Remember weekend where it mostly just rained?
It was:
‘ too wet for hiking
‘ too rainy for climbing
‘ too moist for caving
‘ too watery for kayaking
so I went for a drippy drive round north wales “river spotting”. It was a bit like a safari park – the rivers had been let out of their usual enclosures and were allowed to roam free on the roads in places too! — I was supposed to be running the Upper Glaslyn, but my paddling buddies couldn’t get to the river because of flooding!
For a river that is supposed to be G2(3), it looked a lot like continuous alpine G3/trees to me – definitely beyond what our little group would have been comfortable with.
On the road I happened to bump into one well known extremely-experienced paddler (known for their exploits on the Indian subcontinent) and drove towards the Conwy get on with them. Upon seeing the river, they declared it “full”, turned round and went home!
One place where some kayaking did happen was the mighty Upper Treweryn, which had the lowest water of any river around and was “only” releasing on 16 cumecs. One southern uni club was there valiantly trying to coach some freshers despite the conditions
Below Chapel Falls, the confluences deposited a great deal of water into the river and it looked beyond what I’d contemplate (G4+/5). Certainly not a Lower T bimble!
I saw a lot of hillside brooks come into condition and saw the appeal of chasing the descents of these rarely run rivers!
Maybe when I’m both competent AND stupid, rather than just one…
Originally posted on Instagram
