Posted by msandwun
- Date posted: Jun 27, 2004
- Date last travelled
This is a shallow watercourse, and some care needs to be taken when picking a path through in a lightweight kevlar. If there's any chance of a disagreement between bow and stern paddlers, take a heavier canoe. There are a lot of swifts, and a number of places to run a canoe into a rock if you're not looking. When all else fails, the river can be easily walked - it's only about three to four inches deep in most places.
The course we ran started at the crossing of a branch off the main road to Gelert over the river. This is down a fair ways from the town itself, and can be most readily reached by coming north from Kinmount, turning off onto the road to Haliburton and Gelert about seven kilcks out of town, and taking the second gravel turn off to the right. Go past Lower Dutch and Vick Roads, turn right at the next stop sign, go down the hill, and turn right. Past the intersection of the old railroad line and over the bridge, take the second driveway on the right past the bridge and drive past the pine plantation all the way down to the river. Put in at the sign that says "No Camping".
The route description documents otters as the main wildlife. These are currently on vacation; instead, there are lots of turtles on the water, and buzzards eyeing canoeists from the air. Surprisingly, there are only a couple of cabins until below the Three Sisters waterfall; the first has a suspension bridge across the river, which catches your eye. Apparently there is at least one campsite on the stretch about the waterfall - we had no luck finding it.
Below the second cabin, there is a small ledge that goes across the river, and a pour-through over a drop. This may not be present at higher water levels - at low water levels, this needs to be checked at the very least if you have a Kevlar boat. There is a rock smack in the centre of the main flume - go a bit left of centre if you do plan to drift through. This would definitely crack a lightweight hull.
The Burnt joins the Irondale further along and changes character from a shallow succession of swifts to a deep stillwater. Less than a ilometre from the junction, there is a succession of three ledges that form the waterfall. The take-out is immediately above the first ledge, about six feet away from the drop. Stay hard river left - there is almost no current here, so the take-out is safe. The portage wanders along a gravel road until you pass the third waterfall, then drops down a short path with a large "No Trespassing" sign at the top, facing the road. The canoe portage sign is at the bottom, facing the waterfall itself.
The lower section of the river is less interesting, and consists of a number of large meanders down to Kinmount. You can cut off one oxbow lake by paddling through a shortcut on river right - the topo shows this fairly clearly. There are a number of culverts and portions of old oxbows that intersect the course, but the main channel is quite clear.
The take-out is at the town park on river right, just past the bridge over the river. Access is the first road on the left, driving across the bridge to go north. There are a couple of ice-cream stands nearby, for the mandatory sugar fix after the paddle.
