The Grand River is one of the defining geographical features in South Western Ontario. Stretching from the Grand Valley all the way to Lake Erie. Much of the Northern and Central stretches of the river are best suited to canoeing or smaller rec style boats. Once you get to the southern end of the river, it significantly widens and becomes best travelled in a sea kayak.
There are only two launch sites for this stretch of the river. You can see them both on the map below.
Launch Spots:
When you pull into the parking lot of the boat club, look for a box on the wall to fill out the parking fee slip.
Once you’ve paid, you can park and unload The parking lot has well maintained porta potties and the main downtown is across the street. More about that at the end of the trip. We got the kayaks ready and were ready for a nice cold fall paddle.
The first major feature that you encounter after you launch is the dam. It is loud and it is scary looking and it is super dangerous. I did want a picture in front of it, but I kept a very healthy distance from it.
After we were done investigating, we rounded the point and headed back up the channel on the south side of the islands. It gets surprisingly windy in that short stretch, Michelle got blown around pretty good in the Riot 10 footer. I was better off, likely because I weight 75 pounds more than her 😂 . Once you get back into the channel, to the right you notice that there is a very large stone structure. I have found these types of structures before at Canal Banks park and Martindale Pond. They are the remnants of the old Welland Canal. in some cases these structures can be as much as 200 years old. They are very cool to paddle through.
Well, how cool was that, let’s keep going, we just started!
Paddling down the south channel in the fall was awesome. We saw a tons of birds, muskrats and even a mink. This is where you would launch into if you decide to use the Byng Island launch site. As we kept paddling on, we saw another cool looking, but much smaller dam.
The final landmark in the channel is a small creek that continues on under a bridge. We tried to explore more but it was too shallow to go very far.
After that, you can either head back to the launch or if you are really adventurous, you can paddle from here all the way to Port Maitland. So that was that, another successful trip. On the way home, something pretty off the wall caught our eye, how could we not stop!
Notes:
- If you want to grab some food after this paddle, try Flyers Cafe & Bakery. I love their food and they make everything in house. Not to mention the prices are so good, I thought they forgot to charge us for everything!
- These pictures are pretty old. I realized afterwards that some didn’t show a PFD in them. I decided to use them to show that no one is perfect. Back then, through inexperience we didn’t know that it was a bad idea to not have the PFD on at all times. As we improved in the sport, it became clear that we needed to put them on. I left the pictures in the post, to show that, we learned our lesson and improved ourselves in the process. Proof below:
- In the summer, this area is very busy with boat traffic. Be really careful in the main parts of the river.
Trip length: The paddle to the channel and back is about 2-3 hours depending on your pace. If you decide to paddle to Port Maitland and back, prepare to be on the water for 4-6 hours at least.
Costs: $7 per person in Bing or $10 flat rate at the boat club.
If you are interested in supporting Kayak Ontario, please do so by attending our kayaking lessons (clinics, classes and events). To find more information, please visit our shop by clicking here
This trip would require a minimum of level 1 or higher skills depending on the conditions.
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