The “Middle” Tay River- A 20K Paddle in Perth, ON

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After kayaking the “Upper” Tay River route this past July, we knew that we would be back for more. The Tay River is so clean and so beautiful, that we wanted to see the length of it. So, we headed back to Perth for a day trip near the end of August. We knew the middle section of the Tay River had some rapids on it, and that we were taking a gamble on the water levels being really low at this time of year. But, we decided to try and run this route anyway, and we had a great day!

If I’m being honest, any class of rapids makes me a bit nervous. I figured I would be JUST FINE if the water was too low and we had to drag our kayaks or portage for a bit!

This day ended up being really great though. The rapids felt very manageable, and actually helped me to feel a bit more confident in my ability to read the water, and to navigate the routes. That being said, I did get stuck on a rock and was there for longer than I would care to admit. There was nothing on this route that could be described as being harder than a class 2 rapid. And at this time of year, it’s all much closer to class 1.

Getting There

On our last trip to Perth, we had ended our route just after Christie Lake, at the Tay River Tent and Trailer Park. We called ahead and asked if we could put back in at their park, and they had no problem with that whatsoever- awesome!

My mother-in-law wanted to check out the town of Perth, so we put-in at the trailer park and then had her drive the car into Perth, where we would be arriving. Also awesome!

You can use these coordinates to get to the Tay River Tent and Trailer Park: 44.820624, -76.402857.

Start of the Route

Setting off, we noticed that some of the leaves were already turning in Perth, which made for a beautiful contrast between the purple flowers along the bank and the red leaves in the trees.

It was smooth sailing for just under 5 kilometres. We paddled under the Concession Road 2 Bridge, and passed a cairn on the left. Then, the water started to move a little more swiftly, and 4.7 kilometres after we had started paddling, we found our first set of rapids. There’s a split in this section, and we stayed to the left. The water was rough for just under half a kilometre, but the water level was high, and it was an easy route to run.

If there was a theme for this entire section of the Tay River, it would be “stay to the left.” Nearly every set of rapids that we ran (and both of the portages we did), we stayed to the left and had no problems. Also, there’s one big split in the River, and in order to stick with the main route, you have to head left. This split comes a little ways after the Concession Road 2 Bridge.

The best map I have found of this “middle” section of the river was done by the Frontenac Arch Biosphere. We brought it with us.

The Portages

After paddling 6.7 kilometres and going under the Menzies Munroe Side Road Bridge, there was a section of the river dammed up by rocks. When water levels are higher, I think you could run this section no problem. To us it looked tricky though- we couldn’t see how we were going to get our kayaks through.

You’ll know that you’re approaching this area because there’s a big, open field on the right. The rocky section comes just as the field ends and turns back into forest.

We chose to portage this section, and bushwhacked our way through the forest on the left side of the river bank for about 300 metres. This area clearly isn’t portaged often, but there was only a bit of ground cover, so it was easy to see where we were stepping. There were also quite a few thorny little trees to avoid.

The area we really wanted to be careful of came shortly thereafter, at the 7.5 kilometre mark. Prior to heading out, we had driven to the Noonan Side Road Bridge to take a look at this set of rapids. They are just too steep and too rocky near the top to be run (at least by us). In this section, the rocks once again acted as a dam, so there was no current pulling us towards the rapids.

It was easy to identify this area because there’s a big, broken down barn right beside the dam.

The portage for this section was much more civilized. We pulled our kayaks out of the water on the left side of the river, quite close to the dam. There was a small hill that we had to drag our kayaks up, but it was only about twenty feet until we were on flat land again.

The trail was grassy and very easy to follow back to the put-in, which was about 100 feet downriver. This spot is past the worst of the rapids, but the water still flows quickly under the bridge after it. We chose to walk our kayaks a little ways down the left bank of the river, just to get in a better position for the route under the bridge.

The Rest of the Rapids

The water slowed to a gentle current soon after the bridge.

We paddled past the Tay River Swimming Hole after traveling 8.2 kilometres. We didn’t stop, but it seemed like a lovely place to spend the day. If you want to skip paddling and just drive there, Noonan Side Road runs alongside this section of the river. You can use these coordinates to get there: 44.841004, -76.335676. It would be a good place to put in too.

The water was low through this stretch, but we were still able to paddle along without bumping the bottom of our boats too much.

Just one kilometre past the swimming hole, a series of rapids started up again. There were three short rapids here, all of which were very easy to run. The third set ended just half a kilometre after the first had begun. Soon after, there was a very short rapid, and then another series of three rapids followed, starting at the 10.5 kilometre mark. This stretch had calm water in between each rapid, and the entire length of the three taken together was just under 1.5 kilometres.

None of these rapids were very tricky to navigate. They were just fun. The water was fairly shallow through this area, and the first set was where I got stuck on a rock. Paddling in shallow water makes it a bit trickier to maneuver, because you can’t get as much of your paddle into the water. Regardless, we had no problems in this section, which tells you how easy they are!

We approached the final set of rapids with aching shoulders, just before Glen Tay Road. Going into this last section, we had been paddling for about 13.3 kilometres. This last rapid was very short- about 200 metres, and easy to run.

Almost There

We were looking forward to coming across the footpath at the golf course, because we knew that would mean we were getting close to Perth. The section between the last set of rapids and the foot path was very calm, smooth water. The current was also at its slowest in that section, so we didn’t have any help along the way. Finally (FINALLY), we paddled up to the footpath after having traveled 18.9 kilometres.

This footpath needs to be portaged because it’s very low. There was also drop to the other side, and very little space for the water to travel through. I don’t think there’s any time of year that would be safe for a paddler to go under this path. We pulled our kayaks out on the riverbank to the right of us and carried them about 100 feet to the other side of the footpath. Some of the golfers looked at us a bit strangely, but no one seemed upset that we were walking along the cart path. We had kept our canvas shoes on so that the portages would be easier, and they came in handy here as well.  You have to cross the gravel cart path to get back into the river which could be hard barefoot.

Getting Home

For some reason, we had a glitch in our GPS tracking system after the final portage.  Our recorded distance from the golf course into Stewart Park in Perth isn’t entirely accurate. I think we paddled for another 1.5 kilometres before pulling up to the right of the red bridge in Stewart Park. We knew we were getting close when we saw red brick apartment buildings popping up. We were ecstatic to see the bridge as we turned along the river bend into Stewart Park. By this point we had been paddling for at least 20 kilometres, and could really feel it in our shoulders and backs. It took us five hours and forty minutes to run this entire route.

Stewart Park is a beautiful spot in Perth, and it made for a really convenient place to get out. The section under the red bridge is quite rocky, especially with low water levels. With our aching shoulders and those rocks, there was very little temptation to carry on. Parking was close by, just 100 metres to the right of where we ended our route. There was grass the whole way to the curb. This was super convenient because we were exhausted and barely had the energy to pull our kayaks behind us, let alone lift them!

After strapping the kayaks to the roof, we set out to find somewhere for lunch. Perth has a lot of great little restaurants, so we weren’t disappointed. I love spending time in this town, and I love the Tay River.

I hope this trip report has enough info to get you there too. Let me know in the comments, or share and tag a friend to start planning your next adventure!

Map

Gear We Brought

• Kayaks
• Life jackets
• Bailing buckets (with rope and whistle)
• Kayak skirts
• Helmets
• First aid kit (with tick removal tool)
• Map
• 2 x 1 litre water bottles
• Sunscreen
• Sunglasses
• Bug spray
• Waterproof camera
• Cell phones
• Waterproof phone cases
• 35 litre dry bag
• Clothes
• Canvas shoes
• Snacks
• Plastic bag for garbage