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Canoeing the
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| On July 17, 1999, my brother and I undertook to canoe the
20+ mile stretch of the South Canadian River from the Highway 99 bridge north of Ada, to
the Highway 48 bridge between Holdenville and Allen. We had the makings of a very nice
trip. The water was clean (although a bit sandy). The route was scenic and surprisingly
remote. Other than a few oil well pumping units, there was hardly a sign of modern
civilization. We saw the roof of only one house in the distance, two or three spartan
fishing cabins, and a sole fisherman and his dog along the banks. Of some interest, we also saw a number of old tower-style oil derricks, a few of which were in the riverbed itself, along the way. These were obviously remnants of the boom days of decades ago – too remote to make disassembly economical. While probably not what one would prefer to see in our rivers, they were noteworthy monuments of Oklahoma history. Unfortunately, the water did not cooperate as much as we had hoped. We planned the trip believing the water level would be appropriate, due to recent rains. It was, however, too low. The channel shifted from one side of the two-hundred yard wide riverbed to the other. Too often it was impossible to find a navigable channel from one side to the other when the river shifted. The water level seemed to fall as the day progressed. My brother had inspected the river the day before our canoe trip, and the river looked perfect then. After our trip I checked the water levels on the USGS web site, through the Oklahoma City Outdoor Network link, and found that our observations had been correct. The day before our trip, water passed through the Calvin station at 1500 to 900 cubic feet per second. By the conclusion of our day, the water level had fallen from 900 to 500 feet per second. When we undertake the trip a second time, my best guess is to go when the water is flowing at Calvin at greater than 1000 feet/second. The Calvin station will apparently be closed by USGS in October, 1999, so I checked the readings from the USGS station up river in Purcell over the same period. The day before the Calvin station was at 1000, the Purcell station registered from 200 to 150. Another point of reference would be the Little River station at Sasakwa, which registered over two hundred feet on July 16.This stretch of river has the potential to be an excellent canoe trip. The water levels will fall quickly, however, so I recommend careful planning to avoid excessive paddling and portaging. |
Copyright © 1999-2003 |
