Head River
Sunday, April 8, 2001
route:
length: 1 day
difficulty: intermediate
organizer: ChrisCanoe
participants: Caroline Owen, Chris Mack, Nicole Mack,
report:
A few of us met up for a run down the Head River. This is a very pretty paddle along a small but interesting river with a couple of drops approaching class 3. The weather was perfect but the water measured 36.5 F which still made wetsuits/drysuits mandatory but with the light wind and the beautiful sun everybody remained comfortable.
The river runs parallel to hwy 503 between Uphill and Sebright. The put in is South on MacKenzie Road at the bridge and the takeout is South on Lake Dalrymple Road at the...you guessed it...the bridge.
It is only a 2 hr drive from Toronto, a very easy shuttle and it takes about 3-4 hrs to run. If this sounds too good to be true your right, it is, it only runs for a few weeks out of the year. It feeds into the Black and does not come up till the Black is way up, which is rare. I have not caught it in
4 years.
Cline was showing exceptional form throughout the run, with our faithful cohort Nicole doing her spinny kayak things near by with our friend Todd in his Z looking on. The run starts with a few km of flat water with lots of strainers to wind through and then things pick up with a few small runs and then the first of the 'drops'. All of the rapids are just a little bigger than found on the Black and one of the last rapids is quite technical with a couple of holes to avoid. There are several opportunities for some great surfing and tuning up those backferries.
Did I mention the SUN ;-)
Be careful out there, everything is kinda high.
Chris
|
