Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Torch and The Garden

On May 14 - 15 a small group of friends traveled to the Nipawin area to paddle on the Torch River and Garden River.

A washed out bridge over the Garden River.

The Garden River is a low volume river with many shallow rapids

Grant surfing one of the many waves on the Garden river. The Saskatchewan Watershed Authority's website said that it was flowing at 6 - 7 cubic meters per second.

Gord and Judy maneuvering through the rocks on the Garden River.

Around almost every bend there is a sweeper or over hanging trees on the Garden

Grant on the Garden, there wasn't a cloud in the sky all weekend

Thorsten on the Garden

At the put in on the Garden

My home away from home for the weekend. The temperatures dropped to below freezing.

Bear, Moose, and wolf tracks were found in the mud not too far from where we camped.

Gord and Judy relaxing on the Torch River. The river was running at 40 cms

The put in on the Torch

4 comments:

Prairie Voyageur said...

Looks like a fun trip!

Do you know of any maps on the web showing the rivers? I can't seem to find any (it annoys me Google Maps does not label many rivers).

Wildpaddler said...

Hi Prairie Voyageur,

You can find information for the river including a map in the Spring creeks section of my website. http://www.wildpaddler.ca/p/spring-creek-info.html

The Garden River is quickly becoming my favorite spring creek but it only flows for a very brief time in the spring. I just checked the Sask Watershed Authority's website and it is currently flowing at 2 cubic meters per second. At that rate it is impossible to paddle on the river. There simply isn't enough water. Send me an email if you are interested in paddling the garden in the future.

You can find a map/satellite image of the river here. http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=53.26121,-105.32404&z=13&t=S&marker0=58.58903%2C-107.17040%2CMcKay%20Lake%5C%2C%20sk&marker1=55.75153%2C-104.64562%2CDickens%20Lake%20sk&marker2=58.58544%2C-107.13867%2Cunnamed&marker3=52.13437%2C-106.64766%2Csaskatoon%20sk&marker4=53.88150%2C-105.98642%2CW105.9947%20%20N53.82478&marker5=53.79983%2C-106.00193%2CN53.79984%20%20%20W106.00193%20&marker6=54.83436%2C-107.80292%2CGrand%20Rapids%5C%2C%20Beaver%20River

Mark

Prairie Voyageur said...

Thanks for the links Mark. I am mostly living vicariously through your blog posts rather than seeking info for canoe routing.

I am interested to someday try canoeing some spring creeks/whitewater, but for now I do not have the proper equipment or skill level. Heck, I don't even have a canoe! (I borrow my parent's old fiberglass canoe for the odd trip every few years).

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