On Wednesday we went to the Upper Petawawa river for our Keener River Trip. We went to the Pet to run more rivers that are unfamiliar to practice running and scouting new rapids safely. The Upper Pet is a very remote river located in Algonquin. You have to walk about 45 minutes to the put-in up a dirt railroad track. It is a very straight walk, so you have a lot of options for how to carry your kayak.
A few ways to carry your kayak are on your head, your shoulder, or dragging it behind you. We had people trying all of these methods with varying degrees of success. My favorite way is to drag it behind you so your shoulders don't hurt when you get there.
This is a playboat or a creekboat run. If you are not good at boofing I recommend a creek boat as they are more forgiving. This means you can go through the holes even if you mess up your boof. The first boof is a fun, non sticky hole at these levels that is fun to boof or try to freewheel. A freewheel is where you cartwheel off the end of the drop. The next drop is a little downstream and it is a pretty easy rapid too. Here, the river splits into two channels. The Right side is easier, while the Left is a steep slide into a hole where I helped set safety at the bottom. If you don't boof here, it isn't too bad, because the hole is easy to surf out of.
The last drop was a lot of fun. It was a seven foot boof into a read and run rapid. Here, I recommend to right and not left, as I petoned really hard here. Luckily, I didn't damage my boat.
Overall, the Upper Pet is a great beginner creek run to get used to boofing, and reading and running unfamiliar rapids. I really enjoyed my trip and would gladly go back, hopefully with slightly more water.
A few ways to carry your kayak are on your head, your shoulder, or dragging it behind you. We had people trying all of these methods with varying degrees of success. My favorite way is to drag it behind you so your shoulders don't hurt when you get there.
This is a playboat or a creekboat run. If you are not good at boofing I recommend a creek boat as they are more forgiving. This means you can go through the holes even if you mess up your boof. The first boof is a fun, non sticky hole at these levels that is fun to boof or try to freewheel. A freewheel is where you cartwheel off the end of the drop. The next drop is a little downstream and it is a pretty easy rapid too. Here, the river splits into two channels. The Right side is easier, while the Left is a steep slide into a hole where I helped set safety at the bottom. If you don't boof here, it isn't too bad, because the hole is easy to surf out of.
The last drop was a lot of fun. It was a seven foot boof into a read and run rapid. Here, I recommend to right and not left, as I petoned really hard here. Luckily, I didn't damage my boat.
Overall, the Upper Pet is a great beginner creek run to get used to boofing, and reading and running unfamiliar rapids. I really enjoyed my trip and would gladly go back, hopefully with slightly more water.
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