Beachburg, ON — Wilderness Tours (WT) supported a complex two-day vehicle recovery operation at Butcher’s Knife Rapid on the Ottawa River on October 24–25, 2025.
This was the follow-up to the initial 2-day recovery with OPP a week earlier, which left the vehicle near the shoreline below Butcher’s Knife rapid. The vehicle still needed to be extracted more than 300m over rugged rocky terrain, across the Ottawa River and up to a lookout.
Working alongside Xtreme Heavy Towing and Gervais Towing, WT provided property access, ferry logistics, swift water rigging expertise, and safety oversight for the cross-river recovery effort in challenging whitewater conditions.
The operation to remove the vehicle began Friday morning with coordination between the towing teams and WT staff to develop a safe extraction plan. WT provided use of a company raft and paddling crew to ferry personnel and equipment across the river’s current above Butcher’s Knife rapid.
A major challenge was getting any line across the river’s current to join the tow trucks’ winching power to the vehicle. WT’s Ottawa Kayak School director Casey Bryant Jones attached a floating rope to his life jacket’s “blow-away belt” (a specific piece of gear that gives a paddler the ability to release from a line should things get too dangerous) to connect the two shorelines.
He carried out this maneuver by paddling his kayak while pulling the floating line. This task proved to be especially challenging due to how much drag a rope will experience when floating in swift current. Once across the current, the floating line would be used to pull across towing cable.
By late morning, a cross-river connection was established using heavy-duty “infinity loops” and steel cable, with WT’s team managing raft shuttles and communications between shore crews. Despite careful planning, the swift current and heavy equipment posed significant challenges, with several reconfigurations required to advance the vehicle safely upstream.
As daylight faded, the team faced additional complications, including a failed 35,000 lb-rated loop that required a full re-rig of the cross-river line. Wilderness Tours’ staff—including Campbell Wilson, Zach Surette, Casey Bryant Jones., and company owner Joel Kowalski—worked efficiently to reestablish secure rigging using kayaks and Xtreme’s portable winches.
This process was slow and difficult as a floating rope was again required to cross the current to winch the heavy cable across the river. Multiple anchor points needed to be created to progressively winch the line pulling the heavy cable all the way to the vehicle.
By 10:00 PM, the WT team made the decision to suspend operations due to safety concerns related to darkness, falling temperatures, and operator fatigue. “At that point, we had to put safety first,” said Kowalski.
“The crux of the operation was still ahead of us. Securing floats to the vehicle for the river crossing would be a major undertaking. And coordination for that final pull across the current was going to need to be executed carefully to not lose the vehicle or any of our team into the rapids. The rigging location is precarious because it’s mere feet from very powerful current pulling into the rapid. The middle of the night is no time to be attempting something like that.”
Work resumed Saturday morning under improved conditions. With WT again providing shuttles and water safety support, the towing operators successfully pulled the vehicle into a calm inlet where WT staff secured pontoons to the chassis.
After verifying all rigging and flotation systems, the vehicle was safely ferried across to the opposite shoreline by early afternoon.
By mid-afternoon, the site was cleared and the recovery officially concluded.
“This operation highlighted the importance of teamwork, technical planning, and respect for the river,” said Kowalski. “We’re proud of how our staff handled every phase with professionalism and safety at the forefront. We’d like to thank Xtreme Towing and Gervais towing for their collaboration and efforts”
About Wilderness Tours:
Founded in 1975, Wilderness Tours is Canada’s original whitewater rafting and adventure resort, located on the Ottawa River. The company provides rafting, kayaking, and outdoor experiences with an unmatched safety record and deep respect for the river environment.
For more information, visit www.wildernesstours.com.