Monday, May 31, 2010

TRIPS JUNE 1 - JUNE 6

WATER LEVELS ARE COMING UP! LET US KNOW WHERE YOU ARE HEADED TO!!!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

K Lower St. Mary's is flowing really good! I am ready to go every evening this week after work at 5!
So if you wanna get out and go just call me and we will go! I only need 1 other person to paddle! 403-894-7773.

Anonymous said...

Janson and others,

Glad you got out for the 200+ flow. We dealt with some sump-pump and drainage issues on the weekend and will finally be heading out Wed. and Thurs. mid-day.

Chatted with the basin water manager, who indicated that flows will come down fairly fast and then more gradually as the Lower St. Mary drops to the inflow from the Upper St. Mary. We should get another week or two on the Lower St. Mary but not 'full-on' like last weekend.

Stew

Anonymous said...

There is a group leaving today for Lower St. Mary's after work. We are meeting in the Southeast end of the Costco Parking Lot between 5:00 and 5:30. Call or Text if your interested 403-894-7773.
Flows are at 100cms (as of 6am). I paddled it yesterday at 100cms with Dave and there are alot of good waves & wave holes to play on, but the river still has a good amount of fast squirly water making it a little more difficult to to roll in.
Rain Wave - surf on the fly.
Birch Hole - surf on the fly.
Run No Run - has a great wave train on river left. Rocks were exposed on river right with a few wave holes.
Hairpin - has a BIG NASTY HOLE on river left before the drop to slide.
The first hole AFTER haipin is pretty big, but the second is not too bad. Ran it yesterday river right of the hole then ferry'd between the two holes and ran the second left of center.
Had a great time!!!!
COME AND HAVE FUN!!!

Anonymous said...

I chatted with the St. Mary Dam operator this morning and it's likely that it'll be flowing for a while longer (days or a couple of weeks, or ??). Flow has been fairly steady for a couple of days and it will probably be gradually reduced.

We'll probably be surfin' the Rain Wave run Saturday and then a full run during the school day Monday. If anyone's off and wants to join us, post a reply.

Stew

Anonymous said...

Paddle Picnic - today!

So, OK paddlerz, we've gotta enjoy the Lower St. Mary while it's flowin'. Forecast for today is sunny,20C and no hurricane-force winds. So ... we're gonna have a paddle & picnic down at the river-side right below the A-frame. We drive right down through the river gate and upstream a bit so we're close to the play waves.

If you don't know where it is, there's a map in the ORCKA wiki

http://orcka.wetpaint.com/page/St.+Mary+River+-+Lower

It's a half-hour from Lethbridge and the final dirt-road in is dry but vehicle clearance helps.

You could float down from the standard walk-in and surf the Rain-Wave stretch, or you could run downstream through the Hairpin-Run and come back for the picnic, or you could just hang out right there at the 'bunny waves', which are very good right now - a couple of fast, smooth waves for us old-school boaterz and a play-hole just upstream for you tricksters.

There's 80 cms being released from the Dam - it's dropped from 'high' to 'upper-medium' (grade II+ above and III- below the picnic spot) and water's probably warmer than any other whitewater around. It'd be good for most levels of kayakers and if you've been hunkered down with the cool weather, get your boat out. Or, if you're fairly new, come on out to meet with other boaters.

And, it's got a great play-pond for the kids (mud!! and knee-deep water is a small, safe pool for even tikes to jump in the kayaks).

We'll be there from 2 to 5 pm or longer if others show up (got a BBQ?).

Come on down ...

Stew & Di
(403) 320-9601