Easter Ross Carron - Upper Gorge down 3rd Sept 09

Callum and I headed north on Thursday morning early to Easter Ross. The forecast was for very wet weather and it was light rain on the way. The Carron was still low and we reckoned it might be the best bet whilst we waited for rivers to come up. I had done the upper gorge a long time back and remembered it being a fine section of grade 4(5). We parked at the tarmac road end at Glen Calvie and put creek boats on rucksacks for the 2km walk in. In reality we could probably have driven to the put in because the estate sign that discourages cars is just below the confluence of the Alladale and the Abhainn a Ghlinne Mhoir. Anyhow, the walk took just half an hour.

This upper gorge can be paddled with relatively low flows and is mostly pretty clean. A little extra water would be ideal. High flows could be very interesting. Here callum runs one of the early drops, "Left wing", grade 4.

The crux fall, "Crossover" is a sort of double boof into an enclosed pot. It can be protected from RHS. A left hand curving channel is the best approach which throws the paddler onto the main chute at an angle that allows a boof across towards safety. A classic drop. Easy 5.

Here Chris makes the good line..................

"Pinewood falls", grade 3+, is a nice double drop into a massive and beautiful pool framed by the Caldonian pines that so characterise this spectacular and aesthetic gorge.

Chris and then................
Callum launches into "Particle Accelerator" a fine grade 4 drop to the left.

"Cube Canyon", grade 4, is a slightly alarming passage. At first the river looks as though a huge cube of rock has fallen into the channel and blocked it completely. Although some water passes under this block, especially on the left, there is a channel that squeezes past it on the lft that is not immediately seen from above.

Towards the end of the upper gorge, a massive horizon line appears, with fishermen's platforms on river left. Personally I think these structures have no place in such beautiful natural settings.

This is Glen Calvie Falls. At low flows the water plunges down a scary looking slot.
At higher flows the fall seen on the left drops straight into a pool, above the final ledge and may prove runnable for the bold. At low water this is not an option. After exiting the upper gorge we scraped down the "Upper" (as per guidebook description) Carron to reach the " Middle Section".

Avoiding Granny's Hole by the route to the left we continued down.

Callum burying into a nice drop.

Chris runs a partially blocked drop

Ledges in the final mini canyon. We stopped here to remove a branch jammed in the main channel and preventing a descent. The large branch moved and went underwater. It would be dangerous to a swimmer. It is marked by the fact that higher in the same channel is a huge tree sticking up. It would be possible to paddle past this, but be aware that a swim might have the paddler getting tangled up on the submerged branch. The lower submerged branch will pose no problems to the upright paddler.

Chris takes the last falls by a rocky slide that flipped him on the way down!!

Callum cleans the final twisting fall, which has a nasty looking crevice on its left side.

Water was just beginning to bring the river up as we finished about 2pm and headed west towards the Einig.