Sharon Dam - White River

The old dam in Sharon, VT is pretty well known in the kayaking community of the upper valley for good reason. It has good surf at a very wide range of flows and has a very long season. It is good from 1500cfs all the way up to the time you probably want to be heading to other spots on the white (over 12k on the USGS White R @ west hartford gauge).


RiverL Wave - Xavier Engle ripping at ~8k photo Nick Gottlieb

The main attraction PERIOD at this spot is the wave/hole on river left. It comes in above 5k as a hole and gets better and better up to 8k. It's a really fun wave up to 10k. If it's in, get there because it's fun. Blunts both sides. Clean spins on the right. Ends both ways (depending on the level)... Etc Etc. It's excellent. Getting onto the wave is slightly tricky but quite feasible. Also, there's a second chance hole immediately behind this wave which is pretty good in it's own right.

River Right Wave/Hole - around 2.5k

The main attraction at lower levels is the wave/hole on river right. It's decently retentive as low as 1.5k and is still good at over 5k when the better river left side of the dam starts coming in. At it's best range 2k-3k it is fun for spins and throwing quick lefty ends. You can throw the odd left blunt as well. It can be rather flushy-feeling until you get the feel for it. At higher and lower flows it gets more flushy. At higher flows it's beefier and flushier and can start to give up BIG righty blunts which usually result in a flush. The outflow is very swirly due to old debris from the dam. So it may take a bit to roll up (or you may flip after you wash off). Look for the ice cream headache face on your compadres if you're hitting it early season. This side is in for most of the spring. It's often one of the earliest spots to open up in March and usually runs reliably deeply into May, even June. And it comes up with big rain the whole rest of the year. This hole was the site of a rodeo in April 2006 organized by Hanna Farrar. A subsequent rodeo was held here in 2009 as a part of the Ledyard River Festival. PHOTOS!

Eddy access at this whole area is great!

To park and play here you need to park at an old dirt parking area a few hundred yards downstream and either hike up on the fishermen's trails or attain (or some combination).


the upstream view while attaining

This parking area is accessed by a little dirt road just off of Rte 14 at the base (of the downstream side) of the only big hill on the road between West Hartford and Sharon.


looking up the hill. snowed in dirt access on left (at end of guardrail).