The Kattawagami River - July 2014: A Whitewater Primer

Before posting my blog entries from the trip, I thought a brief note on whitewater canoeing would be valuable for any readers unfamiliar with the activity. Whitewater typically refers to any moving water that is turbulent. It is typically classified based on intensity of the rapid, from mere swifts (fast moving ripples) to Class VI, which would include obstacles like Niagara Falls. Our river was not classified – although other paddlers seem to suggest classifications. Of course, water levels matter. We expected low water – we probably were in medium water. High water is usually cold water, as it is in spring – don’t quite see the appeal of those trips (our trip was cold enough as it was, given that it occurred in late July!).

 

One of many, many rapids.

A rapid changes significantly with water levels. A very technical, tight space full of rocks can be a challenging class II or III in low water, but is merely a wave train in high water. Our water levels meant that many rapids were too big to safely run. With less water, we likely would have had a few more runnable chutes. Sometimes, we decided to portage a rapid simply to avoid dumping or getting wet from churning boils. Ultimately, the life of whitewater paddling is a wet one, especially if the guy in the bow/from (me) is heavy (I am)! Tim often avoided big waves that would have potentially swamped our boat, but getting wet is inevitable. A few times, our canoe was full of water by the end of a rapid. (For example, see the low water experienced by these paddlers - go to around 8:15).

Pulling a canoe through the bush.

When we encountered a rapid, we would often pull ashore and scout. This requires walking the shores, sometimes crashing through the bush, to see what the rapid looks like from below. Sometimes a rapid would go around a corner, making it difficult to see what came next. We often erred on the side of caution, especially if we couldn’t see flat water at the end of a rapid, knowing that there could be big ledges and falls. Occasionally, Buck and Tim would scout from the boat, which meant they’d stand up in the canoe and assess what the best approach was from the river. Sometimes both canoes would take the same line, but often watching the other canoe would give clues to otherwise hidden rocks, big ledges, or gnarly waves. From shore it was often easy to pick a line, but once in the boat, the river would present unseen obstacles. For example, as you’ll read in one of my entries, Tim and I once happened upon a little rock hidden beyond a larger rock and swamped our boat.

Buck and Shane lining.

If we couldn’t run a rapid, we had two options: lining the boat or portaging. Lining is what it sounds like: using ropes tied to the bow and stern, we’d guide the canoe down the river. Sometimes we had to line because the water was too shallow. Sometimes it was a way to sneak past a big rapid or ledge. If we couldn’t line a rapid, we had to portage around it. On the days full of big rapids, it sometimes felt like we carried gear further than we paddled. We got portaging down to a science. It generally took each of us two trips – one trip with as much gear as one could carry, and one trip helping with the canoes. Some routes were easy, and just required walking the gear over some rocks, while others meant literally pushing boats and gear through the overgrown woods. A few of the portages had some intense moments, like when we passed over a small chute and I lost my footing, leaving the back end of the canoe submerged in a torrent of water. Some portages required, foolishly, throwing gear to one another! On occasion, we found previously used portage routes. Buck would mark them properly by adding blazes. Future paddlers will at least know which side of the river has the best route (note to paddlers: consider it your duty to maintain existing blazes as well as to add blazes to reasonable portaging routes you identify for the benefit of future paddlers!).

Lining.

How to carry a canoe - option 1.

A few times we had to ferry across the river to identify the best way to run or portage a rapid. Ferrying is an important whitewater skill. It is when you paddle upstream, and move across a river, without allowing the canoe to go further downstream. (One can also ferry backwards, when you paddle backwards and ferry across a river with the bow facing downstream – this happened a few times.) Many of our ferries were across the bottom of rapids to find better fishing holes. Sometimes, however, we were ferrying across the top of rapids, trying to find better routes. Tim often said, “Paddle as if your life depends on it!” At times, it probably did.

How to portage a canoe - option 2.

Another important part of whitewater canoeing involves the eddy. An eddy is best described as the calm part of water behind an obstacle, most often a rock. It is incredible how calm the water can be behind a rock in the middle of a rapid. The eddy becomes a place to scout, rest, fish, bail water, etc. I think we all got quite proficient at eddying out at the bottom of rapids. There were a few rapids where Tim and I eddy-hopped across the river to find a better line to run or to get to a portage.

How to carry a canoe - option 3.
Tim got tired of tandem carrying a few times awkwardly over rocks,
so he would just do it himself.

In whitewater, the type of stroke is often critical. Tim would often bark out instructions to me, and I willingly obeyed. Aside from direction, the most common instructions were: power = paddle hard; brace = using the paddle to maintain our balance; cross = paddle on the opposite side (for me this meant paddling on the starboard/right side of the canoe, and it would move our boat to the right); and draw = use the paddle to pull water towards boat on port/left to move boat to the left. In addition to the paddle, one’s hips are extremely important. Loose hips help to keep a boat level. When a canoe is full of water, as ours were several times, keeping the boat stable is a chore, and hips are crucial.

There are many other aspects of whitewater paddling that might be unfamiliar to some readers, but a quick Google search will provide you with more than adequate sources. For starters, consider: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitewater_canoeing and http://nocpaddlingschool.blogspot.ca/2007/08/glossary-of-whitewater-terminology.html. Should you come across anything in my blog entries that requires clarification, please just ask.

Prior to this trip, I would readily claim to be a canoeist, but would not identify was a whitewater paddler. Although I have much to learn, and skills to hone, I think I can safely claim to be a decent whitewater canoeist. Perhaps this is something I should have thought about more before agreeing to paddling one of Ontario’s most intense whitewater rivers!