Ontario’s Class 3/4 Summer Runs – Le Scott
| River: | Other |
| Skill: | All |
| Trip Date: | 07/10/2007 |
Ontario’s Class 3/4 Summer Runs
My wife (002) and I traveled into Ontario from July 10-31…In some ways we were fortunate, in that the day we arrived there had been a five inch deluge from the North and many of the rivers had inordinate amounts of water the second and third weeks of July. Unlike US Rivers there was not a quick runoff, as the rainwater had to pass through a myriad of lakes before arriving at the whitewater sections. I would not, however, recommend going when we did. May (wetsuits) and June would be much more ideal for medium water levels.
We started the trip from Western Ontario and wended our way north and east, reaching the borders of Quebec by the last week of July. I would recommend this approach, as the northern rivers maintain higher flows than the southern—unless dam-controlled and, even at that, dam releases are curtailed into the summer…
Gull River
Class 3….1 km…Dam-release.
Located in town of Minden, two hours north of Toronto. A good stop along the way. The run is similar to the Dan at Kibler and culminates with a 20 ft. ledge-slide into a pool. Very crowded.
Madawaska System
Upper Mad: Class 3-5…16 miles…April/May run…Was too low for a July run.
Middle Mad: Class 3 play run…3 miles…dam-controlled…2 hrs. east of Gull.
At 50 cfs release this is a good intro into big wave class 4 Ontario runs. The first rapid, Staircase, is the biggest but can easily be snuck river right…followed by a slalom course set up by the adjacent whitewater center (akin to NOC)—one of the better worldwide slalom courses with 20+ gates…2 more class 3’s to takeout on bay….Easy access and shuttle.
Palmer Rapids: Class 2/3 play run…1 km…Dam-controlled.
Actually, there are only 2 rapids on this run, both class 3 at 50 cfs+, however by the second day the Hydro had dropped the release to 30 cfs which made for a mediocre play run (class 2-)….Because Palmer is between the Middle and Lower Madawaska, separated by two lakes, and has the best secluded camp grounds, we opted to stay there during our Mad run…
Lower Mad: Class 2-4….5 miles (with 2 miles+ bay water)
Fortunate to catch this before the release was cut back to 30 cfs… However, the shuttle is HORRIBLY HIDDEN—especially the takeout. Stay river left at the put-in or, like me, you will paddle around the lake to the obvious flow of water which isn’t river but wind channels…After the two miles of lake, there are some Chatooga III type rapids, mostly class 3 with one 3/4 (Rifle Shoot). Shortly thereafter, make a special point to locate the takeout on the bay. You may need to ask directions on your takeout shuttles, as all the signs signifying Buck Bay are dilapidated and we had to guess on three wrong dirt paths before locating it. The dirt path to the takeout will require 4WD in wet weather.
Oxtongue Rapids : Class 4/5…3 miles…April/May run.
I was “lucky” the Oxtongue was running, the recipient of the 5” deluge the week prior. It was not listed in any guidebooks but we happened to see the sign on a side road just prior to entering Algonquin Provincial Park (a real tourist trap). Initially, I thought, “This is great!” There were some great class 2/3 play rapids for about ½ mile, but as we walked along the portage route (one outstanding characteristic, because of canoe navigation, is that there are excellent portage trails at most every class 2+ rapid on most any river), we arrived at a closed-in canyon where the waters were barreling over a ten foot ledge with humongous class 5+ holes of which I wanted no part…
Oxtongue Canyon (1st class5) Oxtongue Double-Drop (2nd class5) Oxtongue Triple-Drop (3rd class 5)
We followed the canyon whose riverbed had narrowed from about 100 to 20 feet. There were two more scary class 5 drops with NO margin for error. These weren’t quite as ferocious as the first but they were double and triple drops respectively—with the first drops being the most perilous (a huge strainer was at the bottom of the second and had about a 12” clearance or a wild WASHING MACHINE! I abstained, hoping by the next day, things would calm down (we also perused the takeout where just below it was a 50’ waterfall which actually had a much cleaner landing into the lake than any of three aforementioned rapids).
The next day the river had receded about 4”—still at H as opposed to H+ the day before—enough to lure into playing the rapids on top, portaging the first canyon rapid, taking a rotten line on the second (getting pinballed into a side rock and managing to pillow the entrance rock on the second drop before being catapulted into a pool. That was enough! I walked the third which, with a bad line,
would have resulted in bashing under a rock similar to Decapitation on the Chattooga. There were some nice class 2/3’s to the takeout. At that point, you could have offered me the spectrum of Donald Trump’s properties and I still wouldn’t have run the falls!
Petawawa (Town Section)
Class 4
7 kms
1-2’= M-
3-4= M+
The Pet was by far my favorite run. The upper section through Algonquin was also runnable and more of a creek run, but did not have easy access (a mile portage and three mile lake paddle) or shuttle and was dropping quickly (without any gauges until there)…Once I put in at the town section run, I realized that nothing resembled the write-up-pictures which were photographed at over 5’ which made the run (as I was to learn the hard way) EASIER, for all the water was spread out over the entire river—offering many sneak channels, whereas at lower levels, the entire river flumed into one or two huge channels…
The first class 4, Railroad, the whitewater book had admonished me that many a good paddler had ‘been humbled…Scout!’ To the contrary, once I boat scouted I saw an easy sneak left channel and bombed my way through class 4- without mishap.
After several class 3’s I arrived at the second biggie, Lover’s Leap, and with my new-found courage, I decided that since there was only one flume-channel, I’d just give it one big thrust over the ledge and punch whatever was down there. Bad decision!
I got a good thrust off the ledge, hit the hydraulic, fought and fought to break free and just as I busted through, I looked back and cried in vengeance, “Motha, I gotcha!”. What I failed to notice was a boiling eddy on my right which caught the tail end of my boat and catapulted back into the hydraulic. I tried my “bomb-proof roll” which slammed me head-first back into the ledge. Again….only this time I smacked a jagged ledge protrusion and felt blood gushing down my forehead and through my eyes….Swim it was!
One positive facet (out of 100 negs) was that I had an heroic, epic swim—managing to hold onto boat, paddle, camera and make the only and last eddy before the biggest drop, Suicide…which, after collecting my “senses” I used some semblance of sense by scouting and running the most conservative line.
The trip ended on a beautiful class 3 drop/play hole. I deferred—to dress up my wounds for the next day; THE DAY I WOULD GAIN AVENGEANCE!
The next day, however, everything was different. The Pet had dropped from M+ (4’) to M- (2’). Railroad was a class 3 snap. I ran it straight down the middle…The next two class 3 were mealy class 2’s. Now the moment of truth: Lover’s Leap….This time I got out and scouted every single inch of the drop. I had it: the perfect line! Just enough room on right side of the drop to boof straight into what was no longer a boiling but benign eddy and miss all the carnage below.
I was going to be no fool today! I was going to scout thoroughly, run the PERFECT line and show the Pet who was boss!
And that perfect line was: that little river-right tongue which misses all the chaos below…Just sneak right through it!
A great idea until….until I had failed to notice a minor rooster tail at the entrance for my boof—enough to push me far enough left to miss my chute. Had you asked me during the scout what was the worst line I could possibly take, I would have stammered, “The Left Side Stupid! Look at all those cross currents and holes!” Had I been able to predict the outcome, I would have been ecstatic to have run the left rather than what I did, for today there was no down-the-middle and punch the hole, as the top ledge center had no chute and all the water was being diverted left off the rock into a four foot wide chute strewn with rocks and holes. So when I missed my right boof, the pillow pivoted me around backwards over the dry ledge where there was just enough water to slide me over and into the huge hydraulic…My first instinct was Panic, but my second instinct was, “If you swim here. Stupid, with all these jagged rocks around the hole, you’ll be needing 911… so I dropped into the maul and, surprisingly, found sidesurfing far easier than I expected. Problem: I couldn’t get out unless I went backwards smack into the ledge hydraulic. Only two choices: roll into the ledge or backsurf into the chaos. Like the true Atheist that I claim to be, I prayed to God and proceeded to go backwards into the soup. Somehow hitting this washing machine backwards and sideways proved much easier than a forward thrust. Imagining I would have to roll any second, I was amazed to emerge right-side up back into the wave train. There is usually one episode which makes one’s paddling year. That was definitely mine! Now all that remained was that simple Suicide Rapid which I had paddled with ease yesterday.
Suicide is a technical rock garden double drop. The real technical section I handled with ease. Then came the nice 12’ ledge drop-tongue into a nice pool– only…. as I dropped over that shooting tongue, the shooting tongue wasn’t chuting. I was heading vertically down at the mercy of uncovered rocks below! Wham, bam, thank you ma’am. The boat was upright, I was through the drop—only I left some shredded lettuce called forearm skin back on one of the rocks. For the second day running, 002 retrieved the emergency kit and patched me up.
Noire: Class 3-4 (at 92 km) Class 2/3 (at 32 km)
We decided we had exhausted all the class ¾ running in Ontario and we could catch the Noire and Ottawa before heading home (everything dumping into the Ottawa from the west is Ontario, east Quebec), so we crossed the Pembroke Bridge and headed a few miles east to the Noire…I wanted to run the class 3-4 section, however, the shuttle for the first 32 km’s was inimical to a strewn mountain bike trail, so after being bumped and battered up logging roads, we were short of time and opted to run 8 miles of the 2/3 section. 002 and I have an understanding that whatever I can run in my playboat, up to class 3+, she can run on her sit-on-top…There must have been a shuttle road elsewhere, for at our “put-in,” we met up with several whitewater tandem canoes from upstream. We sort of followed them down a couple of class 2’s, then in the middle of a class 3, a lagging canoe behind us shouted up to 002, “Is that your shoe over there?” She looked back long enough to miss the chute, broach a rock and get rolled over by a wave train. I was way back playing in a hole, never anticipating a problem. Plus there were five canoes right by to help rescue. So what do the canoes right by her do? All but one scampers to the opposite side of the river. The other one takes off downriver after “her assumed shoe.” To the rescue I go—not thinking about river rapids but solely about rescue—RIGHT INTO THE BIGGEST HOLE ON THE RIVER! So instead of rescuing 002, I am fighting to stay upright and escape this hole. In my anxiety, I make some accidental vertical moves I was never capable of, escaped from the hole and reached her just in time before the next drop. The lone canoe which had tried to be of help blurted, “We found your shoe,” to a soaked retort of, “Thank you, but it’s not mine.” (Later on a topo, we found there is a way up to 92 km, however, since we flatted and took an additional three hours to change to the spare, had to wait another hour for two workers to build a bridge over a creek and shuttled back in darkness, we had had enough!)
Recap
We didn’t run the Ottawa because the Outfitters that offered my following their rafts also advised me that their rafts run straight through the biggest Class 4 holes to thrill their occupants…Plus, the takeout would have required another five-mile logging road without a spare….but NEXT summer….next summer we will come equipped to take on the challenges of the mighty Ottawa, Gastineau, Rouge….So long Ontario…..QUEBEC OR BUST~!