle.

The phone description is six miles of class II/III with one waterfall. The report I get is there should be plenty of water and “last year was such a blast at high water with all the surfing and big fun!”  Sounded ok for a first day out paddling.

Hubris or foreshadowing?

 “And there might be some wood.”

We meet up and there are five of us. On the shuttle to the put in it’s noted that there is plenty of water. Their voices trail off… “plenty of  water.”  Indeed the level is bank full with some water flowing through the trees in the meadows. Yes, this is farm country just south of the Mohawk Valley.

I’m not a huge fan of paddling in heavy use agricultural areas, especially in the spring runoff.  Farm poo and pesticides…

We get to the put-in and suit up and then a short walk through the snow and briars to the get in. A tree floats by.

Mystic, Ronin and Smoothy have paddled the Normanskill before and peel out into the flow. Villain and Pure (from the Drainage) follow into the opaque brown current. We all eddy hop down stream skirting a strainer here and there. There are no midstream eddies all the rocks are covered and many of the eddies along the banks are littered with debris.

Mystic and Ronin disappear around a blind corner and I peel out after they are out of sight. As I come around there is a tree spanning the creek with a boil and pulsating eddy next to the left bank with a pulse of water a pour over forms across the left part of the tree. The left bank has eroded and collapsed into the creek leaving an eight foot shelve with exposed roots from future strainers still grasping the loose soil. Mystic is in the boiling eddy and Ronin looks to have attempted to eddy out just upstream and in the path of a fallen tree sloping into the water close to the eroded bank. As I power towards the river left eddy I see Ronin back slip into the strainer and flip with his boat pinned upside down. There is barely room for two boats in the eddy as Mystic and Pure pinwheel. Ronin is still upside down and we can see his boat shudder as he kicks his way out. Fortunately he is able to stand with all his gear intact. With the next pulse of water I spin and paddle over the log looking for the next eddy on the left to hop out and help Ronin. There are no eddies on the left so I catch the first one on the right and peel back out and cut through two holes and eddy left again.

In the blink of an eye I look up and see Mystic floating upside down and then he’s out and swimming.  He is clutching his paddle and boat and stroking for the river left side. I take chase and prepare to assist but then he drops all his kit and does his best Michael Phelps impersonation.  I was very impressed with the speed Mystic swims left and pulls himself out of the creek. I get a quick check on him and then start chasing down his gear. I never see his paddle again but after a bend of the creek and dodging more strainers and holes I see the boat at the bottom of an eddy. This looks like a good place for a paddle to get hung up, as there are logs all along the slate rock ledge. It’s a squirrely eddy and I’m feeling a little gripped as I’m pushed uncomfortably into the logs and swirled to the top of the eddy.

I peel back out and start after the boat and manage to give it a bump keeping it river right. I get a quick look downstream and see the left corner of a horizon line. Just as I’m getting ready to abandon the boat it hangs up on some shallow rocks and I’m able to back spin onto the rocks and hop out. Exhausted.

Waiting. I grab my throw bag and hop out just as Mystic’s paddler clambers through the snow to help drag the boat out. He’s exhausted, out of breath he says that Smoothie and Villain are looking for his paddle and he is going to walk back upstream. Ronin had collected his own gear and walked back upstream to ferry over and hike out.  So, while I wait for them to paddle down I take a quick look at the horizon line. Mystic had said they have paddled the falls just about anywhere but when the water is high they go left. From high up on the cliff I peer over the edge and see a river wide hole with both edges folding back in to middle. The water is careening off the wall on the left side and with the reactionary waves pushing hard to the middle and there does not look like any sneak route. 

I hike upstream looking for Mystic, Smoothie and Villain.  It’s getting late and the sun is approaching the ridgeline to the west. Mystic has found his paddle and we regroup at the falls. Consensus rules and we opt to walk. It’s not a difficult walk except for the thorn trees and briars. We find an easy get in on river right and the outside of a left bend. There’s a large hole with a sneak on the left and the right. With the current pushing right Mystic opts to go with the flow and I follow him clipping the right edge of the hole. We eddy out on the left and watch Villain come in with too much angle and flip. The hole washes him out and he misses the first role attempt but is pummeled against the river right wall and shallow rocks. He punches out and the current pulls him back to the deep end. I give chase with strainers just downstream. Mystic heaves a rope from the river left shore but Villain doesn’t hear and I yell for him to grab the rope but he’s swimming to the river right shore. I see Villain pull himself out and I begin strainer avoidance maneuvers, it’s becoming routine.

I chase his boat down and find it pinned amongst two large logs. Hopping out I see no one upstream so I shimmy out on the log to clip a rope to the upstream grab loop. Just as I’m able to clip the carabiner on I look up to see a large log floating right towards me. I quickly pull my leg out of the water and brace for the log to impact into the boat and logs. It nearly knocks me off the log pile and jams the boat firmly in place. OK… W.T.F. ???? Within rope length is a forked tree ten feet off the deck so I start rigging a Z-Drag.  Smoothie pulls in and states Villain is walking downstream on the right and Mystic went way left in a side channel and is looking to walk back upstream.

We attempt to pull the boat out but it’s not budging with the new log jammed in place. So with Smoothie holding tension I shimmy back out on the strainer. Pushing the outside log down with one leg and pulling straight up on the boat, Smoothie is able to pull the boat out and onto shore. Villain makes it to us but he has lost his paddle in the melee. However, Villain is prepared and pulls out his spare paddle. Amongst all of his he was the only one to carry a full spare.

This area is loaded with strainers so we end up carrying to the bottom of the island and re-launching. Did I mention the sun was going down? It was warm out but now it was cooling down so we boogied on and only had to get out or slide over a few more trees. We regrouped after passing through a tunnel and eddied out. Floating in the eddy I found a yellow smiley face sponge. Somewhere there was a cosmic force with a sense of humor.

Mystic gave us a verbal description of the next two ledge drops that turned out to be friendly play holes.  There was also a hint that maybe this was more water here than previously paddled. Smoothie was the only one to take advantage and did indeed smoothly surf the holes with multiple spins.

We boogied on further past a farm where the cows added to the flow. Another mile and we were on a sweet wave train that provided a brief respite with some quick surfing. And soon at the take out, where we stashed our boats, for the walk back up to the take out vehicles.

Now the weather looks to be forecasted for a period of falling temperature and snow. Just in time.