Low Volume Calgary Creek Boating

Knowing that I only have a week left before I fly to New Zealand Brad Sutton and myself decided to get some local creek runs in at low water before I leave.

Here are a few pictures with captions...

Brad on Slide

Elliot in the foam

Elliot Random Slide

Elliot (yellow) and Brad (red) after drop


Brad in the fluffy stuff



Bear at take out

Elliot on Slide


Brad on a slide

Brierlies Hole, Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, Canada

Just west of the small town of Rockie Mountain House is Brierlies Play spot on the North Saskatchewan River. It consists of a super clean even hole that you can pull almost any move on!

It is dam controlled and tends to be higher in the morning. I have paddled this spot lots over the summer of 07 here. Camping is right at the wave and there is seldom anyone at the hole which means more rides and less waiting!!

Kananaskis Play Run, Alberta, Canada

The Kananaskis is a play run with man made features. It is the spot of choice by many central Alberta paddlers because of its guaranteed flows and closeness.

Here are a few pictures of the sumer paddling out there. Enjoy!

Elbow River, Alberta, Canada

About 30min from where I was living in Calgary is the elbow river. This was my after work run for a good few months while I was based in Calgary.

It is a class 4 run with 2 rapids getting near the class 5 range. It begins with a nice waterfall which most people put in below. From there the next major rapid is called The Notch. This is a nasty undercut shoot with lots of wood in it. It has claimed a few lives over the years so it is also often walked although it is not overly hard. After that is a few KMs of class 3 before you get to a solid little slide with a nice hole at the base. This is the last major rapid before the class 3 run out.

Bear Creek, Montana, USA

Bear creek flows down a old glacier canyon over very smooth even gradient bed rock. It has a steep gradient of 450ft per mile and a hell of a lot of lumber in the river. The lack of eddies and large amount of strainers makes for some interesting full on class 5 paddling.

On the trip I was there we ended up hiking out after 3 km because 2 members from our group found themselves in a log jam due to a thunderstorm that doubled the flow of the creek in under 5min. I am looking forward to going back in to run the whole length of bear creek in the near future.

Big Timber Creek, Montana, USA

While picking up my new Bliss Stick Mystic Creeker sown in Missoula i got the chance to meet up with some paddlers to run Big Timber Creek.


They were there training for a race that was to be held there in a few days time.


Big Timber creek is a solid class 5 bed rock run with a very steep gradient of 700ft per mile. The pictures explain the rest!

Findley Creek, British Columbia, Canada

Chip, Will and Myself were on a road trip in southern Alberta which made us end up at the put in for the lower Findley gorge. This is a classic South East BC class 4-5 run. It is choked with logs and goes through a very tight canyon.

The run was a even gradient gorge run with blind corners, horizon lines and plenty of lumber! Scouting was difficult because of frozen near vertical walls. Myself and Chip got caught in recirculation below a drop but were able to work our ways out

Bears were a problem at this run too. While at the take out a bear was spotted in the distance standing over a dead deer. This made for some scary hike up to the vehicle!

Lundbreck Falls, Southern Alberta, Canada

While driving north up the eastern Rockies we came across a nice 40ft waterfall. After a long while scouting we decided the line was to have a delayed boof off the hard left tongue and land on a seam created by another curtain.

I hit the line landing flat in the seam to resurfacing immediately upright. After that we just started hucking it none stop all afternoon filming and taking photos

(see the right line too!)

Cameron Creek, Waterton National Park, Alberta, Canada

While at a paddle festival in the small town of Pincher Creek in Alberta Canada a crew of paddlers went in to run the full length of Cameron Creek. The Team consisted of Elliot Dale, Mark Basso and Shon Cottrill.

Cameron Creek flows down a steep gorge high up in Waterton National Park. It doesnt see to many descents from top to bottom. Most paddlers start high up at aldridge falls and end just bellow a double drop above another gorge. This run is a small class 5 taste of what lies down stream in the lower gorge.

The reason the lower gorge is not run is mainly because of a must run class 5 waterfall into a room of doom. This waterfall is almost impossible to set safety for and requires every paddler to style it cleanly. After this there is a log jam which must be live baited because of the box canyon.

From here there is about a dozen hairy class 5 drops to the take out frop called Razor Romone. This is a tight drop with a razor sharp rock fin that parallels the line. It also supports a wicked horse shoe hole at the bottom.