Your goal when running big drops is to find the entry angle that will keep your back and body safe from impact but not hit any submerged rocks or the river bottom. The best way to learn to run waterfalls is to start off on smaller, relatively safe drops and work up to harder and bigger. The higher the drop, the more likely you are to want to pencil.
Pencilling is when your boat pitch matches that of the falling curtain of water and you drop into the pool vertically, rather than flat like a boof. It will take time and practice to confidently line up, launch and safely land big drops, but what feels at first like a big blur will soon become familiar and slower. You’ll develop the consciousness to open your eyes, make fine adjustments and enjoy the ride.
SCOUTING THE DROP
You should be scouting and running safety for all big drops. Look through the whole drop to see if there is any one part that is obviously unrunnable. If this is the case, begin hiking around or decide if you can either put in just below or get out just above the nastiness.
Be sure of your landing zone and that you can hit it. A safe landing zone is often the reason a drop is runnable or not.
Generally, the more aerated the water the higher you can get away with landing flat. Is your landing big, foamy and soft or is flat, green and hard? Is it too high to boof?
How deep is the pool? Is it deep enough to pencil? The best way to find out is to actually go down and check with a pole or a big stick, or even get into the water and look around. However, this is not always realistic and is rarely necessary. With practice and experience you will be able to roughly gauge the pool depth and location of rocks by looking at the foam pile and boils. Another good way to know for sure is to check when the water’s not flowing and return the next season or, in some cases, the next day when the dam releases.
What other dangers are there? Often wood and other debris will collect in the pool below large waterfalls. On sheer drops the river may not only pound away and erode the base of the falls but also the wall behind it creating a cave hazard. Be sure that you can
either get out from behind the falls or be positive you will finish on the downstream side.
Consider the water depth at the lip of a drop. If you barely scrape over the lip of a sheer drop, it is very easy to get hung up and go over vertical, not so gracefully flopping your 30 footers onto your head.
Be sure you’ll see your intended line from your boat at river level. Use whatever landmarks are avail- able: bridge pilings, tiny breaking waves or even a friend standing by running safety. Many paddlers (even good ones) have, in the excitement, quickly scouted a drop from shore, hopped in their boat and totally lost sight of a perfect and relatively simple line.
OFF THE LIP
To pencil off a big drop, go off at roughly the same speed as the water using only smooth correction strokes to keep the boat on line. Carrying a lot of speed off a drop may launch you ahead of the water and free of the falls, and maybe over the hole or a rock at the bottom, but it makes setting your pitch far more difficult. You want your boat to fall off the brink,
match the pitch of the water and enter the pool at the same angle as the falls.
For the most part, your body position at the brink of the drop sets your angle for the rest of the ride. Keep your body relatively neutral, leaning neither too far forward or back. On the way down, pulling your legs to your chest will cause the bow to rise and your boat to flatten. Conversely, pushing your legs away will drop the bow or cause the boat’s pitch to steepen—become more vertical.
These sound like great tricks but in reality are very difficult and take lots of practice.
What to do with your paddle? You do not want your paddle at the same level as your face or neck when hitting the water. Some boaters put their paddles to the side, parallel to the boat, and tuck their heads at the last minute. Others simply keep their blades low around their hips. Avoid the ever-popular and danger- ous skull and crossbones. Throwing your arms above your head leads to: losing at least one hand from the paddle; getting slammed to the back deck; and likely damaging a shoulder.
TOUCHDOWN
Where there is even the slightest chance of hitting rock, using anything other than a creek boat is asking for trouble. Creek boats will by no means make you invincible but are far better equipped to protect you and make the lines you choose easier to hit.
Lean forward as you pencil into the pool. This helps stop the boat from back looping and sheds some of the impact of the fall from your body.
Accidentally landing too flat? Lean forward to help protect your back. And reach for a stroke upon landing to help you move downstream away from the curtain. When landing inadvertent big boofs, turn your head to help you steer clear of a broken nose compliments of your cockpit rim.
Be comfortable surfing in holes. Playing and practicing in holes makes for a fast and bomber roll, teaches you how to manoeuvre and more importantly how to get out if that’s where you end up.
PRACTICE AND JUDGEMENT
Running big drops is a lot of fun but takes practice and good judgement. There are as many ways to get into trouble as there are ways to run waterfalls. Take rescue courses and always paddle with like-minded boaters whom you trust.
If you cannot set up adequate safety for a big drop, don’t run it. Remember, there is no hurry. The waterfall you are so intent on running today will be there to run next season, or the next.
This article first appeared in the Summer 2003 issue of Rapid Magazine.
The Kan is Alberta’s most popular whitewater river. Flowing north from Barrier Lake into the Bow River through the adrenaline-sport Shangri-La of the Rockies’ eastern edge, the Kananaskis River is within an hour’s drive of Calgary. It has plenty of variety, including a slalom course and good playspots like Widow Maker, Hollywood Hole and the crowd-pleasing Green Tongue. Freestyle kayakers share the river with beginning canoeists and Olympic racers, and although eddies sometimes get the vibe of a skateboard park with everyone lined up to throw down a sick one, even the biggest huckers are willing to help out a swimmer.
Best of all, consistent dam-controlled water levels make the Kan a dependable all-season playspot. The water god—TransAlta hydro— doesn’t have paddlers in mind when it plans releases, but things work out so the medium-volume Kan flows roughly 30 cms almost every day year-round.
Now, there are more reasons to hit the Kan—bigger, better, brand- new playspots.
During a low-water period in late April, contractors moved in to add 700 tonnes of new rock and shift around existing features. They created new waves, holes and eddies near the former Santa Claus pourover, halfway along the Kan’s two-kilometre stretch of prime whitewater. The project, spearheaded by Jeff Germaine and Patch Bennett through the Lower Kananaskis River Users Association (LKRUA), aimed to develop high-quality park-and-play spots that would spread out the use on the river and reduce congestion.
Paddlers are stoked about the results of this $50,000 upgrade, which produced three notable new features.
The middle feature is the chosen one to draw the masses away from the Kan’s ever-popular Green Tongue. Formed from the old Santa Claus wave, this new feature has been provisionally dubbed “St. Nick” until paddlers at the Kananaskis Whitewater Festival can settle on something jazzier than “one, two and three.”
Approaching St. Nick, paddlers see a horizon line and a tight constriction. The river narrows by two-thirds into a super-fast, powerful wave. With a steep face and retentive foam pile this wave allows for spins, blunts and big bounces. “You can air blunt on both sides,” said Bennett.
Bennett is also happy with the results of feature number one. “It’s a breaking wave that you can cartwheel and loop in and blunt and do many of the newer moves. But it’s not super sticky…. We wanted something that offered a bit more wave surfing that you could throw in some cartwheels as well.”
The third new playspot is another wave sized for less aggressive boaters, well serviced by a huge eddy on river right. Kan veterans will notice other, subtler changes including a partially formed fourth feature—a work in progress that timed out when TransAlta turned the taps back on—and a smorgasbord of new eddies, smaller play features and learning spots.
Other improvements, including finishing cleaning out eddies on the slalom course, are in store for later this summer, and if this spring’s success is any indication, the Kan will continue to improve.
“If we’d managed to get three features as good as what we’d already had we would have been pleased.” Bennett concluded. “Now we’ve got two features at least as good as we had before and one feature which is considerably better than anything we’ve had before.”
This article first appeared in the Summer 2003 issue of Rapid Magazine.
On my way home after a surprising low-water spring run on Ontario’s Upper Black, I stopped at the Sandman Inn and Restaurant for coffee. The only thing keeping me awake was thinking about how I was going to explain the fist-sized dent I put in the bow of Andrew’s new open boat. I suppose I could have been more to the right going over the drop, but where was the spring run-off that usually makes this class IV falls a clean run?
We ran out of water at our house this past winter. A dry fall and no mid-winter melt must have lowered the water table below the reach of our drilled well. Melting snow on the wood stove for tea is romantic at first, but after months of lugging around five-gallon jugs, the Little House on the Prairie feeling quickly dries up.
In North America we use an average of 1,400 gallons of water per capita per day. Industry and agriculture suck 90 percent of this, but still, each person carries 28 five-gallon jugs of river into their home each day. We didn’t require this many jugs of course because in Quadeville you can still slip into your Sorels and piss off your front porch. Not everyone is so lucky.
Back behind the wheel, coffee in one hand and dicta-phone in the other, I began brainstorming the framework for the next national environmental campaign: Stand Up and Save Our Rivers—the instal- lation of urinals in every household.
It might be slow to catch on, like Blue Box and composting, but soon urinals would make it into every home.
It would become a political issue of course and one sure to pass—what man would vote against mandatory urinal use?
My favourite: If “urinal” not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.
No more “leave it up or down” domestics, and think of the water we’d save. Water that would flow in our rivers. Water that would have cushioned my landing and saved the bow of my borrowed boat. I was sure that I was onto something, but like all credible green movements I needed some statistical research to support my campaign.
There are roughly 330 million flushers in the United States and Canada and 50 percent of those are men using, on average, five gallons per flush and five flushes per day. North American men flush a grand total of 4.1 billion gallons per day. Now, let’s say that four out of five of these 4.1 billion gallons could be urinal-based. Using only one gallon per pull of the stainless handle, men alone would save 3.3 billion gallons of water per day.
Dividing per-day use by hours, minutes, seconds and converting gallons to cubic feet, it works out that by installing urinals in every home in North America we’d prevent a staggering 5,812 cubic feet of water per second from flushing into our sewers. That’s the equivalent of five Ocoees, one and half Frasers and six raging Upper Black Rivers flowing day and night, 365 days a year.
So you see Andrew, it’s not really my fault. If this urinal thing had caught on five years ago, there would have been plenty of water that day and I wouldn’t have dented your boat.
This article first appeared in the Summer 2003 issue of Rapid Magazine.
On Vancouver Island’s West Coast, stories grow as fast and tall as the fat red cedars and amazon Douglas firs they’re told under. The characters grow larger than life and their feats beyond human. Take the tales of Cougar Annie, who is rumoured to have shot a cougar one-handed, dealt with more than one husband by force, withstood the shelling from a Japanese subma- rine and cultivated a garden of exotic plants amidst the wild coastal rainforest. Tall tales indeed, except these stories are true. Cougar Lady really did earn her name from her ability to dispatch meddling big cats and black bears and she made a life and a horticultural career for herself far from civilization in an environment where it rains almost every day from October until April.
So says Margaret Horsfield in her book Cougar Annie’s Garden. By the time I finished reading the introduction I was inspired to visit the storied garden and see for myself if the rumours were true that after years of neglect, Annie’s exotics were blooming once more.
So I planned a seven-day kayak trip. Beginning in Gold River, a remote West Coast logging town deep in Vancouver Island’s Nootka Sound, I would make my way to the exposed outer coast, paddle south around the noto- rious headland of Estevan Point to Hesquiat Harbour and visit the famed garden at Boat Basin. Then I would zigzag my way further south through the forested islands of Clayoquot Sound to the resort town of Tofino. On the way would be plenty of solitude to give me a taste of Cougar Annie’s life on the edge.
At the docks in Gold River, I loaded my gear aboard the Uchuck III, a former World War II minesweeper that now runs goods and people out to the coast’s remote lodges, homes and camps. With my kayak on board, the Uchuck motored west through the channels leading to Vancouver Island’s outer coast. The forested mountain- sides opened up to reveal snowcapped peaks behind them, fishermen fighting salmon and the odd curious
gaze of a sea lion or seal. Nearing the Pacific, the boat began to roll on a light swell. The Nootka Lighthouse appeared, marking the southern tip of Nootka Island and the entrance to the mouth of the sound. The Uchuck docked nearby at the historic coastal village of Friendly Cove. Today the settlement contains little more than a church, a graveyard, a single house, derelict foundations and a fallen totem pole. It is the landing site of Captain James Cook, the first European to set foot in B.C., and once an important summer residence for the local Mowachaht people. That was back when there were thousands of First Nations spread along the coast in pros- perous communities, and the way it was in 1915 when a woman named Ada Annie Rae-Arthur arrived on the coast with her husband Willie for a clean start and a new life.
The drug problems of today’s Vancouver were problems 90 years ago, and Willie was addicted to the city’s opium dens. The community of Boat Basin, a full day’s travel from Tofino, was remote enough to be free from temptation. Like few others, Annie stayed long enough to witness the decline of the Mowachaht. Until 1986, long after her neighbours had dwindled to none and she had gone blind, Annie stayed at her garden, not leaving for years at a time. She spent 70 years out here; I would spend seven days.
Icrossed the channel from Friendly Cove to the southern edge of Nootka Sound with the waves splashing at my side, glad to be alone on the ocean. I felt like a coastal explorer, with empty beaches, wave-washed cliffs, crashing surf and dense forest on one side, and open ocean, the odd sea otter, seals and sea birds on the other. I made camp at one of the many white sand beaches. Wolf, deer, and bear tracks dimpled the sand in lines that disap- peared into piles of bull kelp. I expected to see hand-sized cat-tracks too, here on Annie’s turf.
Cougar hunters were held in high regard amongst the pioneers of old, and Annie was the big-cat hunter’s queen. The animals were regular visitors to her garden, and she is reputed to have trapped and shot 70 to 80. Sometimes she would bait them with young goats; other times she would find them treed. She even shot them one-handed in the dark. When she heard the traps snap at night she would check them with a lamp in one hand and a gun in the other. Despite failing eyesight, she never missed a shot.
Annie’s cougar hunting was a profitable business— cougars earned bounties until the late ‘70s, plus there was always demand for hides. Annie was never one to miss a chance to make money—she also sold bulbs and plants from her garden and tended a store and post office. The exotic shrubs, bulbs, fruit trees and flowers Annie culti- vated were not adapted to this rainforest climate, yet her plants flourished and found buyers as far away as Manitoba.
The next stage of my journey took me around the headland of Estevan Point into the protected waters of Hesquiat Harbour and Boat Basin, Cougar Annie’s home. Estevan Point sticks out of Vancouver Island’s western profile like a pimple on a teenager’s face, bearing the brunt of every storm. It also bore the brunt of the only military attack on Canadian soil in recent history. One day during World War II, Annie spotted a submarine in Boat Basin. That night it opened fire on the Estevan Point Lighthouse. Shells were found all over the area for 30 years. Canadian military officials played down the attack, but everyone assumed it was a Japanese submarine.
Puzzling to many was, and is, why the Japanese would sail across the Pacific to attack a lighthouse in the middle of nowhere. Conspiracy theorists argued that it was actually an American submarine, that the States bombed their ally to keep Canada’s resolve firmly in the war.
Luckily I had calm conditions for paddling around this proboscis-shaped war zone into Hesquiat Harbour. Boat Basin lies at the harbour’s far end. I camped on a long, curving stretch of sand scooped out of the backside of Estevan Point, one hour’s paddle from the garden. I fell asleep that night trying to picture the garden and imagine what I would find the following day. I woke early with a nervous anticipation usually reserved for competitions and first dates. I packed, and tore up the four knots to Cougar Annie’s in record time.
A new boardwalk leads from tidal water through a cedar swamp and up a short hill to the garden. Once only a rare few stopped here, but the garden is becoming famous. Float planes and sightseeing boats now drop in with tourists. But I was the only one around in the early morning hours this day.
I marvelled at the small room that was a post office and store. I walked down plant-lined boardwalks that beckoned me farther into the garden. I gazed in awe at the size of some of the old-growth beams and boards used for building. My eyes were distracted by the hundreds of exotic shrubs, trees and flowers blooming in pocket gardens. Wind whispered in the trees and bugs and birds hummed their tunes. And I was reminded of Annie’s reputation by the rusty traps hanging from trees.
One building, sinking into the ground, was obviously Annie’s home. I looked inside the one-room house. “Eleven kids,” I whispered. Over 70 years Annie raised 11 children and had four husbands come and go—either by death or desertion. After Willie died, Annie advertised for a husband alongside her nursery ads in two western- Canadian newspapers. George Campbell was one of those who replied and came to live at Boat Basin. Evidence suggests he beat Annie, and, not long after arriving, Campbell died suspiciously of a gunshot wound. Annie’s explanations varied between “it went off accidentally while he was cleaning it” to “it went off accidentally when he threatened to kill me.”
In Annie’s early days the area was busy with a thriving aboriginal, missionary and immigrant pioneer com- munity—enough to make a store and post office viable. Later on, Annie’s only customer was herself. Somehow she was impervious to the multiple forces that drew everyone else away. Today the only residents are a few Mowachaht at the remote reserve on Hesquiat Harbour’s northwest shore and Peter Buckland, who lives full-time at the garden.
Buckland was no stranger to life on the West Coast. He built a small prospector cabin close to Nootka Sound and spent his share of alone time there, whenever he could get away from his law profession in Vancouver. In Annie’s later years, he visited the garden to help out. He stayed for as long as he could spare before returning to his practice in the city.
In 1987, after Annie’s death, Buckland bought her homestead, moved in and began rescuing the garden from the encroaching forest. Partway through my visit I bumped into Buckland, a handsome grey-haired man of the woods. He was friendly and welcoming but not in a “tell all your friends to come here too” kind of way. He just seemed glad to have someone to chat with for a few minutes while pointing out the sights with his work- worn hands. I complimented him on the state of the gar- den, the flowers blooming, the orderly paths and under- control shrubs and trees.
“I practice what I call chainsaw gardening,” he said. Using a chainsaw, axe and machete as gardening tools, he has been reclaiming the former garden. Under the salmonberry and salal, he found the garden struggling to survive. He discovered the fruit trees still bore fruit and most of the shrubs, perennials and other flowers still bloomed despite the heavy cloak of the intruding forest. After 15 years of hard work he still turns up forgotten sections of garden and the plants hidden in them.
Buckland has built himself an incredible abode from the surrounding forest and he plans on being here for many years to come. He has built new cabins, constructed two kilometres of boardwalk and opened the garden to the public. He recently turned the garden over to the not-for-profit Boat Basin Society to ensure its preservation. For the cost of a $50 Society membership, anyone can come to the garden, wander through the oasis protected by towering stands of fir and cedar, and contemplate the tenacity of two modern-day pioneers.
What Cougar Annie and Peter Buckland had done inspired me. I had commitments back home and packed up to head for Tofino, but I was already working out a plan to come back and carve a living for myself out of the coastal rainforest. I paddled south and pulled up on a pocket beach for the last night of my trip, eyeing the forest for a spot to build a cabin and set up a garden as I unrolled my sleeping bag on the sand.
Sleep came easily but during the night I woke to the breaking-twig sounds of an animal hunting in the dark. I stayed awake nervously waiting for a cougar to pounce and shred the few layers of nylon that encased its next meal. A quote from Horsfield came to mind: “When you shoot a cougar, sight fast and aim for its chest. That way you’ll hit the giant cat’s heart,” Annie advised a newspaper reporter in 1957.
I didn’t have a gun but I did have a knife. In a sleep-deprived lunacy, I grabbed my headlamp and the knife, took a deep breath, and turned to face the cougar. Two red eyes flashed in the bush, then turned and ran. With a sharp dose of reality my fears dissolved, but so did my dreams of a life in the bush. Like many before me I realized that it takes a rare type of person to make it out here. I woke the next morning and, like the mouse that had disturbed my slumber, high-tailed it home.
When he’s not exploring the mountains and shores of Vancouver Island, Ryan Stuart lives, writes and enjoys human company in Courtenay, B.C.
This article first appeared in the Summer 2003 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Adventure Kayak’s print and digital editions here.
As a Lake Superior sea kayak guide, I have become accustomed to a watery horizon and shorelines of granite, cobble, sand and cedar. On the St. Mary’s River, however, concrete, steel and glass replace the natural rock and forest; smoke-belching industry and the blanket of society have wiped out any feeling of wilderness. But I have learned that wilderness lies in the eyes and mind of the beholder. The St. Mary’s River is my teacher, aided by the ghosts of an enchanted past.
Road-weary visitors to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, can enjoy a full-day, half-day or evening tour on the St. Mary’s. The view from the water affords a new perspective of this city of 75,000, and for paddlers on their way to the splendours of Lake Superior, a stop here is a good way to loosen up and get a sense of the area’s history.
With the international border running down its spine, the St. Mary’s is bounded by Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, to the north, and the smaller Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, to the south. The river—the only connecting channel between lakes Superior and Huron—begins in dramatic fashion, dropping six metres out of Superior in a kilometre-long rapid, before flowing placidly for another 80 kilometres.
Sea kayakers can explore either side of the bor- der—from the two-kilometre-wide main channel below the rapids to the narrow, island-pocked pas- sages on the American side—but you must obey bor- der laws and land on the same side you launch from. For a two-hour paddle, I launch my kayak at the Pine Street Marina on the Canadian side and follow the main channel upstream. There are also good access points with plenty of parking at the Bellevue Park Marina, just east of Pine Street, or the small sandy beach by the downtown public library. On the U.S. side, launch from the Sugar Island ferry docks in the east end of Sault, Michigan, or from Sherman Park, upstream from the locks.
Heading upriver toward the International Bridge, I ignore the sights and sounds and slip back in time. The motorboats buzzing around me become the canoes of the natives; the massive lake freighters, Montreal canoes bound for Lachine or Fort William.
The glimmering reflections from the windows of riverside estates reappear as campfires, and the hum of traffic fills my ears as the singing of voyageurs. The tugs and barges moored at the Purvis Marine Pier morph into the glacial boulders strewn beneath the cliffs of Old Woman Bay, Lake Superior, and swallows swoop down from barge cavities like peregrine falcons from the cliffs.
The setting sun is framed by the International Bridge and reflects from the amber-tinted windows of city hall. Beyond Purvis Pier, three kilometres from my launching point, I begin my 20-minute ferry glide against a moderate current to Whitefish Island and the base of the St. Mary’s rapids.
Like the Ojibwa, I too am drawn to Bawating—the “place of falling waters” that marks Lake Superior’s eastern terminus. Before hydro development, the Falls of the St. Mary’s were several kilometres long and spanned the entire one-kilometre width of the river. Centrally located and with an abundance of whitefish, Bawating provided a summer rendezvous site for some 10,000 nomadic Ojibwa. Whitefish Island, a large island on the Canadian side of the rapids, contains archaeological evidence of 4,000 years of seasonal use. Yet in only 200 years of European inhabitation, the fishery was decimated. The wild attributes of the St. Mary’s River, maimed by development, have been lost forever.
The St. Mary’s was recently designated a Canadian Heritage River and is also con- tained within the managed boundaries of the Great Lakes Heritage Coast—which stretches from the Ontario–Minnesota border on Lake Superior to Georgian Bay’s Port Severn. No such designation can restore the river to its former splendour, but in the magic hour of the early morning mist or the evening’s set- ting sun, there are moments when the past overpowers the present. Tonight, it’s as though nothing has gone wrong. I see the fires and hear the drums and songs of reunit- ing people. I sit and reflect amidst the roar of the ever-powerful rapids before paddling on toward another era in the history of the St. Mary’s.
It was the construction of locks, a 15-minute paddle north of the rapids, which tamed the wilderness of the St. Mary’s. No longer was it necessary to endure the long portage upstream; gone was the danger of damaging a birchbark canoe on the downstream run.
Today, the American locks continue to provide commercial access to the breadbasket of the continent. The Canadian locks—a National Historic Site—allow for small craft thoroughfare.
I often lock through, following the posted protocol to call the lockmaster on my marine radio, then posing for the cameras of dozens of tourists while waiting for the water level to adjust.
Locking through allows access to Lake Superior, its open waters another 10 kilometres distant. But for tonight this is the end of the line. The first stars appear on the eastern horizon as I retrace my route downstream, escorted by a beaver that disappears as mys- teriously as it appeared, diving deep into dark waters.
When not leading kayak tours on Lake Superior’s north shore, Conor Mihell is most likely back home in the Soo, day tripping on the St. Mary’s River.
This article first appeared in the Summer 2003 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Adventure Kayak’s print and digital editions here.
Amidst Canada’s vast wilderness playground of trees, rocks and water, it seems incredible that our cozy, marshmallow-roasting campfires could have an impact. Unfortunately, campfires are among the most damaging practices in the ecosystems we escape to when we go camping. Fires deplete topsoil nutrients, scar the ground, pollute the air and introduce a risk of forest fires.
Campfires have a significant impact because there is very little topsoil on the scenic rocky coastlines of popular paddling areas such as Ontario’s Georgian Bay Islands. What little soil there is comes primarily from the decomposing wood of fallen trees, branches and leaves. The removal of deadwood for fires removes the nutrients available for plants.
Fires have also left scars on the rocks of many beautiful campsites. When I was a graduate student in archaeology, I learned that the signs of fire—be they carbon deposits on rocks, layers of ash in the soil or rock heat fractures—are among the longest-lasting markers on a campsite, remaining visible for thousands of years.
Sand will also hold a fire trail for future campers to find. Sand will melt or scar, and on popular beaches the sand is full of unburnt and partially burnt wood. Unless the fire is below the high-tide line, turning the sand under only hides the fire pit until someone tries to build a sandcastle there.
Fires also emit a lot of particulate matter. The air pollution from campfires mimics the smog of city air that so many of us are trying to escape when we head out on a kayak tour.
The risk of forest fires is almost too obvious to mention, but still a very important reason to forego the evening blaze. I recall paddling along a wilderness shoreline and smelling smoke—not directly from a camper’s fire, but pouring from the ground 50 metres away from an old fire pit. The fire had travelled through the tree roots below the fire pit. The firefighters who eventually subdued this blaze said such root fires were all too common.
Combine the potential impacts of fire with the increase in the number of people camping in an ever-shrinking wilderness and the results are obvious. In many parts of the world, fires have been banned due to limited wood supplies and heavy recre- ational use. In Canada, we are fortunate to be self-regulated with the exception of fire bans during extremely dry weather. To continue enjoying this freedom we must minimize or eliminate our fire use.
Doing without fires is simple. For cooking, camp stoves are easy to use, reasonably inexpensive and far easier to control than a campfire. Plus, your pots stay nice and shiny.
Once you get used to camping without fire, you’ll wonder why you ever bothered to spend hours of your precious vacation collecting deadwood. You’ll use that time for swimming or just relaxing. You’ll see the stars much more clearly and enjoy north- ern lights, sunsets and the serene change from dusk to dark. And when looking back at a campsite you’ve left, you’ll feel good to see no evidence, not even a fire ring or scar on the rock, to mark your stay. The next camper can enjoy the pleasure of feeling like they’ve discovered the place for the first time.
But if you must…
Use an existing fire pit if available.
Build beach fires in sand or gravel below the high-water mark.
Better yet, use a fire pan that you carry with you—essentially a piece of sheet metal with the edges turned up to contain the ashes. Place the pan over a bed of sand about 5 cm thick on top of solid rock, or perch it on top of smaller rocks.
Always keep your fires as small as possible—20 cm across for cooking.
Use small pieces of wood and use only dead, fallen wood.
Burn your fire completely so you have minimal ash and charcoal left over.
Jonathon Reynolds is co-author of Kayaking Georgian Bay and The Soft Paddling Guide. He and partner Heather Smith own and operate Nomadic Adventures.
This article first appeared in the Summer 2003 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Adventure Kayak’s print and digital editions here.
The primary goal of any guide worth his or her salt is to keep clients safe. The second goal is hooking up with someone on the trip. Most companies have strict policies regarding guides dating customers: generally it is mandatory to share all juicy details with the management and other guides in order to ensure an accurate tally of the season’s totals for each guide. As with safety procedures, it’s vital to document the best methods and pass them on for the professional development of our colleagues. Many varied strategies to score can be employed, some subtle, others less so:
1. Strive for consistency. If at all possible, you should try to kiss the girl for the first time in the same (geographical not anatomical) location on every trip. This way you’ll never have trouble remembering where that “perfect first kiss” hap- pened with every client over several seasons. What if she comes back next year? You may think that you’ll remember, or that it won’t come up, but the inability to accurately recall this salient detail can derail any possibility of repeat business.
2. Keep notes. Palm Pilots are excellent for this purpose, and they make you look professional and organized. It may appear as if you’re checking the guest list for any possibly dangerous food allergies in the group while you are actually seeing when Trish/Cindy/Whoever was born. This way you know you’ll be right when, on the first night beneath a spray of stars, you shyly ask her if she’s a Virgo. Yes? “Ah,” you smile ruefully and quietly say. “I knew it just by watching you.” Point out her constellation.
3. Increase your odds: eliminate competition. The greatest risk may appear to be getting “shot down.” Incorrect—the greatest risk is your guiding partner scoring while you remain solo. If you are working with another male guide, and he has a significant other, always go on and on about how much you like his mate. It doesn’t matter how briefly you met this person (if at all), or how little you know her, just keep nattering on about how special she is and how lucky your fellow guide is. Expand on how you would love to be able to be in a stable relationship like your coworker; how lucky they are and how you can’t wait to become best friends with his girlfriend. Do this in front of the group. Do it often. This will go a long way to dissuading your partner from hitting on anyone, leaving the field open to you, with the implicit threat that you would sing like a canary should he even flirt with a customer. It also sends the mes- sage that you are a sensitive guy looking for a relationship while he is a cheating, lying scumbag if he doesn’t appreciate the great girl that you have incessantly harped on about.
4. Play one romantic prospect against another. Once you have acquired your primary target, you will be surprised how flirting with one customer may egg another one on. You are the guide, and as such the alpha male in the group. Try to bag both. Don’t underestimate the power and illusion of alpha-maledom. It can gloss over otherwise glaring faults, like chronic emotional immaturity, insensitivity and low intelligence. Believe me, I know! And remember you only have to maintain the act for five to ten days, max. Anything beyond these performance limits virtually guarantees recognition of your real worth. This is bad.
5. Plan and then create an emergency. Staging your own crisis is the only way to ensure that you will be prepared, react swiftly and effectively, and impress everyone with your cool self-possession. This is a turn-on for women. If the company policy is for customers to share in the cooking while on the trip, wait until your target’s breakfast day. The night before, bleed all the propane from the camp stove. In the morning when Chrissy/Tracy/ Whoever tries to start her breakfast for the group, she will be horrified to find that the stove isn’t working. She will be stressing out big-time. Suddenly you are there. In seconds you seem to have somehow prepared pre-cut dry wood for a fire, the grill is in your hand. The crisis is manfully handled, the breakfast is cooked, she is indebted to you for saving her bacon, and she is impressed. You are so prepared!
Sabotaging the rudder on a boat is an easy way to spend a few minutes rescuing her. She’ll be thrilled with you having just the right-sized tool. If she is really hot, you may even consider putting a hole in her boat. Get swimsuit pictures and her panties and your boss will understand. It is a great system.
6. Stage a party for the night the trip ends. Guiding companies like to have guests all stay in a hotel in the nearest city on the final night of the trip. Let it slip that you and the other guides have planned a private party.
“Where’s the party?” someone will ask.
“Oh, sadly it’s not here in the little port town,” you lament, “but back in the city, in the lounge of hotel X.”
“But we’re staying at hotel X tonight! Your boss booked us all in there.”
“You’re kidding! We asked him to book us a place for the party. He must have done both at the same time.” Happy days! It was meant to be. Funny how life works out sometimes.
7. Get dressed up. When you get to the hotel, go from rugged outdoorsman to sleek well-groomed urbanite. Shave. You will be much better dressed than everyone on the trip. Be as confident and as in-control in this setting as you were on the water (it’s only one night, you can do it). Keep the lounge permanently booked. Christen it “Hotel L’Amour”….
Alex Matthews lives in Victoria with Rochelle Relyea, who picked him up on a kayak trip. He hadn’t had a date in years. She thinks that it’s adorably cute that he would even try to write an article about scoring with girls.
This article first appeared in the Summer 2003 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Adventure Kayak’s print and digital editions here.
In the corner of my brother Craig’s bedroom there is a pile of outdoor gear growing by one item every year. From across the room it’s easy to spot the paddle propped against the windowsill and the PFD hanging from a nail. Dig a little deeper under the full set of raingear and you’ll find a throw bag, short wave radio, camera and an ice-fishing Tip Up. What bedroom would be complete without this handy spring-loaded device that sig- nals by popping up an orange flag when a fish has taken your minnow. Ideally you notice, put your beer in the snow, and dive across the ice to reel in dinner. I was so excited when he opened it. I had big plans for our annual ice fishing weekends. That was two Christmases ago.
Twelve years ago I left home bound for university and an eventual outdoor recreation, parks and tourism degree. Craig was turning 16 that fall and was busy changing the motor and doing the body work on his first pick-up truck. This spring when I called him on my cell phone he was still working. He was just finishing a brake job on a tractor-trailer, hands covered in grease and two knuckles bleeding because, he told me after, the wrench had slipped. After school, Craig stuck around home and now keeps my dad’s fleet of trucks rolling down the highway. He makes it to all the family functions.
“I’ll have to have a shower and get cleaned up a bit,” he said, “but I’ll be there for six.”
I was tumbleweeding through our hometown on my way to a paddling festival and called to ask if he’d come and paddle with me. I told him I needed to take some photos for the magazine. Part of this was true; I did need to get a couple folding kayaks on the water. But really, I just wanted to share an evening and a bit of my life with my little brother.
After the two of us and some guy in the park named Bicycle Earl assembled and pumped up our boats, I tossed Craig some paddling gear. We packed my camera and paddled into the setting sun. We floated, chatted and laughed. I taught him how to keep his boat straight. He told me about a new rap-metal band that he’d gone to see in Toronto. We even got around to taking the photos.
I often wondered if he knew the significance of the “Scott gifts.” I somehow thought that if he had the gear, our busy lives and 400 kilometres would come together more often. Instead of small talk over turkey, I always hoped we’d catch fish together or perhaps do a coastal paddling trip. He’d use the camera I gave him to record the memories.
Although too dark to stay out any longer, I reluctantly suggested we head in, break down the boats and pack them back in the truck.
Leaning against the tailgate shaking hands, I thanked him for coming out with me.
“These boats are pretty cool,” he said.
Checking one thing off my Christmas list, I thought to myself how nicely one of these folding boats will fit in the corner of his bedroom—right between the paddle and the short wave radio.
This article first appeared in the Summer 2003 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Adventure Kayak’s print and digital editions here.
When making the all-important leap to higher learning, it’s too easy to get sucked into our culture’s consuming obsession with overreaching academic excellence, Ivy League reputations, surveys and rumours about which schools are the absolute “best.” In fact, we have nationwide standards of education and there are no bad schools in Canada. Attend any of our government-funded universities and you’ll get an education that’s as good as what you bring to it. The “”best” academy is the one that’s right for you, and depends on a multitude of non-academic factors including the one that’s foremost in the heart of every paddler—the whitewater! To help you get your priorities straight, Rapid has compiled a sampling of Canadian universities and their whitewater credentials. Although we don’t feel bad about leaving out the University of Prince Edward Island where the highest point of land is less than 500 feet and you’d be lucky to find class II in springtime, or the University of Regina where whitewater is a day’s drive away, we haven’t been able to include every great whitewater university. And we missed a lot of good ones that didn’t have the right combination of pumping local whitewater, climate, or kick-butt outdoor programs, campus paddling clubs and pool time. There are some notable trends; for example, the “top” academic insti- tutions, the research schools with the big bucks and golden reputations, either have prime local whitewater or an outstanding campus paddling club but never both. The smaller schools are a mixed bag and even among paddlers the “best” school is a matter of personal style. Are you laid back or hard driving? An aspiring architect or a mountain guide? Jazz buff or mechanical-bull rider? The take-home lesson: Whatever you choose, don’t forget the factor in the whitewater. No amount of ivy on the walls can replace the academic boost you get from sloughing off exam stress on a sweet wave 10 minutes from residence or from having a close-knit commu- nity of fellow paddlers to see you though the mid-term, mid-winter blues.
UVIc in Victoria BC
Vic is Canada’s number one winter water playground.
Paddling on Vancouver Island goes off during the school year instead of beginning when you’re studying for April exams. Victoria recently pissed off the country by count- ing 3.5 billion flower blossoms in the first week of March. Rain fills the rivers all winter long and there’s nary a day below freezing. Park’n play is limited to a tidal rapid in town, but there are quality wilderness river trips within two hours’ drive. Rivers dry up in the summer; student paddlers hit the road in search of work and water. Park‘n play: Tillicum Rapid, a class II–III tidal rapid in the Gorge Waterway 10 km from campus. There’s also Pacific Ocean park‘n surf 1.5 hours from campus at the tiny coastal logging town of Jordan River. River trips: Cowican River, a popular class III rain-fed river with lots of features (1.5 hrs from campus), the Koksilah, Nanaimo, and Chemainus rivers (2 hrs) and a classic creek run on the Gordon (3.5 hrs). Also the Gold and Nimpkish rivers, or surfing in Tofino and Skookumchuck (6 hrs). Peak season: October–May Male to female ratio: 44:56 Student pub: Felicita’s Price of a pitcher: $13.50; daily special $12.75. Club: UVic Kayaking Club ($20/semester) Pool sessions: 3 hrs/week on Friday nights (free for members) Selling points: World-class year-round mountain biking, sea kayaking, golf and surfing. Smoke-free pubs and bars. Maclean’s national reputation rank: 15 out of 47. Verdict: Best winter paddling.
UBC in Vancouver BC
Vancouver is in a temperate rainforest backed up against coastal mountains, which means lots of rain-fed, year-round creek paddling. The nearby whitewater on the city’s sodden North Shore is as steep, fast and technical as the world- famous mountain biking. Next to Victoria this is the place to go for full-on school-year paddling. UBC is not a great pad- dling school—there’s no club—but Vancouver is a great pad- dling city, with a huge club scene and local paddling schools. You have Squamish, Whistler and Skook to the north, Vancouver Island to the west, the Fraser Valley rivers to the east and cross-border options to the south, all orbiting around a laid-back latte-and-sushi culture. Park‘n play: No great in-town spots, but many OK ones: Lower Seymour Pipeline (40 mins), Capilano Ender Spot (45 mins), a “walk and play” hole above Seymour Canyon (45 mins). River trips: North Shore rivers (45 mins): Capilano (class III), Lynn (class III–IV), Upper and Lower Seymour (class II–III), Seymour Canyon (IV–V). Weekend trips: Skookumchuck (3–4 hrs). Squamish/Whistler rivers (1.5 hrs): Mamquam, Cheakamus, Elaho, Ashlu etc. Fraser Valley (1.5–3 hrs): Chilliwack, Chehalis, Nahatlach, Thompson. Peak season: Year-round Courses: Outdoor Environmental Education, Turf Management (AGRO 429) Male to female ratio: 43:57 Student pub: The Pit Price of a pitcher: $10.50 ($8 specials) Club: None On-campus pool sessions: None Selling points: 12-month paddling season, Whistler skiing, great sushi, North Shore biking, climbing, Wreck Beach (clothing-optional). Maclean’s national reputation rank: 8 out of 47 Verdict: Best creek paddling.
Caribou in Kamloops BC
At UCC in the central–B.C. cowboy town of Kamloops, you can get a full university degree or earn a diploma like the Adventure Guide Diploma, a grail for those who want to make a life of climbing and paddling. After two years you can be certified as an advanced kayak instructor, swiftwater rescue instructor, raft guide, assistant sea kayak guide and wilderness first aider. Tuition is the lowest anywhere and there’s a small-town, community college feel. With the Coast and the Rockies both four hours away, UCC is centrally located for all western Canadian whitewater. Park‘n play: The Frog on the Thompson River (1 hr 20 mins). River trips: Adams (class II–III, 45 mins), Clearwater (III–IV with class V drop above put-in, 1.5 hrs). Several class III–V creeks within 3 hrs in any direction. Season: Feb/Mar–Nov Programs: Adventure Guide Diploma Bird course: Food Preparation Male to female ratio: 45:55 Student pub: Hero’s Price of a pitcher: $12.00 Club: None On-campus pool sessions: 9:00- 10:30 pm Mon, Wed and Fri Selling points: Selkirks backcountry skiing. Jennifer Lopez and Robert Redford will be shooting a movie in Kamloops this summer. Mechanical bull-riding at Cactus Jack’s. Nursing program (lots of nurses on campus). The word: “Kamloops is a good central spot to live if you are a paddler”—David Tiedje Verdict: Best place to study paddling.
U of Calgary in Calgary AB
The irony that the water is up when school’s out, be it a blessing or a curse, is particularly true at UofC. Diehards in Cowtown find ways to paddle year-round—going out when the Chinook blows in the dark months—but those clean, green, glacier-fed Rocky Mountain rivers are summertime playgrounds. That said, there are rivers aplenty within 1.5 hours of campus. Students are most likely to paddle on the dam-controlled Kananaskis River, a popular easy-access spot with year-round flow, slalom facilities and ample parking. UofC’s phys ed department has one of the country’s premier outdoor degree programs. All students get free on-campus pool sessions twice a week although you can’t bring your own boat and have to settle for the old river runners provided. Park‘n play: Kananaskis River (II–III, 1.5 hrs). Local river trips: Bow River, Sheep, Highwood, Kananaskis (all less than 1.5 hrs). Weekend trips: Red Deer, North Saskatchewan, Pipestone (1.5–2 hrs), Kicking Horse (3 hrs). Season: May–September Programs: Outdoor Pursuits (Bachelor of Kinesiology) Male to female ratio: 45 to 55 Student pub: The Den Price of a pitcher: $8.25 Club: None On-campus pool sessions: Tuesdays 9:15–10:45pm, Sundays 6:45–8:15 (free, non-students $7.50) Selling points: Kananaskis Whitewater Festival each May, Rockies skiing, no sales tax. As featured in: Canadian Rockies Whitewater guidebooks by Stuart Smith Maclean’s national reputation rank: 13 out of 47 Verdict: Best summer water levels.
U of A in Edmonton AB
UofA is one of Canada’s top research institutions, perfect for over-achievers who don’t want to be distracted by warm weather in winter. Edmonton isn’t blessed with any whitewater under two hours away, but the opportunities grow exponentially as you drive westward to the Rockies. UofA joins Western as a school that makes up for a lack of whitewater with a large, well-organized club and lots of pool time. The UofA Paddling Society (UAPS) was formed in 1975 and has become probably the largest university paddling club in the country with 200 members. UAPS runs pool sessions and classes, summer river trips, polo, boat rentals and surfing trips to West Edmonton Mall’s wave pool. Park‘n play: The Brierley Rapids, North Sask. River (II+ run with some play, 220 km). River trips: Foothills rivers (3–5 hrs): Red Deer, Blackstone, Brazeau. Rocky Mountain rivers (4–5 hrs): Big Horn, Cline, Mistaya, Pipestone. Jasper rivers (4 hrs): Sunwapta, Whirlpool, Athabasca, Maligne, Miette, Astoria. Male to female ratio: 44 to 56 Student pub: The Power Plant Price of a pitcher: $11.00 Club: UAPS On-campus pool sessions: 11.5 hrs/week (classes, open sessions and polo) Selling points: Ice climbing, skiing, kayak sledding, climbing wall, monthly socials. The word: “Just when paddlers are becoming good they graduate and move, hence we suffer from periodic shortages of expert paddlers.”—Mario Bertovic, UAPS President Maclean’s national reputation rank: 5 out of 47 Verdict: Largest paddling club, best mall park’n play.
Lakehead U in Thunder Bay ON
On Lake Superior in the working port of Thunder Bay, Lakehead is surrounded by hundreds of kilometres of fresh water and boreal forest. You don’t have to drive far to hit wild rivers cascading over Canadian Shield granite onto Superior’s North Shore. LU is perfectly situated for specialty programs like Outdoor Recreation, perhaps Canada’s best all-around outdoor degree program. Lakehead has long been a scrappy underdog at or near the bottom of the Maclean’s rank- ing. Now Maclean’s has introduced a “Value Added”” category that ranks the school number one on student improvement from entrance to graduation. Either the exams are easy or there’s something about all that fresh water and clean northern air that makes you smarter. Park‘n play: Crooked Rapids on the Kaministiqua (II, 30 mins). Local rivers: McIntyre River (on campus, has great whitewater for about 5 days in spring), Current River (river run, 10 mins), Cascades (multiple waterfalls, 15 mins), The Gorge (35 mins), Pigeon River’s Middle Falls (12–14-foot drop, 1 hr). Weekend trips: Black Sturgeon (90 mins), White River (5 hrs). Programs: Outdoor Recreation, Parks and Tourism Male to female ratio: 46:54 Student pub: The Outpost Price of a pitcher: $9.00 Club: Lakehead University Club of Kayakers (LUCK) ($15) On-campus pool sessions: Sundays 8:00–9:30, boats provided Selling points: Ice climbing, nordic skiing, Finnish culture, Hoito Restaurant for cheap eats. Notable paddlers: Bill Ostrom (gear manufacturer), Tyler Curtis, Tyler Lawlor (of Level 6), James Roddick, Scott MacGregor (Rapid publisher). Maclean’s national reputation rank: Didn’t make the top 25. Verdict: Best alumni (we’re biased).
Western in London ON
UWO, on the sleepy Thames River in London, Ont., is blessed with academic excellence and cursed with poor whitewater. In the words of student and national freestyle team member Kate Townsend: “Let’s just say the Thames doesn’t cut the mustard! Nonetheless, Western has a happening paddling scene built around thrice-weekly pool sessions and a dedicated club. “Sessions consist of listening to good music, learning basic strokes to new advanced vertical moves, ripping flips off the diving board, playing kayak water polo etc,” said club president Andy Baines. Park‘n play: Parkhill in Cambridge (solid hole and wave, <1 hr). Elora Gorge/Irvine Creek (I-–IV+, 1 hr 15 mins), Big Bloop (small play hole, 45 mins), Kings College Parking Lot (a tiny wave for spinning when the Thames is flooding in April, on campus), Burlington Beach surf (1 hr, 15 mins). Peak season: The pool knows no seasons Recommended courses: Altered States of Consciousness, Psychology of Sex Male to female ratio: 44:56 Student pubs: The Spoke, The Wave Price of a pitcher: $12.50 domestic; $13.75 premium Club: Western Kayak Club On-campus pool sessions: 3 times/week, 6 hrs/week. Selling points: Paddling club video nights, pub nights, “actual river trips.” Random complaint: “Western ladies—and I thought wallpaper was stuck up?”—Anonymous The word: “We have many of the current low-volume boats and an executive group full of talented paddlers. A few of our first-year kayakers are already doing superclean cart- wheels.”—Patrick Camblin, VP Corporate Affairs, UWO Kayak Club Maclean’s national reputation rank: 11 out of 47 Verdict: Best of a bad situation.
Trent in Peterborough ON
“An untapped resource waiting to explode” is how one student describes the paddling scene at Trent. There’s no paddling club (yet) but Peterborough, home of the Canadian Canoe Museum and more than a few boating-related doctoral theses, has a river flowing through its heart and paddling in its blood. Excellent whitewater and slalom facilities are only an hour away at the Gull River in Minden. A small school with small classes in a small town. Only two hours away from Ontario’s whitewater soul, the Madawaska Valley. Park‘n play: Otonabee River: Lock 19 in winter and early spring (experts-only wave, 10 km and accessible by bus), Quaker Wave in fall and spring (beginner- friendly, 8 km), Gull (100 km). River trips: Eel’s Creek (50 km), Crowe (75 km), Beaver (100 km), Black River (150 km). Male to female ratio: 33:67 Student pub: The Pig’s Ear Tavern Price of a pitcher: $11.00 Club: None On-campus pool sessions: None Selling points: Wild Rock Outfitters’ Monday-night paddling sessions at the Gull. School uniform: Carhartts and Birkenstocks Notable paddlers: Professor emeritus Bruce Hodgins, co author of Canoeing North into the Unknown. The word: “The Indian River is probably one of the greatest untapped resources in Southern Ontario. If my plans to develop follow through, this site could rival the Gull River in Minden.” —Shelley Hubble, Trent paddler and visionary. Maclean’s national reputation rank: Didn’t make the top 25. Second behind Lakehead in “Value Added.” Verdict: Best phenomenally low ratio of sensitive new-age guys to hippie chics.
Queen’s in Kingston ON
The windy lakeshore town of Kingston, Ont., is also home to Queen’s rival Royal Military College and the (non-rival) Kingston Penitentiary. With the second highest average entrance grades in the country behind UBC, Queen’s students are a bright bunch who may be too busy studying during the school year to worry about a lack of near-campus whitewater. Besides, Queen’s has a great kayak club with its own boats and casual pool time every Saturday night, and the Ottawa River is only two hours away. Park‘n play: Hole Brothers on the Black River, Watertown, NY (perfect learning spot, class II, 45 mins). River trips: Salmon (30 mins), Moira (35 mins), Ottawa (2 hrs). Related program: Outdoor and Experiential Education Courses: Civil 455 River Engineering Male to female ratio: 43:57 Student pubs: Alfie’s, Queen’s Pub, Clark Hall Club and Grad Club. Price of a pitcher: $9.00 Club: Queen’s Wildwater Club ($5/session, $25/semester, $45/yr). On-campus pool sessions: 3 hrs Saturday nights Selling points: Queen’s Outdoor Club, Concrete Canoe Team, foosball, nice waves on Lake Ontario. Claim to fame: Drinking the most Keith’s in the country west of Halifax. Notable grads: Ruth Gordon, The Tragically Hip, CBC star and canoeist Shelagh Rogers The word: “Kingston has some great rivers close by for the average paddler, and some great playspots across the border in New York.” Mary Ellen Conway, Queen’s paddler Maclean’s national reputation rank: 4 out of 47 Verdict: Best place to hang out in the pub and wait for summer.
Carleton U in Ottawa ON
Dubbed “Last Chance U” in pre–double cohort days, Ottawa’s Carleton is “First Choice U” for any prospective student who craves whitewater. Carleton boasts two solid paddling spots only 10 minutes from campus and accessible by bus— Champlain Rapids and the Pumphouse. “Carleton is great because it allows me to train and go to school full time”— national slalom paddler John Hastings. Park‘n play: The Wall on Champlain Rapids (springtime freestyle spot, 10 mins), the Pumphouse (national slalom training centre, 200 metres of artificially enhanced class II–III, 10 mins). River trips: Hwy 7 rivers near Marmora, rivers of the Gatineau Hills, the Rouge, the Petite Nation, the Ottawa, the Madawaska (all within 2 hrs). Male to female ratio: 52:48 Student pub: Oliver’s Price of a pitcher: $9.75 ($8.50 Thursdays) Club: None. On-campus pool sessions: Paddling school Down to Earth (D2E) runs campus pool sessions. Selling points: Free Trailhead demo nights at Champlain Rapids. Ottawa River Runners club. Snow sports and biking in the Gatineau Hills. Ice skating on the Rideau Canal. 3000-member ultimate Frisbee league. The word: “Carleton is the best. Let me think—was it because I could paddle on an Olympic-sized pool with permanent wires for gates, because I could paddle from where I lived to school, the fact that a national training site was on the same street as my university or that I could surf at the wave on cam- pus in the spring?”—Sheryl Boyle, 1996 Olympian Maclean’s national reputation rank: Didn’t make the top 25 Verdict: Best slalom school.
McGill in Montreal QC
McGill is the east’s answer to UBC—a top-ranked university in a world-class city surrounded by whitewater. What more could you ask for but a campus paddling club? There is park’n play paddling within the city limits at the famous Lachine Rapids. Some of the best springtime runs in eastern Canada are within a three-hour drive. Plus Montreal is Canada’s self-proclaimed cultural capital, with summertime jazz, blues and comedy festivals. All the good stuff starts after dusk, leaving plenty of time for an aprés-class paddle. Park‘n play: Big Joe, Lachine Rapids, St. Lawrence River (big waves, class III–IV, 15 mins). Chambly (20 mins). River trips: Habitat 67 (15 mins), Valleyfield (runs year- round), Rouge River, Simon, Doncaster, aux Mullets, Ouarreau and more spring runs (all within 1 hr). Male to female ratio: 41:59 Student pub: Gert’s Pub Price of a pitcher: $10.00 ($9.00 after 4 pm) Club: McGill Outdoors Club. On-campus pool sessions: No free pool time. Organized pool courses from H2O Adventures. Random celebrity graduate: William Shatner (Star Trek). Selling points: Winter in the Laurentian and Adirondack mountains. Summer cultural festivals. The word: “Pick your type of paddling—play, river-running, freeboating, creeking, it’s all within an hour’s drive.”—Dave Scott, PhD student Maclean’s national reputation rank: 3 out of 47 Verdict: Best downtown playboating in a cosmopolitan city.
UQAC in Chicoutimi QC
The University of Quebec at Chicoutimi has all types of paddling nearby, even sea kayaking on spectacular Saguenay Fjord. UQAC is the alma mater of Jacques Blackburn, Neil Gagne and Gilles Fortin, Quebec paddling pioneers who claimed first descents of most of the region’s rivers. This place is francophone to the core: even the school’s public relations office responds to English emails in French. It’s the Franco-Canadian answer to Lakehead—a small, laid-back school with a great outdoor program, surrounded by limitless water and wilderness. Park‘n play: Rouleau Barrette (Barrette Hole) (Easy to enter but not always easy to leave. As quoted in Rapid some time ago, “it’s like a traditional Quebec sugar pie, sweet and sticky and leaves you wanting more.” Class III–IV, 5 km). River trips: Riviere aux Sable (25 km), Shipshaw (25km), Pikauba (35km), Cyriac (35km), Bras Louis (40km), Metabetchwan (70km), Riviere aux Ecorse (75km), Ashapmushwan River (100km), Misstasibi (100km). Programs: Bachelor’s degree in outdoors and adventure tourism Courses: River Rescue, Aquatic Activities, Expeditioning Male to female ratio: 39:61 Student pubs: Pub Avenue, Pottin Price of a pitcher: $10.00 Club: None On-campus pool sessions: None Selling points: Chic to dude ratio, poutine, ice climbing, dogsledding, skiing, snowshoeing, shinny hockey at the local outdoor rink, red wine in front of the fireplace. The word: “Tons of rivers, tons of beer, tons of fun.”— Dominique Lavall Students most likely to…: Dress warmly, speak French, be female. Maclean’s national reputation rank: Didn’t make the top 25. Verdict: En plus vous pouvez demander?
This article first appeared in the Spring 2003 issue of Rapid Magazine.
For 15 years and all of my canoe tripping life I’ve been renting, borrowing and using the canoes supplied by the various companies whose summer jobs managed to get me an education. With driver’s licence, degree, real job and wife all checked off my list, buying my own canoe seemed the last rite of passage left for this skinny Canadian man. Seasons spent kneeling on blue foamy sleep pads in boats whose only modifications were Kevlar patches inspired fantasies of one day building my Ultimate Tripping Canoe (UTC). I pitched the idea to wilderness river tripper and meticulous boat outfitter Brian Shields and late last fall the project began.
The basis of the ultimate tripping canoe is a good boat. I chose the Esquif Canyon for its generous rocker and depth, which make it both a big-water tripping boat and also one that likes to play the river. The Canyon will be slower and not track as well in flatwater but we were building our ultimate whitewater tripping canoe and were willing to make some sacrifices for river paddling performance.
The DIY guide to outfitting your canoe for whitewater
1 Where to start…
We began at the yoke, replacing the Esquif stock version with a laminated ash and cherry yoke by Madawaska Valley yoke builder SlipStream—an aesthetic touch with the highest benefit-to-cost ratio when it comes to slugging our fully outfitted 77-pound tripping boat.
Tanya and I have fallen into the pleasant agreement that I’ll spend my time in the stern and she will enjoy the freedom and view from the bow. Locating our seats and thwart position to accommodate our typical tripping gear was the next and most important step, and one that affects the rest of the outfitting process. Having legs better for walking in deep snow than sitting comfortably on public transit, I made leg room my top priority. The Canyon comes set in a more aggressive and centred playboat-like seating position so we had to move the stern seat rearward to gain my stretching room and leave space ahead of the seat for camera gear. We know we will have to shift gear forward to weight the bow to compensate and trim the boat.
Adjusting seat height and angle are the easiest and cheapest modifications you can do to improve your paddling comfort. Moving my stern seat naturally raised the seat and increased the tilt due to the rise in the gunwales toward the stern. This was perfect for my larger feet and longer legs. The bow seat we lowered and tilted forward slightly so Tanya could reach a comfortable kneeling position without the nagging ache of a level seat bar eating into her legs. Add too much tilt without thigh straps, however, and you slide forward off the seat. Remember to be kneeling on a kneepad or piece of foam to ensure correct seat height and angle.
How to adjust yoke & stern seat
Installing the SlipStream yoke, we used the existing yoke as a guide for cutting to length, centring, marking and drilling the bolt holes. To allow two 60-litre barrels to fit snugly side by side yet still load and unload easily, we redrilled the gunwales and moved the rear thwart back to 24.5 inches from the yoke. Don’t inadvertently add flare or tumblehome to your canoe when moving thwarts—trim them to fit or replace them with longer ones.
Think carefully about the compromises involved in moving the seats from the balanced standard positions. Balance, dryness, maneuverability and gear carrying capacity will be affected. White grease pencils, found at office supply and craft stores, are ideal for marking—measure twice, drill once.
Vinyl-covered aluminum gunwales can easily be drilled without harm. Typically seat and thwart hardware is 3/16-inch diameter and stainless. Use a 3/16-inch drill bit so bolts fit snugly. Recessed washers tuck bolt heads inside and disperse the pressure on a larger surface area of the gunwale. Underneath use washers and nylon locknuts. Pack a Leatherman tool and a metre of farm fencing wire and you can fix anything on trip.
For legroom and working space we ended up moving the Canyon’s seat back a massive eight inches to a more traditional tripping measurement of 24 inches from stern. The seat had to be carefully narrowed to fit farther back in the tapering stern. Be sure to err on the side of too long when you are making your cuts and then trim and angle the seat bars for a perfect fit. A perfect installation has the seat just clear of the inside of the hull. Simply moving a seat forward or back affects the seat height and angle following the shear or gunwale lines of the canoe. Adjust seat height and angle using longer seat bolts and new seat pillars, or cut and drill wooden spacers for between the seat and pillars. We drilled the holes and loosely bolted the seat in place, tweaking height and angle after we installed the outfitting.
2 Float bags
Perhaps the best insurance policy you can buy for your whitewater canoe is a set of float bags and properly installed bag cages. Float bags come in both nylon and vinyl. Vinyl bags are worth the extra money. They are lighter, easier to work with, especially in the cold, and far more durable. Voyageur 36-inch end bags are the perfect length for tandem tripping boats, tucking just ahead of the bow paddler’s knees and behind the stern seat.
The Mike Yee Outfitting bag cage system is far superior to tying bags into the boat. Although all float bags have sewn tabs, tying bags into your canoe isn’t enough to keep them down. An upright boat full of water floats the bags, focusing all the stress at the sewn tabs. The water will displace the bag above the gunwales, rather than the bag displacing the water in the hull.
As we installed the stern bag cage, we realized the combination of moving the seat back and me having long legs meant that my feet were going to interfere with the anchors. This was aggravating, and dangerous if my river shoes caught when I needed out of the boat. We simply moved the anchors back, shortening the cage area by a couple of inches.
By necessity, the copious leg room usually enjoyed by the bow paddler gets filled by the face of the bow cage; however, we were sure to lay out our kneepads and eye things up before we drilled the cage holes to set their location. We wanted to ensure there was still enough space in front of the bow seat for Tanya to sit up and stretch a little.
How to install float bags
Use a paper, cardboard or plastic jig to mark the float bag cage holes so they are aligned with the holes on the other side of the boat. Mark the 3/16-inch holes every four inches starting at the end of the deck plates and continuing for as far as you want the bags to extend. Drilling holes in a new hull feels wrong, but the holes will be filled when laced with nylon cord. Be gentle with the drill, even the dullest of drill bits can tear through Royalex with ease.
To install a bow or stern grab loop and another anchor point for the cages, drill a larger 7/16-inch hole. We checked first to ensure the holes wouldn’t interfere with the spray deck we will install later. Tie a single loop of 3mm nylon cord through the holes with the ends inside the boat. Pick up some 5/8-inch OC clear vinyl tubing and a metre of webbing at a hardware store. Force the webbing through the tube, into the holes and tie it on the inside of the canoe for a cheap, comfortable and easy-to-use handle.
Weave the nylon cord through the 3/16-inch holes starting from the bow or stern. On the last crossing on the inside of the hull tie a loop as a stopper using a figure eight on a bight. Then tension the cord backward through all the holes until you’re back at the first end. Thread the first end back through one of the holes and tie it off with a few half hitches on the inside of the boat. Go back to the last crossing and tie three additional evenly spaced figure-eight loops. Tension this end, threading it back through one hole to tie it off on the inside of the hull with half hitches. The result is a snug cage in which the last strand has two evenly spaced loops in the middle and two stopper knots against sides of the boat so they can’t slide off centre.
Without the deck plates on this playboat you can see how the webbing grab lop and single loop of nylon cord are attache.d The nylon cord loop is the anchor for a piece of webbing running down the centre of the bag cage. The two nylon cords run from the grab loop holes to the figure-eight loops, underneath the nylon cords that go across the canoe to form a grid with gaps small enough to keep the bag from rising and escaping under water pressure.
Directly below the line below the figure-eight knots, place three evenly spaced vinyl patch anchors. Mark the outlines of the patches with a grease pencil and glue them in place. Let the glue dry for 24 hours, then thread the cord through the figure-eight knots and anchors in a “W” pattern at the end of the cage. Using a centre anchor with a clip allows you to easily unclip the cord and webbing to access the float bag area.
3 Comfort and security
Thin pieces of blue foam offer some comfort to the knees, but proper outfitting has so much more to offer. Contoured knee pads and thigh straps stop your knees and butt from sliding around and connect you to the boat. Coming from a tripping and playboating background, we wanted the comfort and security of quality, well-placed kneepads and outfitting in our ultimate tripping boat. If the bow and stern positions will be shared, the kneepads have to be located to fit both short and tall paddlers. A tip from Brian was to be sure to space the kneepads far enough apart that you can drag a bailer between them. We also wanted this gap between the kneepads for stepping in and out of the boat.
We anchored our thigh straps on the sidewall of the boat, centred between the seat supports. Some canoe tripping outfitting loops around the seat pillar or around the seat itself but the ultra-fine stainless steel bolts used as seat hangers are not suited for the lateral forces exerted by the thigh straps. The bolts bend, work loose and can break under your body weight if the canoe happens to ram and stop on a rock. Having the anchor between the seat support brings the thigh straps into an aggressive, secure position.
How to install kneepads & thigh straps
Position the kneepads widely enough for differential balance of the canoe with pressure on either knee. Get comfortable, you shouldn’t be stretching to reach the kneepads. When you’re sure of their placement, mark the position. Now, run around the yard and get back in to ensure it feels natural. Then, glue them in using contact cement.
With the kneepads held in the correct position, we lowered the seat and tilted it forward slightly so that Tanya’s shorter legs could reach a comfortable kneeling position. Esquif’s solid, one-piece seat hangers allowed us to cut wooden spacers to lower the seat. You might need to buy longer seat bolts. Adjusting seat height and angle are the easiest and cheapest modifications you can do to improve your paddling comfort.
Both bow and stern anchors for the Mike Yee Outfitting thigh straps are centred in the boat five inches forward of the seat bar. Find the centre of the boat with the centre of the seat webbing and use a level to measure up from where the anchor loops leave the floor. Locate the wall anchors centred between the seat supports, with the tops near the gunwales. Mark outlines, location slashes and orientation arrows for the anchors on the hull so you know their placement and which way is forward.
The secret to installing secure vinyl anchors is to keep everything clean. Wipe the hull and anchors sparingly with acetone. Wearing gloves, apply vinyl glue to both surfaces; be sure to go right to the edges. Let dry 15-20 minutes. Reactivate the glue with a heat gun, align and stick. Roll out with lots of pressure using a screen door roller tool.
Be sure to let it dry for 24 hours before you thread your thigh straps and haul on the anchors.
Although some paddlers may say we’ve gone overboard on the outfitting for wilderness river trips, the sporty Canyon with fully rigged outfitting bridges the gap to tandem playboat.
But, we didn’t stop there.
4 Getting northern-river ready
With dreams of traveling north to explore the massive rivers draining the Hudson Bay watershed—the Harricanaw, Rupert and Moose—I placed a call to Morgan Goldie at North Water to order our Expedition Spray Deck. I found myself in the garage with a tape measure and the cordless phone.
I hadn’t thought about it, but all canoe covers are custom-made. Any modification from the canoe builder’s specs affects the cut of the deck. I had moved my stern seat eight inches back, so North Water had to cut my cockpit opening to line up with my seat—it’s imperative to have your seats set before you order your deck.
How to install a spray deck
The first step to installing the North Water Expedition Spray Deck is laying it out and using the included jig to mark where you will drill the 12 anchor holes down each side of the canoe. Yes, holes! Some canoe spray covers are attached with Velcro or clasps, and some lash to a strip of webbing riveted from bow to stern. The North Water laces in place with nylon cord weaved through tabs on the deck and tiny loops poking out of the holes. Confused? Read on.
Once we drilled the 3/16-inch holes, we poked the loops through and traced the vinyl patches on the inside of the hull. Apply the supplied vinyl adhesive to both the patch and the hull. The secret is to let it dry, reactivate it with a heat gun and then carefully stick it in place.
Working around our existing bag cages and outfitting was a little awkward but doable. Before beginning the project, we checked that the North Water was compatible with our Mike Yee outfitting. The grab loops and outfitting anchors don’t interfere with the spray cover. Setting the deck anchors in place is a one-shot deal. We installed the first few patches in places hidden by the deck plates or float bags in case they weren’t too pretty. Be sure to rub firmly (especially the edges) with a blunt object such as a screwdriver handle or ideally a screen door roller tool to secure the bond.
See why the North Water system is so clever? The drilled holes are filled with nylon loops and patched on the inside. No sharp edges. The boat is completely watertight. And you only see little black dots on the outside of the hull. The deck laces in place using nylon cord and secures around the bow and stern with webbing and ladderlock buckles. The Expedition Spray Deck covers most of the deck plates, so North Water has sewn on Velcro loops for painter storage. The deck comes with one paddle pocket and we added tabs to hold a map case. The large cargo access option is key for easy access to barrels and packs.
5 Getting ramming-speed ready
There is no doubt in my mind that Captain Kirk had a quality set of Voyageur skid plates protecting the bow and stern of the Enterprise. Low-water weekend trips grinding down the Petawawa, Dumoine, Coulonge and Madawaska take their toll, even on ABS boats. And “ramming speed” is the ABS canoeist’s answer to shallow sections and keeping feet dry at portages. When you wear the skid plates out, simply grind them down and slap on another set. Remember this isn’t a cedar dock decoration. This is our whitewater UTC.
How to install a skid plate
Step one: Collect and organize all necessary items. The Voyageur skid plate kit comes with almost everything you’ll need: Kevlar felts; resins; sandpaper and sanding blocks; gloves and (yes, we read them) instructions. You’ll need to round up a mixing container, masking tape, stir sticks and a disposable surface for apply the resin to the felts.
Whether you’re building your UTC from scratch or souping up your existing boat, you’ll need to roughen up (or maybe smooth out) the Royalex. Trace the felts and sand a half-inch or so past your outline—we found the patches tend to expand when wet with resin. Use the included sandpaper or speed up the process with power tools. CAUTION: sand gingerly, just roughing up the surface, not removing it. Brian took over the sanding.
Not only did Brian mask out the area. He created a rain gutter border to channel any excess resin. He masked an inch outside of where we expected the skid plates to be and then painted the entire area with resin for a clean-looking finish.
Ropes on your canoe need to be accessible when needed and otherwise out of the way. Brian’s bungee cord on the deck is cheap, easy to install and works like a charm. The secret is to ensure it is perpendicular to the boat. The Fluid Designs painter bags hide the standard 30 feet of bow and stern rope and are easily re-rigged for self-rescue or lining.
6 Finishing touches
“You’ll thank me later,” Brian said as his Black and Decker augered holes in the Canyon’s plastic deck plates. I’d sourced a pair of Fluid Designs’ nacho-coloured Painter Bags. These babies are the bomb for keeping your ropes from looking like bowls of spaghetti. They come with 30 feet of floating 3/8-inch rope stuffed inside. Through his new holes, Brian tied short pieces of 1/8-inch bungie cord and snapped my painter bags in place on the decks—very clever. With age comes wisdom.
How to install a deck bungee
Too cheap to smash the celebratory bottle of Blue Nun on her bow, we slid our UTC quietly into the river—no marching band or confetti. Feeling like we’d just walked into a honky tonk in graduation tuxes we ferried our fully rigged and decked northern river tripper into the crowded eddy of Class II weekend canoeists. My whitewater adolescence paddling in beat-to-a-pulp rental canoes is over.
This two-part article was first published in the Early Summer 2003 and Summer 2003 issues of Rapid Magazine. It was republished in part in the Spring 2008 issue of Canoeroots Magazine. Subscribe to Paddling Magazine’s print and digital editions, or browse the archives.
This article first appeared in the Summer 2003 issue of Rapid Magazine.
This article first appeared in the Summer 2003 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Adventure Kayak’s print and digital editions 
This two-part article was first published in the Early Summer 2003 and Summer 2003 issues of Rapid Magazine. It was republished in part in the Spring 2008 issue of Canoeroots Magazine. 