Paddling from Woodsville to Harrisville on the Connecticut River

Some friends of mine and I were signed up for a Paddle The Boarder event. So Zach, Carrie, Jay and I grabbed our boats and headed north. The trip starts at Woodsville Community Field and paddle down to the Bedell Bridge in Harrisville. Afterword there is a bbq and. Band at the takeout.

Unfortunately, when we arrived, the event had been canceled due to recent rains causing high water and a swollen river.

Since we had two trucks in our group, we decided to paddle the river anyway and spotted a truck down at the Bedell Bridge. There were a few others that also decided to run the river too.

The water was running really fast at the put-in. Zack went first, followed by Carrie, shortly after she hit a rock and fell into the river but got back in the boat almost as fast as she fell out. Then I went and then my buddy Jay.

The river was very high and there were a lot of eddies that created some confused water. Overall though it was easy to navigate.

We didn’t have to paddle that hard with the river moving that fast. As we made our way down we passed some remote campsites on some islands. They were all under about 3 feet of water.

As we paddled there were wonderful views of Mt. Moosilauke for most of the trip. It was interesting because the river has some ox bows, sometimes Moosilauke was or our left and sometimes it was on our right as we paddled down.

There are also great views of farms and rural landscapes. There were not many places to pull off the river for breaks due to the high water.

Eventually we came upon another group of campsites, and we were able to pull off and stretch our legs. We noticed there was a mailbox with some information. It just looked funny to see a mailbox alongside the river.

After our break we packed up and headed back down stream. From here is was pretty consistant paddling.

We came across a bridge. One of the organizers mentioned this as a marker and the launch site of their fall event. So I went over to check out the boat launch. It sits in and is almost hidden.

From here we paddled a few more miles before we saw the pillars from the old Bedell Bridge. This is where we are landing. There is a nice park with a boat launch.

When we got there the Parks person was there to make sure that we made it back safely.

Zach and Jay went back to get the other truck. Carrie and I walked around and checked out some of the signs about the bridge. There is a lot of history to this bridge.

Most interesting to me was in 1979 just after it was rebuilt there was going to be a wedding and the evening before the bridesmaids went to decorate the bridge.

While they were there a fierce windstorm came and everyone took shelter on the bridge.

The wind was so strong that it unseated the bridge from the pillars, and it crashed into the water below with everyone on it!