It doesn't look too testing, but it could be a funny urbban adventure through D6 and D4, not a much paddled ares
urband adventure
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brianybrian
- Posts:2
- Joined:Thu Aug 21, 2008 11:37 pm
I just happened to be down by the dodder in Miltown last week during the heavy rain and took a walk along the rive a little out of curiousity. In the space of about 1km there were a few small weirs. I was wondering if anyone ever paddled this river in high water?
It doesn't look too testing, but it could be a funny urbban adventure through D6 and D4, not a much paddled ares
It doesn't look too testing, but it could be a funny urbban adventure through D6 and D4, not a much paddled ares
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jimkennedy
- Posts:51
- Joined:Fri May 09, 2008 2:01 pm
- Location:Dublin
- Contact:
Re: urband adventure
Myself and Donnacha Curley ran the Dodder in big water once a few years back just to tick that box. We put in at Old Bridge Road, Templeogue, and took out at the pedestrian bridge upstream from Donnybrook Bridge. As I recall we had to hotfoot it to the UCDCC AGM in Madigan's of Donnybrook to abstain from voting, complain about the outgoing committee, and make early objections on the failings of the incoming one. It was a busy day.
Now that I think about it it must have been a while back because I ran shuttle on a bike, in a wetsuit; we paddled spuds; and the river was festooned with plastic bags, so it was pre-plastic-bag-tax.
The river itself is fairly non-eventful, it was just fast and channelised. Most of the fun was trying to figure out at each bridge where the hell we were. There are a bunch of nasty weirs along the way, including a horseshoe one below the bridge at Orwell Road. There's a smelly, rebar-and-debris-strewn one at the Smurfit Paper Mills downstream from Clonskeagh Bridge that was difficult to boat-scout. There's a cool slide/broken-weir a few hundred meters downstream from that one (if you look over the wall from the road you can see it). Judging from Google maps, there seem to be about five other weirs, but I don't recall them in any detail.
Well worth doing, at least once, but only if the water is raging down. Be careful for shopping trollies and so on in the bottom of weirs. Also, many of the weirs are tricky to scout because of the channelised nature of the river (hard to get out when you see an horizon line). Water quality was a lot worse than the Liffey...
Jim.
Now that I think about it it must have been a while back because I ran shuttle on a bike, in a wetsuit; we paddled spuds; and the river was festooned with plastic bags, so it was pre-plastic-bag-tax.
The river itself is fairly non-eventful, it was just fast and channelised. Most of the fun was trying to figure out at each bridge where the hell we were. There are a bunch of nasty weirs along the way, including a horseshoe one below the bridge at Orwell Road. There's a smelly, rebar-and-debris-strewn one at the Smurfit Paper Mills downstream from Clonskeagh Bridge that was difficult to boat-scout. There's a cool slide/broken-weir a few hundred meters downstream from that one (if you look over the wall from the road you can see it). Judging from Google maps, there seem to be about five other weirs, but I don't recall them in any detail.
Well worth doing, at least once, but only if the water is raging down. Be careful for shopping trollies and so on in the bottom of weirs. Also, many of the weirs are tricky to scout because of the channelised nature of the river (hard to get out when you see an horizon line). Water quality was a lot worse than the Liffey...
Jim.
Re: urband adventure
Possibly the nicest weir on the Dodder in Terenure (just after Bushy Park). Medium water in August 08.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miGvzeM4oOY]Dodder[/youtube]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miGvzeM4oOY]Dodder[/youtube]
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brianybrian
- Posts:2
- Joined:Thu Aug 21, 2008 11:37 pm
Re: urband adventure
Cheers for the replys lads, I wasn't being rude I was away on holiers for a month there.
I reckon I might have to give it a go for the novelty factor by the sound of things. Is there any reliable guide I could use for how runnable it is?
I reckon I might have to give it a go for the novelty factor by the sound of things. Is there any reliable guide I could use for how runnable it is?
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Rob Coffey
- Posts:23
- Joined:Tue Apr 29, 2008 10:10 pm
Re: urband adventure
The Dodder is a nice little run if you are looking for something different from the Liffey. Myself and Nick and the boys used to paddle it a lot. In fact it was the only river we paddled for quite a long time. Get in at Templeogue Bridge and get out in Ballsbridge. I think there are some big weirs on it. Watch out for shopping trollies and trees after or during flooding!