Credit River
Information for planning a canoe or kayaking day down the Credit River.
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The Credit offers an interesting mix of rural and urban paddling. The upper sections are more technical can can only be run in the spring when the water level is high enough. You'll need some whitewater skills up there. The river gets increasingly easier downriver. The last third is an easy run down to the river for everyone. Sometimes people float down the river in inner tubes for that section.
Route options
There are many put-in and take-out options on the Credit River. With so many bridges crossing the Credit, you can easily create your own custom route. When you leave a car at the take-out, first scout to see if a take-out will be possible. Not all of the marked put-ins on the map below have been confirmed to be a reasonable put-in/take-out.
Inglewood to Glen Williams
This is a spring-only run, and you'll really need to watch out for sweepers, strainers and log jams.
Skill level: Intermediate. When this section is runnable, there will be some technical rapids to navigate.
Paddling distance: 18 km
Portages: One portage around a dam.
Glen Williams to Norval
Skill level: Beginner/intermediate. It has a long continuous set of class swifts/class 1 whitewater.
Paddling distance: 8 km
Portages: There is one portage around the old Paper Mill Dam in Georgetown.
Brampton to Streetsville
Skill level: Beginner/intermediate. Some swifts and class 1 rapids.
Paddling distance: 9.5 km
Portages: No portages.
Streetsville to Lake Ontario
Skill level: Beginner. The water is all pretty flat for the rest of the way, but still very water-level dependent for safety.
Paddling distance: 16 km
Portages: One portage around a dam if you launch at Streetsville Park.
Planning information
⚠️ Norval dam issue: The owners of the property around the dam in the town of Norval do not permit paddlers to portage around it. The Supreme Court of Ontario determined that while paddlers have the right of navigable access down the river, they do not have a right to step out of the river onto the private property beside it to portage around the dam. Read more about it here. So if you're paddling through Norval, you'll need to portage through the town and far away from the dam.
Shuttle services: The Credit really only has outfitters at the mouth of the river for the urban paddling. Lakeshore Kayak Adventures rents boats for up and down the Humber, but not a traditional shuttle. The best approach for urban shuttling is just grabbing an Uber/Lyft wherever you want to get out and then getting a ride back to your car.
Water data: Canada's real-time water gauge for Streetsville. Generally you'll want to run when it's over 7 m3/s.
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