Summer, 2006 Summary

A lot has happened on the island since my last post in April. Unfortunately I missed the vast majority of this paddling season because of work commitments in Labrador. Some of the whitewater highlights on the island this summer include the following trips:

• Dave MacDonald and Darren McDonald led a single day descent of Sandy Harbour River. This was a third descent of the river, but only the first time that every rapid was run. Dave passed along that the trip took over 10 hours and that setting shuttles the previous day was critical to completing a one day descent of the run. The gauge for Pipers Hole River was at .9 m on the day of the descent and this apparently should be considered an minimum level for Sandy Harbour River.

• Local crews tackled Petty Harbour River, which is located south of St. John's. This is a classic steep creek run that ranks among the most difficult rivers on the island. It can be broadly divided into two sections: a Class V-V+ section from the dam to where the diversion pipe crosses the river and class II-IV from the pipe to the ocean. The general character of the river is defined by long, steep boulder gardens. Narrow slots, high pin potential, and abundant sieves raise the consequences and careful scouting is mandatory for these rapids. The entire section is easy to scout from the river right shore prior to dropping into the meat.

• On the west coast of the island a small crew tackled White's River, the upper section of Lomond River, and Bakers Brook over the long weekend in May. These three classics are located within a couple of hours of Cornerbrook along the Viking Trail into Gros Morne National Park. The rivers are grade IV to V and include abundant class IV and V rapids that consist of boulder gardens, ledges and large waterfalls. This is a great long weekend trip if you're looking to raise your adrenaline levels. I'll post more details about all three rivers over the next month or so. But an important development is a gauge for the Whites River. Kev and I put-on the river when 9 boards were exposed on the river right bridge footing. We figured this was a good level for the two canyons. The Whites can be run as low as 9.5 boards and anything higher than 8 boards significantly increases the difficulty of the canyons.

Whites River Gauge. River right bridge footing.

• The Northwest River flowed at reasonable levels for most of August and several trips were made in the warm summer sun. Of note this summer is that people began regularly running the river centre falls on the 2nd Golf Course Rapid. This 5 m waterfall has a somewhat manky and hard to scout lead-in. Dave and Darren tell me that once you're lined up on the final ramp that it is a really fun drop.

A new season and Bay Bulls River

The 2006 whitewater season has been a bit slow to get going, but it all started last weekend with a high-water run of the Paradise River. This was great fun for everyone on the trip. The excitement continued into Easter weekend with local runs on the Avalon and an inaugral trip to Pipers Hole River.

On a personal note it has been a rough spring. I'm batting 1000 with swims on each of the three trips in which I have participated this spring, bringing the 2006 swim total to four. I wish my golf game was this consistent. Hopefully the beating I took on Sunday, and rolled up after, marks the end of my swim streak and I can enjoy another few years of swim free kayaking.


What I really want to share with the world this week is the Bay Bulls River. I first scouted portions of this river in 2001 when I first moved here. Island newcomer Cody Neal pointed out that there is an 8-9m (25' to 30') waterfall on this river, more important is its runnability. On Sunday Cody covinced me that we should check out this gem of a river 20 minutes from St. John's. Thirty millimeters of rain on Saturday night swelled the creek to epic proportions. The high flows exponentially increased the difficulty of the waterfall, but made the other fifteen rapids awesome.

The run is not very long, but certainly action packed. There are long slides, ledges, big pourovers, sieves, and blind horizon lines. Fortunately it is also well supplied with solid eddies and runs within 100 m of a road for its entire length. Bay Bulls River has become an instant spring classic and I for one cannot wait to get back to that waterfall and run it at reasonable water levels. This is one of the prettiest and easiest access waterfalls on the Avalon and is worth taking a picnic lunch down there on a nice warm afternoon.

I'll have a more thorough description of the run and directions to it up on the website. Until then I hope you've enjoyed these few pictures of the Bay Bulls River.

Descent of Long Harbour River and wood on North Arm River

Long Arm River

I'm finally cleaning my desk and making a few minor updates to the website. Gary Davies, Dave MacDonald, Darren McDonald, Geoff Minielly, and Jim Price flew into the Long Harbour River and paddled it to the sea. The Long Harbour River begins at Meta Pond and flows south into Long Harbour, east of Terrenceville on the Burin Penninsula. Everyone tells me the trip was excellent; beautiful scenery, good rapids and continuous gradient. It sounds like another wilderness multi-day trip has been opened up on the island. Apparently a trip report is on its way in the future and I'll add it to the inventory of rivers. Dave kindly included some pictures in his note and I've posted them below.

North Arm River

I was on the North Arm River over the weekend (November 19) and noticed a lot of wood in the river channel, more than normal. It isn't a problem at the moment, but a lot of these trees will move in the next major flow event and may block some of the narrower slots in the rapids. So, just a warning for anyone that might pop out for a quick run when it rains over the next few weeks.

Flying into Meta Pond.

Top Section of "Hole Lot of Trouble"

Results from the Virgin Wave Rodeo

The second annual Virgin Wave Rodeo came and went this past long weekend. This year the weather in central Newfoundland behaved and we had a nice sunny and warm day to play in the canyon of the Exploits River.

Rodeo day saw a paddlers congregate at the put-in for the Upper Salmon Ladder section; a short and beautiful stretch of whitewater, which is seldom run. The initial rapid is a series of ledges with tight slots that end in a 2.2m waterfall, very fun. Several people ran this section, amusing the crowd with their varied methods of getting to the final drop upright and pointed downstream.

The two groups of paddlers re-united below the bridge and continued down to the first competition at the loop hole. Paul Rose and Andrew Stewart amused us by travelling downstream on a large water bike, which handled the whitewater suprisingly well. However, it could not surf the Virgin Wave. The "Free-for-All" event at the loop hole went well. Everyone had 20 minutes to style the wave and we saw flurries of cartwheels and big loops from many of the competitors. In the end it was a close call between Darren McDonald and Jim Price for the top ride at this little playspot, but Darren managed to pull out the biggest loop of the day.

At the Virgin Wave the competition heated up as many paddlers flushed through the wave, which has a very soft foam pile at low September water levels. The competition essentially came down to single rides and linked flat spins. I won the rodeo with a series of low angle blunts off the left shoulder and Andrew Stewart was a close second unleashing a vertical blunt, but was unable to stick the move on the green face of the Virgin wave. Betsy Wilson, the sole female paddler, swept the women's events.

After the rodeo was finished we headed up to Pizza Delight for cold drinks and pizza. We were met there by several sea kayakers that had been paddling in the area over the weekend. Everyone was tired, hungry and really thirsty at this point, but it seems like we all had a good time again this year.