Black, New York, US

1. North Lake to Farr Road

River Description

Black River North Lake to Farr Rd.
Description provided by Eric Adsit.
Beta from Dec. 3, 2011 @1050 cfs

We parked in a pull off on the right shortly after a big hill. The Lat/Long Coordinates are in this area:
N 43.49907 W 74.96929

Chris Koll told us that there was a lot of flatwater and a couple rapids that nobody ran the day he paddled it. We opted to hike in rather than putting in at North Lake to avoid a few miles of flatwater and bring us straight to the action. Even with the abridged version, there’s plenty of flatwater to start this section. I enjoyed it though, it felt very remote and scenic.

The rapids gradually build from class II and climax with a series of ledges and pourovers that lead in to the big slide. You can recognize this area by your first significant horizon line and an island. We took the right channel over a series of ledges, slides, and decent holes. If you have trouble boat scouting and catching eddies in class IV, take out here on the island to scout or river right to portage. The woods may be dense for a few yards, but it will soon open up to bedrock slabs.

After a short (but FUN!) stretch of class IV you are faced with a big horizon line at the downstream end of the island. There are several small eddies on the right and left above the drop, so take the opportunity to scout. Portaging will be easiest on the right. At our flows, the line was straightforward with a medium sized hole at the bottom that posed no problem. Take a look for yourself, but keep in mind that the hole is backed up by a large rock ledge and the right may be slightly undercut.

There is a large pool at the bottom to recover in, and a great boulder garden just afterwards. At our flows there were a few pin rocks, but more water would improve this.

Relatively easy rapids followed until the Farr Rd. Bridge.