Northern Exposure
Trip Report : River Tees / Tees Barrage Date : 26/27 October
The motivation for a small group of paddlers to travel this far north was a mixture of early season over eagerness and a search for the ‘cheapest women in England’….We were not to be disappointed.
Upper Tees
After a substantial amount of rainfall on the Friday we decided to attempt the river Tees (High Force to Wynch bridge). The guide describes this as an excellent grade IV paddle and with high water levels we knew we were in for a treat!
After narrowly avoiding being killed by a crash in the car park we paid the £3 access fee and headed down the steep public footpath to the get in. Having no experience of this run we opted for the tried and tested ‘foot to the floor’ approach in order to squeeze out every ounce of adrenaline. The first section of note is described in the guide as follows
‘The main rapid is the S-Bend (also known as, ‘Salmon Leap Falls’) which is class IV. In low water it is a twisting channel with a few drops in it (beware the vertical pinning spot on river left on the first drop). In high water it all gets much more entertaining and becomes much more continuous as opposed to pool drop. It is generally not a bad idea to set up a few throw bags on this section.’
In the level we ran this at it was actually a 50 meter section in the shape of a large ‘S’ consisting of three powerful stoppers – the second notable for a diagonal ledge an river left dropping into the hole.
We ran this blind and it proved eventful:
John ‘I back looped in the first stopper and thought I was against the rocks as I couldn’t roll up’ Dominic ‘I came over the first drop and saw John’s boat upside down – I thought I was going to land on him and kill him but managed to turn sideways and hit his boat hard just as he was about to roll’
Justin ‘ I came over the first drop and saw Dominic and John upside down blocking the line – this limited my options on the route I was going to take’ Not far after this section we came to ‘Low force’ which was had seen earlier as it was near to the get out. The guide describes this as follows:
Here there are two drops – the small Horseshoe Fall and the very photogenic Low Force – a fun 10-foot waterfall. The Horseshoe fall has a nasty towback and does hold swimmers, even in low water. I’ve also seen it mystery move Stunt Bats when in flood so beware. Low Force is great fun and I have run it in low water (easy) and very high water (long, long inspection, plenty of umming and ahhing and some unusually brown trousers!). In high water there is a lot that could go wrong.
We must have had some respect for this as we even bothered to get the cameras out. An easy line on the far right bypassed most of the nasty looking horseshoe and then a couple of high speed ‘boof’s’ which didn’t really work took us safely over the main drop (far right).
We rounded off the day’s entertainment with a trip into Middlesborough where we got a real feel for the sense of culture.
Tees Barrage
The Tees barrage is a man made white water course much in the same vain as Holme Pierrepont – the main difference being that it relies on the tidal nature of the river Tees and therefore only runs for a few hours a day and varies in level throughout this.
This trip was planned in order to coincide with good tides times with the water levels at their best (between 12am and 4pm). Although shorter than Nottingham and with less features (only really 3 good bits) – it is well worth a visit. One advantage being that it’s circular course means that it’s only a short walk up some steps at the end to get back to the top again.
The top wave was fun (for those who were good enough to catch it) – John will have to take my word for that. There were also another couple of good standing waves just down from this.
The most interesting part of the course is a fairly large stopper with good eddies behind it and an easy entry on the right. This spot proved excellent fun – it was good to see John loose his virginity (for the second time) by paddling the Sub 6. I’m still not sure if as the brochure says he was ‘the intermediate paddler being taken a stage further in his freestyle paddling’ or ‘the more advanced paddler pushing the dynamic boundaries of the sport’. On reflection I think he was ‘a crap paddler in a boat that could make anyone look good’ – except Justin of course who couldn’t fit into it.
Anyhow after a few hours at this level of excitement it was hot showers – roast dinner and home….ready to plan the next trip.
Tony
Photo on the right: The spot where John lost his virginity (again!): 
