Kootenay Fest

More info on the begginer / intermediate festival on July 1st and 2nd here

Trips June 16th to 22nd

Post them here.

For locals it looks like swiftcurrent is flowing. It can be run above 600cfs. Lee creek is also going, although you should be comfortable with wood for that one. The drywoods should be pumping. Cameron is big. The mofo is up to high again. The lower Saint is up to 80cms which is a medium. The belly is high, making a fun run. Blackiston is at medium, but as always check under the church camp bridge for logs.

Two medicine is getting big near 2000cfs. Chances are it will just turn into a flush down low.

Rain Wave

Stew sent me the following info on the surfers who headed down to the saint.

Dave Roscoe is a UL student who's been board-surfing up on the Kan with the group there and wondered about local waves down here.  I provided directions to Rain Wave and the result follows.



The Rain wave was awesome this weekend! The flow got up to almost 90 CMS
and the wave was great on a surfboard. I've attached a couple pics of my
friend jake and I. thanks again for the advice and directions.

Sheepish

This weekend Clay and I hooked up with some Calgary paddlers for a run down the sheep. We put in at Bluerock amidst the crowds. Clay met us at Sheep falls. The first section down to Bluerock was fun and quick. I would say it was one of the challenging sections of the run - fairly continuous class II+ to III-.



After that is Bluerock, a class III+ 5 foot pour over that seems to trash those that can't boof.



Next comes sheep falls. This is a classic tall pour over. The pool is pretty safe although there is a large flume just below it. A nice pic nic area is nearby

A few minutes downstream is the first of the class V's. Tiger jaws is a frequent port. People may run it once, but due to a rock fin just below the drop that has injured several paddlers, most people will only run it once and consider it done. Clay ran it and luckily got just enough lift to avoid the trashing. RIght now a river wide, submerged log is around the corner



Around the corner is the S-bend. This is a fun, fast section of IV+. The middle line at the bottom will bury you in a seam. After Clay's boat ran away from him from shore, I tried to catch up to it. This meant I forgot to tie my helmet on as I rushed to wait in line for put in space. After some last moment river signals at the lip of the drop, I ended up on the middle line, sucked into a seam and had my helmet sucked off. Banging into the wall meant a swim was in store. The crowd in the eddy nicely dragged me to shore and rescued my helmet.



The next drop is triple ledge. More people run this. It is three drops close together. The top one is very fun, but it tends to squirt. This messes up the next line, and can feed one into the room of doom - a bad undercut on the river right. An 8-10 foot ledge slide is the final step.



Lower down on the river there is a small version of S-bend called Landslide. It is easier than it looks which is good, because it looks pretty nasty. From here there is a small canyon with no real rapids. Lots of fun though.

Miscellaneous Updates

I have finally updated some of my web pages on kayaking. The best location is through the site map. I included more details on Two Medicine, some extra pictures of swiftcurrent and sulphur creek. I also posted the information on Gold creek. Boundary creek should be coming sometime soon - once it is run.

Nathan has also made world fame with his post and photo on Jackson Kayaking.

Clay ran the right side of Lundreck falls the other week, and Chris ran the left side this week. Flows were pretty low - 11cms

Magrath Triathalon Needs Kayakers

Magrath is having their annual triathalon July 29 and are asking for our help. They have done some research and have found that kayakers make for the best rescue craft for triathalon swimmers. They are hoping for as many able-bodied kayakers (meaning kayakers that would most likely not create a need for rescue themselves... you should have a roll) as are willing to volunteer. This years Magrath Triathalon has a cap of 200 participants, so there will definately be a need for more than a couple of boats. It should also make for good PR for ORCKA.

The commitment would be from 8 am to about 10 am at St Marys Reservoir, and I was told that we would get t-shirts and possibly food out of the deal. What could be better than a t-shirt? Well, I asked the rep who asked me for help about the possibility for relasing the damn for their kayak volunteers. She said that she could talk to the guy responsible for release as she figured that might be more motivating than a t-shirt and doughnut. We could warm up for a short couple of hours in the morning on flatwater, get a cool t-shirt, and make a fun Lower St run.

The Lower St might not be an option, so we could try another club run elsewhere afterwards. If you are interested in helping out, please let me know, so I can get back to Magrath with approximate numbers. Thanks.

Trips June 9th - June 15th

It sounds like rain for the weekend. You're gonna get wet anyway, so why not have fun paddling in it?

I will be paddling Upper St. Marys Saturday morning with my bro and a beginner. It will be a great opportunity for those who are just learning some river-running skills to get some extra direction and practice on a fun class II river. If you are interested, leave a comment, and I'll get some more specifics for you.

Happy paddling.

Awesome Kayaking Courses!!!

This was one of the great and exciting adventures that Nathan and I were able to take part in with Chris Goble in his intermediate course that he is providing. The main part of this last session was at Blackiston creek, but thankfully Chris gave us the opportunity to push ourselves to new heights. These courses are great learning experiences. If you are ever given the opportunity to take any course with Chris, or any other instructor, DO IT. You'll learn alot really quickly and your confidence level will sky rocket. So Learn all you can because I never thought learning could be so fun....SBWW

More pictures


Janson on Deja Vu


Nathan on Deja Vu


Nathan on the flat rapid in the argillite of Blackiston creek - class III-


Ethan practicing surfing on the Blender at St. Mary's

more pictures will come this afternoon

Trips June 2nd-June 8th

Everything looks like it is flowing. I am in Waterton this weekend and will be doing an exploratory run on Boundary creek on Saturday. It will be a 5km flat paddle and then a 5km hike in.

Blackiston is at medium flows. The logs under the bridge have been cleared. Cameron is at medium to high flows. Drywood should be flowing.

Trips May 25th to June 1st

Water is up everywhere so the challenge should be deciding where to go. The belly surf wave is big and fun, although the eddy is pretty washed out. An extra hour of eddy building and it would have survived quite well. I am on a course around the Cardston area. Begginers are meeting at 9:00am in the Alternate School in Cardston, and Intermediates are meeting at 1:00pm at Tim's on the upper Saint.

Post other trips here.

Dearborn

The dearborn river north of Helena and south of Augusta is one of the prettiest rivers I have seen. It flows along vertical canyon walls for most of its length.



The rapids are rarely above class I+ except for 2 short sections of II- and one of a boulder garden III- that would be a challenge in a breakable canoe.




The upper sections are apparently fairly flat as well. We ended up camping near the headwaters. There is an informal campsite just before the cabins near Falls creek. By the diversion dam there is a small play wave. A campiste about 1km further down has a small play hole, and is further removed from the road.

Falls creek is nearby. While a pretty run, it is mainly a number of steep semi-runnable drops up to 50feet tall. The upper Dearborn looks much more pleasant, although it is still a stout run. We, unfortunately didn't get to hike it. Across the valley from the dearborn are a number of caves. It is a great place to explore.

Swift Water Rescue Course

Tim Ruggles is running a Swift Water rescue course June 5 and June 6. The re-certification is only one day. Contact Kimbal River sports at 653-1099 for more information. A wilderness first aid course is also going on.