Water Levels in Whitewater Canoeing

Video Transcript

"When you’re planning a river trip, one of the most important things to keep in mind is the level of the river you’re going to go paddle. Some rivers at moderate flows can be nice and easy class twos, class three, great beginner to intermediate runs, whereas in higher water they become class four or even class five if the water’s high enough. And it’s an important factor because if you don’t keep in mind the water level you may be getting on a run that you think is much easier than it is. And in fact could become very, very dangerous in higher levels. There are a number of things that affect the water level, first one of course is rainfall, how much rain have you had recently, what kind of run-off pattern does the river that you are on have, those are all things to find out from local paddlers, and from local guidebooks. They should give you a good idea of how flashy that river is, how quickly it comes up with rainfall and how long it tends to stay up and what, what the peak time is. Some rivers take a day or more to peak, so it may be that even though the rain was 24 hours ago, the river you’re on may still be rising. That’s certainly something to keep in mind as you paddle down for the day. Another major factor in affecting water level is a dam. We have a dam right behind me here and the dam can make a huge difference in the water level. They can release, you know, five hundred cubic feet per second in the morning and it may go up to two or three thousand in the afternoon, depending on the demand for power or the other factors that affect this, the level that, that dam releases. Another factor in a lot of parts of the country and in the springtime in the northeast and in the west is snowmelt. How much snow do you have on the ground and how warm is it going to be that day, how fast is the snow going to melt and how saturated is the ground in general. These are all factors that really take a lot of time and a lot of judgment to get to, to get to be able to discern well, and something that you really need to spend a lot of time on the river to understand. And so the best thing to do at first is to ask somebody who knows, ask somebody who knows that river well, maybe an outfitter in the area, maybe another paddlers who’s run that river a lot and knows it’s patterns and be really cautious at first because if you get on a river and its starts to rise fast and you don’t have a plan to get off, or you’re not aware that it’s rising it can lead to major problems. So be safe and take precautions and you’ll have a great trip. "