Salmon River
Sunday, March 22, 2009
route:
length: 8.0km, 1 day
difficulty: intermediate
organizer: Steward Rich
participants: Beth Kennedy, Bonnie Bliss, Caroline Owen, Keith Nunn, Peter Farr, Steward Rich, Gail Rich, and many other folks from Ottawa
report:
A beautiful day. A little colder than the forecast, but sunny so it was easy to deal with. Some of us (Bonnie, Peter, Keith) stayed at Cline and Sara's place on Sat. night and hada good visit. We, (BCKP), were meeting the rest of the group at 11am in Tamworth, so we decided to head out a bit early and eat breakfast at the Devon Tea Room there first. An excellent plan that meant we hit the river warm and with full bellies. I will repeat this plan in future. Beth spotted us in the cafe at 10:30 and the rest of the group was there already as well. They set off to start the shuttle while we finished breakfast. The shuttle was slightly delayed by one driver getting left behind and confusing the other shuttle drivers, so they had to wait for a while at the take out. We managed to get on the water just after noon. It was very windy on the lake and rather bitter. Although the wind was blowing our way, it made navigation a lot a work. We were shortly on the river and out of the wind though and the day just got better and better from there. Nothing terribly remarkable to report in the run. The water level was a pretty typical spring level. Not the high water that came with last year's flooding, but plenty of water for a fun run. It was a bit special for me as it was the first time I've ever run every rapid on this route. It was lots of fun to paddle with some folks I don't get to paddle with very often like Beth, Steward and Gail. Thanks to all the organized folks from Ottawa who took the time to set up with throw bags at the canyon and the falls and made it much easier to think about running them. Made me feel lazy for not usually bothering. A number of folks took photos, so hopefully those can be posted soon. Cline's pics: http://www.vvcc.ca/gallery/Salmon-River/ Peter's pics: http://peter.lpi-solutions.com/zoph/photos.php?album_id=28 | 
