Black River – Watertown NY

The weekend of July 18th-19th brought a pretty awesome event nestled in the sleepy (industrial) town (city) of Watertown, NY. From Connecticut, it makes a beautiful ride five hour ride around Albany, through peaceful farmlands, and eventually into the remains of once incredibly profitable area. Once a manufacturing behemoth, it now stands, well, sleeping. But that doesn’t stop it from being a great place to be! The Black River Festival (www.blackriverfestival.com) had some knowledgeable people on hand showing lines and generally being friendly followed by a whole lot of beer drinking and good people.

From the put-in at the Hudson River Rafting Company lot, it’s a short stairway down to a nice platform. Drop in your boat, enjoy the scenery, such as the pinned bicycle at the far wall, and catch a wave that gives up plenty of moves at just a slightly lower level than it was that weekend.

This view from the river-right gives a better view of the wave. Has a nice foam pile despite its relatively tame angle and makes an epic spot for king of the wave. The eddy service is pretty excellent on both sides, making plenty of room for the huge line that developed over the weekend. At higher levels a bigger feature on river-right comes in that’s purported to be an gigantic surf wave called “Big Brother”. Check it out on youtube.

Following Hole Brothers is “Knife’s Edge”. Didn’t manage to snap any pictures of this rapid. It’s likely the most technical rapid, considered a class 3-4, essentially due to a sketchy hole towards the bottom of the rapid on the river left line. Water pours to the left of a large rock a 4-5 feet into a depression with what looks to be a rock that will likely a) mess you up or b) mess you up. There’s a “nancy” run on river-right that makes the whole thing pretty trivial.

Following “Knife’s Edge” is Glen Park Falls. Following a portage around a strange dam, you find yourself looking at smaller moves and one big boof drop. You put on on river-left, make one small drop, follow a strange scoop-like drop on far river left, and let the current take you down that nice seam (seen in the picture) for a near autoboof. Following that is some boogiewater and some good times.

A Little further and you arrive at the Cruncher hole, a pretty sweet raft surf wave. Why let the rafts have the fun though?

Following that is “Rocket ride” on river left and “Poop Chute” on river right. Rocket ride is probably the easiest possible feature to run, just line up anywhere looking over the horizon and go down the scoop. Poop Chute is probably one of my favorites on the whole river, a rounded drop that you have to attack as close to shore as possible to prevent the curved shape from sliding you into a nasty pourover beatdown. It’s the last major rapid on the river, other than some boogie water, and it’s definitely a great time, if for nothing but the beautiful views you catch the rest of the way.

I’ll leave off with one more picture from the bottom of the gorge. So scenic.