25 Years on the Housatonic

There is no way it seems possible that I have been paddling the Housatonic for 25 years, but 2022 marks my 25th year of running the section from Bulls Bridge down. My first paddle down was in my trusty purple Dancer with my friend Dave Saaf, who was my first East coast paddling buddy. He really became my guide to all kinds of rivers in the Northeast and Southeast starting all those years ago. Both of us are still paddling today – Dave is on an SUP and I am in my freestyle boat. In 1997, the Housatonic was doing scheduled releases – when they still had scheduled releases and there were tons of paddlers including former fugitive from justice Alex Kelly and his brother who was about to go off to jail the following Monday! Since then, I have loved paddling the Hous whenever I could get on it and there was water, even if very little water or lots of water. Scott Barnes is another paddler who has lived on or near the Housatonic for years. Now, he lives right near Bulls Bridge, and paddles as often as possible. Its great to be on the river with him – he’s still in a kayak and paddling designs by Corran Addison.

This Spring, Alex Nicks has been lurking in the area too, and I have paddled many rivers with Alex including lots of runs on the Futeulafu in Chile and the Nile. Alex and I got a good number of paddle sessions on the Housatonic this Spring – playing was great as well as running the river! I was very spoiled by the high water of last summer thanks to all the rain that arrived in the summer months – that was extraordinary and made the summer of 2021 completely memorable! Throughout most of these paddling adventures, Andy Kuhlberg has been a constant. Pretty much every time there was rain and there was water, Andy would be willing to come to the Hous! At the end of April, Alex, Andy, and I ran down in perfect Spring flows! Unfortunately, my third case of COVID and the quickly dropping water levels knocked me out of getting more good descents in before the water bottomed out. Hopefully, we won’t have seen the last of the water for this season!!

The most amazing thing about the Housatonic is that it keeps getting more enjoyable, more beautiful, and more fun to run, and the paddling section remains almost unchanged since the first time I went down. The remote feeling of the river has been preserved and with that all its beauty and good whitewater like a window into a forgotten world accessed only by kayak! Thank you Housatonic for being so awesome!