Incident Report: 2024 March 10
Canoeists Lucky to be Alive: Canoeists Capsize with no PFDs
and in street clothes above Butcher’s Knife Rapid on Ottawa
River during late winter.
Written by Joel Kowalski, River Ops Mgr. at Wilderness Tours
Conditions: Water Temp: Ice cold with Ice floe • Air Temp: -4°C •
Water Level: high and rising fast
Incident Report: 2024 March 10
Canoeists Lucky to be Alive: Canoeists Capsize with no PFDs
and in street clothes above Butcher’s Knife Rapid on Ottawa
River during late winter.
Written by Joel Kowalski, River Ops Mgr. at Wilderness Tours
Conditions: Water Temp: Ice cold with Ice floe • Air Temp: -4°C • Water Level: high and rising fast
Saturday March 9, 2024
Approx. 10:00am
From the upstairs window of my house at 22 Fletcher Rd, I see one car parked in the River Barn parking lot
(we operate a pub in the renovated barn on our farm, with walking and mountain biking trails along the river).
There is a canoe on top of the car. Nothing seems out of the ordinary as the trails behind our house are
popular on weekends.
Approx. 11:30am
I’m loading up our family in our van to go to the city to run some errands. As we were leaving our driveway, I
saw two vehicles in the River Barn parking lot. I believed at the time that they were different vehicles as there
was no canoe and enough time had passed that it would be normal for it to be different trail visitors.
I see a group of 4 men walking into the trails. I notice they are all wearing backpacks which to me means they
have plans more than just walking our trails, but I’m on a timeline with the family so I leave thinking I may
need to check on things when I return.
Approx. 6:30pm
I returned from the city with my family. As I had expected it might be the case, the cars were still parked at the
River Barn. Darkness is setting in, so I know I’ll have to go and do a property check.
I drive my truck down the farm road behind the River Barn towards the river. The gravel road bends to the left
as it gets to the tree line where the river is visible through the leafless wall of trees. From here you can see the
start of Butcher’s knife rapid, a strong class 4 rapid with deep whirlpools and jagged sharp rocks. The Ottawa
River’s biggest rapids are just downstream out of view around the next river bend.
Approx. 7:00pm
As I approach our scenic overlook area, I can see a campfire on the island on “river left”. The island is part of Ontario
Parks’ Ottawa River Provincial Park, which is designated as “non-operational” with no camping permitted.
I park my truck along the tree line and walk down to the river’s edge to see if my flashlight can illuminate
across the river. I can see the canoe that i had seen earlier that day, I then realized it was all the same group.
“Hello!” I yell across the river. The current is swift above Butcher’s Knife, and the sound of the rapid is loud.
“Hello!” they yelled back, as the campers saw my approach.
I then informed the campers that we don’t permit people to launch watercraft for overnight adventures from
our property for safety reasons. They didn’t push back at all on this point, they even apologized right away
and said: “Sorry it won’t happen again!”. They asked for clarification on if the island they were on was indeed
crown land, to which I informed them that ORPP doesn’t allow camping either.
“Stay where you are. It’s too dangerous to cross at night!” I exclaimed. I made plans to come back in the
morning to check on them.
Sunday March 9, 2024
Approx. 8:00am
I geared up at home into my drysuit with thermal layers. I grabbed my “creek boat” whitewater kayak then
loaded into my truck to head back to the river’s edge.
Having arrived by the river with my kayak, I navigated across the swift currents to the island. I landed with my
kayak and walked up to their campsite to meet the group.
I introduced myself as the landowner via which they accessed the river but also that I manage river
operations at Wilderness Tours. They were a friendly group of guys who introduced themselves in return.
I then explained the grave danger they were in.
Without realizing it, they were in an extremely dangerous location, and conditions were about to get more
severe with water flow rising and air temperatures only going lower. They explained that they had been on one
of our rafting tours in the summer and mistakenly believed they had nothing to worry about.
I asked them some questions about how the crossings had gone the day before. They replied with “fine”, but I
didn’t think that they realized that shuttling loaded boats from mainland to the island would be easier than
the return trip because of the eddylines.
“What kind of gear do you guys have? What kind of life jackets? Dry suits or wet suits?” I asked them.
They paused... They sheepishly replied they had no such equipment. They were out there with just street
clothes, hoodies, Carhart's and boots.
“Guys, I was worried before, but now I really need to let you know just how dangerous this situation is.” I told
them.
I emphasized the deadly whirlpools and rapids immediately downstream of their position. I emphasized that
if they capsize their boat in street clothes with no PFDs not only would the currents themselves likely drown
them, but the frigid water would keep them from swimming to shore if they resurfaced, before the rest of the
Main Channel’s massive rapids flushed them downstream for the next 4km.
By this point they were understanding the gravity of the scenario. To their credit, they realized their errors and
were ready to work with me to safely get back to the other side.
I told them that “I’m going to give you guys some time to break down your camp. Then, I’m going to cover you
guys as you ferry back to the mainland”. They all agreed to the plan.
Approx. 9:30am
The four guys had all their gear packed up ready to canoe back to the mainland. The crossing can’t be
underestimated even though it looks smooth. Eddylines that meander and shift make a smooth and
predictable crossing unreliable. The day before they were moving luggage to the island and coming back to
the mainland in a light boat. But today they were taking loaded boats back to the mainland which makes for a
more difficult crossing. Their plan was to do 3 crossings. It would take these many crossings to shuttle their
luggage and crew from the island to the mainland.
Crossing #1 went smoothly enough.
I stayed nearby in my kayak, close enough to assist should I need to. This crossing was with 2 paddlers and
luggage. They would return to the island next to shuttle the other group members.
Approx. 10:00am
Crossing #2 is when things became more serious. For this crossing they had 3 in the canoe plus some luggage.
Their peel-out of the eddy at the island wasn’t perfect but they got on their way after some wobbles. While
crossing the flow i knew they weren’t moving far enough fast enough.
As calmly as I could I coached them on their trajectory and speed. The further along we got the more
apparent to me it became that they risked flushing into the rapid if they didn’t paddle harder and improve
their trajectory. Their strokes picked up speed but the next challenge was navigating the challenging river-
right eddyline. They were approaching the critical last chance spot with worse angle and out of balance.
As their canoe engaged with the eddyline it turned quickly towards the right. They lost their balance as the
canoe turned sharply to the right. Water spilled over the left side gunnel of the canoe. The canoe filled up very
quickly and capsized. Without much warning, they were all in the water. Gear was floating as the 3 men
scrambled to get on top of the capsized canoe.
I knew I had to direct their self-rescue or they would be swept into the rapid. There was basically no time to
spare. “Abandon your canoe and swim right! Abandon your canoe and swim right! Abandon your canoe and swim
right!” I yelled loudly. The men were already quickly succumbing to the frigid water. One of them couldn’t move
his limbs to swim in the swift icy flow. 2 of the men made the swim across the critical point of the eddyline.
I tageted the 3rd freezing man with my kayak and told him to grab the handle on my stern. I paddled him into the
eddy out of immediate danger.
Once I knew the men were all at least in the eddy, I targeted their gear. The canoe would be necessary to
recover the 4th man still watching from the island. With my kayak i was able to bump and push most of the gear
out of the current and into the eddy. Once the gear was out of the current I refocused my efforts on making sure all
3 men made it out of the water. The coldest man of the 3 I directed to get back to their vehicles and get out of his
wet frozen clothes. The other two were cold but could help haul their gear onto shore.
Next I worked to get the canoe mostly emptied of water and closer to shore to full empty it out.
I got into the canoe once it was empty and told the guys I was going to go and get their remaining friend.
Now that i had a moment to communicate for backup I texted my dad Joe Kowalski and my brother-in-law
Casey Bryant Jones to alert them of the situation. Dad happened to be driving by the location so was on site
withing minutes. Recovery of the remaining friend went smoothly.
We used my truck to shuttle the gear to their cars where the men thanked us again for the help, apologized
for the inconvenience.
Report by Joel Kowalski
Joel@wildernesstours.com
1-613-602-6866
