Eau Claire (Chippewa trib.)
C) Soo Line Rapids (PnP, or 3.3 miles)
| Difficulty | I-II |
| Length | 3 mi |
| Avg Gradient | n/a |
| Reach Info Last Updated | November 16, 2019 |
River Description
The 'main', 'usual' play area is off Galloway Street by Banbury Place. The Soo Line Rapids (named after the old Soo Line Walking bridge, formerly a railroad bridge) has three really nice features, and may be done as a Park-and-Play (PnP).
In addition, there appear to be a number of other features upriver of this, making it worthwhile to do the 3.3 mile run as we have listed, especially at times of high flow, as wonderful wavetrains will exist!
And, the following YouTube video (from 'VesperSparrow') shows one of the Soo Line waves: https://youtu.be/0T3ZlOSUstc
River Features
Put-in
The put-in coordinates listed are on the nearest city street to our access point in order to have GoogleMaps default routing work correctly. The actual put-in appears to be on a public access road (likely mostly for fishermen) which goes to the dam.
Ledge/Wave ?
There appears to be a decent ledge just a bit downstream of the dam, though accesss to try for a PnP appears potentially problematic. River-right is private residences. River-left appears to be commercial properties. Perhaps (with permission) one could park there to carry in/out.
Anyone ever check this? Is is worth the bother? REPORT!
wave/holes
Just downstream of a pedestrian bridge lies a series of wave/holes which can be entertaining at some flows.
Soo Line Waves
This may be the best of the waves (at least, at some flows).
Take Out
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportRan at 1.85ft and it was definitely scrappy. There was still a fun little surf wave if you are just learning to surf but otherwise it is not worthwhile at this level.