St. Leon

Class: V

Quality: 5

Location: Nakusp, West Kootenays, BC

Level: Visual. Look for a low but boat-able flow from the bridge by take-out but be careful because it gets a lot harder as water rises.

Put-In: 50.438761, -117.860156

Take-out: 50.440163, -117.885729

From the logging road it’s a 5 minute easy bush wack down to the river. It’s easy to get down to river level to put in to a class III rapid. Just around the corner from put-in watch out for a big horizon line because you’re at the first set of drops. Scout the triple drop on river right. The first drop is a big rooster tail boof that lands into a moving pool right above the second ledge. Boof this one a few feet from the left wall but watch out for the big hole. After landing the boof you’ll immediately slide down the final tier, a 15′ tall slide. Catch an eddy at the bottom because there are no pools on this run.

A few minutes of continuous boogie rapids brings you to The Big Slide! Watch out for a sharp blind turn to the left because by the time you see the horizon line there’s no stopping. Stay on the inside (left side) of the turn in the river. You want to be a few feet from the left side for the standard line however it’s been run center and right too. Roll over the first horizon line and try to keep it straight. After dropping about 30′ of near vertical the slide goes off a huge auto-boof kicker. Don’t over-boof and let it send you flying for about 15′ of disconnect at the bottom. Below the slide are a number of continuous boogie rapids. This section of boogie is bigger than the top section and longer but everything’s still read and run down the middle. WATCH OUT FOR WOOD.

After a kilometer or two you’ll reach the top of the canyon rapid. This is the hardest rapid on the run and is often portaged. Portage or scout on river right, it’s always a good idea to check this section for new wood. The canyon starts off with a mellow drop as the river gets narrower and turns a corner into the crux. The crux is a series of ledges with backed up holes right at the end of the canyon. It’s hard to set safety and the canyon ends right above the 20’er so make sure you’re feeling confident before you drop into this one. If you chose to portage you can still seal launch in to run the clean 20′ at the end of the gorge.

From here there’s just one significant rapid left down stream. Boof the top drop on the right then move back to the center for a short slide and hole. A kilometer of easy boogie brings you under the highway bridge and down to the lake. There’s awesome camping right at takeout, just look for a small road immediately south of the St. Leon bridge. This will take you to a huge beach you can drive your car on and an excellent take-out option. Enjoy BC’s top water park and watch out for wood of course!!!