S T A N D I N G W A V E S


Bienvenue à Canada. PHOTO DAVID FAUBERT


It’s a Rapid Education


NEW for 2008!


Ladies Retreat Paddling Spa week for both Kayak & Open Canoe June 30-July 4


Senior’s 55+


More relaxed learning pace July 28 - August 1


Welcome to America. BOUNDARY CREEK THE PERFECT SMUGGLER’S RUN FOR BOOTLEG WHITEWATER


ACROSS MOST OF THE CONTINENT, the 49th parallel fuses two political siblings–Canada and the United States–like Siamese twins. Other than a line on a map and a few well-guarded crossings, it’s not much more than a toe line in the soil. In Alberta’s Waterton National Park this politi-


cal boundary becomes more than just a fantasy fence line. Tucked into the extreme southwest pocket is Boundary Creek, a liquid no-man’s-land that skirts back and forth along the two nations’ border. It has never smelled smuggled tobacco or twisted a barrel of bootleg moonshine because this Alberta-to-Montana crossing is self-regulat- ing: it’s a class V run. “Running Boundary Creek is a full-day commit-


ment,” said Spencer Cox, one of a team of four who were the first to storm the border in the high spring runoff of 2006. “To get there you have a long flatwater paddle, a longer slog up a horse trail and to end it all, an illegal border crossing.” Like any crossing, you have to go through Cus- toms first. That leads directly into the full-on class-V


B O O K R E V I E W In the Naga’s Wake BY MICK O’SHEA


Summer: 613.756.3620 Winter: 613.594.5268 WWW.MKC.CA


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Born in the arid, land-locked regions of western Australia, found- er and CEO of Wildside Asia Eco Tours, Mick O’Shea takes read- ers on the ultimate solo river trip down the Mekong, from Tibet to the South China Sea. The river is wrought with unknown gorges, subversive partnerships, raw and remote landscapes, flash floods and even bandits. O’Shea faces it all in his attempt to be the first person to navigate the entire Mekong alone. The bonus here, beyond a good adventure story, is that half the proceeds go to the Mekong First Descent Foundation to educate about the river’s environmental issues and the human and resource rights violations by dam builders.—NE


$26.95 AUD www.allenandunwin.com


Cavity Search; eddy left at the bottom of the rapid and this is a straightforward domestic run. Eddy right and you’ve just paddled into foreign waters (unless of course you’re American, in which case you’re home). “The scoured bedrock drops and crystal clear


blue water make it a classic example of steep creeking in the Canadian—or is that American— Rockies,” Cox says. The creek ends four kilometres later when it


spills into the U.S. side of Waterton Lake. Paddling down the lake a few hundred yards gets you back into Canadian waters. Chris Goble, who discovered the run, managed


to enlist Cox, David Faubert and Joel Fafard for a first descent of the creek in spite of the interna- tional security risk. Now with the initial run made and passport laws relaxing ever-so-slightly to allow those wonderful, tiny, waterproof driver’s licence cards, the Treasure State of Montana could see a rash of border jumping creekers paddling toward her other jewels. — Raymond Schmidt


RAPID


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