Brandon Gap

Posted by Jim Z 4/28/05 on NPMB I doubt any of you paddle the Bingo (a class 3-4 creek on the east side of Brandon Gap, near Rochester) but I thought I'd get this info out. I was up there doing some low-water scouting the other day. There's quite a bit of wood in the river this spring. Most of it is easily seen and avoided, but there's one dangerous log. It's immediately below a very tight class 4 drop about 1.75 miles above the takeout. It's river-wide and will be right at water level at medium flow. You will not see it from above the drop. And the log is almost 2' in diam. and well-jammed, so it won't leave without a fight. Also, this drop has another issue. It's a narrow slot, dropping about 4' and banking left between 2 large boulders. At a "too low" flow it appears that about a third of the flow is going \*under\* the right boulder. I've run this slot twice before with no problems (well, I did flip both times). But I don't think I'll be running it again. There's another ledge a hundred yards or so below this where my usual line has been a narrow diagonal slide starting far left. At this very low flow you can see that the "slide" is actually a very deep narrow crevice in the ledge...narrow enough to jam a kayak in if you were to drive deep enough under the surface. I think I'll be looking at a different line next time. I'm by no means an expert creek runner, but I thought I'd get this info out there so you can make your own decisions.