Happy Earth Day

The rafting season is getting closer. Out on the river on a day like today would be great! And what a fantastic day it is. This is the warmest day yet this year.

Today I drove up the river to Coal Camp where the last set of rapids leaves the foothills. If there is snow and ice here there is plenty more ice upstream and at the higher elevations where we are rafting. With this much ice the river is a few weeks away from flowing enough to float a raft. A month until there are rapids.

The picture of the final rapid is no rapid at all! The build up of ice downstream of the rapid is causing the water to pile up and form a pool that obliterates the rapid.

And being Earth Day here is a picture taken of Cartier Creek, which was just begging to be taken reminding us how beautiful our planet is and that it is worth preserving. Let’s work at that year round.

We’ll be rafting in about 6 weeks.

The snow is just about gone here and around Sundre. When I look west though, those mountains  are white with  plenty of snow. In fact, there is about another month of snow yet to accumulate that will feed the run off on the Red Deer River.

We don’t know when we will be able to raft the river. That depends upon when we start to warm up in the mountains and a melt starts to happen. That is always delayed compared to what happens here on the parkland and on the prairies.

We will be out guide training early and scouting the river for new obstacles pre-season. The guides here at Otter Rafting Adventures have early season safety training and rope skills to hone. Sounds like some swimming in cold water!

Here is the chart of the snow pack now. There is about 20% more snow now than at it’s greatest depth last year. The blue line is heading off the chart!

Differences in rivers

A new white water canoeing course has been created for the upcoming Olympics, in Great Britain. It  is being used for a training ground for those interested in white water rafting.  It is opening up the sport to a whole new group of newbies.
The water course is geared to canoeists but is being used by rafters as well. Here is a video of paddling on the created course.

The water is pumped from a nearby lake and feeds into the water way at a constant 15 cms . By sculpting the channel a series of rapids and drops have been created to simulate a river. This controlled river would offer the competitors the same set of rapids all the time throughout their season. They will be able to reposition some of the rapids by introducing and removing obstacles.
Here in Alberta a similar river would be the dam controlled Kananaskiis River which always runs at the same rate, albeit at a higher rate of 34 cms. This is governed by Trans Alta Utilities for power generation reasons and is timed by power consumption needs. There is little variation in the river features trip to trip.
The Red Deer River, which is the river Otter Rafting Adventures paddles, is a wild river in that it is not dam controlled. Water volumes are dictated by the snow pack in the mountains and vary through out the season. This year the snow pack is above average for this time of year and if it continues, we can expect some high water again. Last year the flow rate peaked in the 200’s cms and this year, it is likely to be higher for a period of time.
Enjoy the video. What’s with lifting your paddles going through the rapids?? Notice the conveyer belt to take the rafts back up to the top? Imagine installing one of those at Cache Hill!