Steep Creeks of New England [Paperback]

Greg Hanlon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1999

This book provides cutting-edge paddlers with a guide to 29 of the most extreme runs in New England, while allowing armchair creekers a glimpse of the steepest stuff from the safety of their living rooms. Steep Creek of New England is sure to become a classic among New England steep creekers. The intentionally brief descriptions, along with technical data on each river, makes this guide ideal for class V boaters looking for their next challenge.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Greg Hanlon has been researching, exploring, and paddling rivers and streams in New England for over 20 years. He has enjoyed paddling in all seasons and at a wide variety of water levels. Over the years, Greg has carefully recorded his runs and studied the water levels relative to each run. He used this data, along with his own personal experience, to write this book. Like other local paddlers, Greg believes New England has some of the best steep-creek boating found anywhere. For the last 10 years, Greg has worked as a hydraulic engineer for the Army Corps of Engineers. In this position, he has regulated flood control dams and reservoirs throughout New England. He has also played a significant role in designing and installing hydrologic and meteorologic real-time data collection systems. These systems transmit hydrologic information over weather satellites, making this data available on the Internet. This work experience, along with hundreds of paddling trips throughout New England, has given Greg an in-depth knowledge of the dynamic steep creeks included in this book.

Greg's knowledge and interest in the outdoors extends beyond paddling, as he is also an avid climber, mountain biker, and hang glider pilot. These activities have allowed him to gain an intimate knowledge of the region even when the rivers are dry. Greg has a passion for the outdoors and the sport of kayaking. He truly wants to share this information with others so they can join him on the rivers.

Co-author Sue Hanlon has joined Greg on many kayaking trips, although most of her time is spent hiking, running, and cycling while Greg paddles the rivers. She knows many of these rivers only from their banks, but looks forward to paddling more of them as her skills progress. Her love of kayaking and her desire to share this activity with Greg have allowed her to write this book with him.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: New England Cartographics (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1889787051
• ISBN-13: 978-1889787053
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #976,587 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #56 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Outdoor Recreation > Kayaking > Whitewater Kayaking
  • #61 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Nature Travel > Adventure > Kayaking
  • #76 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Nature Travel > Adventure > Canoeing

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book rocks like no guidebook I have ever read, December 9, 1999

By 

Karl Gesslein (Ithaca, NY, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Steep Creeks of New England (Paperback)

Greg and Sue have focused this book on providing serious steep creekers with the info they really need to know. How to figure out what is running and how to know how fast it will drop as well as how to get to the put in and take out. They don't waste time telling you the names of the rapids and the mamby-pamby lines down them. They figure if you can't pick your own lines down class V rapids and not get hammered then you don't belong on that creek anyways. I have only run a handful of the nearly 30 class V creeks in this book, but I hope to get a chance to run them all.

A must have for any steep creeker. This guidebook beats the pants off all the other ones I have ever seen including my personal hero William Nealy's.

Karl

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have for new england creeking info, April 25, 2000

By 

Christian Skalka (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Steep Creeks of New England (Paperback)

This is the best guidebook I've ever seen. No BS, just all the data you want in an easy to use format. I recently returned from a new england creeking trip, and the book was invaluable. But beware, it is definitely directed at the highly experienced creeker; when they say things like "the most difficult rapids aren't visible from the road", what they mean is "the multi-drop, Twitch-worthy class V+ eddyless gorge with no portage route is inaccessible from the road". If you're heading up that way, get it.

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, if a bit outdated, November 18, 2011

By 

Brian - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Steep Creeks of New England (Paperback)

This is a fairly comprehensive guidebook covering a lot of more difficult creek runs in New England. Unfortunately, it is becoming a bit dated, and rivers do change when large floods come through (big one Fall 2010, Hurricane Irene in 2011), which means a lot of the river descriptions may no longer be accurate. Still, for information about general river characteristics, directions, etc, this is a good starting place. Given a choice of one guidebook, I would go with Alden Bird's "Let it Rain", but Steep Creeks of New England is a nice supplemental addition to your library.