Upper Credit River
Saturday, March 28, 1998
route:
length: 10.0km, 1 day
difficulty: beginner
leader: Dave Robinson
participants: Beth Baskin, Caroline Owen, Tripper Dave, Keith Nunn, Morgan Baskin, Naomi Miller, Tim Miller,
offsite report: http://gallery.vvcc.ca/gallery/cr0398
OR try the Wayback Machine
report:
Upper Credit River (Terra Cotta to Georgetown)
Sat. March 28, 1998
The day dawned sunny and temperatures climbed to 20 degrees celsius, although Environment Canada was calling for rain and possible Thunderstorms later in the day. Met at 11:00 am at the put-in at Terra Cotta. The best access is from the old bridge approaches just downstream from the current bridge at the southwest corner of Regional Rd. 9 (King St.) and Heritage Rd. There is plenty of room to unload and get organized and room to park vehicles.
We ran the shuttle cars down to Georgetown Dam (River St., Regional Rd. 23) in Georgetown and stopped to check the water levels below the dam. We had a number of neophyte paddlers with us and the water was pretty high, so we decided to take out there instead of Norval as originally planned.
The seven of us got on the river about noon and headed out from Terra Cotta in four boats (Tripper Dave in lead paddling solo). The river was flowing very fast and high. Most of the eddies were completely washed out and the river was within a few inches of bursting its banks in places. While there were few technical rapids, the current was very pushy and the 40-60 km/h winds made it tricky staying on a line. We took our first break after about an hours paddling. The toughest part was to stay out of very large haystacks which were piling up at the bends.
Lunch stop was just above Glen Williams in a setting which could only be described as stereotypical pastoral.
On the banks of a river by overhanging willows with horses grazing in the field beside an old red-brick Ontario farm-house.
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We got back on the river for a howling run down through Glen Williams with a few rapids pushing Class II. There is a ledge just above the bridge by the Anglican Church that often has a tricky, river-wide curling wave. At this water level the wave was quite significant, but there is a clear "V" tight to river right that is easily run. While we were coming through Glen Williams, the storm that was predicted came through, other than torrential rain, we didn't experience the same damaging winds that some nearby areas experienced. The run from Glen Williams down to the dam was exciting and very fast. There is a potentially dangerous sweeper on river right just above the final road bridge in Glen Williams. It creates the need for an S-curve line, first hard left to avoid the sweeper then back to river right past the island/shoal at the bridge.
We arrived at the take out and loaded the boats and gear in the driving rain. We then adjourned to The Copper Kettle in Glen Williams to toast the river and dry out a bit. As we were hoisting our pints, the sun came out again, a nice end to a great season-openning paddle!
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