Whitewater Run MA Class II-III

Route 8A to Deerfield River

Chickley

Linked via: Proximity 90% confidence Synced 3mo ago

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Gauge Conditions
Runnable: 4.5 – 8.0 FT

Estimated based on the Cold River

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Description
The gauge info has been taken from Cold Brook which is the neighboring drainage. No additional information has been provided. If you know more about this run please leave a comment below. New England Whitewater River Guide, Gabler R. Taken from a Trip Report by Bob Knapp: Flow was almost too low at 4.35, so it was a boney run. Yet it was a fun, technical, creeky run on a narrow river. Would like to run again at 5 feet or higher. Have to catch the river when it flashes after considerable rain or snow melt in spring. At 4.35 level, essentially a class II/II+ run, with one class III drop/slide called Lower Rapid. This rapid is about 0.5 miles below the Rt 8A bridge. In his book Classic Northeastern Whitewater Guide, Bruce Lessels states that *“the easiest run (for this rapid) is down the left side, but this one is a stern muncher whenever you run it unless the water is very high.”* We all ran different lines on this rapid with no significant issues. There are 2 logs on this run that entirely block the river. Both are visible from the road, and they are at 1 mile and 2.6 miles from the turn on to Route 8 south. Both have a little water going over them but barely buffable. \*\*UPDATE THERE IS MORE WOOD IN RIVER VISIBLE FROM THE ROAD AS OF LATE MAY 2025\*\* Take-Out: we parked in Charlemont. To Put-In: go W from Charlemont for roughly 2.5 miles turning left on Tower Road, after 1.1 miles take at right onto Rt 8 A South, following the river upstream. We parked along the road at 4.0 miles from the Tower/Rt 8A intersection.
Difficulty
Class II-III
Length
4.9 mi
Gradient
25 ft/mi
max 38
Rapids
0
Difficulty Classes
I Easy II Novice III Intermediate IV Advanced V Expert/Extreme VI Unrunnable
Current Conditions
5-Day Forecast
Whitewater data from
American Whitewater