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| The 'canyon' on the Presque Isle begins with Nakomis. The shots above show the view looking downstream (left) and upstream (right). The river is squeezed through here enough that a couple inches difference on the gauge (at South Boundary Road) becomes a difference of feet through the canyon. At higher water levels, many groups of good boaters have opted to walk the canyon (Nakomis and Triple Drop), and enjoy the playful, big waves which form in the stretch of river downstream. |
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One of the more deceptive drops, LePisto, is the site of numerous swims and mishaps. The upper sloping bedrock drops into a submerged back-cut ledge across most of the width of the drop. Well to the right, water piles into a hunk of rock. The 'usual' line was to 'thread the needle' between these two obstacles. However, successfully doing so, the boater wasn't out of the woods just yet. The hole at the bottom of the lower part of the slide has a penchant for being very 'keepy'.
The above shots show this drop at very low (unboatable) water (left) and at good boatable flow (above right, with boater running the 'normal' line). An alternate route exists by staying far right to run a twisting side channel into the pool below. (This is in the distance in the above shots.) |
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| One more view (from a 'reverse angle') of LePisto (above left), and a view of another drop not far downstream (above right). I don't recall hearing any name applied to this drop, but since it bears a certain similarity to LePisto, and is not far downstream, I refer to it as Lower LePisto. It is generally much more straight-forward to run, but also harbors a hole which can be quite 'keepy'. |
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| The 'normal run' on the Presque Isle ends at the South Boundary Road bridge. However, the final mile of river contains some incredible drops. Nawadaha Falls (above right) consists of wide stairstep ledges. The biggest concern here usually is finding a route with enough water to not be excessively scrapey. |
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Similarly, Manido Falls (above left) consists of wide stairstep ledges with the same problem finding a route which is not scrapey.
Manibezho Falls (above right) is a great vertical drop. This is now being run, though I'm not sure where (across the width of the falls). (There may be some concern about the depth of the pool in places.) |
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| The final gradient consists of interestingly sculpted sloping bedrock (shown at a very low, unboatable flow, above left). This leads into a drop called Swinging Bridge, named for the suspension foot-bridge which offers a great view of the rapids below (shown above right, at extremely low unboatable flow). As can be seen in the photo, the bedrock has been sculpted into an interesting assortment of potholes (all of which will be covered and not obvious at runnable levels). Not far downstream, the river runs out into Lake Superior. A park and a fine trail system allows viewing of all of these falls (for those not running this reach of river). |