Spring flooding on the Gull river causes massive infrastructure damage to whitewater course

from the Guelph kayak club

Water was almost going over the dam walls, it was sand bagged.

The River left wall right below the dam is now GONE, huge concrete blocks have been moved down river up to 100'. The upper gull now has 2 channel, and the 2nd splits again. The little bridge that was on the river left side up top is gone.

There are now 2 otter slides, one about 20-30' river left of the original.

Theres 2-4 docks lodged in the main channel of the river near earls. Rocks the size of cars are being pushed around like pebbles. Pretty crazy.

Water is like 6-8" OVER the stick gage, and changes on every few hours as TSW changes stuff around.

The river may look better than expected down at the typical level of water but even if it is mostly unchanged in general the buffer against high water is destroyed and future erosion and degradation will be much swifter and harder to combat. The scale of needed repair will increase exponentially from this point with each high water event.

The whole river had started to look weak in many areas some years ago with regard to undermining flows and shifting boulders.

This could prove to be a great opportunity or it could be the beginning of the slow but sure end of the Gull.

Photos - from Rich Hevesi

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151558806434266.1073741826.517554265&type=1&l=6953c1227a

 The river simply does not look "the same"