Soloing Greenhill Rapid, Missinaibi River

Solo Canoe down the 1500 meter Greenhill Rapid on the Missinaibi Rapid in Ontario (2017). We had decided the rapid was too hard for the group so they took the portage and I decided to solo it. Not too hard but very intense and took lots of time and lined a few bits. I made this video some years ago but only now uploading it.
We ran it in lower water in 2019 with the group and it was a lot of fun and with little risk of any real consequence. • Wilderness Canoeing: ... The descent of Greenhill is at 6.30 onwards.
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The story of my various trips on the Missinaibi feature in The Paddler Magazine (page 24). Lots of other good stuff too.
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This was run with www.Frontierbus... We run regular trips in Canada as well as on the Spey in Scotland and skills courses in the Lake District.
Our outfitter in Canada was the superb mhoadventures.com
My website: www.RayGoodwin.com
My book 'Canoeing', is available direct from me or from Amazon.

[@BuckMckawtheotherone]

Wonderful, Ray. I really enjoy the fact that, despite your extreme expertise and professional skills, you are not ya-hoo-ing down these rapids. In these real situations, the only fall-back is you, not your ego, but your caution and real skill, knowing when to walk, as well as how to paddle. Bravo!

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Yep it is a long way from help so I rein it in. I did learn the hard way many years ago but fortunately got away with it. Lesson learnt and now show real caution in these remote situation. Thank you for your kind comments.

[@oddmanout98]

So good to see how carefully each stage was considered rather that a ‘just go for it’ approach. Very impressive, shame your battery ran out I’d liked to have seen more of that. Thank you Ray. Paul.

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Yep I learnt a lesson there on the battery. i was quite annoyed. Thank you for comments.

[@Tim8o1]

At 1min 41 sec a fantastic expedition mantra "If in doubt - out"

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Not a place to get it wrong.

[@davidblyth4330]

It's a very valuable lesson in this video. My first solo canoe trips in the wild felt unexpectedly scary. Then I saw this film (a while back) and understood the sense behind my concern. When even you show such caution Ray it allows us all to realise we are wise to be very careful when paddling wilderness alone. 👍

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

I nearly learnt the lesson the hard way some years ago on the Bloodvein. So caution was beaten into me by a rapid in monstrous flood. I tend not to make the same mistake twice.

[@glennnolan8568]

We've done greenhill, a few times over the years. One year we noticed a canoe stuck in the middle of one of the tougher sections. The water was too high and we thought it would be too much effort to free up. once we arrived at the bottom of the rapids we paddled over to the portage on river left to write in the journal. A story of a previous group caught our attention. The canoe we saw in the middle of the rapids was one of their canoes. There were three canoes and all three canoes dumped and the group lost most of their gear to the river. What they were able to collect was meager, but the worst thing was that they lost all three canoes to either pinned or torn apart (they had two kevlar canoes and one royalex). the six guys from Ohio gathered the remaining gear and hiked out to the train tracks about 6 kms, as the crow flies, through Northern Ontario wilderness. I never did hear if they got out, but they must have because there was never a news story about 6 buddies from Ohio lost in Northern Ontario

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Yep very different game if the river is high. I have only done it over the years at medium to low level. Last time was very low and I took the whole group down it but there was little or no consequence if something went wrong. The story you recount is quite awful and it sound like they were lucky only to lose gear and boats. Thank you for posting.

[@glennnolan8568]

@@RayGoodwinCanoe a good lesson to learn from - even if it is from a safe distance

[@wayfarerchris.4116]

Wow! that looked fun, hard work, but fun, very brave on your own Ray but obviously we can see you have the skill. Thanks for sharing 😊

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Thanks for watching! It was fun but it did need a lot of concentration. In reality I was not being brave, I only tend to be brave when the consequence is low or there are people around be that can help if it goes wrong. So it was a balance of skill and caution. And again thank you for your kind comments.

[@MT-pi3ct]

You and Kirtley have to film some more River trips in Ontario. Amazing stuff

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Would love too. it will come around.

[@nigelgregory4777]

If this man could be cooler in a sticky situation he would be an icicle, 😀😀😀, thanks for the video Ray. Hope family and friends are well at this difficult time. Nige.

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

All good here thanks. I hope you and yours are well too. The comment did make me chuckle. Again thanks

[@CJ-zx4zt]

calm cool and rocking!!!

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Thank you. Appreciated

[@wrzlgummidge7663]

Nicely shot Ray, thanks

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Thank you. I learnt a lot from taking and editing that video. I would do better still now.

[@chrisswallow6884]

Morning Ray. Understand absolutely the need for caution but it didn't look like a big bouncy rapid, more a scrapy rocky one. What were the main concerns here? Pinning on rocks or damaging the boat rather than capsize or trapped in stoppers etc?

[@RooDavis]

Ray Im wondering the same as Chris as I mostly paddle flatwater and never venture past grade1 rapids unless Im in a raft. So I watch with great interest to how safely you approach and choose your line through these rapids. If they are rated at grade3 entry then grade 2, they only come across from what I could see as grade 1 to low 2's. I am guessing there was bigger water out of camera shot that you avoided and we did not see.

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Hi Andrew and Chris: It certainly wasn't grade 3 on that day but it was a lot of 2 and it kept coming. I never really work on the grade when I am out on these river but on what I can see. So although I had been down this rapid twice before over the years I certainly don't know it. I was avoiding most places where the water concentrated and had real power keeping to the lot less powerful and hence scrappy bits or if I could not see clearly I lined. I was totally on my own as the portage, the others were taking, was no where near the river and not in sight. So....... I was fully laden with no only my own camp kit for the 13 day trip but I had a full barrel of food from the group kit. So there was enough power to bend a boat in the concentrated sections and no way do I want to risk a my boat or chance a capsize and snag a foot in the canoe. Consequence is far higher if alone. With an empty boat and a mate in a British rapid I would have been far bolder. All the lines required moving the boat about the river and from side to side. But the big thing is I would not commit to anything unless I could clearly see it. I think the biggest thing for a British paddler to learn on remote wilderness rivers is caution. Hope that helps you understand my thinking. Good question by the way.

[@carlmyhill]

Fabulous

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Thank you.

[@nm-ge4tb]

👍👍👍👍👌

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Thank you.

[@avalonadventures8396]

Can you suggest a good beaver tail paddle that won't break the bank.

[@RayGoodwinCanoe]

Hi, Hard one that. My own beaver tail paddles are made by freebirdpaddles.co.uk and are not cheap. I use both their Big Dipper and the WW Big Dipper which is my all time favourite paddle. Greyowl no longer do a beavertail and that would have been a cheaper but still good choice but they do a good range of deep water paddles: if you get one of those always get the oiled version as they are easy to maintain. The really cheap beavertail paddles out there are less robust. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

[@hobowalker1]

Bending Branches has a very nice beavertail paddle for a good price.