Had we finally been defeated after a month of bushwhacking, cold weather and minimal flows? During our time in Newfoundland we put for the effort, driving over 5,000 kilometers, including a trip to Labrador and Quebec in pursuit of water. While checking the flight schedule in Deer Lake we found we had several hours to kill before Ben flew out.

Going to a local eatery to capture Chris’s footage, we were able to check the weather and email. Our local contact, Chris Buchanan, had sent an email about rain on the west coast of the island. Chris and I had a flight out of St Johns and several errands to run in town, so we dropped Ben off for his flight and embarked on the all day drive to St Johns.

It was nearly midnight when we arrived, tired but energetic from the lack of exercise. Lacking a phone and not wanting to wake our locals, we camped out in town and waited to see what our last two days would bring.

While cleaning out borrowed gear and our car we got in contact with Chris, who had the afternoon off and thought flows might still be up a little. We ran just out of town for a quick run down Bay Bulls Brook.

Chris Korbulic having a great run down the largest drop of Bay Bulls.

Chris Buchanan on the same.

Our appetites were awakened by this bit paddling, and when an un-run waterfall within two hours of town was mentioned, we were in. Joined by KNL member Dave MacDonald we set off for what was promised to be a “fifty minute” hike on a “trail” accessing Little Harbor River. We all knew Chris was blowing sunshine up our skirts on this one, and soon enough the trail disappeared into bogs and tuckamore.

Darin McQuoid, photo courtesy Dave MacDonald

Where did the trail go? Dave MacDonald enjoying the view.

It wasn’t too bad at first, but in the last half kilometer it turned into a full on mission through thick blowdown.

Darin McQuoid, photo courtesy Dave MacDonald

We could hear it long before we got there. Chris and Dave thought it would go but weren’t completely sure. What a beautiful sight after the hike.

Typical to Newfoundland this drop had many ill placed flakes and ledges, but we knew there had to be a line in it somewhere. After some fairly extensive scouting we found a good looking line about three feet wide, dropping over a green tongue between two flakes and melting a fold and freefalling into the hopefully deep pool.

Lining it up at the lip, Darin McQuoid, photo courtesy Dave MacDonald

Following a perfect eddy line as a line up marker, I dropped over the lip expected to bump a flake a little on the way down, but accelerated over the lip with no contact and tucked halfway down, melting into the bottom and resurfacing upright with a grin miles wide. Epic photo taken by Dave MacDonald.

With the line being even cleaner than it looked, Chris Buchanan followed next, stomping a great line.

Dave MacDonald went next, and as he dropped over I slipped on the steep slope, missing the shot but still getting a bit of one as he melted into the fold.

All good to go, Chris Korbulic stomps a perfect line down the falls.

There was no better way to finish our trip that running the first descent of a proud forty footer. During the paddle down to the inlet and our cars we enjoyed gorgeous scenery and good company, dreaming of coming back to Newfoundland with better flows for more kayaking.

While driving south from the Torrent River, we caught a glimpse of a gigantic waterfall in Steady Brook, a ski mountain village only five minutes north of our destination; Corner Brook.

Scouting the waterfall, Chris Korbulic and I enjoyed the view and then wrote it off, and from the viewing platform it looked pretty flat above the falls too.

A cliché waterfall slow shutter picture was mandatory.

When we talked to Ben Stookesberry back in town, he checked the topographical map and sure enough there was plenty of gradient above the falls, and with a light overnight rain we headed back up to Steady Brook in the morning. Our access was great, we followed the road all the way up to the inlet for the town water supply and put in below it.

Right off the bat this river felt like home to me, kind of small, a bit manky and steep. Nick Troutman paddles off around a blind corner on Steady Brook.

With steep gradient and blind corners, we had already scouted several times before arriving at a decent sized slide. I got a quick verbal of “down the left channel, enter just to the left of the rock” followed by “it’s manky, just keep it upright and pointed downstream”. I came in the right spot and kept it downstream, but ¾ of the way down pitoned something and came all the way over the handle bars onto my face and chest. I distinctly remember thinking “I’m so glad I have a full face and body armor on”. It paid off on this one, I rolled up before the bottom and was ok, didn’t really even take a hit.

Ben running the mank slide on Steady Brook.

Nick went next and had no problems, skipping down the mank with ease. Chris lined up and his bow got pushed a bit left in the entrance, causing his boat to catch on the shallow rocks and tip him downstream.

To our surprise he stopped upside down, in a low volume slide pin, but using just his knuckles he pushed his way upright and out of the pin.
Chris, with a good attitude towards the most torn up knuckles I’ve ever seen.

We regrouped at the bottom of the slide and Ben hiked out due to some equipment issues, and Nick, Chris and I debated hiking out but opted to push down for this “quality first descent”.

Surprisingly enough the run started to clean up, and we ran some fun rapids and boofs before the next major horizon line.

Nick Troutman

Chris Korbulic

Chris Korbulic

Nick Troutman

Then all the sudden we were at a markedly larger horizon line. We scouted down the right and then began to debate our options. The drop was nothing too huge, a thirty foot waterfall, but it had a tricky lead in, with at the lip move and questionable depth landing. We discussed options of portaging, which looked bad, hiking out, which looked ok, and splitting up. After the slide incident we understood why Chris just wasn’t feeling it, and Nick’s back was sore from the Leg Pond Feeder incident. Beautiful rock really set this falls off, and I had a special feeling about it. However I really wanted someone else to go first because the photograph from above would have been epic.

We decided that I would probe and see how it went, if it was a soft hit Nick would follow and Chris would take video and then hike out on the left. It was exceptionally cold out, just a few degrees above freezing, so I did a bunch of jumping jacks and arm swinging to get my blood flowing again, knowing I would have to paddle a bit for this one.

The entry was a two foot boof landing on the lip of a sticky pour over hole, then the water slalomed from wall to wall and slid moving to the right off the waterfall, which had a shelf on the right. The key would be not getting stuck in the first hole, and then making a late right to left move at the lip of the falls, straightening out just at the last second.

All fired up and ready to go I eddied out above, signaled to the team and peeled out. Boofing the first hole, and melting into the second hole, I wasn’t surprised to have to power through the backwash into the slalom, which went by quicker than I expected. As the lip approached I drove to the left, and at the last second took a bit left stroke to straighten out and tuck, melting at the bottom. Resurfacing upright I was thankful that my line had worked out as well as I had imagined.

Nick Troutman gets left on the waterfall.

I quickly scouted around the blind corner that was downstream, and saw a large eddy. Nick and I paddled around the corner, and sure enough, we were at the take-out! The horizon line of Steady Brook Falls was just gigantic, so we had to get a picture of it. The house by Nick’s leg is all the way on the other side of the Humber River.

Grateful to have another fun run in the books, we headed back to Corner Brook to find a coffee shop, warm up and check the weather.

The Cloud River is one of the larger drainages in Newfoundland. We had perfect flows and it had still not rained, so we knew we had our work cut out for us to find something with water. We also had to make it back to Deer Lake to drop off some of the crew at the airport in two days.

We started the drive south with our fingers crossed, but found everything to be dismally low, and pulled into Rocky Harbor to check the weather and stay the night.

The evening was delightful and the forecast called for overnight rain.

As evening turned into night it brought minimal amounts of rain but plenty of wind, at speeds high enough to blow me around in the tent. Good thing it was tied to the car.

Water levels didn’t come up overnight, and after dropping off some of the boys and getting a new rental, we headed up to Labrador figuring that there would be water in at least the Bradore River.
The wonderful ferry to Labrador.

Once in Labrador we drove straight to the Bradore and camped out. Waking up to a cold morning we found that flows were way too low.

So we drove south all the way to the end of the road, literally.

Then we drove more heading north.

We drove all the way up to the Pinware River and found that it had a class II-III section flowing, but caught a spike from a snow machine in a tire and had to turn back south to get it fixed.

Discouraged by no water and a daytime high of one, and with a forecast for “frozen rain pellets” we got back on the ferry to Newfoundland.

Ben looks at the options.

Back on the island we decide to head south, hope for good weather, and if there wasn’t any in the forecast, fly standby home.

We had driven past the Torrent River three times already, but knowing Brandon Knapp and Johnny had already run it, we ignored it. Knowing they had a serious lack of water when they ran it prompted us to take a look, and it turned into a quick park and huck in the cold weather. We were psyched just to get on the water at this point, and the chunky waterfall looked pleasing.

Nick Troutman

Chris Korbulic

Jesse Coombs

Then we quickly packed up and headed to Corner Brook, hoping that the rain in the forecast would come through for us.

Elated by the first descent of Doctor’s Brook we checked the map and while driving to find more water, ran into some local hunters. Full of both local color and local knowledge they pointed us towards a “Niagara” sized waterfall on a tributary high up in the mountains.

Satisfied with the beta we headed deep into the hills next morning, Chris and I struggled to keep the rental in sight as EJ flew down the pothole filled dirt roads.

Scurrying around a corner it came into view and we instantly knew we had found it, she certainly was large. View from about two kilometers away.

The falls were over a kilometer away and we were surrounded by logging roads. Wasting almost an hour of driving we were back where we had first seen the falls and commenced gearing up, using as much humor as possible to delay changing in frigid temperatures. “I’d better just stay here, the best shot is from the car”.

Eric Jackson showing off his backing up skills (they’re good).

Thirty minutes of hiking through typical Newfoundland “tuckamore” and downed trees had our highly motivated group at the base of the falls.
Jesse Coombs

We all smiled looking at the stacked up gradient.

Post drooling over the gradient a quick hike led us to the base of the largest drop. The first big drop looked quite dubious from the road, and once we gained a view of the base our suspicions were confirmed. At most three inches of water was all the padded the landing of a fifty foot freefall. We had high hopes for the thirty to forty foot waterfall downstream, which unfortunately landed on a pile of rocks. Well at least there was still plenty of gradient left.

The boys scouting up the first good drop.

The river split around an island, the right side dropping full force onto rocks, and on the left a nice juicy lead in dropped over a thirty foot sliding waterfall that everyone enjoyed.

Joel Kowalski enjoying the first sliding falls of Leg Pond Feeder.

Just downstream was a slide that during the hike looked innocuous enough, but deeper inspection revealed a slide dropping about thirty feet, landing in a big hole on the right and a rock shelf on the left.

Ben Stookesberry opted to probe the slide first, and made a strong left to right move boofing through the hole with no problems. EJ followed suit with a different but equally effective line.

Dane Jackson went next, taking a piton and having one of the scariest swims I have ever been witness too, described in detail by EJ here. All I can say is he is an absolute champion to keep up the good attitude.

Chris and Joel went next, both styling the line and making it look easy.

Chris Korbulic

Filming from the top, Nick went last and was pushed too far right and clipped shallow rocks, causing us all to have a minor heart attack as he flipped over, falling onto the barely submerged shelf on the left. Ejecting on impact, Nick floated still in the water for a second before making an attempt to swim. EJ pulled him to shore where he signaled ok, suffering a concussion and sore back. We were all relieved the injuries were so minor considering the circumstances.

A picture tells a thousand words, Nick Troutman.

After the rough treatment by Leg Pond Feeder, we started the long drive back out to the highway. Thanks to Nick’s cell phone we were able to secure a flight through Portland Creek Outfitters. A late night drive took us all the way to the small port town of Roddickton on the east side of the Northern Peninsula. Here we would paddle out from our two day descent of the reputed Cloud River.

Some bumps and bruises, but thankfully everyone was ok.

Black Brook IV-V

As the rest of the group arrived it appeared that to our horror we were under the Newfoundland expedition curse. In the ‘90s, Brandon Knapp and Johnny Kern made a spring journey to Newfoundland and got skunked by low flows their whole trip. After a five dry days it seemed that we were under the same curse, and started following their footsteps for guaranteed flows. Looking through Brandon’s website I had seen a picture labeled “Johnny Humber” and with this clue plugged into our local contact we got directions for the falls just out of our current location in Deer Lake.

The new arrivals finish loading the rental and are ready to get it.

Fired up with the arrival of more paddlers, we spent a few hours of driving, backtracking, four wheeling and dealing with general logistical problems. We couldn’t find the falls we were looking for, but made it to “Big Falls” a six foot ledge on the Humber River. Optimism was still high, and after we weighed options we were off to “Star Pond” where a high gradient brook had our hopes set high. With over fifty kilometers of dirt roads and over four hours of driving behind us, we found our brook. The gradient was there, but where was the water? Newfoundland isn’t shy of using hydro projects to supply electricity to the island, and we were on the road again.

Dry weather prevailed another night as we camped out, and headed for Black Brook, a tributary of the commercially rafted Indian River. Upon arrival we found access to be good, a nice bridge to lake run, and flows were low but in the upper section the river looked to hold its (lack of) water well.

Stoked to be on the water we had to scrape over a few rocky spots before the river turned to bedrock, where it dropped over a nice series of ledges and slides that would be beautiful at highwater. I’d imagine at high flows sticky holes would rear up all over in this section.

Ben Stookesberry enjoying a little low volume action.

Making quick time down the low volume slides we were at a halfway bridge only too soon, and debated taking out there, or continuing down through the rocky sections to a waterfall that was marked on the map. Opting to push on down stream, the next several kilometers were torture at our low flows, full gorilla boating over the wide stream bed filled with rocks.

Numbed by all the scraping and bashing after only too long we saw a large horizon line and got out to scout. The river split into two channels and dropped through either a sluice box, ledge, ledge rapid, or a bouldery lead-in to a nice, somewhat clean slide. It looked like it would be easy enough to run the right side sluice, ferry across and hike back up for the left slide.

Nick Troutman has a nice clean line down through the sluice into the first boof.

Nick again with an equally nice line for the final boof.

The whole group fired off the right slide, with some entertaining results, four pitons and a few missed boofs, but no carnage of consequence. Switching over to the right side of the island we found the clean slide to have a questionable depth lead-in boof. After some inspection Ben fired it off first and with a boof, it was plenty deep.

Dane Jackson followed next. He entered boofing left to right with a bit too much speed and got carried into a rock outcropping at the top of the slide, broached and flipped over, right at the top of the shallow slide. Dane quickly rolled up and got his boat straightened out for the rest of the slide.

Dane Jackson straightens it out for the slide.

Eric Jackson throwing some style out on the slide.

The rest of our lines went without anything remarkable happening, and we resumed another two kilometers of low water boulder torture down to a small lake. Paddling across didn’t take long, and soon enough a few of the boys ran the shuttle while we dried out by a fire and looked forward to our next mission.

With low flows, Black Brook was too low inbetween the bedrock sections and in general IV-IV+ character, but at higher flows this would be a rocking IV-V run that we would love to get back on, and has every right of becoming a local classic.