Grade: 3
The Picton River is the classic beginner-friendly trip close to hobart. It’s a lovely area and a bit of a step up from the derwent, which is nice. The area is still recovering after the recent bushfires – the evidence of which is clearly visible when in the area.
Grade: 2–3
Distance: 7.7 km
Time: 1.5–2 hours
Get in: Weld Bridge
Get out: Arve Bridge / Southwood Road
Water level: Lowest I’ve seen run is 0.67 on Tahune gauge
The Apsley River was rafted by a small group from the Club in May 2003, after a huge downpour on the East Coast – at trip that turned into an epic.
The Apsley River rarely flows, being in the heart of the dry East. However, when there is water in it it is characterised by continuous rapids and big waterfalls. The section we did (the day walk from the Douglas – Aplsey National Park campground that goes over the ridge and rock hops along the river bed) was at a moderate water level and consisted of numerous continuous G3+ rapids ending with nasty G4 or G5 drops that required extensive portaging. There was also the biggest G6 waterfall I’ve seen for a while. This, coupled with the very steep and slippery sides of the gorge (that always slope towards the gnarly rapids), the tendency of the river to rise quickly…
There are numerous sections on the Arthur River and the club has done a few.
A favorate is the section to Farquars bridge, which is mainly g2 with a nice long g3/4 rapid called the mouth just before farquars bridge, there is another g3 before this which gets washed out at high levels. This section can be done from blackwells bridge (15k?) at most water levels, this is a pretty long car shuffle. You can also put on the hellyer river at the murchison highway (hellyer gorge picnic area) when the water is high enough. This adds about another 10k of rocky g2.
The sections Farquars Br to Tayatea br, and from kannanuh br to the ocean are fairly flat with occasional g1/2 rapids. The section from tayatea br to kannunah br is 25+k with long flat spots and occasional nice g2 rapids. There is a choice camp spot blow…
