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| We had driven over (and stopped at) this river for years, each time finding it 'just a bit too low'. Finally we decided to just go for it, in spite of the low level, just so we could see what it had to offer. We were not disappointed. The two shots above show the first two falls, while the photo below left shows the runout from the second falls. |
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| About halfway down the run, we encountered a huge combination drop. The entrance to it (above left) was a short drop (onto shallow rock with some piton potential), after which the river was diverted sharply right by a short wall of rock. As the wall subsides to allow the river to resume its rush toward the lake, a long, steep slide (above right) is encountered. A composite-photo side-view (below) hints at the length of this huge slide. The lack of adequate water, as well as the fact that the slide steepens and drops mostly on shallow rock, lead us to opt not to run this amazing drop. |
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| The sixth 'significant' falls (as I count and recall, anyway) was a quite reasonable, double-pitch jumble (shown above left) followed quickly by a short ledge (shown above right). |
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| Another great combination (about the 8th 'major' drop) is shown by the sequence of photos above and below. A steep pourover (above left) leads quickly to a broken slide (above right). A decent pool (ending, when we were there, with a limbo-log straddling the flow (visible to the right of the photo below left) leads to a narrow sluice (dropping off to left in photo below left) dropping into a boiling pool (below right) between narrow walls of rock. |
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| Again, when we were there, there was a log (or railroad tie?) wedged in the narrows of the outflow of the pool in this drop, just below water level. My boating buddy intended to be "nowhere near it". That's him pressed against it in the photo above left. Above right is a shot looking back up at this final slide and the limbo-log above. |
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Immediately downstream of the prior drop, a steep, irregular pitch (landing mostly quite shallow) made it a quick and easy decision for us to portage (photo above left).
Immediately downstream, the river enters a pair of culverts (above right). |
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The outflow from the culverts dumps almost immediately into a short, sweet jumbled slide (photo above left).
After a short span of easy rapids, the river begins to drop away in a series of ledges (the first shown above right) leading to an obvious major drop. |
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| The upper pitch of the main drop falls over a diagonal ledge and lands hard in a short pocket (photo above left) before arching down the larger, lower pitch of the drop (above right). |
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Immediately at the base of the drop the river again passes into a pair of culverts under another loop of the railroad (photo above left). The outflow from these culverts drops into a good pool (above right). At this point you are within sight of Hwy.61, which a great sequence of rapids, slides, and sluices precedes.
Even though there are a couple of awesome drops in the stretch between the highway and the lake, most will opt for the convenience of taking out at the highway. The largest of the remaining drops is narrow and lands rather hard, and immediately dumps into a culvert under railroad tracks. When you exit the other side, you are soon dumped into Lake Superior. It is then necessary to climb up (and down) the steep bank of the tracks to hike back upstream to the highway. |