Madawaska Kanu Centre

On Sunday, July 29, we arrived at MKC (Madawaska Kanu Centre) in eager anticipation of our five day MKC tandem canoe class. Since we arrived before the 7 pm check-in time, staff members encouraged us to scout out the Madawaska River where we would spend the next four days paddling. The river was in front of the office, across the rural road and several yards down the hill. This summer the Madawaska River was unusually low due to a month without rain. Fortunately, MKC had worked out an agreement with the hydroelectric company to schedule releases on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays throughout the summer this year.

Our first encounter with several of our classmates occurred while exploring the river. We met Bob, a photographer, new to kayaking, from west of Toronto and Frank, a long distance kayaker from Germany who had recently completed a circuit from a river in Germany to the North Sea and back to the Rhine in Germany. An impressive 1500 km or almost 1000 miles! Despite the placid appearance of the Madawaska River, we knew that the release on Tuesday would bring it to a dynamic and exciting Class III level.

Upon returning to the office we checked into our small and simply decorated room. Between 7 and 10 pm the office, dorm rooms, private rooms and tent sites hummed with activity as the 50 participants and instructors for the next five-day courses arrived and settled in.

Each day the menu was posted along with a daily schedule for each group of paddlers. The daily fare was served buffet style. In addition, breakfasts were always awaiting the early risers on the veranda each morning. Breakfast consisted of coffee, tea, hot chocolate and juice, a variety of cereals both hot and cold, homemade breads or croissants and either eggs cooked to your specifications, french toast or pancakes with sausage links or bacon and a large fresh fruit platter.

Lunch was usually served on the new spacious veranda. After collecting your lunch choices from the buffet table, you could claim a spot to eat under an umbrella at one of several tables with your classmates. We always selected the homemade soup of the day along with salads and burgers, sandwiches or wraps and fresh veggies. After our afternoon paddle we eagerly returned for our much-awaited afternoon snack. This was always the first item to be checked out on the menu each day. Each afternoon the troops gathered on the veranda and devoured the dessert snack even before the pan was put down in the serving area. Many of us even ate seconds and thirds even though we would never admit to it. This was always a chance for the groups to congregate and confess to how many fish they had kissed that day in the river. Chocolate cherry chewys, chocolate cake, lemon coconut brownies were among the tasty treats.

Suppers were also buffet style and eaten on the veranda except on Wednesday when we had barbecue chicken at a nearby beach. The suppers were always delicious and followed by a spectacular dessert like hot fudge ice cream sundaes, apple cake with rum sauce, chocolate mousse, or apple rhubarb cobbler. On Friday, supper was steaks grilled on the veranda accompanied by corn on the cob, hot rolls, salads, and baked potatoes.

On Monday morning, Alex, the staff manager, and Claudia, the owner of MKC and one of Canada’s outstanding whitewater paddlers, welcomed us and presented an overview of the facilities and the activities for the week. As Claudia tossed an official MKC water bottle to each student, Alex assigned us to paddling groups. Each group consisted of four to six students with one instructor. Following this introduction we loaded paddling gear into vans and boats onto trailers then headed for the water to review basic stroke technique and to evaluate our paddling ability. We were assigned to an intermediate tandem canoe group with Beth Kennedy as our instructor. Beth has 10+ years experience in paddling serious whitewater and is an outstanding paddler who has placed high in several Canadian whitewater meets. Beth plays hard in the water and was effective at drilling us both on technique and river reading. She was patient, firm, clear, and demanding. She used both visual and verbal instructional techniques to help us perfect our strokes and river reading ability.

After lunch on Monday we worked on braces and continued to practice our basic strokes on flatwater. Beth taught us the righting pry and suggested using it in place of the high brace which has been known to cause shoulder stress and dislocations at times. In addition we reviewed the low brace.

Following a relaxing pre-dinner sauna and a lively conversation at the evening meal, we reviewed a whitewater video. The video had been taped and produced by the members of the staff. Beth Kennedy and Andrew Westwood in a tandem canoe as well as other members of the staff demonstrated ferries, eddy turns, s turns, peel outs, draws and prys as well as the forward power stroke on a challenging section of the Ottawa River. It was impressive and helped to reinforce our earlier lesson on the Madawaska River.

Diane & Tom Sawyer on the Farmington Recenly (a Mickey Goldin photo)

On Tuesday the river release was 25 cms (cubic meters per second). This release provided an opportunity to apply our newly learned skills on class III stretches of the Madawaska River. We negotiated our way “ducky” style down Staircase Rapids and through the powerful standing waves and boulders on our way to Chalet Rapid. Staircase is a challenging technical rapid with a number of ledges and curling waves. Following each eddy turn, Beth would wait to provide feedback on our technique. Following our descent of Staircase Rapids we encountered a brief stretch of slow moving water before encountering the Class III Chalet Rapid. We executed upstream and downstream ferries between Staircase and Chalet Rapid. Chalet Rapid was comprised of jutting rock promontories and large mid-stream boulders producing fast, narrow moving water, standing waves, haystacks, and sharp eddy lines. This stretch required aggressive forward power strokes to complete successful ferries and to punch through large standing waves. We proceeded through these rapids with a series of ferries, S turns and C turns. Below Chalet Rapid, we ended the day under a series gates in slower moving water. We were video taped in this area while executing whitewater strokes.

On Wednesday morning after breakfast, we viewed Tuesday’s video tapes with both staff members Alex and Beth providing each student with specific feedback on their paddling technique. The remainder of the morning was spent back at Chalet Rapid perfecting our strokes. Vans took all students to nearby Bark Lake Wednesday afternoon. We swam in the beautiful lake, relaxed on the grassy slope, and had an opportunity to try several open solo canoes and kayaks. Staff members were present to instruct those interested in the art of rolling an open solo canoe. Although Paul Mason (son of one of Canada’s most famous paddlers - Bill Mason) and other instructors made it look easy, we found it very challenging. Later students were treated to a delicious meal of barbecue chicken and other treats by the young, talented MKC lady chefs. These gals always managed to accommodate our vegetarian requests with some truly scrumptious items, which also attracted some of the non-vegetarian crowd

On Wednesday evening after returning to the MKC lodge, Paul Mason and Andrew Westwood entertained us all with a humorous skit showing how some inexperienced paddlers could broach their canoe unwittingly. At that point staff member Jean stepped in and demonstrated several simple techniques for recovering the canoe. Afterwards staff member Shelia reviewed throw bag techniques. Chocolate bars were awarded to those students who could successfully throw the rope into a bucket placed at some distance from the thrower. This incentive resulted in a lively show of effective throw bag tossing.

The weather continued warm and sunny on Thursday. The morning consisted of more drill and practice in the class III rapids of Staircase and Chalet Rapid in preparation for our afternoon evaluation and optional ORCA (Ontario Recreation Canoe Association) examination. A brief mid-day shower failed to dampen the enthusiasm of paddlers. The pressure was on in the afternoon as the staff members outlined the course we were required to follow in our examination. With one staff member on shore observing us, clipboard in hand, and another staff member on the water we received the signal to begin. The test began with an upstream ferry in slow moving water followed by a downstream ferry to position our boat to run one of the gates. Next, we paddled river left into faster moving water where we were required to eddy out in a tiny eddy just above a drop with a curling wave. A strong forward stroke was necessary to exit the eddy and ferry to river right while fighting a fast moving current. Eddy lines in this part of Chalet Rapid were very sharp requiring good leaning technique and a strong forward paddle. The next moves from river right back to river left were the toughest part of the test. The first move consisted of a strong forward stroke and upstream ferry to a mid-stream eddy with strong downstream currents and strong eddy currents. Next, we had to peel out and execute an S turn over a haystack then immediately punch through a curling wave at an angle to cross a sharp eddy line and enter an eddy on river left. Despite the fact that we had capsized more than once in this area earlier in the week, on this occasion using our new skills we managed to pull this off successfully to the cheers of our fellow students and staff evaluators.

The remainder of the ORCA exam required running a series of tight gates in slow moving water. This required precise strokes placed at just the right time to execute the maneuver. Upstream and downstream ferries along with pivot turns and eddy turns were necessary to run these gates - some downstream, some upstream, and some in reverse. Our Dagger Caption responded well, and we successfully ran all gates. Beth commended us on our fine performance after we completed the last gate. She thought our hard work earlier in the week had paid off which it had.

Following the conclusion of the ORCA exam, we continued down the river to Claudia’s Roller where Beth demonstrated how to enter a wave with the least effort and hold the boat on the wave with minimal paddle movement by the stern paddler. One student was able to do a headstand in the bow of the canoe while Beth maintained the tandem canoe in a very stable surfing position. Impressive! Finally we continued to the take-out after running Class II Gravel Pit Rapid. After this long hard day we found the sauna to be especially relaxing and soothing.

At 8 pm that evening we all met on the MKC veranda for graduation. Students received certificates for the course they had completed. Also, ORCA rating sheets and awards were distributed to those who had successfully passed the optional ORCA exam. Despite many of us being quite tired from 4 days of hard paddling, the mood was jovial and high-spirited with lots of applause for awardees.

Having completed the skill work of the course, on Friday we were provided with an opportunity to apply those skills to the big water of the middle section of the Ottawa River. The bustle of the preparation for the day started at 7 am as everyone pitched in to load boats and equipment, and prepare pack lunches for the day’s adventure. Following 7:30 breakfast we were transported by vans to the Ottawa River about 1.5 hours away. Our run of the Ottawa River consisted of some flatwater interspersed with rapids of all levels along with one portage around a high falls. We shared this river with an abundance of canoes, kayaks, and rafts. An especially fun and unique rapid on this river was the Butterfly which was an enormous drop with a rooster tail to ride over toward the bottom. The most difficult rapid was Lower No Name consisting of a series of large curling waves. These waves managed to dump even the most experienced of the group. We arrived at the take-out weary but happy about 4 pm. After loading the boats onto the trailers we all raced to the local ice cream parlor. Here, in keeping with the MKC tradition, those students who capsized on the Ottawa were expected to buy their instructor an ice cream cone for each time they swam. Needless to say a brisk business ensued.

Back at the MKC lodge our final meal was grilled steak, bake potatoes, corn on the cob, salad, and dessert served on the verandah. While eating, students and staff exchanged email addresses and shared interesting stories. Later students and staff began packing and leaving for home. Some remained an additional night, delaying the moment we would have to leave the wild Madawaska River and our new paddling friends.

Our time at MKC was well spent with much learned, many new friends made, and lots of fun had. We initially chose the Madawaska Kanu Centre for several reasons. First, we felt it would be cooler in the summer in Canada than in the US. Second, it was less distance to drive than to some of the US whitewater schools. Third, the Canadian exchange rate was very favorable. Fourth, paddlers we knew had recommended MKC as a wonderful paddling school which it was.

More information about Madawaska Kano Centre can be found at: www.owl-mkc.ca/mkc/

Sean Reese on the Dead River -- (A Bob Flanagan Photo)

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