This past week I was able to cross two more rivers off of my list. The Salmon river and Beaver creek. I took the time to explore these Ontario classics not only see what they were all about but to get my girlfriend out on the water…to learn how to kayak! These rivers are great for learners as they have anything from class 1-4(level depending) and everything is easily scouted or walked around. Here are some pictures to check out!
The Salmon river lies just north of Tamworth which is just north of Kingston. It takes anywhere from 1-3 hours to run depending on the amount of scouting and dilly daddling you do! There are three major rapids on this run. The first is pretty soon and is a class 2+ with class 3 line potential, The “Gorge” and the last is a nice 3 foot boof called buffalo jump.This was my favorite. It was a good feeling to boof again although only 3 feet.Most newer paddlers tended to walk buffalo jump due to the size of the hole. Another 15 mins of paddling brings you to the take out!
The Beaver Creek is definitely a little step up form the Salmon as some people as it has a class IV on it. It has a more creeky feel toit and its also a little bit long at 3 hours for an average run (1.5 min). The first big one was a sort of double drop rapid with lap potential. It started the run off with a bang that’s for sure. The only girl on the trip bucked up to run this one but was unfortunately treated with a double swim on the doubledrop! A wake up call for the weary, and on we went. A few more nice class 2-3s got us to the big one of the day. Bridge rapids. The river creeps under a small ATV bridge and drops about 15-20 feet over a slide type rapid. Super shallow conditions made this one a little beefy for some, but again Jen pushed it and ran a stylin line at that! The last long class 3 takes you pretty well to the take out and the end to an excellent river for those newer paddlers wanting to up their river repertoire. Photos here by Stan Dymecki
