Cataract Canyon

I was just down in Utah this last week, and got the bug to kayak a desert canyon. I was thinking either Cataract or the Dolores. Cataract would be quite nice. It is mainly a flat float with a big volume canyon in it. It also has quite a long season, especially if you want to avoid the peak flows of May and June.

One option is to do the trip at Easter, however that would put things quite close to peak flows. There are no permits in Apri however. In summer you need a permit , and the temps are quite high. However, it does give one the option of doing a long trip with some good canyoneering.

The Cataract is big volume IV similar to a stout Westwater that gets a bit sustained at high flows. At lower flows it seems like it would be a nice trip for solid boaters.

Astoria River

There is a good write up on the Astoria river up in Jasper over at Liquidbeta.blogspot.com. It may give you something to dream about during the spring.

Help!

We need someone to cover tonights pool session! It runs from 8:30 to 9:30. If someone could show up to help if anyone has questions, that would be great. You don't have to collect money, just call it a "Freebie night" for anyone that shows up.

If we can't get someone to cover it, then I'll have to call the Lifeguards and cancel it.


Thanks,

Mark Iwaasa

Pool Sessions NOW!

The pool has made available time for open paddling! Work on your skills or just keep in shape for next season.

The times are currently Thursday nights, from 8:30 to 9:30.

- You need to pay for boats if your not an ORCKA member ($5)
- Everone needs to pay pool fee (pay at the equipment office)

See you in the pool!

Mark Iwaasa

Just a Question...

What's the worst thing that could happen to paddling in southern Alberta ... ?? This was a recent question posed by Stew and Di. What could they possibly be referring to?

Gear For Sale

In preparation for next season, (or perhaps for this season yet!) I thought maybe we could post gear for sale or gear wanted here.

Haloween Week

Water levels are rather scary in their unusual height, well at least for this time of year. The Upper St. is still flowing at 20cms, a low but certainly floatable fow. Double Trouble is fun at these levels, even if cartwheels aren't possible. The Lower St. is also continuing at 30cms. Great fun as always.

It looks like Nathan and I will be heading out this Friday for a run down the lower. We will meet at the put in at 2:00 to 2:15, and expect to make it out in the dark.

We are also heading out today after school for a short run down the upper (Tuesday Oct 25th). You can meet at the Alternate School in front of DQ at 3:30.

Birch Hole

Birch Hole, lower st. mary 32cms
Originally uploaded by cgoble72.

Birch hole is a specatacular play spot on the Lower St. mary. Here it is at 32cms. It has a large foam pile split in two directions. Loads of fun, good surfing, spinning, and lots of other things I can't do.

The run on Friday was spectacular. The water was incredibly warm. There were tonnes of easy surf waves all over. The waves before Rain wave were quite good. There was also a number of other good ones every where in the top section. The dump was really small, but run no run was beautiful at these flows.



Run no run 32cms

Lower St.

The lower Saint is flowing at 32cms right now (Oct 12th). This means everyone should jumpon it for one last go. If it is still flowing, Nathan and I are talking about early Friday afternoon. Perhaps meeting at 2:00 or so at the Put in.

Oct Paddling

The St. is up to about 30cms. If anyone is interested in boating in beautiful fall colors, give nathan a call at 634-6123.

Sept 16th

It looks like the rivers around Calgary are up. The sheep is at 21cms - a good medium, and the Cataract is at 6, a decent low-medium flow. The elbow is also at around 20cms.

This means good kayaking this weekend. I will be on the Kan this Sat at 12 for the course. Anyone else should consider hitting things before they freeze up for the year.

Oldman Race Course

Since high water washed out many of the features below the Oldman Dam, Chuck Lee has been working on getting things back in order. Recently he applied for some funding to get it back up to speed. With the forms and work that need to go into the course, he was wondering if local clubs would be willing to help out in creating some play features. He metnioned moving the top rocks downstream to make things a bit more constricted. Stew had some more comments.

Here is Chuck's email.

The following is a list of work that the Disaster Services will cover:
- replace 30 posts
- replace 12 wires
- replace 16 gates and pullropes
- includes contractors time for doing this

I have also requested work on the river to:
- clean out eddies,
- remove gravel
- reposition some of the rocks in the river
- open a channel between lower lagoon to the river

We will need DFO permission to do all this work and I am working on
making that application with them as part of the flood relief. They were
quickly approved at the Kan for their work. Of course the window for
construction in the river would be after April 15th of 2006. But we
could get the slalom system back up this fall or early next spring.

One of the things that we should look at is spending a little extra of
our own money to create a playwave feature on the river. What I would
like to propose is that we move the start of the whitewater features
downstream by 50 meters and take the rock in that top section where the
outlet turns and heads east and move it to the middle of the run. By
moving the start downstream we will gain a more concentrated drop
without a slower midstream section.

To build a playwave if we take several flat slabs of sandstone and place
them on a sloping angle it will create an accleration of water that will
form a wave and hole feature at the base, similar to what you find in
Alberta's foothill rivers such as the Brierlies or the St Mary's where
our sandstone ledge create great surfing waves.

To fund this I would ask the the POCC, ORCKA and the AWA each pitch in
$1-2,000 to pay for the extra work while we are getting the repair work
completed.

Stew's comments

I'd recommend we go even further.

1. Build 2 or 3 focused wave/hole features, not just 1.
2. For each, include a mid-channel boulder island to split the river and
thus create a more suitably sized feature on each size.
3. Sure, pull the top feature downstream to gather more drop.
4. Gather material in the middle part of the steep zone to create the
middle feature. Don't hesitate to stack big boulders. We were very
reluctant to do this with the initial project but we were over-cautious.
I wouldn't encoure the multiple-stacks like the boulder fences on the Kan
that form Santa Claus but careful stacking of BIG boulders should be
effective.
5. For the lowest feature, there's lots of massive boulders that were used
to build the numerous groynes below the steep section. These do almost
nothing useful. It will take a bit of machine time to walk these up but
it'd be worth it. There are also some monster boulders that we dropped
into the lower zone and they're largely submerged and with the wide, flat
surface they don't do much - they'd be great feature-building slabs.
6. For DFO permits, the drop features will largely function like the major
V-weirs on the Castle. They'll produce self-scouring deep pools and thus
improve over-wintering habitat. This should provide a considerable
benefit and was the basis for much of the fisheries mitigation structures
on the Crowsnest and Castle.

I continue to believe that Boulder Run could be a great paddling park.

I'd be glad to head out to view the site and plan the rebuild. Weekend
weather looks lousy but as soon as warm weather returns I'll be glad to
head out.