One Friday night back in the mid-1990s, Jason Hayes’ dad dropped him and some friends off at the Genesee Bridge boat launch, west of the city.
“ ‘I’d rather be sitting at home having a beer than dropping you guys out here again,’ ” Hayes remembers him saying. “ ‘There should be a service for this.’ ”
Hayes took that comment to heart. This July, his business, Canoeheads, is marking 30 years of equipping paddlers with canoes and dropping them off at boat launches around the city.
“In 1996, there was nobody using the river,” he says. “You could sit here all day on a Saturday and you’d see less than a handful of boats.”
River use has changed dramatically, especially since the pandemic in 2020 when throngs of people began seeking outdoor activities. (River traffic has increased fivefold since then, according to Edmonton park rangers.)
“It’s the peace and quiet,” Hayes says of paddling the North Saskatchewan. “It’s a view unlike any other. You don’t see it from the road, you don’t see it from the bridge.”
Whether you’re canoeing, kayaking, stand-up paddleboarding or floating, a day on the North Saskatchewan offers an escape from the city while still within its boundaries. These days, there are more businesses like Canoeheads that offer rentals, along with a shuttle ride to a drop-off point and a pick-up for your vessel after you’re done, including Edmonton Canoe, Edmonton River Float and River Valley Adventure Co. (though they don’t offer a shuttle).
The city has multiple boat launches spread down the river, but the most popular route is from Emily Murphy Park to Capilano Park, which is around 12 km or two to three hours. If you’re looking for a full-day option, starting at Terwillegar Park or even Devon are popular choices too.
When I kayaked the river last September — starting at the Buena Vista Boat Launch and ending at the Capilano Boat Launch — the lasting impact wasn’t the actual paddling, though that was fun. It was the unique vantage point from the water, glancing over the trees at the skyline, gliding underneath the bridges I’ve driven over every day, and looking up steep riverbanks I normally look down.
Trust me: once you see the city from that angle, you can’t unsee it.
Save for a few weeks in June when spring runoff makes the river faster and deeper than usual, the North Saskatchewan is a beginner paddle: a calm Class 1.
Sgt. Greg Komarniski with the city’s park ranger unit agrees with that classification, but he notes that risks still exist. The recent rains have caused the river to swell, and it is running faster than usual at this time of year. “We’ve got a lot of debris on the shoreline and through some of the shallower areas of the river,” he says. “(Cheaper inflatables) won’t stand up to that, whereas an approved vessel like a kayak or canoe will, as long as you’re navigating those areas safely and you’ve got all the safety gear on board.”
Hayes puts it another way: “Canoes don’t flip. People flip canoes.”
To that end, in 2025, the City of Edmonton mandated that life jackets or PFDs must be worn on the river within city limits. “It was spurred by the increase of people on the river in the last five or six years,” Komarniski says. “We looked at incidents that were occurring and compared it to Calgary, which has had a mandatory life jacket law since 1979, and their number of drownings and related injuries have drastically fallen since that time.”
In addition to a lifejacket, each vessel (if it floats, it’s a boat, as the saying goes) must also have a buoyant heaving line (a floating rope), whistle, bailer and, if it’s after dark, a light. Other safety tips: tell someone your route plan and timeframe, avoid wearing a leash if you’re paddleboarding (it can get snagged) and avoid swimming in the river.
The goal should be to have a safe and memorable day on the water.
Even with five times the number of people using the river for paddling since prior to the pandemic, there are still many who have never tried it.
That may stem from the river’s once-deserved reputation as polluted. Improved waste treatment, new regulations and substantial clean-up efforts in the 1980s have brought the river back to the point that Epcor’s website now describes its water quality as, “good to excellent” with low pathogens or other contaminants. Its muddy colour comes from silty runoff, especially in the spring when there has been a lot of rain. The colour clears as the water level recedes in the summer. Both colours represent a natural and healthy North Saskatchewan river. In short, there’s nothing stopping Edmontonians enjoying the water.
“The vast majority of people say, ‘I can’t believe I haven’t done this before,’ ” Hayes says about his customer feedback. “ ‘I’ve been here my whole life and I’ve never done this.’ ”
