Myself & “friend” ran the River Ure Hack Falls to Slenningford Water Mill Section on the 10th August in the biggest water I’ve paddled this river in 20 years. The non stop torrential down pour, environment agency flood warnings & a balmy summer evening made for a very amusing/hairy run. For those who catch the river at this level (between 2 & 3 on the campsite gauge by the footbridge) be wary of the following. It was quite difficult getting up to Grewelthorpe & beyond due to a number of flooded road sections & actually getting on the river proved tricky due to the height & the speed i.e. it was running through the trees at a rate of knots ! Hack falls was big & bouncy but sporting a huge river wide wave (with large stopper on river left) as you entered the rapid. Mickley weir needed great care due to it forming an ugly river wide stopper & no way of getting out on the right bank to inspect (running through the trees again).We took the illegal & not recommended portage on river left i.e. got out in someone’s garden, jumped a fence & got back on very quickly !! (we only got away with this due to their being 2 of us. If the group is very large do not land on this side !! either get in initially below the weir or be prepared for a very long walk on river right).From below, the weir still looked evil but there is a possible sneak route hugging the bank on river left but it is through a tree !! The broken weir below Mickley was a number of large standing waves & then things quieten down before Tanfield Weir.
(Tanfield “Killer weir” at a low level.)
This weir is extremely dangerous & regularly claims lives. Be warned !! If you are new to the river & it is at this level get out as soon as you can on river right after passing under the Ripon to Masham road bridge & walk down !! We carried on down a bit further but had no end of problems getting out due to trees (again) & no amount of dense summer undergrowth. Funnily enough the best & clearest eddy is right on the weir lip !! (But you really don’t want to !) The weir was the ugliest, chundering, evil mess you can imagine. The river right ramp where you can normally shoot it was very unpleasant but a wave does appear to offer a “if all else fails survival route” through ( about a third of the way from right bank) however the consequences of missing this are unequivocally terminal (& even if you did make it you don’t have chance to change direction before being in the trees on the island below).After once again negotiating the difficulty of getting back on (Trees !!) it was just all massive wave trains (with the occasional very large stopper) on river left/centre all the way down to the campsite egress (with one very very large hole at the bottom).
(The “large hole” at the bottom at a very low level. The wooded bank was my route through !)
The whole trip (including the 15 min walk in) took 55 minutes & as we were getting off people were moving tents & caravans as the river continued to rise !! (we were also called “irresponsible” by some caravanners as air sea rescue had been their earlier in the day to rescue a couple in a rubber dinghy which strikes me as being really irresponsible !)
This bizarre week of weather continued on Saturday with a surfing trip to Scarborough (My wife must have been in a very good mood for me to make it out twice in a week).A fantastically hot day with clean surf of 2.5m. It really is very pleasant surfing in warm weather & mellows out the “boardies” too as they were quiet happy to chat to us (I think I impressed them with my bizarre ariel moves – not intentional but I’d not taken my inazone on big surf before & was having a few issues with horizontal paddling !!
The graph here comes from a fantastic web site I’ve found in Scarborough. There’s a webcam which shows the sea state & a variety of data charts to help plan trips. The one here shows wave height & I think you can guess when we were out surfing !
So who says you can’t get decent paddling in the UK during August !!
Credits: Tanfield photos from UK River guidebook. Wave info from SBC Wave Buoy
Mike Millington
