River East Lyn - Watersmeet to the Sea

[Torsten]

The camera & guage are under the bridge at watersmeet.

[Mark R]

Mark as far as I understand if you can see red on the guage u cant paddle if its just green then good to paddle

George

I understand that. I'm also generally fairly dubious of what 'locals' describe as a minimal level.

[Torsten]

The minimal level is fairly low, it would be a scrape.
I think that it seems like a fairly placed guage to me...

[storm]

The gauge seems pretty well set, it wasnt at first but they moved it on Petes advice as it was set to high just a trial thing see how it goes,
may save paddlers some petrol money.If its in the the red it wont be a great paddle.
Steve.

[pete thorn]

Mark as far as I understand if you can see red on the guage u cant paddle if its just green then good to paddle

George

I understand that. I'm also generally fairly dubious of what 'locals' describe as a minimal level.

Not sure what has caused this disdainful reply Mark. And you want other camera shots at other places on the river? Suggest you take your camera on your next visit. At minimum level, the walk down near Myrtleberry to just run the gorge still works, but the rest of the river is not worth it.

[Captain Common Sense]

The gauge reads from 0 - 6 with half increments marked. Below 0 is the red.

If I lived 10 minutes away then anything above red would be a worthwhile paddle. Below red is properly low so it seems fair enough to ask paddlers not to boat when its on the red, (you wouldn't want to).

I live an hour away though, and last week paddled it on a half. It was low. There were many rocks.
I probably wouldn't paddle it below 1 now.
If you've got a long drive to the river you want at least a 1, maybe more.

On the up side I will treat anyone to a pint in the Rising Sun who paddles it on a 6 and survives. You will be ducking your head under the bridge at Watersmeet. No portages allowed.

Pehaps as different folk paddle it at different levels we can update our exploits.
Thanks for sorting this out Pete.

Roger

[Rinseout]

any one else having probolems seeing the top image (the biggest one)

George

[Mark Allen]

Yes.

[pete thorn]

The NT is on the case to make the main photograph work.

[pete thorn]

Today the gauge at Watersmeet was on 3, equating to the long island in Lynmouth being just covered. It was a low spate and the gorge was off the consideration gauge for us. It dropped down to just under 2, when a run of the whole river would have been full on, and the gorge for those river gods who like continuous class 5. At 3 on the gauge we had fun paddling from below the gorge to the surf, which had a nice shoulder break!

[pete thorn]

On Sunday the river had dropped back, showing 1 on the NT gauge at Watersmeet. This is a really nice level with a lot of rocks covered. There are still pools and eddies so not at all manic. The gorge ran well though quite powerful. An ideal level. At Lynmouth, the rapid under the road bridge had the big rocks in the centre awash, but just showing on the downstream side.

[The Drowned Fish]

Can anyone make out anything from this webcam or is it just me who can't?

Cheers
Simon

[Martyn Read]

Can anyone make out anything from this webcam or is it just me who can't?

Cheers
Simon

Well the last image I can see looks as though its on the red. Whilst I commend whoever took the time to set this up it seems to have some fundamental flaws.

- which is the newest and which is the oldest image?
- when was the camera last updated, for all I know if could be two weeks out of date.

Any chance we can get some time and date info on here?

[Martyn Read]

Ok, appologies, I've just worked out the date is viable is you zoom in on an image. Guessing the latest image is borderline red/green.

[Laurence Mezo]

Im pretty suprised at the level as with all the rain that fell last night was expecting it to be a bit higher.

[storm]

About 2cm above red today had pleasent run will proably hold for Sat.
Steve

[jmmoxon]

Im pretty suprised at the level as with all the rain that fell last night was expecting it to be a bit higher.

On www.weatheronline.co.uk Liscombe (near Exmoor) shows only 8mm of rain overnight, whilst Plymouth had 18mm & Dunkeswell (east of Dartmoor) had 23mm. In the last 3 days they had almost 40mm whilst Liscombe only shows 20mm & Chivenor 11mm, quite a difference.

Mike

[morsey]

I've only managed one run since the gauge has been set in its current configuration.

The gauge is above the confluence with Hoaroak Water and when the level is around the red/green cut off I doubt that the gauge can usefully distinguish whether any assistance in the flow is generated from the tributary, and as such could potentially miss gauge the level. I know the catchments are very close but it is not uncommon to arrive at Watersmeet to find the tributary running at a higher/lower level than the main river.

It is clear to me that the red line is not the lowest physical cut off i.e. you could probably float your boat the whole way down to Lynmouth at several cm's below the red line. With the level on the red line (and very limited flow from Hoaroak water), you can quite happily paddle all the way from Brendon to Lynmouth, the gorge still runs at class four and although it is not the sportiest of levels it certainly still offers technical paddling at the grade and one or two play lines are available along the river that usually close out as the river gets higher.


If you have paddled the Upper Dart with the water an inch or so below the ledge then the red mark level on the Lyn is a similar kind of deal.

[samw]

When I paddled the Lyn on news year day it was just above the red marker, and I feel any lower and it wouldn't have been worth putting on. I feel that paddling the river a few CM's below the gauge, that it would be bump and scrape and having paddled the Lyn when it's been low its not fun (for me anyway). However as stated the gorge would still run.

Sam

[pete thorn]

The gauge is where it is for practical reasons. EA funded National Trust to install it and the only practical place for them to get a phone connection on their extensive land is at Watersmeet. It wasn't possible to put it under the road bridge in Lynmouth, which would have been ideal. For environmental reasons, NT do not endorse paddling in the red zone and this coincides with a minimum level for a feasible trip. Any lower and you will be sliding from one rock to the next.
The main image was showing originally, though not now, but work has been requested to restore it and make it more easy to read.

[storm]

Webcam seems to be working fine now.
Steve

[Chas C]

We travelled about 4hrs to East Lyn on Saturday of the Dart Fest, hoping the river would have risen to the top of the red level, sadly it was about 2"'s below so we choose to run the Upper Dart instead.

We were not sure regarding access, we had a few years ago run the gorge at similar levels but choose in this instance not to disrupt the year long arrangements based upon the wate level - which appears to be about right for watersmeet but maybe there could also be a gorge level too with access details ?

[pete thorn]

The arrangement is as posted; if the gauge is showing red then the main river is too low. But if only a few cms below, a walk in below Mytleberry allows a run through the gorge, where the water is more channelled and runnable at class 4.

[danwestaway]

Someone told me today that there is a large tree in the double drop on the Brendan section which is UNRUNNABLE.

Thought you lot might like to know.

[Mark Allen]

Someone told me today that there is a large tree in the double drop on the Brendan section which is UNRUNNABLE.

Thought you lot might like to know.

People are still running it with caution - not 4 me though. - Unless its moved!!!

[Simon Westgarth]

This is the same tree, easy to avoid all the way around the left.

[jmmoxon]

It's also featured as a wezzit: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=57808&p=435170#p435170

Mike

[justin-g]

Or on this clip from the Gene 17 weekend http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMJjOjUJBCQ

As I have siad before in high water the slide is on.

[Simon Westgarth]

This is the same tree, easy to avoid all the way around the left.

...as you look at the shot or river right when running Long Pool as its known.

[pete thorn]

Nice level today, at 2 on the gauge but dropping to 1 by the time Watersmeet was reached. No significant tree hazards.