Rte. 25 to Bearcamp River

Information from Greg and Sue Hanlon's Steep Creeks of New England, which has more info on this run. Text used with permission. Directions: from West Ossipee, take Rte. 16 to Rte. 25 West 5.2 miles to South Tamworth. Head left on Bemis Mountain Road just before crossing Cold Brook. Head up the road about a mile, and put in just upstream of the small bridge. To takeout: head back to Rte. 25 and turn right. Drive about 0.3 miles to a small pull-off on the left. This is the takeout on the Bearcamp River. Description by Nate Warren: This short but classic class V creek is tough to catch, but well worth the effort when you finally get it.  It is a mile long collection of some of the cleanest and most fun drops, slides and a mini-gorge that can be found in New England.  People use the upstream river right bridge abutment at the put-in as a gauge.  -2 is boat abusing low.  2 is low, 4 is medium.  It has been run up to 18" and possibly higher.  At low levels, this run contains the easiest and most fun class five anywhere.  As the volume goes up, the holes get stickier and the pools between the first few drops start blending together.  That being said, it is easy to set safety for all of the drops except Happy Gorge, even at very high flows.  Many people get out at the Route 25 bridge in town, or paddle down to the Bearcamp to takeout.  WARNING: the last drop, Zig-Zag, has contained wood for the past few seasons (as of 6/14).  It is also by far the least enjoyable drop on the run, which might explain why nobody has bothered to clean it out. From the put-in bridge are five great IV-V drops.  This is the majority of the whitewater on the run.  If you are scouting, be kind and considerate of the landowners, who have been nice to paddlers up to this point.  The river mellows to class II before splitting around an island.  Be careful here, because as the river comes back together it drops into happy gorge, and there are no good eddies above it.  Getting washed into the gorge would not be ideal.  In the gorge, there are a lot of moves to be made.  When in doubt, stay right. Below happy gorge there are a few more class IV rapids.  When the river turns 90 degrees right (then 90 degrees back left), keep your bow pointed downstream and keep driving left to avoid an undercut on the right. Soon after, there is a 6' ledge with some cool options for a left boof or just bounce down the right.  When you get to the bridge in town there are a few ledge holes to punch before Zig-Zag and takeout.  Then go run another lap! A real crappy rapid by rapid video of Cold Brook Better quality footage, but not all the rapids Or, Jeremy Laucks crushing it at 18" (real high, V+)