Hello everyone,
Below is a quick report from a trip on the Grose a couple of weeks ago. Pics can be found at: http://adventuresandtinkerings.blogspot ... -095m.html
"Participants: Jeff, Kelvin, Simone, Sam, Grant, Steven
A couple of weekends back I had the chance to paddle the Grose River with the Willow Warriors. The Willow Warriors are a group I had heard about via the paddlesphere who do great work combating willows and other noxious weeds found along river banks while having a great time floating some of my favourite runs. From what I had read this river was a pretty serious undertaking, considered a class IV endeavour for kayakers hardy enough to drag their heavy boats down the steep walls of the Devil’s Wilderness. Luckily for us the rafts were a breeze to hike in and excelled in the shallow steep rapids – making the trip incredibly pleasant.
To access the river one needs to walk 10km or so passed the locked gate at Grose Rd and then down the track just before Faulconbridge point. From the put in, there were a couple of nice little grade 2-3 technical rapids, which saw the group honing their skills for the bigger stuff later down the line. One particular rapid about half an hour was particularly memorable and consisted of a great little boulder garden finishing with a little boof.
A couple of rapids and an assortment of swims later we pulled up to Springwood Ck for lunch in the delightful mid-day sun. Here I became schooled in some of the many willows and other pests that choke many rivers. It really made me appreciate how much hard work often goes into making the vegetation in our natural places the way they are… I never knew!
Setting off with food in our belly we then ran some harder sections starting with a scrape through some trees and a really great little drop one of the team swam through and coped a bit of a hit in. After a couple more rapids we were greeted by two of the best in the river, one was about a 2m drop with a great little pillow of water at the bottom, and the next was a great little bend against a rock. To top it off all there was a friendly little play wave just before the flat water started a little before Mahons creek. After the rapids, there was still some nice moving water until the power lines crossed at straight creek. Following the power lines, the paddling and scenery deteriorated dramatically with the increasing suburbanisation, making the final couple of km’s to the pull out at Yarramundi a bit of a slog.
At this water level, the river was really quite friendly for packrafts. While you could definitely come into serious trouble in some of the bigger rapids, on the whole it wasn't too pushy and didn't feel as unsafe as I was expecting (in my silly full face helmet!). Also, at this level I was incredibly happy to be in a raft rather than a creek boat, as they were much better suited to the often shallow scrapey rapids. At higher levels however the river is said to be much pushier and far more dangerous, with plenty of nasty sieves - and above 1.2m creek boats/ modified packrafts would be better suited.
Thanks again to the Willow Warriors for having me along and thanks to Jeff for the photos and Steven for video editing!"