River Run

We want to do this again but next time, we'll rent.

When DW and I decided to go to Parc National de la Jacques-Cartier, a few weeks ago, we had seen a video of people kayaking on the river, on sit-on-top boats, negotiating some big rapids. If they could do that in those kayaks, we thought, then surely we could run that river in our sit-in kayaks.

But could we really? I mean, the kayaks in that video were pretty short—no more than 10 feet long, we figured, if not shorter.

We knew from watching various videos that there were some sit-on-top kayaks that can handle various rapids. There are also much shorter, whitewater kayaks that are specifically designed for these kinds of waterways.

DW and I have 14-foot touring kayaks that are specifically designed for flat water and open water, where the only white water you encounter is white caps on wind-swept waves. Our kayaks aren't really designed for white water. Sure, they can easily negotiate Class I rapids (swift-moving water) and are capable of handling Class II rapids (more white water in swift currents), but they aren't really recommended for Class III rapids, where you have carved channels, lots of white water, and elevation changes.

I've seen kayaking enthusiast Ken Whiting handle Blakeney Rapids on the Mississippi River, between Almonte and Pakenham, in a Delta 15.5 GT kayak (what a beauty!). As he states in the video, these Delta kayaks aren't built for quick manoeuvres, so dodging rocks can be a challenge if you don't have enough time.

He explains that knowing how to read white water plays an extremely important role in negotiating rapids. And DW and I lack that knowledge and experience.

Blakeney Rapids is far more challenging than anything the rapids on the Jacques Cartier River offers because of its narrow channel and big rocks, so we thought we'd give our river a go. If the rapids looked too difficult or hard to navigate with our long kayaks, we'd portage.

And so we ran the 20K river in our Delta 14 kayaks.

Despite what I said about this run in my previous video and at the beginning of this video, we ran every set of rapids except the first Class II rapids (we thought there were too many rocks) and the mandatory portage of a set of Class III rapids. How did we fare? See for yourself.

In the nearly five hours of this run, I put more scratches on the hull of my kayak that I had put in the five seasons that I had my Delta 12.10. I guess I've fully broken it in (and, thankfully, not broken the kayak itself).

Will we run more white water in the future? You betcha, but probably not until water levels are higher (maybe, next spring).

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Happy Monday!