Where's the water north east.

[slaughter950]

Looking on rainchasers for something to paddle tomorrow and everything is a scrape (apparently)!

Any ideas guys? Don't fancy another barrage trip...

[BillAnderson]

You might get lucky with an early doors Swale run, was at 0.49 and rising but it's due to stop raining about midnight... Gauge usually updates at 5:30am.

Other option; High - Low always goes, scrape or not.

Apart from that it's not looking too good for rain.

[clarky999]

In the real North East atm!

[cp]

I agree there is not much water around but don't blindly trust rainchasers gauges. Whilst an excellent resource bringing eveything into one place I find the calibrations way off the mark. Tees whorlton to winston is good even down to 0.6, North Tyne good at 0.7, Allen good down to 0.4 amongst many others. Whilst they are better when higher you can have an enjoyable run without much scrape at much lower levels than they suggest.

Chris

[Jim Pullen]

Hi Chris, I can edit the gauges on rainchasers and have just been going off word of mouth for a lot of them. Will change the ones mentioned above. If you know better for any of the ones up there please use the facebook comment box at the bottom of each page to share your info and one of us will update the calibration.

[cp]

Jim, I did not realise you could edit them and I don't do facebook so not sure I could post that way as I don't have an account. I would not say I know better just that my idea of a paddlable level appears to be different to the current interpretation on Rainchsaers. I understangd that this is only other peoples interpretation and just wanted to point out that if you are not a grade 5 expert a great deal of fun can be had at much lower levels than indicated so don't be put off, just try yourself and see what you think, don't take them as gospel. I will be happy to send my ideas to the site for use if you wish whe I manage to catch them at different levels.

Chris

[Jim Pullen]

Hi Chris, drop me a pm on here with your suggestions if you like. The idea of the lower limit of "low" is that you can paddle a line without pushing off rocks anywhere. "Scape" could mean either that you can make your way down with a bit of pushing (eg Upper Tees on 0.35-0.5m), or that bits of the run in canalised sections will still go (eg Clough gorge below 1.0m). Anything below this is empty. The trouble comes with getting people to establish these limits - the Tees BC-Winston is a few miles from my house, but even I tend not to bother below 0.7m, hence not knowing the lower limit! I'm sure Abbey Rapids go way below this.

The main problem is that people suggest something is "low" when they paddle it and we have to put this as a lower limit, when in fact it'll still go a fair bit below this. I'd rather have a limit set as too high than too low, as people will still get to paddle that day if they go based on our info.

[cp]

Jim,
Will PM you as and when I paddle anything, and I understand your point of view. My problem was not going to rivers based on the Rainchasers site only to find other friends had a great day doing rivers I was not willing to travel to. As with all guides that is all they are, you need to make your own decision and gradually I will build up my own list of when I will paddle. I would not do from BC down below 0.7 but Whorlton to Winston is a good low level run with a few paly waves still below this. you just need to pick a route rather than drift down anywhere not to push off rocks.If its so low you cannot get down here best be out climbing or biking. As its your site you set the levels, it is still very useful getting all the data in one place and much appreciated.

Chris

[Jim Pullen]

For clarification - it's Rob Tuley's site - but myself and few others have admin options on it.

Your comment on Whorlton to Winston is interesting - I'd always been led to believe this needed more water than BC to Whorlton to be worthwhile!

[slaughter950]

Ended up on the upper coquet. Low but not a scrape (surprising for this time of year...)! Cracking day.