Ryan Stuart, explore's gear editor

Puntledge festival fun

• Posted on June 9, 2008 at 1:22 PM
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Last weekend the Puntledge River Festival came to town and about 200 paddlers followed. The river was packed and the event was a huge success again. The only drawback for local boaters like me, are the line ups at the good play spots. At Tarp and Play, the premier play hole, there were 20 boaters waiting their turn. Normally we won't see another party on the river. But when the water's running there's no point in being anywhere else. Plus, on Friday we did an afternoon run before the masses arrived and sessioned some of the popular features for repeated rides. And instead of just paddling the Puntledge during the festival we ran the Browns River, a major tributary, onto the Puntledge. The Browns is a small volume river with plenty of play waves and some fun class 3+ boating, including a 10 foot waterfall. I took some pictures, but it looks like the digital demons stole them. Sorry.

The water is still up and June has been pretty wet, so it looks like paddling season will last a little longer than normal this year. I'm sure there are more tales from the river coming.