Grande Cache Whitewater Rendezvous

Muskeg River Hwy 40 to Falls (II - IV)

June 04, 2004

The Grande Cache Whitewater Rendezvous is traditionally held on the first weekend of June each year and so it was this June 4, 5, and 6th, 2004. A number of our club members made the trip this year - myself, Jay, Dominic, Werner, Tim, and Kelly. We started the weekend with a Friday evening run on the Muskeg. Tim, Jay & Jim went on this run. It was a beautiful evening with the weather co-operating and the river at a friendly medium-low level.

The Muskeg has some very interesting features not the least of which is a class four take-out. It starts however, with a very nice surf wave under the highway 40 bridge. We made our way along, stopping to enjoy the various playspots of which there are many on this river. The Fraser Ledge, which has a very distinct line and a reasonably high price for failure (shoulder dislocation or the like) was in fine form and hats off to my son, Jay for running this. Dad was a little more conservative and decided to walk this feature. The next major feature is the Little Muskeg Falls which has been run but has a sieve and so only the very brave or foolhardy attempt this. Besides, running it means missing out on a most excellent seal launch - about 15 ft. drop into a highly aerated pool. This is way too much fun. This run finished without incident, unless you want to talk about the arduous hike out, parts of which seem only suitable for mountain goats, certainly not for kayakers dressed for cold water conditions, carrying boats on their heads.

Sheep Creek (IV+ V)

June 05, 2004

Day 2 saw all of the WWK gang head for Sheep Creek. This is a class III - IV run depending on levels with one class V section known as "the portage". The day was a bit gloomy, and with the hot weather of the previous week, the river was at level 4 on the highway bridge guage, and for those familiar, the flat rock was well covered. This meant the river would be running full on class IV in some sections. We were divided into three groups of 6 to make the trip more manageable for the river leaders.

The first major drop - Rock Horn Rapid, let us know what we were in for . Called rock horn because of a horn like protrusion over the river, we had to pick our way through large holes - this is the kind of river that puts your river reading skills to the test, because the drops are significant enough that the person ahead of you disappears from time to time hence, you need to pick your own line. I have to admit, Lauzon's Ledge came and went without me realizing it so it was either not significant or everything else was big enough that it didn't seem unusual. When we got to The Cauldron, we needed to scout it as it has been choked with logs for the past three years. Here the river constricts to a very narrow slot and just prior to this there was a micro-eddy that we all jumped into one by one. As was feared, the rapid was still blocked by a very large tree making it un-navigable.

The next rapid - a class V known as the portage was huge and very intimdating. No one ran this. After the portage, came Heidi's Ledge - a river wide ledge with one line. This is a tongue which is about 10 meters from the river left shore, nasty if you don't make the line because it will reportedly work you all day. Incidentally, it seems to me you don't want to have a feature named after you on the sheep because it is only after you have been incredibly worked that they name a feature after you - hence the name Heidi's Ledge.

After Heidi's Ledge comes Sheep Creek Falls - which from the pictures doesn't look like much but the line is extreme right or left and hop in the eddy. If you don't make the line, you get sucked into the middle of the falls and tossed around a bit. One of our members popped up about 40 feet below the falls after getting heavily worked. He and all his gear were rescued. After the falls, comes a series of very challenging -IV drops. It was during this set of drops that one of our members swam a couple of times. The second swim put our rescue skills to the test and a big thank-you goes out to our friends from the Edmonton area who stepped up to the plate with the rescue effort. Add to this the fact that another member swam at the same time, and it was pandemonium. At this point, our trip leader, Jean firmly suggested that hiking out was the best option for Tim as there was some full on class IV coming. True to form, two of our members made the hike back to the road which runs near Sheep Creek Falls.

The next set of class IV drops are a bit of a blur to me with one exception but I can say they were gigantic in my mind and I was personally at the maximum on my "holy crap meter". The exception is something called 'The Slide' which could perhaps be described as what might be similar to paddling up the side of a two storey house roof. I had a great day as did Jay and we were all thankful that our fellow club members came through with little more than damaged ego's.

Muskeg River Hwy 40 to Day Use Area (II-III)

June 06, 2004

The Sunday saw the group minus Tim and myself. The level of the rivers had risen significantly as it had rained heavily overnight. The Sheep went from 4 on the guage to 11 (ulp) and the Muskeg went from friendly medium-low to high. It was decided by the group to just run what we call the upper Muskeg - a very short section of river but at that level, there was no shortage of playspots.

I cannot comment on the social evening Saturday as I was not there but it sounds like Jean at the Grande Cache Hotel put on a great evening with a pasta buffet and rumour has it some of our boys were a little green around the gills on Sunday - one too many cocktails, perhaps?

All in all a great weekend - it doesn't get any better this close to home, I know Jay and I will be back for sure.

Jim Myers

Trip Members

Descriptions

Click here to check out the river details for the Muskeg.

Click here to check out the river details for Sheep Creek.