Three Rivers Rendezvous

Every year in spring Pinch O Crow Kayak Club hosts the Three Rivers Rendezvous in Pincher Creek. Chuck Lee, an avid local kayaker, puts on a tremendous festival, similar to the American Gauley Festival. Clubs and kayakers from all over Canada come to enjoy the beginner to intermediate courses and trips put on by a host of volunteers and retailers from around the area.

With the tumultuous weather that Canada has had this spring, it was a lucky change that we had a break in the weather for the festival as the province has been pounded with rain and snow showers for most of the month. This year boasted temperatures in the mid-twenties and water in all the local and semi-local rivers. In the immediate vicinity, we were able to show beginner and intermediate kayakers down the Castle River. Aquabatics and Dave Crerar put on a guided river trip down the Castle River. Which was immediately followed by the AKA Carbondale Race. This race, organized by UPAS’ Giffin Symko was a slalom course down a grade three+ piece of whitewater. Despite the remote nature of the venue, we saw a great crowd show up and over 20 competitors. The competition was tight throughout the categories. Dave Crear came away with the win at the end of the day. Saturday nights festivities carried on into Sunday and back to the river with more guided trips.

This festival was a great place to meet the various kayak clubs from around BC and Alberta. It was also great to see how involved all the various retailers are at the grassroots level. Huge shout out to Chuck Lee for organizing the event(link), Aquabatics (link ) for putting on the event and to everyone I got to paddle with it, it was awesome. See ya’ll next year.