Brokenhead River

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Name: Brokenhead River
Flows: 18 cubic meters per sec
Length: 15km
Class: I
Highlights: Great Woods Park, Turtles, sandy cliffs
Put in: Where provincial road 70 N crosses the river
Take Out: Provincial road 45 E
Nearby Towns: Brokenhead, Winnipeg
Guide Services: Wild Harmony Canoe Adventures (http://www.wildharmony.ca/)








The section of the Brokenhead we paddled  this particular trip ran from the bridge over the river on provincial road 70 N and ended on provincial road 45 E. From Beausejour follow highway 44 east, after crossing the Brokenhead river you will find provincial road 44 E. Follow it until you find provincial road 70 N, turn left onto it and follow it until the bridge that crosses the river.

After heavy rains you can choose to start the trip off with a 50 meter long rapid, running through a ditch running parallel to the road. You're boat will get a few scratches, even in high water, but it is worth it.

 End of the ditch.

The Brokenhead river flows through Southern Manitoba farmland but the trees on either side of the river makes you feel like you're in a thick forest. Multiple bridges cross the river. At 18 cm/s the river starts off as a swift deep channel but the first rapid is not far away. It is the second longest rapid of the trip and, in my opinion, one of the funnest. It is shallow and full of rocks, which makes it one of the more technical rapids on the trip.

Running a good line

The next rapid on the river is a weir. It is a simple, short rapid but it is still a lot of fun. We chose two different lines, one left of the island and one right of the island. Both were fairly easy lines but the one left of the island was extremely shallow.

The left and right lines.

Sitting above the rapid.

There are only two rapids above highway 44, after the highway the river picks up gradient and rapids are more frequent. There are roughly 12 rapids after highway 44, I only took pictures of a few of them. 

Highway 44 bridges.

The first rapid you will encounter after the bridge is a man-made rapid. It is a relatively simple rapid to run , it is deep with standing waves. This rapid does have very powerful eddy lines creating large whirlpools but as long as you don't hit the eddy line it is an easy rapid. We had one swamping there and unfortunately I was filming and not taking photographs.

Houses line this section of the river's banks and rapids become more frequent. There is a weir right after a suspension bridge that crosses the river, the hydraulic is not particularly strong and is a fairly straight forward rapid. 

The bridge.

Sitting above the weir.

Over the next little while the river is full of super easy rapids with easy to identify and lines, small waves, hydraulics and some strainers and sweepers. We were invited to have lunch at a house and, after a short snack, we were off again.

After lunch rapids.

Soon we hit Great Woods Park, this was definitely the most scenic part of the river. We stopped at a beach to go scout out the next two rapids from a suspension bridge. The rapids in front of the beach were a great spot to practice ferrying.

Nice beach in Great Woods Park.

Bridge scouting.

After leaving the beach we came to an area with a half a km long rapid. I didn't get any pictures but it was similar to the first one. We hit a weir, some of the hydraulics looked pretty sticky but I found a line and ran it without too much difficulty, this was defiantly the high point of the trip for me. 

Scouting the rapids.

Towards the end the rapids ran out, the river got very shallow, we saw an eagle nest and the trip was over, it felt like a long trip but that could be because I am out of shape from the long winter or because I have a new boat that I am not used to paddling but either way it was a great trip. 

Eagle nest.

Take out at last.

Author tired after a long day paddling.

Mr. Turtle

Happy Paddling,

Braeden