With the weather promised very wet, we’d decided it would be a good opportunity to head south to Wharfedale in the hope of catching the Upper Wharfe at a good level. Crossing the Greta at Rutherford bridge, we saw a large group looking a little unsure about getting on, and the weir looked to be above 1 metre, which is chunky. We later learned the group had paddled, and had a fast trip, as the level came up to 1.2m and more. The Ure at Aysgarth, however, didn’t look that high, but we knew it would be on it’s way up, so continued up Bishopdale and over the top into Langstrothdale.

The Wharfe didn’t look that high yet, but we assumed it would be rising and popped in for a look at the confluence. Greenfield Beck hadn’t yet come up enough to paddle (it’s got quite a long catchment, much of it afforested), but Oughtershaw looked to be at a good level. I’d only seen this paddleable once before, on a Wednesday evening trip with John Wootton just over a year ago, when we really didn’t have enough daylight to head up there, so this would be a first time for all of us. We knew there was at least one tree down, which allegedly came up on you quite fast, so we took it fairly cautiously and didn’t get too close together in case there weren’t enough eddies. There wasn’t much warning of the first livestock fence, but it sagged enough that we could just paddle over it – with a bit more water you wouldn’t even see it. The second one was easier to spot, but a definite portage, and most of us got out river left well above it. It was only a couple of rapids on before we came to a narrow little gorge with the fallen tree across it. You could possibly sneak under this – certainly as it starts to rot and the side branches get broken off in a few years, but for now, it too is a sensible place to walk.

Since we were out, we reccied downstream, to find another narrow section, leading to an awkward drop, with a slot in the middle, and a big undercut river right in the run-out. Dave and Michael quickly decided to portage, while Ben and Charles ummed and aahed whilst setting up some safety river left. Anthony ran the drop on the right hand side, hitting the eddy left, well away from the undercut. I set out to stay on the shelf left of the slot and boof. I didn’t quite give it enough vector left, and hit the edge of the slot, but a brace kept me upright and away from any potential nasties. The throwline crew decided to walk…

Back on, it’s easy for a while and the valley opens out, so we could see we were nearly down to Beckermonds. Another narrowing was menaced by overhanging branches on the left, but a bit of effort to stay right cleared them fairly easily, and the run on down to the confluence was straightforward – once I’d tried to blink my lens back in place and finally had to reinsert it in an eddy….

By now, Oughtershaw was starting to drop off, but Greenfield Beck had come right up – higher than when we’d run it back in December 2011 (as seen in the previous video). This meant that the Wharfe was still at a decent level, though far from massive. We headed down this quite fast, not needing to scout, so Mary, who had decided not to paddle, but was trying to grab bank footage, struggled to get from one vantage point to the next in time. With no incidents, we were soon at Hubberholme and the take-out. The way back revealed that the Ure was now huge, and the Greta still looked pretty big, too.