(Poling on the Wharfe somewhere)
Lew (from York Canoe Club) and I decided that we fancied an open canoe expedition down the River Wharfe in Yorkshire. So one friday night early in November 07 Lew and I met up and got ourselves the grub and made the evil plan. We were going to leave a vehicle at a friends house in Tadcaster and drive Lew's van round t0 Conistone Bridge on the Wharfe. We would attempt to paddle as far as Tadcaseter over the next 2 days.
We arived at Conistone Bridge to find that the river was lower than we had hoped. Initial progress was difficult and both Lew and I had to resort to polling/snubbing our canoes down river. We quickly reached Conistone falls, where we had to dragportage our canoes over the double
drop. Unfortunately I snapped one of the ends of my canoe pole in the rapid immediately below this obstacle (hence the blue tape on the photo).
Several miles of easy paddling and poling brought us to Gaystrals Strid. A quick inspection told us that the upper part of this rapid had sufficiant water to make it paddleable. Lew stood guard with his throwline whilst I paddled this winding rapid to the breakout at the bottom. Then I returened the favour for Lew.
(Getting in after 'lining' down the lower section of Gaystrals strid)
A mile or so more brought us to Grassington and the 2 wiers there, after which we dragged our canoes around Linton Falls. There was a crowd on the footbridge over the waterfall (normally grade V) there, I assume they were hoping to see one or both of us paddle it. The quickly dispersed once they realised we were going to drag our boats around it.
(Dragging the boat around Gaystrals Strid)
IMHO the wharfe below Linton is a much better river than the section we had just paddled. It has many more interesting grade II/II+ rapids and the grade III Appletreewick Falls. We paddled and poled our way down to Appletreewick Falls enjoying the variety of differing obsicles the river presented us with. Since we both knew this rapid very well and once we came to the rapid we had good line of site to good eddies in the middle and bottom of the first section we elected to run it without inspecting. I went first and after setting out (reverse ferry break out) in the middle eddy ran the first section without mishap. Lew followed me down, not as graceful as my decent I have to say (sorry Lew). The rest of this section down to Burnsal bridge went totally without incident.
(Cooking at the bivvy)
Neither Lew nor I had any experience of the next section of river between Burnsall Bridge and Bolton Abbey. Time was not on our side and it was beginnning to get dark. We pushed on, this section was alot better than we expected. It contains several gorgy type rapids in 'strid woods', we paddled or 'lined' down these rapids without incident. By the time we reached 'the Strid', a famous gritstone gorge it was almost dark. We had already decided that we were going to portage this infamous section as it is terrifyingly undercut left and right. As we began the arduous task of dragging our boats around this rapid we were met by a group of lads from Birmingham. They were impressed with our expedition laiden boats and decided to help us portage the strid. Thanks lads!!
By the time we were back underway we knew we weren't going to make our initial night spot and decided that we would paddle through Bolton Abbey grounds and then look for somewhere to set up our bivvy.
The next hour or so was highly entertaining!! We ended up paddling most of this section in the dark by headtorch!
What fun! The both of us must have hit 100s of rocks, I definately remember going
over a small wier backwards!! Eventually once we passed Bolton Abbey we found a beach which
The following day saw us paddle the lower section of the river. Our intended destination of Tadcaster was a long paddle away. We set off at around 6am after a porridge breakfast. The paddle down to Otley went without incident, the wiers which we shot being the only 'entertainment'. At times we were navigating by the road signs on the A65!!
(shooting the wier at Otley)
Once there we decided that we weren't going to be able to make it as far as Tadcaster
until late at night so we decided to call it day. We rang our friend Badger who kindly volunteered to come and collect us. He picked us up and even ran the shuttle for us before taking us back to Tadcaster and my car. Once at Tad we were rewarded by bumper Tad Kebabs!!
What a fun adventure.... Next trip the Lune!
We arived at Conistone Bridge to find that the river was lower than we had hoped. Initial progress was difficult and both Lew and I had to resort to polling/snubbing our canoes down river. We quickly reached Conistone falls, where we had to dragportage our canoes over the double
drop. Unfortunately I snapped one of the ends of my canoe pole in the rapid immediately below this obstacle (hence the blue tape on the photo).
Several miles of easy paddling and poling brought us to Gaystrals Strid. A quick inspection told us that the upper part of this rapid had sufficiant water to make it paddleable. Lew stood guard with his throwline whilst I paddled this winding rapid to the breakout at the bottom. Then I returened the favour for Lew.
(Getting in after 'lining' down the lower section of Gaystrals strid)
A mile or so more brought us to Grassington and the 2 wiers there, after which we dragged our canoes around Linton Falls. There was a crowd on the footbridge over the waterfall (normally grade V) there, I assume they were hoping to see one or both of us paddle it. The quickly dispersed once they realised we were going to drag our boats around it.
(Dragging the boat around Gaystrals Strid)
IMHO the wharfe below Linton is a much better river than the section we had just paddled. It has many more interesting grade II/II+ rapids and the grade III Appletreewick Falls. We paddled and poled our way down to Appletreewick Falls enjoying the variety of differing obsicles the river presented us with. Since we both knew this rapid very well and once we came to the rapid we had good line of site to good eddies in the middle and bottom of the first section we elected to run it without inspecting. I went first and after setting out (reverse ferry break out) in the middle eddy ran the first section without mishap. Lew followed me down, not as graceful as my decent I have to say (sorry Lew). The rest of this section down to Burnsal bridge went totally without incident.
(Cooking at the bivvy)
Neither Lew nor I had any experience of the next section of river between Burnsall Bridge and Bolton Abbey. Time was not on our side and it was beginnning to get dark. We pushed on, this section was alot better than we expected. It contains several gorgy type rapids in 'strid woods', we paddled or 'lined' down these rapids without incident. By the time we reached 'the Strid', a famous gritstone gorge it was almost dark. We had already decided that we were going to portage this infamous section as it is terrifyingly undercut left and right. As we began the arduous task of dragging our boats around this rapid we were met by a group of lads from Birmingham. They were impressed with our expedition laiden boats and decided to help us portage the strid. Thanks lads!!
By the time we were back underway we knew we weren't going to make our initial night spot and decided that we would paddle through Bolton Abbey grounds and then look for somewhere to set up our bivvy.
The next hour or so was highly entertaining!! We ended up paddling most of this section in the dark by headtorch!
What fun! The both of us must have hit 100s of rocks, I definately remember going
over a small wier backwards!! Eventually once we passed Bolton Abbey we found a beach which
with a secluded dip where we would be able to set up a bivvy site.
After a brew and a bite to eat we settled down to sleep under our tarps. The following day saw us paddle the lower section of the river. Our intended destination of Tadcaster was a long paddle away. We set off at around 6am after a porridge breakfast. The paddle down to Otley went without incident, the wiers which we shot being the only 'entertainment'. At times we were navigating by the road signs on the A65!!
(shooting the wier at Otley)
At Otley bridge we stopped for a well earned brew and bite to eat. After which we shot the wier and set off on the most arduous part of our trip. A long
flatwater section of river punctuated by the angry shouts of fishermen. Unfortunately these chaps were unwilling or unhappy to share the river with us! Their attitude unfortunately put a dampner on our spirits and we paddled almost in silence until we reached the bridge at Harewood.
Once there we decided that we weren't going to be able to make it as far as Tadcaster
What a fun adventure.... Next trip the Lune!
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