I managed to get out on the Sheldon Springs section of the Missisquoi yesterday. American Whitewater is working on negotiating (well, arranging — they were negotiated something like twenty years ago) releases on this northern VT section, and so I figured I’d post a video and brief description of the run.
It’s about a mile long, and at the flows we had, class III/IV. Maybe a small step up from the Deerfield Dryway, with a steeper but wider riverbed. Folks have run it much higher and I think it tends to be more solid class IV at those levels. We had 3200cfs at the East Berkshire gauge on the Missisquoi, and the paper mill and dam were both pulling water from the riverbed. I would estimate our flow at ~12-1500 cfs in the first rapid and ~2500 cfs after the paper mill inflow (for the last two rapids), but it’s hard to say.
All in all, it’s a very cool section; a different kind of whitewater than most of the paddling around here because it’s near the mouth of a fairly sizable river. Here’s the video, if you have questions about it let me know.