River
Leven (or not)
Sunday 9th January 2005
The
Leven flows out of the southern end of Windermere, so with Cumbria experiencing
high rainfall we set off early from the Club knowing that the river would be up
a bit. Ok, this was the weekend when Carlisle city centre was under 6+ feet of
water, a realistic assessment would have told us the river would be massive!.
A
couple hours drive later and the lack of people getting ready to go on the river
was ominous - as was the absence of the Access Officer who is normally
collecting fees. A quick glance at the river explained it - The walls of brick
shoot weir, normally four or more feet clear of the river, were just out of the
water! Immediately below this where Mill Force (a grade 3/4 drop) was replaced
by a river-wide torrent. There were several routes down this - most sending you
to an almost certain high speed encounter with groups of trees! The usual route
down the fall was clear, but according to some people who had tried it, was
back-looping anyone who ran it. Definately too much for most people with us.
Having
decided not to paddle we headed down to Backbarrow Bridge just below the get
out. This is impressive in any water level as the entire river funnels though
the 6-foot wide bridge - you can feel the bridge shaking in normal flows. In
flood in was awesome - but you could see Stoppy was thinking about how to run
it.
Back
in the cars we headed for the Lune and a playspot at Halton rapids - but didn't
really know where we where going and the Lune was in flood as well so it could
well have been washed out.
So
to plan C, head for the Burrs on the way back! So five hours after we left the
club, we got ready to get on the water. Although this was not without incident -
while getting changed a passing dog took an interest initially in Pete's drycag,
then turned its attention to Les' throwbag. Not deterred by our efforts to keep
it off our gear it turned its attention to helmets, knocking Les' under a nearby
car, before recovering it and bounding off across the car park. The following
minutes were pure farce, with Les and the dog owner chasing the dog and
several failed attempts to catch it and recover the helmet. The other club
members present assisted by collapsing into hysterics at the unfolding comedy.
Eventually, the helmet was recovered, albeit with a liberal coating of dog
slober!.
Finally,
we made it on to the river, with the Burrs at a good level for playing.
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