View topic - Cold River??

Has anyone here paddled the Cold river from cold lake into Pierce lake SK?? Its only a 5 or 6km paddle but it sounds like a fun little section.Just looking for some feedback on what time is good and when to avoid. Thanks

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I have not, though I've looked at it on the map and have been not too far away from there. It's a nice area, much nicer than I expected. Check with Vinessa Currie of Clearwater Canoeing, this is sort of her neck of the woods and can likely point you in the correct direction if she does not have direct experience.
http://www.clearwatercanoeing.ca/

Cheers,
Bryan

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Bryan's website - http://pawistik.net
ColdspringPaddling.com

Thanks for the info. Site is great!

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I live in Cold Lake, the head waters of the Cold River. I have not lived here long and not yet paddled it but, my buddy and I plan on going down it soon before the water gets low. He has done the river many times, he uses his 16' prospector. As I said I have not done it yet but talking to him it sounds like spring and fall are the best times and make sure all in the canoe are experienced. If you have more questions let me know, hope that helped.

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Been pretty busy as I have also just moved to Cold Lake. Have you guys paddled that yet? I'm going to try and get out on my next set of days off. Hopefully the water level is good.

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My wife's cousin and I canoed the Cold River from Cold Lake to Pierce Lake in the beginning of August of 2013. River was moderately high. The river starts out with a few moderate rapids, but don't be fooled. The warnings posted at the start are for real.
Once you round a few bends, you will enter level 3 rapids that only end several kilometres later at Pierce Lake. The problem is not the level of rapids but they are continuous - no break. There is no way an open canoe can avoid swamping from the nearly continual standing waves (which we nearly did - over a foot of water in the canoe), or hitting one of the many, many rocks. At one point we hit a large log jam and had to haul our canoe over it without breaking a leg on the slippery logs)
We spent an hour fearing for our lives, and walked our canoe down the side of the river until we could progress no further (water too deep; solid bush on the side). I thought it was going to be a rescue mission in the making. We finally decided (against all canoe safety rules) to "go for it" along the north side of the river, hoping there were no branches that could sweep us under. We did make it with a lot of prayer. At the end of the rapids there is a canoe "graveyard" - a pile of twisted fiberglass!
You might make it if you are a very experienced kayaker, but canoeing is definitely out. There is no way you can avoid swamping out.
I have video of the first section if interested, but put my camera away after it got wet.

You will find some Cold River information in the Beaver-basin sections at both the following links; just keep scolling.
AB
http://myccr.com/phpbbforum/viewtopic.php?f=109&t=41842
SK
http://www.myccr.com/content/upper-churchill

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A literal mind is a little mind. If it's not worth doing to excess, it's not worth doing at all. Good enough isn't.  None are so blind as those who choose not to see. (AJ)

Gadwin14,
my brother in law and myself wet down around the end of July. After passing the riffles we too were suprised how the river turned from nice an easy to a 5km endles jaunt of Class3+ rapids! We swamped once and then walked the boat down.
I now want to buy a raft! LOL
oh well the peirce lake paddle was nice!

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