Old Town Charles River 15 and Whitewater

Advice
#1

I just bought my first canoe, but I’m not new to canoeing. I bought a old town Charles River 15 because I like the look. I usually use the boat on the Blue River in southern Indiana. I’m looking at taking it to Elkhorn River near Frankfort Kentucky. Parts of the river have Class II and small Class III. Would you use my canoe in that river?



Thanks,

Kyle

#2

I’ve run the Elkhorn, and if your skills
have come along well, the Elkhorn, at a reasonable level, should be OK.



There are some rivers in KY I wouldn’t want to run in a non-ww canoe like yours, but if you use guidebooks and advice from others, you can pick out the ones you can handle.

#3

sure
The Elkhorn is not too technical and the boat should do fine.



But its always about the paddler(s), not the boat. Plenty of stuff harder and more technical was run in Blue Hole OCAs and the OCA is the same width and an inch longer.



The Charles River is not quite as deep as a full-on whitewater OC-2 most of which are 15+ inches deep at center, so it might run a little wetter, but there aren’t any long, continuous rapids on the Elkhorn.



I would suggest waiting till the Elkhorn is running 1000 cfs or a little better as you will be less likely to get a big boat like that hung up on the shallow sections.