Canoe Creek to Bob Turners Track - River Heights

[bushtucker]

Hi all,

Planning a winter packraft from Canoe Creek to Bob Turners (or possibly beyond Bob Turners - recommendations?) but wanted to know what river heights I should be looking for (Upper Colo River heights are available on BOM). Trying to equate river heights to potential conditions - e.g. 1.5-1.7m seems to be ideal for packrafting but at what height does it start to become more of a walk through the sandy river as opposed to a paddle? What is the lowest river height for ability to still paddle? The river height today is a mere 0.8m!

Thanks all,

Daniel

[jeremy089786]

Hi Bushtucker,

It is now down to 0.68 ha! Below around 0.9m there will be some walking involved, but even then, you will be walking on sand, so when it is sufficiently warm, it still makes for a nice trip.

I have only seen it low (<1m) or high (>2m), so can't speak in the middle range, but above 2m it is a lot of fun. At these heights however all of the 3 rapids are powerful and can get you into some trouble. Unless you are confident in grade IV, you shouldn't run the last rapid and you should have some reasonable skills to run the middle two. Even if you were to skip all three though, you can get some good skill building at the end of the second rapid and the rest of the trip is a wonderful fast flowing brown conveyor belt that can be done in a day. At lower levels, it is a two day trip with crystal clear waters.

A trip at 2.1m: http://adventuresandtinkerings.blogspot ... t-21m.html

Also, at lower levels, heading in from Canoe Ck can be a good, though more technical option: http://adventuresandtinkerings.blogspot ... t-16m.html

[tom_brennan]

0.8m used to be a good height!

You need to look at the relative height, not the absolute height. The absolute height changes over time. Some years ago it was around 45-50cm.

Typically if the river is up 30-50cm, that's reasonably good for liloing. Up a metre and it's probably exciting. Up 5m and you take your life in your hands
http://ozultimate.com/tom/bushwalking/2 ... photos.htm

I can't remember what it was for this trip, but the rapid at Bob Turners was basically underwater. We walked around the third rapid.
http://ozultimate.com/tom/bushwalking/2 ... photos.htm

This trip was from Pass 6 to Canoe Creek - river was up at least half a metre
http://ozultimate.com/tom/bushwalking/2 ... photos.htm

[davidf]

.8 is low but ok. The long slow moving pools will still have plenty of water to paddle and they make for for good paddling. The current lack of flow rate should be considered. The water is not going to move you much apart from on or near rapids. Many rapids will need to be portaged or bumscrape waded. This will slow you down. Its a very worthwhile trip I have done numerous times in very low and high water and will do again. At .6 it could be a mission but its so good down there just go.

[bushtucker]

Thank you Jeremy, Tom and David - all responses most helpful.

I had ruled this trip out for the time being, with the water levels currently at 0.69m (http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/IDN60233/IDN6 ... .plt.shtml) and no prospect of rain in the next few weeks given the incredibly warm weather system (I think Autumn is the New Summer!).

Instead, I was thinking of tackling The Castle in the Budawangs again as a backup as it's always so beautiful in that region (reminiscent of a Tolkien novel!).

It seems to me that for pack-rafting, we'd really want the river to be over 1m and preferably about 1.5m, otherwise there's going to be a lot puddles and walking and not a lot of rafting.

Thanks again,

Daniel

[tom_brennan]

Usually best is to wait for a good dump of rain (minor flood?), and aim to go 1-2 weeks after that.