View topic - Bloodvein Levels

Hey, So I'm planning to do a whitewater kayaking trip down the bloodvein sometime this year and I'm wondering what river levels are best for whitewater. As well as when the river usually hits these levels. Thanks!

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STOKED BACKWOODS!!! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSasNU ... Dk02wdbctA

I'm not sure what the best levels for whitewater would be, hopefully others will have some input on that, but just a word of warning that if you're not familiar with the river you can expect some long stretches between rapids with little/no current. It's a pool and drop river and the only areas with appreciable current are the actual drops themselves. In between you can expect current speeds of 0-1mph.

Alan

You can study the historical data for the Bloodvein here:

http://wateroffice.ec.gc.ca/report/repo ... tn=05RB003

(It may force you to go through the main page, station number in at the end of the link)

If you go back over the past 10+ years you'll see that "normal" for good levels is end of May to end of June. However at least 1 in 4 years the levels are very high all Summer or a big spike at the end of summer running into Sept/Oct.

I've only been on the river in low water +/- 50cms, at that level some of the bigger rapids/ledges are too rocky in my opinion. I would think that if you are hoping to run most or all of the III's and IV's you would want to be there when the levels are around 100+, if you are comfortable in big wave trains there might not be much of an upper limit. The small rapids are generally free of rocks at almost any level, hard to say for sure but probably a lot of them are just big swifts in high water.

As Alan mentioned, fully understand that although there are about 75 rapids from Artery Lake down I doubt there is 10km of actual moving water in the entire river, the current when there is any rarely exceeds 1.5kmph.

Very beautiful river, lots of quality campsites.

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"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915

Ok, thanks for the input!

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STOKED BACKWOODS!!! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSasNU ... Dk02wdbctA

It is going to be very dependent on rainfall this year considering we lost our snow pack long before the ice, much like last year and 2013. Sat photo's show the Bloodvein still partially iced in but most everything south of that clear, but no snow at all. The Bloodvein is a long drainage though, so good rainfall in NW Ontario could help the levels, much like the Manigotagan.

We will be up on the Rice River in 4 weeks and presently are hoping there will be water in it.

Karin

Where can I find those satellite images? I do remember a site that had live (or kinda live) satellite vies but I can no longer find it.

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STOKED BACKWOODS!!! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSasNU ... Dk02wdbctA

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"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915

I've been using a different one, https://lance.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/cg ... te=2016112. A crap shoot if the satellite will be directly over Manitoba, but once a week or so it gives a good shot depending on cloud cover. It shoots daily so I just check when we have had clear skies, and it is usually around 17:35 UTC

Alright, Thanks!

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STOKED BACKWOODS!!! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSasNU ... Dk02wdbctA