Keith Nicol Adventures: Tubing and swimming in the Puntledge River in Courtenay- Part 1

Saturday 27 June 2015

Tubing and swimming in the Puntledge River in Courtenay- Part 1

by Keith and Heather Nicol

On Friday, June 26 we decided to check out the swimming and tubing on Puntledge River which flows through Courtenay. With the start of a weeklong hot spell of weather with forecasted temperatures in the high 20C and low 30C we thought we better get acquainted with swimming options available locally. In Newfoundland we would normally have to wait until late July or early August to get fresh water warm enough to swim in so June swimming is definitely a novelty.

Puntledge Park has some great swimming areas

We had also seen lots of people tubing down the Puntledge River so we thought we should definitely do that as well. We thought for our first time we would put in at Puntledge Park and tube down to Lewis Park. We borrowed some old truck inner tubes from some friends and used our sea kayak paddles to help steer. The low flow meant that you definitely had to be “bums up” through the rapids and we fortunately chose the right channels so didn’t end up having to walk through the shallow areas. The kayak paddle seemed to help with steering and propulsion especially in the slower near Lewis Park. Next time our plan is to pull out at the Condensory Bridge which will avoid the slower section at the lower end of the river. We also want to try the upper section from the Fish Hatchery off of Powerhouse Road for a longer and more exciting run.See blog post -http://keithnicol.blogspot.ca/2015/07/swimming-and-tubing-in-courtenays.html for more information on tubing the Puntledge River in Courtenay. Check out the video below for a good way to keep car keys dry while tubing the Puntledge!