| Region: | River: | NTS Sheet: | UTM Type: | Zone: |
| Terra Nova | Northwest River | 2 D\8 | NAD27 | 21 |
| River Description: |
| A narrow river with steep, drop-pool style rapids. The quantity and spacing of rapids gives a good creek |
| like feeling to the river. |
| Difficulty Rating: | Hardest Rapid: | Flow Information: |
| | III+ | | V,V+ | Levels for the Northwest R. are available from the WRMD- |
| | ARDS website. |
| | |
| | www.gov.nf.ca/WRMD/ARDS/30dgraph.htm |
| River Levels: |
| | Low | 7 | to | 14 |
| | Medium | 14 | to | 30 |
| | High | 30 | to | 100 |
| How to get there: | Gradient: |
| | Put-in | Northing: | Easting: | Section: | Avg |
| | 5365943 | | 701736 | | Distance: | 5.70 | | km |
| | Travel 950 m south on the TCH from the take-out. Turn right onto | Elevation Loss: | 94.4 | | m |
| | the gravel road leading to the Boy Scout camp. At the first |
| | intersection (815 m) continue straight along the main road; this is | 310 | | ft |
| | the railway line. A right turn here leads to an old train bridge | Gradient: | 17 | | m/km |
| | over the river. Continue along the road to the next fork (4 km). A | 88 | | fpm |
| | red gate bars the right hand fork, 25 m past the gate is a bridge |
| | spanning the river. This is the put-in. | Section: | Max |
| | Take-out | Northing: | Easting: | Distance: | 0.50 | | km |
| | 5364493 | | 706539.8 | | Elevation Loss: | 16.8 | | m |
| | The take-out is 20 km north on the TCH from the Irving station in | 55 | | ft |
| | Clarenville. Just past the bridge over the Northwest River (150 | Gradient: | 34 | | m/km |
| | m) is a small parking lot on the left hand side of the highway. | 178 | | fpm |
| | DFO usually has a small trailer parked here for salmon counters. |
| | An alternate take-out/put-in is the train bridge (see put-in |
| | description). When approaching this take-out on the river be |
| | very carefull of the salmon counting apparatus. It is a river wide |
| | fence used to corral fish and kill kayakers. |
| Detailed Description of the River |
| The Northwest River can be broken into three sections: Upper, Second Canyon, and the Golf Course. |
| |
| The upper section begins with three class II+ warm-up rapids. A nice spot to practice eddy turns and get |
| used to the boat. The first major rapid is Wake-up Call (IV) and can be recognized by a sharp right turn |
| along a low rock wall. It starts with a ledge, a fast right hand turn, and finishes by punching the corners |
| of two large, shallow holes. Wake-up call sets the tone for the rest of the river, if you don't like this one |
| you're still not far from the trucks. A short pool leads to the Price is Right (III\III+). Three slots converge |
| on a short pool above a 5' slide, which is run just left of center. The river right slot provides the easiest, |
| most controlled access to the main drop. Around the corner from this is Fish Hook (IV-). Looks can be |
| deceiving, hit the left side of that little hole or go for a ride, but don't go to far right or you'll flush out the |