Sunday, June 18, 2017

Speed 2 - Kayaking in Guelph

Our first trip on the Speed River in the University town was most excellent and we had boated from the Royal City Park to Victoria Street which was just over 2.5km each way. This weekend, before the rain and thunder came and the tornado warnings were still in the future, we returned to the Speed to check out the sequel - from Victoria Street to Stone Road (another 2.5km).


Part of the bridge has collapsed

We were thinking of parking at Royal City Jacees Park off of Highway 7/York Road but for some reason that place is all closed down. Parking is closed and the park is returning to nature. The two large ponds are full of geese and you have to walk through a field of goose crap to see the water. They separate bodies of water are not connected in any way that you can boat from one to the other and the water looks a little skunky so we give up on this option and continue on our search.
You have to boat around a lot of trees that fall into the water. I don't know how much would be navigable during the dry season

There are a bunch of streets off York Road west of Victoria Street, that terminate at the Eramosa River Park and the Royal Recreational Trail. You can drop off your canoes or kayaks at the cul-de-sac and park back up the street.
The railway crossing bridge
A partial underwater photo at the rapids
The old bridge at Stone Road
The boating is fabulous now, water is high and temperature is perfect for wading. Going upstream we pass a cool railway bridge, an old, abandoned wooden bridge and finally we hit the shallow rapids about 400m from Stone Road. We had to walk our kayaks upstream, finally dropping them off along the river banks and continuing to Stone Road to see the twin bridges - one is the newer one, one is the adjacent 1916 arch bridge with cool arches blocked off for use as a recreational trail.

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