| Region: | River: | NTS Sheet: | UTM Type: | Zone: |
| Avalon Penninsula | Waterford River | 1 N\10 | NAD83 | 22 |
| River Description: |
| A series of boulder gardens and waterfalls on the south side of St. John's. Good, dirty fun in |
| a hurricane. |
| Difficulty Rating: | Hardest Rapid: | Flow Information: |
| III+ | V+ | Flows during extremely high rainfall and during spring |
| melt March - April? |
| How to get there: |
| Put-in | Northing | Easting: |
| The put-in is located by between a church and highschool |
| on Topsail Rd. in St. John's. |
| Take-out | Northing | Easting: |
| Multiple take-outs exist for this river depending on how |
| much you want to run. It can be run clear into the harbour |
| and have a pick-up downtown. Or go to George Street. |
| Detailed Description of the River |
| First Descent: (2001) Kevin England (solo) |
| From the Church put-in the Waterford starts with a couple of steep class II\III rapids. It is |
| only difficult in the sense that there aren't many eddies on this stretch and the river is narrow. |
| Its actually not really river, but a polluted creek. After a couple of warm-up drops the river |
| bifurcates. Both channels are short and can be run. The day we did it there was a strainer in |
| the river right channel. But it did not hold Dave up when he ran this channel. There is a small |
| eddy at the top of the bifurcation to catch your breath. Immediately below the bifurcation the |
| river swings to the left and approaches a 5 m waterfall (IV-V). The right side is clean and |
| deep. Thanks to Dave for probing this one. The left side is class V and is a narrow, twisted |
| rock slot, but it looks like it will go. The day we were there a big chunk of ice was constricting |
| the exit slot. The only real difficulty on this drop is the low bridge at the brink of the drop. |
| There will be some water level where the bridge interferes with your head during the approach. |
| Below this waterfall is a series of non-descript, read and run, class II+ boulder gardens. These |
| boulder gardens end just above a street bridge and you should eddy out on the left side above |
| the bridge. "Billy Goat Gruff" (III) lives under the bridge and is quite a shock on your first run |
| down the river as it is not possible to scout under the bridge. Around the corner from the |
| bridge is a steep class IV+ rapid with at least two lines. The far river left is a series of class |
| II+ slots leading up to a 5 m ledge. The ledge is clean, but it is unclear how deep the pool is |
| below. It is probably shallow, so boof hard. The river right side involves lining up over a |