Running the Saint John’s Rapids

Photos from Our Scrapbook

The beauty of a trip down the upper Saint John, both for beginners and other folks whose skills are rusty, is that the rapids increase in size and complexity along the way. Judging by the questions we receive at mainecampsite.com the difficulty of the rapids is one of the first concerns of those considering a trip here for the first time.

My 1976 edition of the Appalachian Mountain Club River Guide describes the river thus: “The only dangerous drops are at Big Black Rapids and at Big Rapids. A good Class II paddler should be able to run the river with competence and style, provided he or she can accurately measure his or her ability when it comes time to decide whether or not to run the two difficult rapids.”

I agree with that assessment. There are few dangerous rapids on the upper Saint John. I don’t think I’d enjoy really dangerous rapids. I prefer to avoid danger and discomfort and I wouldn’t seek either as part of my vacation in the woods. On the other hand, when it comes to running rapids I’m happy to accept some risk for the sake of fun. Like many other activities that combine speed and skill, running rapids can provide a genuine rush of excitement. The numerous other rapids on the river are not dangerous for the Class II paddler. Many of these rapids are mapped and named – Priestly Rapids, Rocky Rapids, Schoolhouse Rapids, Long’s Rapids, Bastford Rips – and many are not. All of them require modest skill in aiming the canoe at the open channels between numerous boulders and ledges. By the time one arrives at the Big Black Rapids, one will have enjoyed lots of practice. Sometimes, though, the lessons haven’t been absorbed. I once watched a canoeing party struggling, often unsuccessfully, to run a course in the Big Black Rapids because the two paddlers hadn’t learned to trim the canoe with its center of gravity toward the bow, and they spent as much time aimed upriver as downriver. Clearly, they weren’t “good Class II paddlers” despite several recent days of practice. Luckily, they managed to avoid snagging a rock during their unintended rotations.

Older woodsmen feel a certain ambivalence about rapids. Rapids are an obstacle to safe navigation, a mere piece of work to be done in getting from here to there -- to set out to run rapids for pleasure is a bit suspect, perhaps a not-quite-cool enthusiasm. Before the advent of synthetic materials for canoes and watertight stuff bags a canoeist had a lot more at stake when approaching a rapid, a greater possibility of damage and loss. For example, Warren Moorehead, circa 1920, says “there are bad rapids [my emphasis] above the mouth of the Big Black River.” He also advises a party traveling without a guide to hire a local French-Canadian resident to guide them through the section which includes the Big Rapids because “At certain stages of water different courses are taken, hence you need someone who knows the channels. It would be easy to upset canoes in these waters and therefore, if canoeists are not experts, they must proceed with caution.”

However, old-timers take pride in their ability to negotiate rapids, and there are numerous old accounts of extraordinary descents.

In this small series of pictures we’re attempting to show the progession of the Saint John’s rapids from Baker Lake to Dickey. The first photo (at left) from our scrapbook shows the Baker Branch, just a couple of miles below Baker Lake. Here the Saint John is still a small river, running for several miles with the sort of current we see here. This is easy and fast. When the water is lower, more vigilance in finding channels and dodging rocks is required.

After the fork of the Southwest Branch the Saint John becomes wider. At right we see a party negotiating typical fast water as they approach the fork of the Northwest Branch; there are a few rocks (often submerged) to avoid, but no standing waves of any consequence. Once again, this this fast and easy canoeing when the flow of water is adequate. For canoe tripping this kind of travel is close to ideal; there are no portages and just a few occasional deadwaters. There is no other river like this in the eastern United States.

Below the fork of the Northwest Branch, the river widens. Shown below are two views of the Rocky Rapids, which are typical of the many rapids between the Northwest fork and the Big Black Rapids. The easy gradient, numerous boulders, and absence of large waves are all evident in these pictures.

I’ve never been satisfied with the pictures I’ve taken of the Big Black Rapids and the Big Rapids. It seems that the images don’t do justice to the real thing. Perhaps I should work harder at setting up the shots from shore instead of simply photographing from a moving canoe. Anyhow, in the photo below we are among the large boulders in the upper Big Black Rapids and are approaching the midpoint, which is a drop over a ledge that emerges from the shoreline on the west (left) side. This drop can be seen as the horizontal line of whitewater that is parallel to Peter Schaffer’s hatband. In high water a large standing wave forms at this ledge; in low water it’s a tight squeeze that threatens a broach. Below this ledge is a series of standing waves that aren’t clear in the picture. As mark of the respect Peter gives these rapids he has decided to wear his lifevest. Ahead he can hear the thunderous roar that the picture can’t convey. The red cross on the map shows the approximate spot where this picture was taken. We are looking north.

The piece-de-resistance of the Saint John trip is Big Rapids, shown below. These used to be called the Little Black Rapids, because of the nearby confluence of the Little Black River, but that caused a lot of confusion since the Big Black Rapids were smaller than the Little Black Rapids. These pictures don’t show much detail but they at least indicate the immensity of the Saint John’s Big Rapids. In the picture at left we are about one-third of the way through the rapids. The flow volume is moderate (about 4500 cfs at Dickey) and we are picking our route among the boulders on the east (right) side of the river. In lower water (with smaller standing waves) we’d be in the main channel on the far left. The two canoes shown far ahead in the left-center of this picture indicate the route to be taken. Below the prominent large flat boulder in the picture’s center are the two main drops in the Big Rapids, where there are always large standing waves regardless of flow volume. The picture at right was taken in the midst of the upper of these two drops. The picture fails to show the size of the standing waves here. Perhaps you can see that the two canoes that were visible in the left-hand picture are shown in the right-hand picture as they have stopped in a calm eddy on the far right just above an exposed ledge. This ledge is just above the final drop of the Big Rapids.

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