Vision Statement: To share the magic of the Ottawa River
Mandate: By providing enriching experiences on the river that influence our guests, our staff, our community and the environment.
Meet our all woman executive team, consisting of Katrina Van Wijk, Natalie Grant, and Kirstin Thompson (KT). They are at the helm of day-to-day business operations during the season and spearheading planning, development, and sales activities in the off-season.
OWL Rafting is a third generation family owned and operated business. Beginning with our founders Hermann and Christa Kerckhoff in the summer of 1981. The Kerckhoff’s immigrated to Canada in the late 50’s and fell in love with the river, in 1972 they started the worlds first whitewater kayak and canoe school known as Madawaska Kanu Centre. Hermann and their daughter Claudia were the first kayakers to descend the Ottawa River, discovering a prime location for rafting. Now both companies are thriving thanks to their current owners Claudia and Dirk Van Wijk. The third generation are quickly becoming more involved as well with Stefani Van Wijk as Director of MKC and Katrina on OWL’s Executive Team.
We are proud to share our magical home of the river with you!
This river has been our home for 40 years. The Algonquin people have lived here for millennia. We hold the responsibility to ensure it will continue to thrive for future generations. This watershed is home, our work, our community, and our playground.
FOOD: We take our food and our waste seriously! Food waste is either composted to feed our gardens, or food for our resident ethically and sustainably raised pigs. All our meals, snacks and specialist beverages are served with reusable plates, cups, and cutlery, which are washed with eco-friendly products. At our Café, we do not use disposable “take away” cups. If sipping your beverage on site, you’ll enjoy it in a ceramic mug which we feel also tastes better. And if taking it off-site, and don’t have your own travel mug, we have a great selection of locally designed Ottawa River cups, pottery mugs or thermal tumblers for sale. We strive to source much of our food items from local producers, and bakers. Our kitchen garden provides us with vegetables, herbs and edible flowers that enhances our cuisine.
SHOPPING: We avoid single-use plastics at all costs! We only sell drinks that are packaged in recyclable material. Anything that can be recycled is sorted and taken to a recycling depot once a week. When a product we sell arrives in single-use packaging, we contact our supplier with ideas on how this could be improved. Many of our suppliers are now providing us with reusable containers, that get exchanged on a weekly basis.
WATER: By using low-flow and composting toilets, waterless urinals, and low flow shower heads, we minimize our water consumption… Our water in our guest wash house is also pre heated by solar power.
RIVER CLEAN-UP: After every season, we do a riverside clean-up, removing litter from the shores and eddies along the Ottawa River.
SAVE THE TREES: In our office, both sides of every piece of paper is used – it’s a small thing, and small things count! We have digitalized our waiver system, saving thousands of sheets of paper annually. Reservations are online and computerized, minimizing the paper copies of the past.
ENERGY + CARBON: Coming soon – Electric Vehicle charging stations at our Base. Most of our lights are low wattage LEDs and we are continually working towards all our lights to be low wattage LEDs. Our staff choose to live in completely off-grid accommodations, using zero electricity for the entire summer!
EDUCATION: By bringing more people into the River World, we inspire, deepen and build people’s care and love for our environment. We continue to learn from the River!
NEXT STEPS: We have signed the Sustainable Tourism 2030 Pledge, to demonstrate our commitment to improving the sustainability of our business operations between now and 2030.
From Australia, Tim ensures that the raft trips run smoothly and that the guides are delivering the best trips possible throughout the season. If you can’t find him on the river you’ll find him repairing rafts and getting things ready for upcoming trips. He is always stoked to share his passion for whitewater and hopes to pass it on to others through the rafting trips.
Liz is switching gears this season and stepping up to the role of Assistant General Manager.
At OWL you can find her zooming around base in the tractor, in the office as a reservation specialist, or captaining your pontoon cruise!
In the off season Liz spends her time as an outdoor educator, sharing her passion of the outdoors with her students.
Sam is a professional outdoors person. He spends his summers at OWL leading the River and Video Departments alongside Tim. He spends his winters traveling and skiing. This past winter he was in British Columbia working as a Ski Patroller at Sun Peaks.
An awesome time had by all! A wonderful time provided by a charismatic and knowledgeable guide! 
Best day ever. All staff were amazing. Friendly, fun, but very attentive to safety. Lots of excitement and fun. Our raft had people from 10 to 70 in it and we all had a wonderful wet and safe day. Our guide was knowledgeable fun and competent. All the guides participated in the fun antics and kept us all safe. 
Let the Scottush guide wear his kilt!!! Great family fun doing medium intensity rafting at Owl! Well organized. Wonderful staff and facilities. Worth renting the cabin. Cool air fed compostable toilets in clean washrooms nearby. Food was just OK this year. 
Do you have specific skills in one of the areas listed below, enjoy the outdoors especially the whitewater world, and love interacting with people?
Learn More
We would love to hear from you. Whether to share a story, ask a question or give us feedback, please get in touch with us.
Learn More