Chester weir, 09/07/08

Steve T · Chester weir, 09/07/08

Last night we had a total of about ten paddlers meeting at Sandy lane, including a couple of guests. I planned to take Conor down to the Groves and get in by the river boats, but he insisted on doing the full paddle with everyone else.

It was rainy on-and-off, and not as warm as it should have been, but at least there was a bit more water going over the steps than the last time. Unusually for Chester, the water was a bit smelly at the fish ladder, not conducive to playing but Jason & I still tried a few pop-outs as we descended the steps.

Although there were lots of paddlers getting in at Sandy Lane, they seemed to disappear after one run down the steps so we had the chute at the bottom to ourselves. We spent some time there practising moving water skills, without any notable events, so we carried up to the top and ran the steps again.

By the time we had completed the second (also uneventful) descent, the tide had dropped so the last step was a vertical pourover about two feet in height, with lots of water. It really was too tempting so I poked my bow into the drop, shot backwards and skywards surprisingly quickly, and then …… (a bad thing happened)

Anyway, after getting out and carrying back up past the steps, we waded through the mud at the small beach above the weir and paddled back upstream to the cars. As always, the paddle back seemed to take much longer than the trip down and it was about 9:30 when we got to Sandy Lane.

It was another enjoyable evening’s paddle. On Sunday we’re paddling the Ure and next week we are back at Burrs (relocated from the Mersey). See you all there.

Steve