Category Archives: World Tour 2007-08

Tourist attraction, faff and big water

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In this installment of our exciting travels we become a tourist attraction, lose Gina and Conrad, find Bristol Uni Canoe Club, some large volume rivers and another canyon to climb out of. After finding really cute squirrels at the forbidden put in on the Maligne, we headed downstream until we got to a point where the Harlequin ducks wouldn't notice or mind our presence – the Maligne Canyon. This is a tourist attraction and is marked on the map as such – it's also a good quality section of whitewater and is marked in the guidebook as such. It's a very short section – about half a mile and there's no road access to the top, so Conrad, Gav and I had to carry our boats up the tourist trail along side it – becoming tourist attractions in the process: people stopped to take our photos, ask us questions, tell us we were mad and all eagerly gathered along the banks waiting for our run.

Gav ran the large rapid at the top – much to his audience's delight, while Conrad and I opted to seal launch in below the sticky hole-filled shoot, again pleasing the crowd with the high seal launches. The rest of the 1/2 mile was great fun with a nice boof drop and some cool rapids through a gorge. At the take out bridge we met the girls and continued down another couple of miles to just above the confluence with the Athabasca. Not long after getting off the river an email arrived from one of our spectators, sent via travellingkayak.com saying he'd got some good photos of us on our run down.

From there we left the Rockies (but we shall return on a hunt for Dinosaurs) and headed to Clearwater, where Gina and Conrad would head off and the rest of the Bristol contingent would pick up Claire, Gav and Sarah. Before departing, we had one last run with Gina and Conrad down the Clearwater – it's a big volume river (although they'd say medium volume over here) with huge wave trains and swirly, boily eddy lines. While the Bristol guys were doing what uni clubs do best – faffing, this time about a portage around a class 6 rapid, Conrad ad I paddled on down through the lower section of the Clearwater, which was great fun in Creek boats, with even bigger waves and holes than the top section, and would be awesome in playboats if surfing is your thing.

At the take out we said a sad good bye to Gina and Conrad and decided to hang around with the Bristol guys for a bit longer; It's been quite good having a different selection of people to paddle with over here. From meeting up with Simon and Cheryl and then Johnny and Alex as well, to Gina, Conrad, Claire, Sarah and Gav and now all the Bristol guys, we've gone from just the two of us to 11.

Since the Clearwater, we've tagged along with team Bristol and their matching red 4×4 hire vehicles (aka rigs). We've paddled the Adams (not worth doing), Thompson (huge volume) and the Cayoosh creek. We paddled the guide book section yesterday and then attempted to continue downstream into the canyon section, but didn't make it as far as the canyon; there was a horrible rapid where the rocks and river seemed to merge in to a chaotic mess of white and drop a hundred foot in several stages inside a very tight canyon – a mandatory portage if ever I'd seen one. We started to walk around it and the portage soon became an extraction after several landslides blocked the path. The climb to the road wasn't too bad and luckily didn't require and further rope work.

Somehow unperturbed by two difficult walkouts from canyons in recent weeks, as we left camp this morning, team Bristol were planning to head to the Bridge river – which is, according to the guide book, 25km long canyon that is very difficult (the word impossible is used) to get out of and is also very likely to contain wood. I guess they're here for adventure…

Sharon and I are here for fun, so are spending a relaxation day together. I think our plan is to maybe reattempt the Cayoosh canyon tomorrow, putting on lower down and then head towards Whistler, although water levels are still high there, so a concrete plan has yet to be formulated.

Birthday Adventures

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What I (Sharon) got up to on my birthday. The campsite we stayed at in Jasper was in the middle of the forest and we arrived to see a Caribou wandering around rather happily – a Caribou is a kinda big horned deer. I woke up the next morning to happy birthdays from the others and cards to open from home – thanks to all those who sent them out, it was lovely to know people were thinking of me even though I'm miles away! I quite fancied the idea of horse riding, so David kindly booked this up while I had a fab hot shower and returned to pancakes for breakfast.

The horse riding started at 1:30 so we headed into town before hand. Jasper is quite a pretty but touristy town, it is one of the nicest we've seen in Canada so far. We got to the stables and pointed to our horse for the next hour or so. Mine was called Jackpine and was a lovely gray, while David had a skewbald called Cloudy. It was Western style riding, where you have the reins in one hand, rather than the more uptight English style where you have to hold the reins in a particular way, that I've done before. I really enjoyed the difference, it felt much more relaxed and was much more suited to the sort of easy going trek we were doing. The ride took us past three lakes and plenty of beautiful mountains. We didn't see any animals, bar one small furry brown thing running past the trees, but the scenery was stunning and it was great to see it in a different way to usual. David's horse had a sense of humour and decided to scratch his belly on a small fir tree, leaving David a little distance behind – he soon caught up though. Although it felt like we were out for quite a while, the trek soon came to an end.

Returning to Jasper, we met up with the others, who had been hiking or biking, and headed to a brewpub for steak. Since the desserts didn't take our fancy, we bought ice-cream and went up to a lake that was supposed to be good for spotting moose and beavers. We didn't see either, but we did have gorgeous views with our Ben and Jerry's. The others surprised me by bringing out chocolate cake with musical candles and singing happy birthday, it was a wonderful moment in an awesome setting. Afterwards we headed to another lake to see animals, and were rewarded with sights of lots of jumping silver fish, an inquisitive red squirrel who David thought was more ginger really, and mink who showed us their home burrows.

At the campsite, we had some beers around the campfire – a great way to have spent my birthday.

The next day, we were headed to the put in for a river section only to find out paddling was banned since that section was under a conservation scheme for some sort of birds. However, we chose to have breakfast here since we were surrounded by the most curious stripy squirrels, that were so tame that they would come right up to you if you were still enough. They were obviously after food, which we didn't give them, but they were fantastic as they placed their tiny paws on your hand and you could feel how soft their little furry bellies were. I didn't want to leave, but restrained myself from inviting one into Macy. There's photos of these encounters, which we'll add to the gallery some point soon.

Paddling in the Rockies

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Since Macy's recovery we've been paddling in the Rockies, and enjoying the scenery.
We've been having an interesting time paddling here – the Bow river was good, but the Skookumchuck Creek had a god awful shuttle – 40Km on dirt roads (poor Macy) each way. It took us a day getting from the main road to the top of the river, which meant only some of us got to paddle it. Despite the shuttle it's been marked as one to return to in a 4×4 so we can all enjoy it. The next day we opted for a quick run down a river that was close by – the Findlay creek. It was anything but quick. A log jam forced us off the river and up the walls of the canyon – much rope work followed. Sharon's infinite wisdom and uncanny sixth sense lead to her getting off only yards upstream at a much easier take out that we couldn't get back to. I'll post account of that later & Sharon'll update you all on what she did on her birthday once we've had time to write those entries.

Skookumchuck Creek

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There are several rivers called Skookumchuck, the one we found is located in the Canadian Rockies not far north of the US border. The first adventure was getting to the river – it was our introduction to BC logging roads – poor Macy, but we looked after her. We found the take out suprisingly easy, but then it was a 25mile drive along dirt/gravel roads (1.5hrs) to the put in. We started down a road that required a 4wd high clearence vehicle, and soon stopped when we noticed it getting worse & good job we did, the road was closed slightly further on down. This was the lower put in. the upper put in was another couple of miles up the road. We found it and debated what to do; it was 3pm – we'd spent all day just finding the river. The decision was taken to wild camp at the put in – a very picturesque place & we'd then put on early tomorrow.

We elected to avoid subjecting Macy to too many more trips along that road – this meant someone not paddling and driving her down while we were on the river, otherwise we'd need to make two more trips along the road and spend another 3 hours driving along dusty roads. Sharon very kindly volunteered (thank you).

The day got off to a flying start when Conrad's over-enthusiastic off road driving resulted in a flat tyre on the trip back from the motel that he and Gina had booked. With the flat tyre and waiting for them to arrive, and some faff over how far up we should put on, it was about midday when we put on. It was due to take 3-6hrs according to the guide book,

Macy's Healthy!

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After a delayed pick up from the CAA (Canadian Automobile Association), Macy was dropped off at a closed garage. The next morning, we went to find out what the problem was and was told that she may not be seen that day but to call in at noon. After a little whimpering and some hints as to what may be the problem, the mechanic came out and diagnosed the problem as a likely timing belt issue. At noon, we returned to pick up boats and find out if they had the spare parts. Turned out they had a cancellation and Macy was nearly fixed, so David and I decided to wait around. Soon she was being driven out of the garage – a very good sign since the engine hadn't been turning over before! She's all happy as are we, now we're all reunited – hopefully we'll be able to go paddling again soon…

Animals and an ill Macy

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We went to the British Columbia wildlife park to get our cute animal fix, but I think David and I had been spoilt with the refuge we went to in Oregon. It was very much more of a zoo than a refuge as we were led to believe, and a lot of the animals looked like they would much rather be somewhere else. In fact, our favourite sight was the cheeky chipmunks who were running around freely stealing food! There were two grizzly bears, who felt like their spirits had been broken – nothing like the awesome magnificence of the one at Oregon, who you felt honoured to be able to see but very glad there was an electric fence in the way! There was a cute badger, but I think she would have prefered more space and far less concrete in her area. The raccoons were cool, one seemed to be pawing at an area that looked shallower – I wonder if they were planning to make a break for it…

The drive to Golden in the rain was interesting, apparently the others saw a black bear run across in front of them, but we got to see the stunning lightening storm. The plan today was to run the Kicking Horse river, however Macy's got a bit homesick. I think the little bit of sunshine we've had after all the rain has made her miss California, and so we're waiting for our faithful friends, the AAA. We will update you….

BC rivers – the beginning

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A summary of the rivers we've paddled since crossing over into British Columbia.

After heading up to Vancouver to pcik up goodies from MEC and Gav, we went to Squamish to pick up boats and celebrate David reaching his first quarter of a century. 20th July, we finally got to paddle some fresh water again at the Mamquam. This had a rather interesting shuttle, but Macy did very well while Jerald the Jeep decided he was a little thirsty. However even though the fuel light came on and we were some distance from the main road, he survived. This was a river Sarah had done before and the guidebook told us the first rapid was indicative of the rest of the run. It started as a low volume boulder garden and soon flatted out to a rather too low volume gravel bed, and so I thought it would be a very nice gentle run with nothing to worry about. There was lots of water in creeks on the sides of the road with all the rain we've been having and I hoped that wouldn't make it too high but it seemed simple enough. Suddenly the river picked up somewhat and became more continous than I was expecting. Towards the end the additional streams had doubled the volume of the river and there were some more interesting high volume features with lots of waves and a few stoppers. It was a fun river even if it wasn't quite the gentle warm up that Gina had hoped for and I had expected. Apparently it was a little higher than when Sarah had run it, but it was still below medium levels according to the guidebook.

Next stop was the Chiliwack with its several sections – Simon and Cheryl had pointed out one as being more pool drop and good fun, so we decided to go with that. It was lovely grade three bouncy waves with some trees to avoid, but nothing that caused any problems. Part way down, we were waiting to see the other group when two boaters came down. Dismissing them as 'not part of our group' we started to recognise the boats and kits – Simon and Cheryl had caught up with us. After admiring my new cag, and catching up on what we'd been up to since Skook, we carried on downstream. This was a great fun tigger like river – a rather relaxing float down.

Some people hadn't had enough water for one day and did another section which was pushier. However at the put in, an icecream van rather conveniently pulled up, so I made the most of the opportunity and shared an ice cream with David.

We went back to the same section today that we had paddled, but the rain had worked its magic and brought up the river by a reasonable amount, and talk started about the Slesse Creek.

David says:

Slesse creek was a 3/4 in the guide book – exactly the same as every other river in the area – so we decided to look at it. From a logging track we could scout the canyon, it was a short fast section with lots of waves, small holes and confused water, but it looked great fun & most importantly it was clear of trees. BC seems to have a big problem with trees falling into the rivers. Conrad found a sign that says some trees are deliberately placed in the river to stop gravel bed erosion or to encourage fish habitat, not good for us kayakers. Soon after the Slesse creek put in was a river wide tree, but no eddies above it – it was a time to invent an eddy – which we did to varying degrees of success. I ended up deciding it was easier to paddle through the tree and let Claire use the eddy I was in, but I flipped and ran it upside down, which was fine. Fearing that this would be the the same for the whole river, Cheryl and Claire got off, leaving Conrad, Simon and I to run the rest. There were more trees, but we'd spaced out even more and were far more cautious, so didn't have a problem – I think the smaller group helped too. The canyon was awesome, though, and made the tree limbo worth while.

Tomorrow we're driving towards the Rockies but will stop off and see some animals in a rehad centre in the morning.