Raft River, BC - Canada

4 hours into... and now quite amongst it. Raft River, BC - Canada

Although it has a name that sounds inviting to those seeking rubber tubes and raging water, the Raft River is one of those deceiving BC runs that probably won't see a raft descent for a very long while. In fact, whoever it was that decided to first attempt the Raft's lower box canyon successfully must have been having a fearless paddling year and adventurous thoughts.


BC water at its finest.

I actually first heard talk of the ominous Raft being ran (probably for 2nd or 3rd time) from un-BC-local Clay Wright while I was paddling in the Southeastern US during the Spring of 2001. Although he couldn't quite remember the name of the run which he and some friends had stumbled upon during a late summer roam through BC, the fact that it was "Near the Clearwater River, DEEP and.... VERY SWEET", left me quite intrigued and wanting to investigate. The next summer during my annual round of BC creeking, I discovered what Clay was describing as I dropped deep into the final kilometers of the Raft River gorge.


The final few drops on the run before Raft Falls.

3 years came and went however, before I was back again paddling that first stretch of the river trying to describe what was about to be upon myself and Jordie McKenzie, my only willing paddling companion. Although the Raft meanders lazily from the headwaters near Wells-Gray Provincial Park, the final push to the confluence with the North Thompson is through 4-5 km of tight technical drops in very inescapable and intimidating surroundings.


Hmmm.... I guess we're paddling out .

The secret of running the Raft's canyon requires a crucial assement of the river's flow. Don't even consider this run in early summer or after big rains. The river does pass underneath the Yellowhead Highway where you can get a quick glance, but it is better to turn onto the Raft River Forestry Road and walk up to Raft Falls past the sawmill next to the river. A quick path through the sawmill and down to the river will reveal a local swimming and cliff-diving hangout with a 20ft waterfall. Raft Falls should look runnable and have an adequate amount of water in comparison with the wide, calm and shallow water that continues just downstream. Running the waterfall is your only ticket out of the gorge and will mark the end of an amazing creeking experience should you decide to put on.


A sweet huck off Raft Falls to finish it may seem anticlimatic after 5km of box-canyon head games.

From the sawmill, the forestry road climbs steeply up along the river right shore. Around km 14, another forestry road will fork off to the right and quickly cross the Raft River where it will be flowing calm and flat. Put in at this point and you will need to paddle 3-4 kms of flatwater before the river steepens and the canyon begins to form. You will know when you've reached the crux of the run once the river starts to drop through some ultra narrow and difficult slot drops. One of these rapids is VERY questionable because if the water is too high it does not have any eddies to catch above. It also has nowhere to set safety and requires a high cliff jump into the pool beyond it. As we found out, we were staring around at the canyon walls for a very long time trying to make a good decision. However, with patience and plenty of adrenaline boofs later we came to the end of it all.


Jordie McKenzie now fully desensitized to the task at hand.

The Raft River well represents class V creeking in an intimating yet beautiful environment commonly found in the Britsh Columbia wild. Although the canyon is short, it certainly will leave you with something to tell others about even if you do happen to forget the name of it. The run is located less than 10 km east of the town of Clearwater BC heading towards Jasper.





Vis Raft River (V) i et større kart

Ula Foss - Norway

Walking to the put-in on the Upper Ula, Norway

The Upper Ula is a low volume creek containing the best of what Norway has to offer paddlers – amazing scenery, big slides and waterfalls, a little something for everyone. From the town of Otta near the Sjoa valley a steep winding road quickly climbs above treeline into Rondane National Park, one of Norway's classic trekking spots. Once the road turns to dirt, go left and pass through the toll gate and head further up the main hill covered by shrubs, goats and traditional houses with lots of grass on their roofs for insulation from the harsh winters.




At the end of the road is a parking lot for hikers and a 5 minute walk will get you to the water.

From the put-in the first section is a nice easy warm up with some easy slides and drops to get you prepared for what is coming up. After portaging around a beautiful waterfall, the river enters a small gorge and starts to pick up in gradient.


Kim Siekerman on one of the drops before the portage

Just past the end of the mini gorge comes two more significant drops before the start of the slides.


Jonothan Church on the second section of the Ula slides. (video)

The slides are what most people come to the Ula looking for, here the creek drops over 2-3 slides more than 200ft long before ending in a sweet 15 ft waterfall. The line on this drop is tight if you want to avoid flying off the left side and onto a hard shallow landing.


Airing out off the waterfall below the slides.

After the super slides the Ula resumes at an easier pace but still contains many small drops and slides before the run culminates at the four classic Ula waterfalls. The first 3 falls (20ft 7ft 15ft) are quite runnable at most flows while the last 40ft waterfall is rarely ran successfully.


Classic Norway huckin'-Ula Falls, Norway

Just before the waterfalls is a road that will get you back to a lower parking for the take-out. Whether you come for quality slides, multiple waterfalls, or just to boof some fun drops in the alpine scenery, the Ula is certainly a Norwegian classic if you get it at a good water level.

Sjoa River - Norway

Michelle Basso blunts on the Jorgen wave, Sjoa River - Norway

-Report by Michelle Basso

58 hours of partying in New York, various train, plane and subway rides and we arrived unslept in Sjoa (shoo-a), Norway. We now had a couple of weeks to enjoy Norwegian hospitality and get in as much paddling as we could. The last leg of the train followed the mighty Otta river and judging from the water nearly lapping against the train tracks in some spots, we knew this trip was not going to be deprived of the quality h2o Norway is famous for.

A great place to stay is at Sjoa Adventure, a fantastic kayak camp located at the Riksanlegget slalom center and operated by Aussie Brent along with Ed Cornfield, Kate Donnelly and Pete Astles from the UK. Here it's easy to party long into darkless night with paddlers from various parts of the world right next to the river. Riksanlegget camp also marks the take-out and put-in for two of the more popular runs on the Sjoa.


Sjoa/Riksanlegget Kayak Camp

Play Run – This is the section most often commercially rafted on the Sjoa river and contains the most play. This was our bread and butter run while we were at the Sjoa. The take-out was 20 feet from our campsite and it was easy to blast down it over a few hours. The play run is a class III section full of waves and holes waiting to be surfed. My favourite level was when it was high, but the best play features came in at medium-low flows.

The Jorgen wave is the best-known play feature on the run and Mark and I were lucky enough to be there while it came in. It is easy to park at the Heidal Kajakksenter and walk down a path to the wave, so we spent many evenings playboating. Amazingly the sun set only for a few hours (dusk from about 12 to 2 am) so it was great to spend extra long hours on the river.


Jorgen Wave on the Sjoa River

Amot Gorge – Many evenings after Mark thought he had finished kayaking, somebody would come down to the campsite and ask “Do you want to run down the Amot?” If you knew Mark you know that he would never turn down some good paddling so off he went for his third session of the day. Again the put-in to this class IV+ section was right at our campsite shore with the take out only 3 km downstream. Amot starts off through the slalom course before heading into a beautiful and commiting gorge. At high water this was a burly slalom course full of Swiss slalom paddlers training in the huge waves.


Pete Astles leading the way through the Amot Gorge

The Amot Gorge consists mostly of squirrelly water with large waves and holes to negotiate through. At high water the eddy lines and boils cause more difficulty than the actual run. After 15 minutes of non-stop action you reach the take out just above the confluence of the Otta river with a smile on your face, heart pounding, glad to have made it through right-side up.

Asengjuvet Canyon is located about 35km upstream from the Amot Gorge section and is another beautiful big water class III-IV canyon consisting of big waves and a few holes to avoid. We ran this 10 km section a few times enjoying it most at high water (the water level dropped about a meter during our time in Norway) as the waves were bigger and the rocks had more water covering them.




Swimming was to be avoided on this section as the water was moving fast and there are a few S bends with undercuts. The hike out of the heart of the canyon is difficult if not impossible. We found out the hard way as a member of our group dropped into the biggest hole on the section and ejected from his boat. Luckily the boat and paddle were recovered about a kilometre down. To reunite with his boat our Finnish friend had to swim through some large class IV rapids and scale some cliffs. In the end everyone was okay and it was just another adventure on the river.

The Sjoa valley and the river which winds through it is a great place to start or base yourself from while paddling in Norway. There are 5 or more raft companies throughout the valley, a full scale kayak shop, small grocery stores and quality pub along the play run that gets busy on the weekends. From Oslo international airport (Gardermoen) you can either take a bus or train directly (3.5hrs) to the town of Otta which is only a 15 minute trip by car to the Sjoa.

S. Drywood Creek, AB - Canada

Spencer Cox sets off down South Drywood Creek, Alberta.
Photos courtesy of Chris Goble.

With the establishment of pipleine and gas-compressor access roads, the logistics for creeking in Alberta are ever improving. A little family history in the Southern Canadian Rocky Mountains and plentiful hiking routes has also helped in the discovery of some new creeking runs for those to explore. The North and South Drywood drainages have long been accounted for on the map, but only recently did their paddling potential become a reality. Located in the far Southwestern corner of the province near Waterton-Glacier National Park, South Drywood creek was a formidable discovery a few years back by paddler and Waterton local Chris Goble. South Drywood runs East towards the open grasslands, but not before flowing out of a spectacular alpine valley.


Michelle Basso winding her way through the Alder trees along South Drywood Creek.

If the gate is open (which is supposed to be the case after June 15) you can easily drive to the put-in and takeout on this run. However one can also make the 5km trek up the road in just over an hour which gives you early season access, optimal flows and a mountain valley all to yourself.

From the put-in, the creek begins with a beautiful 20 ft cascading waterfall into a tight pool.



After the entry falls, eddies become scarce as the run opens up for about a kilometer flowing over multiple cascading ledges, two of which are in the 7-9ft range.


Going with the flow until an eddy appears downstream.

Once the red walls of layered rock begin to close in around you, start looking for an eddy on river right near the roots of a dead tree. Inside the tight canyon lurking below things begin to get vertical quickly as the creek drops into a narrow 20ft chute aptly named "Epi Pen".


Epi Pen set amongst some awesome layers of red rock.

From the bottom of this pool the creek tears down a right banking slide and sets you up quickly for another very tight drop requiring precise left angle to avoid hitting the right wall at the bottom.




Below here two more short spaced drops remain within Drywood's canyon before it flattens out between a forest of Alder trees and finally bubbles down into a prairie stream.


View S. Drywood Creek (IV) in a larger map

Cataract Creek, AB - Canada

With the Rocky Mountain snowpack being minimal at best over the past few years the window of opportunity for Alberta creeking has been short and often disappointing. Again this year looked bleak with a snowpack which came and went out the backdoor. However since the beginning of June, a gift of torrential rain has been sent from afar from the Gulf of Mexico. In a matter of days arid Alberta was saturated coastal style and washed away are paddler's concerns of an unfulfilled season. With the gauges blowing past normal on local waterways, it is time to welcome back quality creeking to the Eastern slopes of the Rockies and get things done.


Hoping for a soft landing and some friendly boils off of Titan - Cataract Creek, Alberta.

Cataract Creek is one of Southern Alberta's great local wilderness runs with good access and some quality drops found within. At the start you meander along an open creekbed for 5km until the valley narrows to the meeting of 2 mountain ridges. Just past a blind corner, the river constricts into a narrow box canyon. Here you will want to either scout or portage the two big canyon drops on river right. The one-two combo of Hercules and Titan falls is classic descent, however Hercules usually doesn't have a clean line until higher water. Titan can be ran at much lower flows by seal launching below Hercules.


Shown with a clean line (14cms), Hercules marks the entrance to the first box canyon with Titan falls just below.

After exiting the first set of waterfalls, the creek runs through another canyon of class III rapids until Zig-Zag falls. Zig-Zag begins as a series of river-wide ledges before a 10 foot boof into another walled-out pool.


Touchdown off of Zig-Zag falls.

Another 4-5km of class III+ and the river kicks right and ramps off into the Nasty-Notch, a narrow river-wide chute with walls on either side.


Michelle Basso charges into the Nasty-Notch and short box canyon section on Cataract Creek.

The final push to the confluence with the Highwood river contains many more bedrock ledges and perhaps one of the largest rapids in Alberta. Class V Leviathan cascades over 3 large ledges before turning into a 50 ft. two-tiered slide and finally dropping into a massive hole. Even if you have run everything up until this point, most people take a really long look at this rapid before opting to portage on river left.

To get to Cataract Creek, head West on route 541 from the town of Longview following the Highwood river for 40km until you come to Sentinel recreation area. Here marks the confluence of Cataract creek and the takeout for the run. To reach the put-in, continue up route 541 for another 4km and then turn left onto the 940 forestry road and head south for 12 km until you reach the bridge. Good camping and an alternative put-in exist just beyond here.


Back to Titan for an October huck - Cataract Creek, AB


View Cataract Creek (III-V) in a larger map