April Slide Show

We are hoping to host an adventure paddling slide show this Spring. There are are few reasons to do this this. First off, there really aren't many slide shows that come to Lethbridge. It would be nice to have have to travel up to Calgary to see one. This would also be a good way to get the entire paddling community out to an event where they can network. This should make it easier for people to get in contact with the club. While we may not break even the first time we do this, it is likley that in the future, this may end up being a good fund raiser. The last reason to do this is to try and get more people coming out to the AGM. We are planning on holding the AGM immediately before the slide show. While I doubt that numbers will significantly increase, this may make the AGM into more of an event.

What I am after is suggestions for a good speaker that you would like to see. While we don't have a huge budget, it would be nice to get a decent speaker that a wide demographic would find interesting.

Pool Sessions

Clay has indicated that the University is again having open pool sessions. They are on Thursday evenings. The time usually changes slightly each month. Currently they are starting at 8:15. You need to pay your pool entrance fee. ORCKA execs will not be staffing these sessions until the Spring. This means no one will be present to collect rental fees for boat use. If anyone is interested in organizing a kayak polo league, this would be a good opportunity.

Sept 11

The swiftcurrent is now releasing. This is a fast moving, easy class II river that starts at the Swiftcurrent resevoir at Many Glacier. It is a short run. WIth the continued rain, many of the other rivers also seem to be flowing.

September

With the rains over this last week, most of the rivers are up. Cataract Creek proved to be entertaining even if most of the run was spent avoiding small rocks on the shallow braided stream bed. Later this month, we should be having our fall social and exec meeting. How does Sept 24th sound? Hopefully we can have a BBQ and some time to toss around stories from the season.

August

Boulder Run below the Oldman Dam is flowing nicely. Oldman River at Ft. McLeod Above 20cms things are nice. On Sat. the surf wave below the bridge was in decent shape, making a fun outing.

I am just trying to figure out if anyone is interested in taking part in an informal river rescue course on the 28th. It would be a full day thing with a number of swims, throw bag practice and some kayak rescue practice. As long as two or more are interested, I will probably still run this. It is not a certified course.

July Trips

Plan your July trips here. With everyone scattering for the summer holidays, there may be no organized club trip this month, but if you are interested in going out on a particular day, post and see if anyone is interested in going.

St. Mary's July BBQ and Paddle

Come on out for a Paddle down the Upper Saint Mary's River, and BBQ on Saturday, July 10th. Meet at Kimball River Sports around 10:30 and plan on being on the river by 11:30. The BBQ will likely be around 4:30 after everyone has had a chance to dry off and retrieve their vehicles.




Everyone is welcome to enter the 'EVERYONE CAN PLAY' Rodeo at Double Trouble for a chance to win COOL prizes (prizes yet to be determined, though may include items such as broken paddles, free rentals, a signed picture of Clay...) so get your helmet ready, limber up those shoulders and see if you can be the one to win "Best Unintentional Cartwheel".




To get to Upper Saint Mary's drive to Cardston, past the Dairy Queen and head towards the States. About 1 or 2 km out of town turn left on Highway 501 and keep driving till the river. As soon as you cross the bridge, turn right onto the gravel road and that is where it will be. Watch for the red 'Kimball River Sports' busses. The run is about 6.4km, Gradient - 3.8m/km, River Grade - II.

If you need to rent a boat, rentals will be available on Thursday, July 8th. You are responsible for transporting your own rental gear.

Post a reply to say if you're coming so we know how much food to get. Bring a twonie for burgers and a loonie for pop

Trips June 22 to 29

Thursday 24 - Upper St. Mary's - Begginner up. Pick up rental boats at 5:00 to 5:15. Meet at Kimball River Sports at 6:30 to 6:45. Finish river at 9:30.

Friday 25 ??????

Saturday 26 ?????

Sunday 27 ???

Monday 28 Siyeh??? - Advanced. An amazing run with lots of portages and scouts. It drops 1500 feet in 4 km. Very low flows. May change to Two Medicine Upper Run. This is a new run (for us) and looks to be in a large canyon the entire way with class III type rapids expected.

July 1st Sun River for an exploratory paddle. 3 days self supported. 15km hike in. Class III ??? email Chris. Clay is going.

St. Mary's Take Out

The Stuart's are just wondering if people can take out at Tim's boat house instead of by the feed lot. They are just getting concerned about an increase of traffic by their house. There are some concerncs about their grand kids playing. I think they are also just trying to stem off the rising number of visitors that are coming down.

Trips June 15-22

Thursday 17 - Upper St. Mary's - rentals from the boat house at 5:15 to 5:30. You will need to have a way to transport the boat you rent. Meet at Kimball river sports (on the road from Cardston to Del Bonita) at 6:30 to 7:00.

Friday 18 - ??? Fernie River Fest ???

Sat 19 - ??? Fernie River Fest ???

Sun 20 - ??? Fernie River Fest ???

Thurday River Sessions

With few beginners coming out on the Oldman River on Thursdays, we are thinking of moving these evening trips to the Upper Saint Mary's. This would mean picking up boats at 5:00 or 5:30, and meeting at Kimball River Sports at 6:30. This would mean trips would finish up at 9:00.

I think there are a couple of questions with this. Is Wednesday better than Thursday? How will Thursday night rentals be affected? Comments? Is the 17th (next week) too early to start?

Trips June 8th - 15th

Thursday June 10th - 7:00 Flatwater Paddle at Boathouse or Upper St. Mary's leaving Lethbridge at 5:00 (call Ben at 327-8148). There will be no club exec on this trip.

Friday June 11th - ???

Saturday June 12th - 10:00 Cameron etc. (advanced)meet at 10:00 at Chris' House next to Tamarach Mall. We will be doing some filming of some drops on Upper Cameron Creek, maybe Hell Roaring, maybe Drywood. Let's have a BBQ after at my place. I will phone and find out if the hot tub at the lodge is working.

Sunday June 13th - ???

Admin Info

I have updated the membership and email lists on the admin link on the sidebar. Email me if you need the admin user name and password again. The email link is up to date. I also have a couple of emails that I have made that have all the names on them. Let me know if you want a copy. If anyone wants added to an email list, cgoble@allstream.net

Trips June 1 to 7

Thur June 3rd - We will likley not be running a flat water trip this day. Instead, we will save it for the BBQ on Friday June 4th.

Fri June 4th - 3:00 (1st run) or 6:30 (2nd run) Kimball River Sports - BBQ changed- Instead of having a BBQ in town, we are going to combine it with a run down the Upper St. Mary's. Sorry for all the changes!

Sat June 5th - ??? - Uper Sheep (IV - advanced)

Sun June 6th - ???

Thursday River Sessions

Thursday River sessions are still a go. These start at 7:00pm at the Botteril Park boat house. These sessions are free for all members to attend. Boats and equipment can be rented for the evening for $5. They will most likely run to the middle of June. Most evenings we seem to paddle down to the Highway 3 bridge. The canal is too low. Some gentle waves can be found jujst below the weir if people don't want the flat water.








To find the boat house, drive to Fort Whoop-up, and continue south underneath the bridge. The road ends at a parking lot where we typically put in. The boat house is 100m before this on the east side of the road. It is behind a locked chain link fence.

St. Mary's Access-Update

We stopped by Tim's newly outfitted shack (Kimball River Sports). He was there and
pleased to report that the Cardston Council have approved the proposed
public river access and he further indicated that the Council will go
ahead and undertake the road grading. While we were at the overlook of
the old access, we saw a County survey crew arrive. Tim indicated that
the Council expected that the project would be undertaken pretty quickly.

Tim had previously indicated to me that we can go ahead and use the new
access anytime and he's using it for his rafting crew. There's a short
hill near the bottom that's a bit steep for vehicles and there might be
a slight curve off the road allowance near the bottom of the hill. For
boaters it's a short walk from that point down to the river or 4 x 4's
might go right down. When the road's put in there will also be a
parking lot/picnic site right by the river.

To use the new access drive past Kimball and up the usual hill. At the
top of the hill, continue past the old turn to the right that we took
for the prior access and continue southward for 3.2 km (2 miles).
However, the road angles to the right to avoid a wetland area. Follow
the road as it then turns to the right (west) and continue for another
2.5 km, with another slight loop around another wetland. Then turn
right again (north) and the road allowance heads down to the river.

This new access route takes you to the upstream end of the meander that
used to provide the put-in. I'd guess that the shuttle drive will be
about the same time as the old shuttle but there'll be no big hill.

-Stew Rood












For a larger image click here

May Long Breakfast

Just some admin info for the breakfast we are doing Sat. and Sun. Here are the people that are helping out so far. Any others are welcome. We will be arriving at 7:00am to get things going for 7:30. Clay and Kirsten are in charge. Kirsten is bringing all the food, plates, etc.

Sat.
Clay - Kirsten
Chris Goble
David Kelly
Naomi?

Sun.
Chris Goble
Kris Anderson
Naomi?
David Kelly

It looks like some more volunteers would be greatly appreciated. Just put up a comment, or email chris if you would like to help out. This is a big fund raiser for the club.

BBQ & Paddle

The ever changing BBQ. With the weather being perfect on Friday June 4th, it seemed like a number of people couldn't resist paddling. While the in town trip seems to be problematic, it looks like a number of people are up to check out the Upper Saint Mary's. We will most likely be paddling at 3:00 (meeting at Kimball River Sports), and then having a BBQ at 6:00 at Kimbal River Sports. We will have some burgers and pop, but an email confirmation would be highly recommended. You will need to pick up rental boats tonight(Thursday June 3rd) down at the boathouse at 7:00. People wanting to paddle after the BBQ may also do this.

Hope this works. Sorry for all the changes

Chris 653-7447
cgoble@allstream.net

May Trips 25th - 31st

May 26th (Wed) at 5:30 on the Upper St. Mary's - Meet at Tim's Kimball River Sports Office. Here is a video clip that seems to load a bit inconsistently.

May 28th at 2:00 - Blackiston Creek at DQ in Cardston. We may also do upper Cameron Creek after, depending on the crowd.

May Trips 18th -25th

May 20th (Thur) at 7:00pm Oldman River

May 21-24 (Fri-Mon) is the Castle River Rendezvous held just north of Beaver Mines, at the Castle River River Rodeo Grounds. We will be doing the pancake breakfast on Sat, and Sun and need volunteers.

St. Mary's Access

For those who have been wondering the status of the Upper St. Mary's River here is some of the latest information. There is going to be an important meeting at the County Office building in Cardston on Monday May 10th at 1:15pm (located on the south side of town by the Nursing Home). We need as many concerned individuals as possible to come. This should give the council some idea as to the support of the proposal.

As of January, the new road allowance had been approved. The old road that went along the Stuart�s land down to the horshoe bend has gotten closed off. Only half of this road is on the road allowance. Previously Tim Ruggles had allowed people to use this access. With the land changing hands, this option has been removed. The new road allowance comes down to the horseshoe bend from the south. There is large hill that needs leveled off for vehicle access. The county expected that this would cost $30 000 to $40 000.

Some well informed individuals thought that this cost was overly high. Various reasons for this high estimate have been tossed around. One view is that some individuals may not truly want access to the river to go ahead. Another view is that the hill will take a sizable amount of work to level off.

Tim Ruggles owns an earth mover and figured that the hill could get leveled off privately, greatly reducing the work costs. Chuck Lee apparently has a number of grant proposals ready to sign. I believe our club is also willing to contribute some funds to ensure this project proceeds. A few acres of land at the Put-In is going to be donated to the county by Randy Stuart. This will serve as parking and picnic areas.

I believe we just need to convince the county of the continued importance of this access. Currently there is no legal access to the Upper Saint Mary�s.

Here is an image of the access

New Courses

Tim Ruggles from Kimball river sports will be running a number of courses for his company. He is willling to open them up to committed individuals. Payments should be made before the course dates.

Swiftwater Rescue levels 1,2 - May 20-21 at Upper St. Mary's
PROA raft guide course - May 15th.

Partner Posts

If you would like to find a partner to paddle with, please respond in the comments section on this post. Please give your name, email or phone, preferred boating level, and any other comments you feel are appropriate. Hopefully this will let local boaters get in contact with each other. I know there are lots of people interested in paddling lakes and easy rivers like the Oldman. It just seems like it has been hard for people to get hold of each of other. Don't be shy, it makes for boring weekends.

May Trips 1st to 17th

May 6th at 7:00pm Oldman River

May 8th (Sat) at 9:30 at Castle Falls Campgournd - Castle Falls run (Class III+ run) Meet at Cosco at 8:00?

May 13th at 7:00pm Oldman River

Weekly River Sessions

After its sucess last year, we will again be holding Thursday evening flat water paddles on the old man river. These will start at 7:00pm at the Botteril Park boat house. These sessions are free for all members to attend. Boats and equipment can be rented for the evening for $5. They will most likely run to the middle of June.

New Executive

The following executive were elected at the April 2004 AGM

President - Chris Goble
Vice President - Mark Iwaasa
Director - Clayton Hironaka
Director - Mark Kadijk
Treasurer/Secretary - Kirsten Hironaka

The following administrative positions were appointed
Newsletter - Chris Goble
Website - Wilco Tymensen
Rental Supervisor - Clayton Hironaka 327-8722
Rental Coordinator - Mark Kadijk
Purchases - Mark Iwaasa
Pool Coordinator - Mark Iwaasa

Boats For Sale

ORCKA has a number of boats for sale. We are selling old boats to try and encourage active paddlers, and to make space in our crowded boat house. The following boats are for sale. Sales must be approved by two board members.

Dancer (1) - $150
Response (2) - $100
Pirouttes (2) - $150

Best time to purchase is Thursdays at 7:00pm at the boat house by botteril park, just past Fort Whoop Up.