Author Topic: TR Kipawa rally 2017  (Read 2393 times)

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Offline Paul Potvin

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Now I understand! All Rapids look super pushy!
« Reply #6 on: June 29, 2017, 10:44:14 PM »

Offline ChristianG

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Re: TR Kipawa rally 2017
« Reply #5 on: June 29, 2017, 07:59:00 PM »
Larry M decided to bail on the flats before Button Hook (...)

A pickup truck slid down in the ditch near Scott's place

Poor Larry must have been completely drained of his blood by the time he got picked up!!!

As for the truck in the ditch, it didn't need much to get out, a Nissan and a rope did the trick.

Glad to see you found your car key! Was worried it would fall inside the strut...

Offline jonyak

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Re: TR Kipawa rally 2017
« Reply #4 on: June 29, 2017, 02:02:13 PM »
Awesome weekend. I miss it already.

The river was huge, but friendly. I had some poop lines, and missed the eddy both day on elbow :(


Offline Larry W

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Re: TR Kipawa rally 2017
« Reply #3 on: June 29, 2017, 10:47:15 AM »
The festival attendance was low but then again the infrastructure at the take-out wasn't overwhelmed. What wasn't low in attendance were the bugs ... made our the Madawaska/Palmer weekend look tame. Scott said it was the worst in 42 years.

After watching the head-to-head races in which the lines were everywhere, my run on Sunday down Hollywood was uneventful. Hint: stay-up right and point boat down stream

Best of all, it was sunny and warm at the end of the day.


Larry W
« Last Edit: June 29, 2017, 05:38:56 PM by Larry W »

Offline lafreniere.luc

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Re: TR Kipawa rally 2017
« Reply #2 on: June 29, 2017, 08:40:41 AM »
Sunday's run was relatively uneventful. Larry M decided to bail on the flats before Button Hook after swimming at the bottom of Rock and Roll (he had 3 strong attempt at rolling before he pulled). Some days, we just aren't feeling it...

So four of us made it down the rest of the river. Went well for all. I had a much better line on Hollywood which was a nice way to finish unlike last year's run *cough* swim *cough*. The day started with rain and cold and about a 1/3 of the way in, turned to nice sun and it warmed up quite a bit.

We were the first ones on and the first ones off the river that day. Overall, this year's attendance seemed on the low side.

A pickup truck slid down in the ditch near Scott's place (maybe 1km from the parking) trying to give way to another vehicle. Luckily we were able to pass by and return to Ottawa. Apparently the truck made it out pretty quickly with some help.

That was about it!

Offline ChristianG

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TR Kipawa rally 2017
« Reply #1 on: June 28, 2017, 10:20:22 PM »
This year, a crew of 7 club members bravely drove the 450 km between here and the Kipawa River Lodge, situated at the bottom of a $&@?!!-ly steep hill, at the end of 10 km of nasty narrow dirt road:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kipawa_River#/media/File%3AThe_Kipawa_river_Lodge.JPG

The Kipawa river, from below the dam at Laniel to lake Temiskaming 16 km later, drops 90 m, and there is even a significant amount of flatwater. Even though about 40 m of that drop is accounted for by La Grande Chute (look on back of new 10$ bill for a picture) and the first part of Hollywood rapid, both bypassed by Class V portages, the runnable rapids drop the remaining 50 m. Yep, that's right: more than 15 storeys tall of class III-IV fun.

This year the dam operator gave us 160 m3/s of cold bottom-released water. Compared to the old 100-120 levels of previous years, and the 140 of last year, this year's release made for a BIG river, at least for us tourists. All the lines were the same, just bigger, pushier... and faster.

It starts with a bang: Rock and Roll! Although it can not be seen while scouting from shore, the meat line proved to be easy to find from the entry, consisting essentially of what reminded me of an olympic ski jump ending with a big wall of water you just burst right through. Although the Larry's (Larries?) went a bit to the right of the fast line, and dropped straight down a couple meters... I can report that at this level the rock usually responsible for Jon's rear end discomfort was nowhere to be found.

Then came pure candy: three short straightforward rapids in close succession with HUGE haystacks. Very big at this level and very fun. After this, a long flat, then...

...Buttonhook. Simple line in theory: start left of center, avoid hole, then DRIVE RIGHT to catch a big eddy in order to avoid a huge hole (with an easily spotted tongue in its centre though). In practice the execution was made difficult by the very large waves and the fact that the entire rapid was white aerated water, all looking the same... Picture running Lower No-Name at its meatiest and in a very specific way to get to a very specific spot--no room for error or laziness. A big curler was in fact guarding the eddy, most of us made it but we had one swimming casualty there, so to speak. Jacques assures us the following holes were big even for a former competitive swimmer.

After that some more candy, no stress--even for Pic-Nic. Zipper was again amazing, with a big green curler at the end. This rapid is just too short unfortunately.

Grande Chute: the observation platform has not been rebuilt, so a bit scary. Put-in below is directly into the next rapid. Here, simple again: avoid the nasty stuff at the top and paddle left! Right at the put-in, the boils leftover from the waterfall spun me around twice before I could head downstream. Only Luc caught the eddy. No problem here, but around the elbow (for which rapid is named), huge wave Class III for 400 m or so. Like 400 m of Lower No-Name at 15 on the gauge.

Yet another Class V portage, and for many the crux of the run: Hollywood. More like 'Holy S...' Since we skip the top of this one, put-in is directly into this Class IV monster. Picture big waves all the same white color, all preventing you to do what needs to be done: paddle to the left! But once it calmed down a bit, the line was easily achieved (relatively speaking). Larry M had in fact the most relaxed line as we saw him, a bit too relaxed since a rock in the Class II runout did him in--just like last year! At least a couple dozens spectators were cheering him.

We got off the river just in time for the Sun to come out and the Hollywood Head to Head racers to come down, 2 by 2 BMX style. Richard Maggs finally won this year, watch this video to find out how he lost last year to that sneaky OC1 guy...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLud5iKTl2Quxb0taTg86g8l4MLQHrSvSh&v=1Y4AwwpYspw

Unfortunately, neither Jacques nor I had sufficient gear for Sunday's colder weather (9 degrees C) so we left the hardy 5 to do that day's run. They will have to pitch in some details! Anyway, we had our own problems, with no connection between the car engine and the muffler--not much conversation possible for those 6 hours!!!

This river is perhaps the most rewarding run of this part of North America. Despite the portages, the hill and the bugs. Cheers!

-C.
« Last Edit: June 28, 2017, 10:44:33 PM by ChristianG »