Jon
08-12-2007, 09:53 PM
The river Roeburn is on the road between Lancaster and Kirkby Lonsdale, finishing at the village of Wray. It's an exciting grade 3-4, falling over 100ft every mile making for some excellent continuous rapids. There is very little parking at the put-in though - 2 cars max.
We caught the river in spate, brown like hot chocolate! At Barkin Bridge, the put-in there was a lovely inviting wave which wasn't so lovely as I found out. Everyone else was sensible enough to paddle through it rather than repeat my beating!
Further down, the river dropped into the gorge and we started to find tree blockages which were bad enough to force us to portage a couple and paddle with extreme caution around corners etc.
Given a bit more knowledge of the river, there were many excellent looking play holes and waves which I'd like to try to bust a move in or more likely get a kicking in. Kaituna has paddled the river Roeburn a few times within the last 5 years but he has also been known to get lost on his way home from work, so we try not to rely on his knowledge, and Captain Scum had paddled it, over a decade ago, so was also rusty.
I'd definitely recommend the Roeburn to anyone who's up to grade 3+ although there's a 'awkward to portage' grade 4 drop two thirds of the way down that will test a few. If you do attempt the portage, it's a good 2 grades harder than the river!
Oh, almost forgot to mention that Captain Scum had a belter of a swim, lost all his gear and whacked his head. Monkey Goo did a sterling job picking up the pieces and recovering the tackle. All was well in the end.
I've posted a video of our trip in the members' area.
We caught the river in spate, brown like hot chocolate! At Barkin Bridge, the put-in there was a lovely inviting wave which wasn't so lovely as I found out. Everyone else was sensible enough to paddle through it rather than repeat my beating!
Further down, the river dropped into the gorge and we started to find tree blockages which were bad enough to force us to portage a couple and paddle with extreme caution around corners etc.
Given a bit more knowledge of the river, there were many excellent looking play holes and waves which I'd like to try to bust a move in or more likely get a kicking in. Kaituna has paddled the river Roeburn a few times within the last 5 years but he has also been known to get lost on his way home from work, so we try not to rely on his knowledge, and Captain Scum had paddled it, over a decade ago, so was also rusty.
I'd definitely recommend the Roeburn to anyone who's up to grade 3+ although there's a 'awkward to portage' grade 4 drop two thirds of the way down that will test a few. If you do attempt the portage, it's a good 2 grades harder than the river!
Oh, almost forgot to mention that Captain Scum had a belter of a swim, lost all his gear and whacked his head. Monkey Goo did a sterling job picking up the pieces and recovering the tackle. All was well in the end.
I've posted a video of our trip in the members' area.