Wet and Wild

The bow of the canoe slices through a white froth of rapid sending a splash of frigid Elbow River water over the gunwale, into the canoe. I’m kneeling in a puddle, soaked from the knee down. Either the cold has numbed my legs or the adrenaline surging into my system has blocked the sensation of the bone chilling cold, but I don’t feel it. I’m straining to pull the craft out of the current, into calm relief the eddy by the shore affords. Here we can dump the water, compose ourselves and plan our next foray into the raging torrent. I had no idea. I love canoeing, but my experience is of serene lakes, where I can watch the swirl from the paddle disappear in the sparkling water and the rippling waves as the canoe glides across the surface. This is anything but serene. It’s thrilling and scary. It’s not the gentle float down the river we enjoyed when we launched into the Bow River in Banff and paddled to Canmore. Paddling the Elbow is a rough ride. Only experienced paddlers with qualified guides should attempt it. This river can demolish canoes, injure and even kill people. An obvious place to start your paddling adventure is the “Boat Launch” opposite the Canyon Creek Rd. on highway 66 inside Kananaskis. But, we “put-in” at Allen Bill Pond as we wanted to avoid a ledge that is reported to be troublesome. A summer of frequent rain had doubled the flow of water over the year previous. It was racing down the river valley. Apparently this is a good thing as less water would have left us few options to avoid hazards along the way. There were quite a few of those. Huge trees, uprooted and wedged along or across the river with nasty gnarly roots, spikes really, reaching out to snare us as we approached. Apart from a few breaks to recompose ourselves, we were able to paddle the length of the river. There was one ledge that was particularly troublesome. It is hidden around a sharp right turn, where the Provincial Park borders Bragg Creek (no more in 2017). You can faintly hear the crashing water, but there is no visual clue. This slab of rock spans most of the width of the river except for a small channel on the far right. Normally you would be inclined to go left as that is the direction of the current, but our guides were able to spot the hazard and direct us to paddle madly for the right-hand bank hidden behind the bend. From there we were able to plot a way forward into the swirling water and a sharp left turn as we continued downstream. There is another wide ledge and churning rapids as you approach the hamlet of Bragg Creek. At this point our nerve was pretty well gone and we decided to pull out at the bottom of River Dr. S., down the street from Front Porch Square. Someone had created an attractive spiral design in the water there, using football sized rocks. Our guides continued on through the rough rapids upstream from the Balsam Street bridge. Rafters seem to have no problem with these rapids either, but we had had our fill of adrenaline for the day. Downstream from the bridge a small channel on the left is the safe way to get through to the pull-out at Spruce Avenue. This is where we left one our cars, the one used to return to Allen Bill where we parked the other at the start of the day. The river around the bridge is a popular playground for bathers and tubers. They use air inflated tire inner tubes to float from just above the bridge through small rapids and falls to the pull-out at Spruce Ave. Read about Playing in the Elbow River. I’m sure you know by now that we aren’t experienced whitewater paddlers. I don’t know what thrills and chills the rest of the river holds, but I’ve heard that people paddle the river up around Cobble Flats. I’ve seen people preparing to kayak over Elbow Falls, but others have died there. So I recommend using a guide when paddling the Elbow. Contact the canoe clubs to find out more.