Bronte Creek Lowville to Bronte Harbour
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
route:
length: 28.0km, 1 day
difficulty: intermediate
organizer: Jeff McColl
participants: Jeff McColl, Harry Hewick, Speedy
report:
This is just a friendly warning for those who might want to try this scenic trip. When I last ran this about 12 years ago my kids were 8 and 4, there were a few sweepers and one small log jam, but nothing to be concerned about. This time out the trees started early, 2 alone in Lowville park that if the water was a foot higher you couldn't sneak underneath. I would not want to run this any lower especially the section from Dundas down. The good news is the dam that is between the 4th. sideroad and the 2nd. side road has been broken apart and a nice little grade 2 (this level) has taken it's place. I have a great pic to show you the example of a horizon line. The pics of sweepers speak for themselves. The log jam inside the park is about 250m Long.... not a place to go in high water. We took a channel river left before the jam and it was barely floatable! This was a planned float we started at 10:00 am and finished at 3:00pm with about a half hour break for lunch. I took a large plastic double paddle for the flats at the end so I could make sure I balanced my back muscles and ended up using it for poling and a giant single paddle from the standing up postion so I could see the different channels. Tree hazzards top to bottom so not a good place to take some novices. There is a gas line that is exposed in the bottom of the creek above Appleby, making a nice little play hole, I tried to get Harry to have a smoke while I took his pic..... the gas co. does have it surveyed to fix this though. The back handled the trip pretty good, we will see what the morning brings. Jeff Pics http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/563409820UnloqC | 
