Donaldson Rapids

We immediately began the exciting part of the trip, down Donaldson Channel. The Churchill here splits into three streams; the largest is Sluice Falls – far too dangerous for regular canoeists. Devil is the smallest, and Donaldson the middle. There are four sets of rapids on Donaldson, but they increase in size and difficulty as you descend. The first is a big gentle S-bend; a Class 2 rapid, which everyone ran easily.  Next, the stream splits in two around an island in the middle of the next rapid, Needle Falls.  River-left is a ledge with a four foot drop over the Falls.  Canoeists instead choose river-right, a tricky boulder garden Class 3.  

Brent and Russ picked a path, and failing to make the required sharp turn near the bottom, were forced to slam up, over and down some big rocks.  A little rough, but stayed upright. 

Jason and Craig followed the same path down the first part of the rapid and then hit the foamy water which was the hoped-for place to spin the canoe and follow the main body of water out the bottom of the rapid. 

  Well, the water turned, taking the bottom of the canoe with it, but not Jason and Craig, who ended up following the same path as Brent and Russ, but did it outside of the canoe.  

Not deep water, but fast and rough.  A little bruised at the bottom but okay. Brent and Russ rescued the paddles, Jason stayed with the canoe and floated on downstream while Warren and Peter picked up Craig, perched on some submerged rock at the bottom of the rapid.

The third Donaldson rapid is much bigger, a 3+. Most of the water goes down one big channel down the middle.  We call it the Roller Coaster.  

Knowing that they would fill, Brent still opted to shoot right down the main tongue, and pound through the diagonal curling waves and haystacks. They got through, filled but still upright and pulled into the shore. 

Warren and Peter took a subtler and safer course on river right, and came through with little water on board. Jason and Craig followed Brent's line and with a more lightly canoe came through OK with minimal water on board.

We call the final Donaldson rapid “Right Angle” because most of the river slams into a rock face and then makes a 90-degree turn, another 3+. 

(To see and hear the rapids again, right click on the picture and then on 'play')

The runnable channel varies with the water level.  This time, the best one was the second one from the rock face.  A significant rock divides these two channels, and the two tongues merge a short distance later, usually filling the canoe and leaving you the rest of the rapid to run without much control. 

There is a big eddy at the top,  which gives everyone a good chance to get out and look at what is coming up.  Getting out of the eddy and back into the main stream is challenging, since a mistake means you are in for a rough ride.  

Warren and Peter ran this one first,  eddying out low and quickly, they hit the main channel OK, but didn’t get as far right as hoped for, so Warren decided to avoid a big rock and eddy out (and bail out) before completing the tricky turn and thread the needle through the boulders of the second part of the rapid. 

(You do not see many pictures of Warren and Peter because they were the two photographers on the trip.)

While Peter and Warren were bailing, Brent and Russ started more upstream, ferried out cleanly behind a small ledge and got lined up well.

However, they took on lots of water and were swept on past the same place where Warren had decided to avoid the rock.  

Brent went over the rock instead, taking on more water, and then skidded sideways into one of the big boulders, which turned the water sharply to the right.  Either at this rock, or the next, they finally got dumped and swam the rest of the rapid beside their canoe. They ended up far out into the lake, and began working to shore. 

Meanwhile,  Jason and Craig had started, but failed to get out of the eddy correctly and got spun around.  They then attempted to paddle back up to the eddy, and after a few seconds of panic and effort, realized that they were not going to get back up into the eddy.  

They got swept down the more dangerous channel backwards (!), very close to the rock face, but miraculously taking on very little water.   They sailed on down backwards, with Jason looking over his shoulder and steering as well as he could from that position. 

 They also scraped over the same rock that Warren and Brent had paid so much attention to.  However, when it came time to make the turn to go down the second part of the rapid, they were ideally placed.  They paddled forwards hard, but they also were pushed up onto one of the boulders, where they teetered, and they finally plunged down.  Once again, they appeared at the bottom of the rapid, having only taken on minimal water.  Warren and Peter followed, and even with a dry canoe, still scraped between several of the big boulders.

Then we were off around the point on the short paddle to Corner.

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