RUPERT TURN TO FALLS ... (easy half day) ... July 11

23, 24, & 25 River

R (rapids). Directly below C.S. run to left of island in middle.

P. 50 yds on left around rapid too steep to run. P. takes out about 20 yds above fast water.

Paddle 1-2 miles.

P 900 yds on right, grassy landing well above fast water. All forks of the trail lead to the same place (try left of all forks to avoid muskeg). P. goes around rapid shown on 4-1. C.S at end of p. to the right.

long and gentle. Run left center.

Swifts.

Paddle 2 miles. Lake-like expanse.

Run right hand side of little swift past first islands to the P. P. goes over island straight ahead in middle of most of the diverging channels. 150 ydr over island, around stuff too big to shoot.

Paddle 2 miles & swifts.

R Good power. Ran center pulling out left for landing for P.

P. 200 ydr on left. (300 yds below rapid on grassy landing. (C.S. at beginning -Clay & Bill). An island is in the center of the top of the rapid this portage goes around. Small loading area (2-3 canoes).

Paddle 2 miles through tricky lake-like expanse.

Just onto next 4-1 map, next to a long thin sandbar like deposit. Tough 400 yd long rapid. We shot left, into eddy on left. There is an island in the second pitch, just below the first pitch. We crossed the river to the right shore taking the right side of the right channel around the island (ledge in middle of this channel). Hung a hard left onto river at the bottom of this rapid avoiding deep bay straight ahead.

Paddle , skipping 3 small bays to the left into the finger like lake keeping north of small islands.

C.S. at the end of the lake in a bay like area on the west shore, just as the lake narrows down into the river again. Sand beach obvious, in Jack Pine stand (south of river’s exit)

Paddle 1 mile through swifts leaving lake.

R Very Tricky. Look over from left. We shot; first pitch on right side pulling into eddy on right. Second pitch-now most of the water goes left of an island, curving to the left. By crossing the current going to the right of the island we shot the right side of the channel to the left of the island, pulling into the eddy on the right. (eddy is shallow at its top) (’70 shot left side of left channel into an eddy and then crossed back to the right shore below). Then we worked out into the main current just enough to avoid the shallows to the right (pulling into an eddy on the right just after the other channel comes in from the right). We worked our way down the right shore to the portage. (1st rapid shown on this 4-1)

P. 200 ydr on right about half way down this island on a rock landing. Just above the last and major pitch (unshootable/cascade). Small unloading area. A 500 yd portage with bushy landing at the top of the island avoids all but the first pitch and joins the 200 yd portage about 50 yds from its end. C.S. just after the trail meet.

C.S. Bushed a beautiful site at the beginning of the 200 yd portage. Kitchen area to right about 30 yds after trail begins. Perfect kitchen area! Fishing OK at top of portage.

Made it through the first day of rapids. Perfect shooting all day until the last rapid just above the campsite where I shot into a shallow eddy too soon to avoid some standing waves and broke some sheeting, but no hole. Everyone else did really well with only 3 noticeable run ups on rocks by the rest of the section. That’s one major disadvantage of going first – you find all the rocks and wrong channels the hard way. So, we did pretty good today- the last rapid of the day was a tricky one, if you blew any of the three chutes, you would end up going over a 10’ cascade. Goodbye for good!! At the portage where we planned to camp we met Clay and Billy’s section, so we bused out a site on the other (upper) side of the portage, a beautiful place!! They stopped here & plan to take a rest day tomorrow because they had some problems. One of their campers swamped and they had a couple other problems, so they’re going to try to get it all together tomorrow while we go ahead. I just hope we won’t mess up.