C-Forum

Hi Everyone,
I'm new to these boards and I'm looking for other OC paddlers who paddle the Elora Gorge. I have been going out with the Guelph Kayak Club on Wednesdays and Sundays, but they don't have any other open canoes at this time. Let me know if anyone out there is interested!
Cheers,
Attila

I don't live near there anymore, but check out www.vvcc.ca - lots'o open boaters there, some of them run the gorge sometimes...
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Box Vaporizer

Sorry we have not made ourselves, visually out there on the water, lately, just waiting for the water to rise a bit. I'm outa London just down the 401 and yeah there is a few here that open boat. If your into it, stay in touch or PM me back and we can do what we can to help get you out there with some OC-1's

Andy

I'd like to know a little bit more about the Elora Gorge - it sounds interesting. I have this vision of a giant canyon with sheer walls and deep, boiling water. Wrong?

Alden

Alden,

If we get a LOT (and I mean a LOT !) of rain in Southern Ontario, then Elora Gorge can be truly epic.
Unfortunately this does not happen very often and usually only lasts for a few days.
I for one have so far always missed the really good levels, as they seen to occurr during the week, when work keeps me from paddling and have therefore oly paddled it at levels of up to 80 or 90 cms, when its a continuous class 3+ run down a relatively short (maybe 2 miles) sheer walled gorge with maybe 30 ft limestone cliffs. It's a guick run, maybe 20-30 minutes. There are a few nice surf spots at that level, but eddies are scarce and most waves are catch on the fly and one stop shop.
I heard that once the level is up in the 150 - 200 cms range the waves in the gorge get huge and the difficlty is more in the class 4 - 4+ range. There are apparently also some really ugly holes at those levels. Flood levels of 300+ cms aaparently bring the difficulty up into the class 5 range.
Never saw this myself though.

Unfortunately most of the time the flow is, like right now, more in the 5 - 10 cms range, which is o.k. if you live right there, but does IMHO not warran the 1 hour drive from Toronto. People float down the gorge in inner tubes at those levels.

Cheers!

martin a.k.a.

As Martin said it can truly be a full on run. The highest I've been on it was around 150 but I have seen it at 300, its just a nasty class V that I didn't want any part of. I was there just the other weekend with one of my daughters and her Splash, she had a great time showing all the on lookers from up above that 10 year olds can paddle OC1 as well! Another good class II/III run in the area is the Maitland,
"when it has water". But to find most of us from SW Ontario this time of year you'll have to head to the Gull.

Cheers Al