Hey Dave, Recently (first week of august) paddled the ruchill in a fairly huge spate of affairs. WOW. It was well into the field at the put in and almost complete lack of eddies in the top 3km was pretty nerve racking. There was a sizeable tree across the river only passable on extreme left in flood which might mean it will block the whole river in lower levels, it is also possible it has moved furher down. Be careful. Also a tree to report (02/09/09) on the Knaik (just above bedrock section) blockin the whole river. squeezable under on left in low levels, this will become a definite portage at a medium to large flow. There is a fun, short and silly section of the Turret near Crieff which is always scrapable due to water input and ends in a great double slide (grade 4ish?). The river is grade 3ish with the excepion of the last slide but in reality a lot more fun due to lots of blind corners and mostly uninspectable rapids. Notable drops include a fun 1m ledge and 2m slide pushing onto a rock wall. The hardest and scariest part of the run however is climbing down the steps at the obvious water input pipe on the left of the road about 1 km up the road to turret damn (see guidebook). After the slide take out on the left, climb out the gorge and laugh at how far you have (not) gone. Now walk 200m back to the water input and do it again with a lot more confidence. Be aware that once started you are commited to the entire run. Portaging and escape from the gorge are extremely unlikely. We paddle this regularly and it is currently tree free! cheers. Callum.