Niagara Gorge

By Joel Kowalski

“…these rapids are level 6. They are the biggest and most deadly rapids in the world…” said the elevator attendant as we descended to river level on the whitewater walk boardwalk on river-left, a.k.a. Canada.

As EJ has said, the Niagara gorge is just “WOW”. The meat of the run, known as the Himalayas, is one mile long. It’s all over in around 3-4 minutes though. But what a ride! The power and speed of the water is unlike anything I’ve ever paddled. The feeling of the transition from being in the top eddy to peeling out into the current is like taking a Turbo Porsche from zero-to-sixty in 3.5 seconds. The actual speed of the water is somewhere around 25 miles per hour.

While the whitewater is amazing, it is very illegal. You need to make sure your plan of attack is good. The difference between our run and the previous descent (SLP’s Burning Time 2) is that the USA now pays much more attention to her borders. The gorge is fully loaded with motion sensing cameras, heat-sensors and armed border-patrol Zodiacs. Immediately after the Himalayas we had to hide in a cave for an hour or so until the heat was off.

Remember to support American Whitewater. They have fought for the Niagara gorge before. Hopefully someday it will be legal.

Joel