Barberville

41° 32.44' N    71° 41.788' W   See this location in: Google Maps   Map Server   Acme Maps

This is a site for launching hand-carried boats and it is also a portage. This typically means that to continue paddling down the river past this site you will have to portage your boat around a dam or other obstruction.

Description & Overview:

This site is adjacent to the Barberville Dam on the Wood River at the headquarters of the Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed Association (WPWA). It is the first good take-out on the Wood River after putting in at Route 165. There is an excellent handicapped accessible canoe and kayak launch here at the WPWA headquarters. Great caution should be exercised near the dam. People have drowned as a result of launching just below the dam and getting trapped in the dam hydraulics. If you plan to portage around the dam to continue downstream, take out on river right at WPWA, carry across the road (be careful -- visibility is poor) and down the steep path to the river below the bridge, still on river right. There are a few hundred feet of quickwater rapids here and then the river is slow-moving all the way to Wyoming Pond. It is possible to carry past some of this quickwater but not all of it. This area is stocked with trout several times throughout the year. The Wood-Pawcatuck River Guide is highly recommended for paddling on the Wood-Pawcatuck river system.

This site provides access to the following water bodies in the Pawcatuck River watershed: Wood River, Frying Pan Pond.

Location:

Alternate Site Name: Frying Pan Pond

Town: Richmond

Driving Landmarks: On Arcadia Road, at the headquarters of the Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed Association

Access & Waters:

Water 'Features' At Site: dam, whitewater, flatwater/slow moving river, pond

Note: Because one boat launch can access, say, both a lake and a river or both the upstream and downstream portions of a river, not all paddling trips at a given site will necessarily encounter all of the features listed.

Type of Access: Boat launch for hand carried boats

ADA Accessible Boat Launch? yes

Shoreline: At the Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed Association headquarters on river right above the dam there is a handicapped accessible canoe and kayak landing ramp. Below the dam the shoreline is the natural earth, roots and rocks riverbank.

Float/Dock: low float or dock

Portage Length: 200 feet

Parking:

Parking: yes

ADA Accessible Parking Spaces? yes

Sources for More Information:

AMC River Guide: 4th Edition, pages 138-141

Other Guidebooks: Paddle 23 in "Paddling Connecticut and Rhode Island"

Website: How to order the Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed Association's River Guide

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