The Choices of the Ottawa by Ben Heath

When people think of the Ottawa river, they normally think of Mccoy’s Rapids, along with the main channel. The main channel is the classic Ottawa river. It is the home of the Colosseum Rapid, one of the biggest and most challenging stretches on the river, as well as so many amazing features, such as Pushbutton, Garburetor, Waikiki, Mini-Bus, and of course the world famous Buseater Wave.

However, not all of these features are in at the same time depending on the water level. At some levels, none of them are even in! Right now, with the river level at 6 ft, only Waikiki is in, leaving the main channel without many features to play on.

However, the main channel is not the only part of the Ottawa River. After Mccoy’s Rapids, the river parts. If you were to continue straight instead of hooking a right to go to the main, you will be brought to the Middle channel of the Ottawa. The Middle channel is definitely a step down from the Main as far as size and difficulty goes, but it is able to hold it’s own as far as features go. With the water level at 6 ft like it was today, S bend, Butterfly, and Upper No Name were at prime play levels. Instead of camping out at Waikiki for hours, struggling to get a quality surf, we were able to surf on these beautiful features without any real effort to catch them.

Even thought many people tend to view the Middle channel as a smaller, wimpier brother to the Main, it can be easily forgotten that the Middle is home to Garvin’s Chute, arguably the hardest rapid on the entire river. Garvin’s is a rapid that is normally just portaged by boaters, because it is normally not runable at all at lower waters, and when it is, it is definitely a challenging rapid. Garvin’s is not just one rapid however, it is actually split off into four different drops all adjacent to each other. Elevator shaft on far river right, followed by Dragon’s Tongue next to it, then ST Chute, and then WT Chute.

Running WT Chute

All of these, with the exception of WT Chute, are very challenging rapids that are super
fun to run, and definitely make the Middle channel a great, if not better, alternative to the Main channel.