Kayaking the slightly scratchy Picton

Date: Saturday, 24 October 2020

River: Picton River.

Water level: .45 (Tahune).

Participants: 8.

After ambitions to paddle the NEsk failed due to water levels, we decided to tackle the Picton. As the Picton maybe isn't quite as exciting as the NEsk we opted to take the smallest boats we could: 2 kayaks, 3 packrafts and an Angel.

After maybe a little bit of Faffing around, and the interesting Farmhouse Creek walk in we finally got on the River, aiming for Riveaux.

The first rapid proved to be a pretty good indicator of the day. Nice and scratchy, with many rocks to get stuck on. Luckily kayaks can scrape over rocks fairly well. Unfortunately Nik in an angel wasn't quite having the same luck.

Expecting Top bridge was around every corner, but not having our expectations come true for far too long, we did eventually reach top bridge after a bit over 4 hours. By this point we had also discovered that Rafts with only 1 person in them are not the most efficient in the flat water. Definitely not as efficient as a kayak. So through the flatter sections we set up a tow.

The Gorge at this low level was super easy, so even our beginner kayaker had no trouble with it, and then with a little more scraping, and a little more towing we were at Riveaux getting ou