NW Brigade Paddling Club

(Very) Early season paddling

2012-01-17T12:34:00.000-08:00

Jaws Of Death on the Thompson River

Take three bored paddlers and a night in the pub and the result is usually something interesting. In this case it turned out to be New Years Day paddling - somewhere. The trick was to find ice-free water on January 1st, not an easy task in Central BC. However a friend had explained that Tatlow Falls in Smithers was open due to the warmer than usual Winter. Plan A was to hike into Tatlow through the snow and surf the falls, then hang out with friends and celebrate the New Year. The night before we were due to leave however, we got pictures showing Tatlow frozen solid. A quick rethink (again, in the pub) and the next morning we were headed to Prince Rupert to surf Butze, a tidal rapid off the coast.

Hayley laughing off the cold

A combination of early tides, hangovers and a long hike to the put in meant that Butze was dropping quickly when we got to it, a couple of hours paddling on small waves and a pourover hole whilst the rain blew in horizontally and we'd had enough. It was time to make the 800Km drive back. Still, spending New Year with good friends in a hot tub under the stars was something I won't forget in a hurry.

We decided that we needed to be more organised if we were going to road trip, so came up with the idea of heading South to paddle in warmer climes. So Hayley, Jason and I loaded our boats and gear and began the long drive towards Vancouver. Plan was to find a river that would allow us to do some basic eddy turns and rolls in the cold, then find something more entertaining.

Hayley's parents kindly put us up the first night and as paddling accommodation goes it was first rate, another starry hot tub night and plenty of home made food meant that next morning we were ready for a cold paddle. We headed towards the Thompson River and found that Frog Wave and some of the more famous features were in even at the low water level. We were excited to paddle but an icy blast coming down the river valley made it almost unthinkable. Video and pictures that I took came out blurry as I couldn't stop from shaking violently even under my warm layers. Eventually we decided to miss it since the grade was a bit too high for Hayley and we wanted to all be able to paddle. When we got to Lytton we found the Thompson considerably more sheltered and we were able to put the boats in and do some basic river manouevers and rolls, followed by a quick run through a class II wave train. After taking my boat out I found my pfd straps and spraydeck had a coating of ice, like a scene out of The Day After Tomorrow :)

Wave train on the Thompson

We headed south and spent the night in Abbotsford, with no real idea what to paddle the next day since both the Seymour and Capilano rivers (plan A and B respectively) had now dropped to an unrunnable level. After more beers and another late start we visited Western Canoeing and Kayaking and wandered around like kids in a candy store for a bit. We left with a guidebook and plan C, which was to paddle a section of the Chilliwack, a nice solid class II run. With only one vehicle we decided to paddle down and then hitch-hike back to the truck.

The put-in rapid provided a bit of surfing and entertainment whilst everyone geared up and carefully climbed down the snow covered bank to the river. After that it was a nice run through wave trains with the odd catch-on-the-fly wave or small hole. Fishermen seemed the biggest hazard with one on almost every bend or rapid. Still they were all very courteous, except for one who seemed to think we could just duck under his river-wide line.

Hayley had managed to nail her first ever combat roll after going over on a seam but given that she was wearing a thin drytop and wetsuit she was severely cold by the end of the run. We hauled out as soon as the road was in sight and then made her run up the road to hitch a lift, very gentlemanly I'm sure but at least she stayed warm :) Very quickly a fellow paddler ran her back to the truck and soon we were all sat in a pub feeling considerably more human for a hot chocolate.

Paddling around Vancouver

Sunday we were in Vancouver and sadly the river levels were still too low despite (or possibly because of) a layer of fresh snow. So we entertained ourselves by paddling around the sea wall, throwing a few squirts and stalls to the amusement of those walking around Stanley Park.

Jason enjoying the sunshine off Stanley Park

Leaving sunny Vancouver and heading back ten hours to find PG at minus 26c was not much fun. But every trip has to end before the next one starts :) Meantime paddling will be in the pool, at least until I get the feeling back in my toes. Roll on spring!

Thanks to Hayley and Jason for the massive amount of driving and of course for their company, as well as Ross and Irene and Hayley's family for the awesome accommodations, and Tyler for the drinks ;) Pics by Jason and myself.

Fraser.

Season Wrap-Up 2011

2011-10-22T22:05:00.000-07:00

Recently we held our Annual General Meeting and voted in the Brigade executive for next paddling season. With lots of new paddlers on the scene this year, it should come as no surprise that almost every position was taken by someone who has just started in the sport. Great to see the enthusiasm! There is no doubt that they will bring new energy to the club and our paddling community in 2012.

From left to right in the above picture, we have our President Dani, Scribe Hayley, Assistant Jesse, and Vice President Curtis. Club assistants not pictured include Erin, Rob, Matt D, Ian and others. Rounding out the executive is Rick who once again will take the reigns as Treasurer. Thanks to all of you for stepping up to the plate. Pictured below is the VP and Prez ripping up Isle Pierre on the Nechako River during a sunny September trip.

We are nearing the end of another great paddling season in Prince George. The days are getting shorter, colder, winter is fast approaching and soon we'll turn our attention to more seasonal sports. During the off-season there will be lots of opportunities to develop your kayaking skills at the pool. We won't start our formal NWBPC Pool Sessions until March, but informal drop-in sessions are available at the Prince George Aquatic Centre. The best time is usually during Monday-Thursday after 9pm when it isn't too busy and there are no other groups using the shallow end. Always be sure to call ahead and confirm with the lifeguards first. They are friendly and helpful if you are respectful of the space and the privilege we have to kayak there. Also make sure your boat is clean. If you would like company or help with techniques like the roll, be sure to post something up on the forum. There are experienced boaters willing to help, just let us know...

As most of you you know, for the last several years I've been taking care of the club media, including the blog, pictures, trip reports, youtube videos, newsletter, and so on. Starting next year, I will not be in this role. It's been a good time for sure as I've enjoyed doing the write-ups and spreading the word to the paddling community. I'll still be on the river but with the exception of forum admin, I'll no longer be responsible for club media. Thanks for the feedback and support over the years, and I wish the new Brigade executive all the best for next season. That's all for 2011 from me. Cheers...

(Kananaskis Rodeo, May 2007)

Surf Kayaking Tofino

2011-10-20T12:41:00.000-07:00

Located on the west coast of Vancouver Island next to Pacific Rim National Park, the town of Tofino is well known as a resort community that's popular with tourists, beach lovers, and storm watchers. It's also considered to be the surfing capital of Canada and is a great destination for a winter kayak road trip.

The surf is spread out along a series of west-facing beaches south of Tofino including Mackenzie, Chestermans, and Cox Bay. Further south in the adjacent National Park is Long Beach, Wickaninnish Beach, and Florencia Bay closer to the town of Ucuelet. The surrounding scenery is spectacular with open ocean, rainforest and coastal mountains. Here's a link to an excellent map of the area: Pacific Rim

Shown above is a beautiful peeling right taken in Cox Bay. If you get waves like this consider yourself lucky because surf conditions on the west coast are quite variable. While generally the most consistent surf is found during the fall to spring season, this is also the time of year when big storms come through the west coast. During the summer months, there's certainly a better chance of sunshine and cleaner conditions, but you can also get skunked and have no waves at all.

Understanding the forecast conditions is important to planning a surf trip and knowing what to expect once you get there. The first time I went to Tofino in 2006 I was a novice. We stayed at a place right in Cox Bay and that's the only spot we surfed. While it was convenient to stay and surf in the same place, the conditions at Cox were too big for most of us. The novices in the group got worked and there were several swims. No biggy, but not really an ideal introduction to surf kayaking. Had we known there were other beaches nearby with more moderate conditions, I don't think we would have surfed there.

To find out what the forecast will be or what current conditions are like, check websites like Magicseaweed, the Washington Marine Forecast, or buoy data at La Perouse Bank. The most important variable to pay attention to is the size of the swell, because it has the largest influence on how big or small the waves will be. Keep in mind that the swell size does not translate directly to wave height. Many other variables influence wave height such as swell direction, wave period, wind speed, wind direction, and tides.
Generally, when the swell is big (around 15 foot), unless you're an expert it's better to head to spots like Mackenzie Beach where it's sheltered from the brunt of the swell. When the swell is small (less than 5 foot), Mackenzie will be totally flat, but Cox Bay, Long Beach, Wickaninnish, and Florencia Bay will still have good waves as they are more exposed. From fall through to spring, it's usually somewhere in between and then Chestermans is where it's at.

Once you have a look at the forecast and current conditions and have an idea of which spots might be decent, go out and have a look to see what's happening. If it looks massive and scary to you it probably is. If it looks boring and small, well... yep. Conveniently, it's quite easy to drive around and check out the three main beaches closest to Tofino (shown below), and they will have enough variety for any level of paddler. While driving south into the National Park isn't necessary, it can be fun if you're into exploring or it's busy and you'd rather avoid the crowds.

During early mornings and weekdays, there's usually very few people out. But it can be pretty busy in the water during weekends and holidays. However, because the breaks are formed on beaches and not from a point or reef with a more limited take-off spot, there are lots of wave peaks to be had and usually enough to go around.

For the uninitiated, it's a good idea to learn basic surf etiquette before paddling out (see above). This includes not dropping in when someone else is on the wave, allowing the person closest to the breaking peak of the wave to have priority, and not snaking. Snaking is paddling around someone who's waiting for a wave and taking off on a wave in front of them. This is particularly important for kayakers because in terms of getting into position to catch a wave, kayakers are much faster than surfers. If you do get in the way of someone elses wave, best thing to do is quickly apologize.

After that first humbling trip to Tofino in 2006, I returned several more times. During fall or winter when we were jonesing for a whitewater fix, a few of us would head down there from PG, stay in a cheap hostel or hotel, and kayak every day. It was a fantastic place to learn the basics of playboating like flat spins and wavewheels. It was also great for getting comfortable in bigger whitewater features like holes and waves. Lots of combat roll practice too! All the modern playboating moves are possible on a decent sized ocean wave.

I've been in the surf in all kinds of conditions throughout the last few years, but the one kayak trip that sticks out in my memory was during the Remembrance Day weekend in 2007. When we arrived we had awesome conditions and sunshine that lasted the first two days. During the second night a massive storm slammed into the west coast with 100+ km/h winds and 25 feet swell. When we got to the beach the following morning the seas were a maelstrom of whitewater. Below is a picture of North Chestermans totally closed out. When the wind gusted it almost knocked you over. Going out in the water was not an option for most of the surf spots.

We had driven a long time to get there though, so we headed to Mackenzie Beach where it was still wild and big but not as crazy. Below is a shot of me on a wave well inside of where the big sets were breaking. Look closely and you can see the looming grey walls of water behind me.

Extreme storm conditions like the Remembrance Day trip can happen on the west coast, especially during late fall or winter. Generally though, they are uncommon and don't last long. Most people stay out of the water when they do happen, not just because it's unsafe but the wave quality is usually very poor during a storm.

Most of time, kayak surfing in Tofino is suited to any level of boater. This is because of the variety of beaches that provide options for the size of surf you want. Beginners can also learn to play "inside" where the smaller waves are. And because the beaches all have sandy bottoms, you shouldn't hit anything unexpectedly. This also makes walking out of the water easy if you need to self-rescue.

For intermediate and advanced boaters, the biggest waves and the best potential for fast rides and dynamic moves are "outside", where the green waves first start breaking. Because a kayaker can't duck under the crashing waves, getting outside can be challenging. It's always a good idea to take a good look at where the peaks are from the beach before paddling out, so you can pick the easiest line to get outside. Once you start paddling, the speed and manoeuvrability of a kayak will be a huge advantage to navigating your way out. When you've made your way there, you can rest because the waves are no longer breaking where you are. Once you're ready, it's simply a matter of lining-up a green wave, turning towards the beach, giving a few good paddle strokes, and dropping in. Bam! Crazy fun action! If you mess up and get worked, no big deal. The water is easily deep enough here that you won't impact the bottom. If get caught inside where the waves are crashing no big deal. It's a great place to test your combat roll! Then just work your way out again or just catch the next wave in.

As long as you're properly outfitted, the cold weather and water is easily tolerable. From October to April the ocean on the south coast of BC is around 8-10 degrees. In winter, the air temperature rarely ever goes below zero and is usually around 6-12 degrees. Don't forget some Belly Jelly or Vaseline for your neck. Otherwise the sandy salt water will give you a pretty serious rash on your throat where your gasket is.

There is an abundance of wildlife along Canada's coastline, and Tofino is no exception. It's common to observe seals, sea lions, whales, dolphins, eagles and shorebirds while out in the surf. Thankfully there are no sharks, however it's not unusual to get checked out by a curious sea lion. They are big and when swimming near you can be intimidating, but there have never been any attacks on surfers or swimmers.
One of my favourite parts of a surf trip is how simple things become once you are there. No shuttle required!! Just get to the beach, paddle out, and catch waves. The town of Tofino is a cool little place to spend time when you're not in the water too, with cafes, good restaurants, surf shops, art galleries, and live music (check Tofino Times). You could also take the trip over to Clayoquot Sound's Hot Springs Cove, go whale watching, or fishing with a tour. Going for a walk along the beach is pretty great too. Definitely no shortage of stuff to do anyway.

For accommodations, Tofino has a lot of beautiful places close to the beach, but they tend to be quite expensive and affordable accommodations can be hard to find. Check out Whalers on the Point, the bunk room at the Ecolodge in the Tofino Botanical Gardens, the Backbacker, the Dolphin Motel, and the Schooner Motel. If you're thinking of camping, think again. You will be cold, wet, and miserable unless it's the middle of summer.

The whitewater kayak season on the Island is during fall-spring when the rains come, so if you have the time you should check out some nearby rivers. Moderate runs like the Cowichan (pictured below) and Nanaimo (both class II-III), or more challenging rivers like the Gordon (III-V) and Koksilah Rivers (III-IV) are super fun and not far off the beaten path to Tofino. Be sure to look up Don and Rose at the Warm Rapids Inn for hook-ups as they live and work right on the Cowichan River. Don't forget there's also the Capilano River (class II-III) and Lynn Creek (III-IV) in North Vancouver if the level is good. It's a long drive down from Prince George so make it worthwhile and take some extra time to check out other nearby places to paddle.

Since my last trip there with a kayak in 2008, I've switched to the dark side and only board surf now during surf trips. While this has me hooked, I still look fondly back on those earlier kayak trips to the south coast. It was a whole lot of fun with great people and certainly contributed to my progression as a whitewater kayaker.

Before signing off, I should add one more thing. There are many other decent places to surf on the west coast of British Columbia aside from Tofino. On the southern end of Vancouver Island these include Jordan River, Sombrio, and Port Renfrew. On the north end of the Island there's Raft Cove and San Josef Bay. Up on the north coast of BC there's Haida Gwaii - a stand-out if only because of its proximity to Prince George. It may not have the amenities of Tofino, but Haida Gwaii definitely has the waves and wild west coast scenery. As a surf destination it barely receives any attention at all, but as I understand it some of the locals like it that way. Needless to say, wherever you end up surfing, always respect the locals.

That's all from me, so here's to light offshore breeze, long period swell, easy paddle-outs, and empty breaks.... cheers!!

Bowron Lakes Provincial Park

2011-10-08T18:20:00.000-07:00

Both Matt Delong and I have a reputation for extreme slowness in the club. No surprise, then, that this write-up is so late.

It would definitely be pushing it to call this a club trip... in fact it was probably the smallest club trip since the president of the Baltimore State prisoner rehabilitation society suggested Christmas Dinner with Hannibal Lecter. Nevertheless back in June Matt and I loaded up our sea kayaks and headed south to the Bowron Lakes for what we thought would be four days of gentle paddling and soaking up the Cariboo Mountain scenery. There would certainly be plenty of paddling, and as it turned out, soaking.

After a night camping in the park near the put-in we attended an early morning orientation session in which the park warden showed us the various ways we were likely to get killed by bears. She also mentioned that it would be unlikely we could outrun the mosquitoes. Unperturbed we loaded our gear into our kayaks and figured we'd make a quick start whilst the other paddlers - all in canoes - had to have their gear weighed. The first part of the circuit is a long 2.4km portage that had us both puffing and sweating before we'd turned the first corner. We'd loaded some gear in backpacks and some in the boats, but it was a long, tough haul in the heat. The mosquitoes prodding every time we stopped encouraged us to go faster.

Kibbee lake was the first actual paddling and the small lake slid by in about 20 minutes. We had a quick lunch on the far side and then tackled the second longest portage, 2km, to Indianpoint Lake. Indianpoint started to give me a sense of what being in the wilderness is really like, there were no people and other than the slow splash of two kayak paddles there was no noise. We held the left shore and crossed the lake fairly quickly, spotting our first moose on the far bank.

We'd aimed to get the first three portages out of the way on day one, so when we arrived at the end of Indianpoint Lake with plenty of afternoon left we knew we were in good shape. We decided to try a different approach and moved all our gear across the portage, then came back for the kayaks. I wasn't sure it was any easier than hauling the lot in one go, but it was a nice day for a walk. Plus it gave the mosquitoes two chances for an evening meal. The bugs were bad there, mainly due to the high level of Isaac Lake. The far side of the portage was all boggy. I suggested to Matt we paddled down some of Isaac Lake, and we soon found a campsite for the night. After a pizza dinner we both turned in. Something creeping in the campsite during the night gave me a scare and I sat for a while wondering if nylon tent was to a bear just like wrapping lunch in a bag.

It started raining in the night and didn't stop for two days. We got up and started down Isaac Lake extremely late, paddling all afternoon in the rain. I was wearing drytop and pants but may as well have dressed in a teabag, by mid-afternoon I was soaked through and shivering whenever we stopped paddling. Matt was little better and when we came across a guy fishing he tried to talk and was not able to get a sentence out properly. The fisherman offered us a hot drink and we found that we were at one of the few cabins around the lake circuit. The four guys in the cabin made us hot tea and after a short discussion we decided to stay the night outside on a tent pad. Sadly the tent pad was on a small spit of land between two gushing rivers and the rivers were starting to flood the site with all the rain. Added to that the four guys had spread the remains of their fish all over the place. We cleaned up but were convinced that flooding, bears or hypothermia were going to get us.

The following day we pressed on down Isaac Lake in the rain, I'd figured we would manage the whole lake in one day but as morning turned to afternoon and rain to hail, we pulled up at the end of the lake shivering and ran for the group shelter there. Someone got a wood stove going and neither of us wanted to move. So the third day of the trip ended and we were still, technically, on Isaac Lake. So much for doing the whole circuit in four days, and I was rather glad we packed five day's worth of food!

Matt taking five on the Cariboo River

We were both determined to make progress on day four and we left camp fairly early - for us - in the morning. We ran 'The Chute' which is a rapid leading from Isaac Lake into the Isaac river and then enjoyed the rapids as we followed the river for a bit. There were a few portages and after McLeary lake we were on the Cariboo River. It made a lovely change to let the current take us and the sun came out along with the view. We were surrounded by mountains instead of clouds. We passed a wrecked canoe and shouted to make sure no one was stranded nearby. The canoe looked like it had been there awhile though.

The river emptied into Lanesi lake and almost immediately a storm hit us, the headwind crashing waves over us and making it very difficult to paddle. I saw Matt with his head down powering into the wind and just tried to follow, battling the wind for control of my paddle blades. When we pulled in to check on some canoeists the wind died and we got to paddle almost a third of the lake in sunshine before the wind hit us again. We turned the South West 'Corner' of the circuit and paddled into Sandy lake and out of the wind. It was late but we both felt strong and just agreed to keep going.

Lanesi lake during a rare break in the weather

We figured there were three short portages to do and then it would be all paddling. If we could get the portaging done that evening then we'd easily finish the circuit the next day. As my supplies amounted to a bowl of oatmeal and some beef jerky I thought that was a good plan.

The rain came back and made paddling unpleasant for a couple of hours, until at the end of Babcock lake we started portaging and the rain stopped. The sun, just about to dip over the horizon, came out from behind a cloud. We were approaching Skoi lake and talking when a big moose stepped up out of the lake right in front of me. She had a calf and they both swam off much to my relief. As we began paddling across Skoi lake the water steamed in the sunset. A Loon sat calling. Another moose on the far bank ran into the forest as we paddled closer. When we reached the shore and stopped for the night finally, we'd been paddling for eleven hours straight. I ate my last dinner by the light of my headlamp.

It was hard to start paddling the next day... the thought of a burger and a hot shower was about all that got me moving. We paddled up Spectacle and Swan lakes and then wound through the Bowron river into Bowron Lake. My body was on automatic and had long since gone pretty numb as we paddled back into civilisation. There were houses and motorboats on Bowron lake. We congratulated each other at the top and whilst we loaded the truck the park ranger turned up and asked if we were the two people that had made an emergency VHF call from in the park. Apparently two guys had stopped in the stormy weather and simply ran out of food.

Matt had to stay awake and drive us home which was not easy. We both looked like refugees from Woodstock. All we could do for several days was sleep, eat and scratch our bug bites.

I'd recommend the Bowron Lakes - they are a wild and beautiful part of BC and I'll definitely paddle them again some day. But it will probably be at a warmer and less buggy time of year ;)

Fraser.

UnLikely Paddlefest 2011

2011-09-19T22:25:00.000-07:00

The UnLikely Paddlefest has been hyped up and raved about more than anything else on this blog and among PG paddlers. Why? Because it's a super crazy fun whitewater party that we look forward to all season. According to Mark Savard who's been at every fest but one, last weekend was the event's 20th year, and as Dani indicates above, it was a gooder.

Levels this year on the Quesnel River were the highest they've been for the fest (0.80 m with last year being 0.50 m), on account of the big water year we've had in this part of BC. Decent enough for surfs and spins on the put-in wave as seen above, and also good for some pretty exciting action through the Upper, as seen in Best Drop in the picture below. A couple of our local boaters, Duncan and Fraser, made their first kayak trip down the entire run and did awesome. Nice work gents!

Others came down the Quesnel in more alternative crafts.When Ian first mentioned he was intending on river-boarding the entire run, I didn't really believe him. And then when we saw someone swimming below Pearly Gates, our first thoughts were that a rescue was in order. Turns out it was Norno and his river-board, who made easy work of all the rapids, even the Eyebrow section. Shouldn't be surprised I guess, the nut!

Speaking of nuts, after busting out some decent surfs on the put-in wave, Alene and Tyler pulled off the entire Upper Q in a tandem kayak. Haven't heard how it was through Deepthroat and Notch, but they made it to the Forks so I guess it was all good. Really though, doesn't it seem like the tandem kayak run and Ian's river-board antics belittle the accomplishment of getting down the run in just a kayak? Maybe next time I'll go in some bubble-wrap and an inflatable crocodile or something. Or maybe even a raft cuz there were lots of friendly rafters out on the rivers as well. Indeed...

Other than the Upper Quesnel, there were also some great runs down the Cariboo River as well, with local PG kayakers Danielle and Curtis making it down the Lower for their first time in fine form. Great to see the progression and all of us are stoked to see the number of new people getting into the sport around here.

This years party scene was one of the better ones for sure. Friday night was a big ol' ho-down at the pub, with some decent live music and good vibes. As usual most camped out right in the town of Likely within stumbling distance of the Hilton. Saturday night things amped up even more with Foam Mesh Press from PG playing to a full house, with loads of cheering and dancing revellers going off till the wee hours. Woot! Sunday AM most of us awoke a little fuzzy, but there was a tasty pancake breakfast in town to ease us into the day, with proceeds going to the Likely Community. Well done!

Huge thanks to everyone that helped put on this fantastic event, including the people of Likely, the Likely Hilton, Mark Savard, all the shuttle drivers, Kim Van Diest, and anyone else that helped make this weekend so great. Also big thanks again to the Danskins for putting up with a bunch of grubby paddlers at their beautiful place up the lake. Finally thanks to Fraser and Curtis for taking the pix.

The season is starting to wind down in PG, but there's still a few good runs to be had. Check the forum for the latest, and hopefully see you on the river.

Summer Updates

2011-08-23T12:32:00.000-07:00

Wet, cold, cloudy, miserable, depressing, dismal.... these are just a few of the colourful adjectives I've heard to describe this summer in Prince George. While these may not be far off the mark for the weather, it's not how I would describe our whitewater season. Despite the lack of sunshine, us boaters really have had very little to complain about. Water levels are higher than normal for this time of year, giving lots of options for boating close to home or road trips away.

High Water Likely
Peak flows on the Cariboo and Quesnel Rivers usually occur a little later than our local rivers due to the higher elevation watersheds. With the big snowpack this winter combined with the wet weather this summer, the peak flows in Likely this year we're some of the highest in memory. A few of us managed to get on the Lower Cariboo in late spring and early summer at super-fun high water levels, before returning in July to have a go at the other runs.

After hearing from our paddling friends in Williams Lake that the Upper Cariboo and Quesnel were off the hook and in flood, we were keen to check things out for ourselves. Just like they said, it was massive. Probably some of the biggest whitewater I've done since the Rio Futaleufu. No eddies, moving with the speed and power of a freight train, and some of the hugest crashing rapids any of us have paddled through -- especially Bubbleyum (IV) on the Upper Cariboo. Thankfully there weren't too many holes and it was all flushing through. We can't be sure what the level was for the Cariboo as the rock gauge was underwater and there was no eddy at the put-in.

The Upper Quesnel gauge for this trip showed 2.6 m. The waves in the White Kilometer were like crashing ocean surf with some up to 12+ feet in height! But overall this section wasn't too hazardous really (class III+). We had a look at the Devil's Eyebrow section with binoculars from the road to Quesnel Forks, and even from a distance it looked pretty bad ass with a deep river-wide hole and a lot of swirling whitewater. Having no idea if there was a line and knowing that scouting may not be an option, we decided not to run this section. So far as we know the Eyebrow has never been paddled this high, and this is according to Likely locals Jay and Wayne. Check out the vid I put together from our weekend here: High Water Likely. Thanks to Ian for running the POV camera! Check out this wave below, with Rebecca on the crest and Ian in the trough. Note the angle of the trees in the horizon compared to the wave-hole and think about it...

Willow River

Above is a shot of Mike Brine getting funky on Diamond Wave at our local whitewater run, the Lower Willow. Normally this river drops and comes into playful levels in late June and by early July it's gone. This year the play came into form mid-August and the continued wet weather has kept it up. Super fun! And it doesn't get much easier for eddy-service play than Diamond Wave and Surf City. Keep an eye on the online gauge (LINK Willow River at Hay Creek at the bottom of the page), where between 3.45-3.85 meters is good play in the Lower Willow.

The Upper Willow has also seen plenty of action this August with lots of beginners getting out, learning the basics, and developing their skills. Super stoked to see our little kayaking scene grow in Prince George! Any beginners interested in getting out should check our forum as there are experienced people willing to help out, including beginner river runs, gear advice, and a couple available club boats to loan out.

Clearwater Road Trip

Above is a shot of Alene dropping into "The Wall" on the lower section of the Clearwater River, from a road trip here on the August Long Weekend. This river has to be one of the classic whitewater destinations in Canada, with world class play and a variety of big water runs for most boaters. No surprise that the level was high for this time of year, a little too high for the monstrous Pink Mountain wave but still great for one-timers like Tsunami and Buckaroo. It was a super fun weekend and we even had some hot sunny weather. Here's Alene again, in the middle of it with Richard looking on from the eddy.

Upper Fraser
While taking in the Robson Valley Music Festival this past weekend (LINK), Ian and I made it out to the Upper Fraser River. Without question this is one of my favorite runs in BC. Apart from the incredible scenery, it has a wicked fun combination of technical, continuous rapids with a big water feel. Level for our run was 60 cms, or medium-low. Ian ran Overlander Falls and finally after 8 attempts over the last few years, nailed it smoothly and made it through upright. Awesome to see! I was pretty happy just to take pictures, as seen in the sequence below.

Terminator, class IV for our run, is the crux rapid and it never fails to get my heart going. Like usual, I got eaten and tossed into the river left eddy at the bottom. My exit wasn't particularly graceful but I came away in my boat unscathed nonetheless. Exhilarating! Worthy of a few hoots through the last stretch, and thankfully the festival beers that night were not from a booty. If you ever want to check out Terminator, turn towards the river at the Mount Robson Visitor Information Centre, park at the bridge across the canyon, and have a look upstream. Terminator is the big drop at the end of the view. You can get a closer look if you walk upriver along the trail and hike down.

Likely Road Trip

Look through this blog post and all the links and you'll see lots of trip reports, videos, and pictures of paddling in Likely. The reason being is that for big, fun, exciting whitewater within a reasonable driving distance from PG, it really doesn't get any better. During the last weekend in August, we made the trip here to hook up for some river action with other boaters from Quesnel and Williams Lake. Weather-wise, it turned out to be one of the best trips of the summer with big blue skies and WARM sunshine.

Above is Jess Stanley on the Lower Cariboo (II-III), who smoothly made it through her first time down with not even a flip. It was a super fun run with a great bunch of boaters and big grins all around...

The Upper Quesnel gauge (Quesnel at Likely) was 1.25 m for our trip, well down for our flood runs earlier in the season but still a solid medium level and much higher than normal for this time of year. Note that levels during UnLikely Fest are usually between 0.50 m and 0.75 m. The put-in wave was barely in during the weekend, and only good for flushy front-surfs. There were consistent rapids all the way from First Drop through to the Bullion Pit, with the biggest stuff near Best Drop. Unfortunately it's difficult to take pictures of the Upper Quesnel so you'll have to imagine with these descriptions only.

Fraser and Matt D came down the Quesnel to the Bullion Pit (III+) for their first time. This was the biggest and most difficult whitewater either of them had experienced. It was also the highest level Duncan had ever done it. They all made it through without too much of a thrashing and were super stoked. Nice work gents!

The Devil's Eyebrow section of the Upper Quesnel (IV) was full-on at this level, with boat control being a relative thing compared to the chaos of what was happening in there. Alene made her first run through this section and despite her "I totally f***ed that up" exclamation after Deepthroat, she managed with no problems.

The final constriction or "notch" of the Eyebrow is where the entire river narrows to about 3 meters. At this level it was like a huge toilet bowl and getting through upright was a roll of the dice, with some people skipping over the boils and others like Wayne, Richard, and myself getting flushed down the drain. If the drain opened up in front of you, you were getting gobbled whether you liked it or not.
Above is Jay from Williams Lake, Rebecca from Hope, and Richard from Quesnel about to head down the Upper Quesnel for another run. Below are some more shots of the Lower Cariboo.

By all accounts, this road trip was one of the best of the paddling season thus far. Gorgeous weather, awesome whitewater, and great people. Thanks again to Duncan and Deanna for hosting us! Don't forget the UnLikely Paddlefest is September 16-19.

Cheers to the season!

Bowron Bonus Time

2011-07-15T13:18:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe now that this summer was forecast by Environment Canada to be hot and dry, as the influence of the La Niña was supposed to deteriorate across the province. Considering the weather we've had thus far I think it's fair to say that they were out to lunch. Following the huge spring runoff we had (see previous blog post below), continued rainfall has kept river levels very high through the early summer. In my 8 years of boating around these parts I don't recall a wetter season. Much of the central and northern part of the province has been under high water advisories or flood warnings. If you're a sun worshipper it's been a tough go but for whitewater paddlers that enjoy big water, it's definitley good times.

The Bowron has seen sustained peak flows following the spring freshet. The Wayne's World wave, pictured above, came in for awhile in June and then again in mid-July. This is one of the best waves around Prince George for dynamic surf action. We've also had some great high water runs on the Boulder Section upstream of the highway bridge (pictured below and at the top of this blog post), one of the best novice runs around. The road to the put-in is not fixed yet but easily driveable beside the dirt pile in a 4x4.

This year, a new trail was cut-in a few kilometers above Portage Canyon that adds several new rapids to the old run. By all accounts, this has improved it considerably with lots of fun one-timers and whitewater goodies. It's best in high water so this year's extended season has been a big bonus. Check it out below.

Despite the small size of our group getting out on the water, it's been great to have a keen crew of regulars to go paddling with. Fraser, Matty D, Al, Ty, Alene, Duncan, Deanna, Mike, Ian, Jay, Heather, Jess, Trevor, and Hardy just to name a few. Let's enjoy this high water while it's still around and go get some more! For information on upcoming trips and any other updates, check the forum. Thanks to Fraser and Duncan for some of the pix shown here. That's all for now. See you on the river.

Prince George PaddleFest 2011

2011-06-27T17:22:00.000-07:00

This past weekend marked the NW Brigades annual paddlefest, which was again graciously hosted by Wayne and Carol at their property in Loos. Apparently the word is spreading about our fantastic paddle parties, as we had newcomers this year, all the way from Vancouver and New Zealand (by way of Dawson Creek). Saturday was spent on the Morkill River (class I through IV) which has something for everyone.

The always impressive Morkill Falls.

After a quick sight seeing trip to the 30m, awe-inspiring Morkill Falls, we hit the river. Two canoes did the lower Morkill, while the rest of the group paddled the middle Morkill (class II+), completing the first swim-free middle Morkill run in all of PaddleFest history - hooray!

Good times on the middle Morkill.

Water levels were slightly higher than last year, yielding big bouncy waves. After the middle section, Mike and Cameron ran the upper Morkill, and not only successfully completed this class III-IV section, but also ran Horseshoe falls. The evenings festivities included the usual delicious BBQ, beverages and hernia-inducing laughter (well - almost). Sunday brought sunshine, fantastic mountain vistas and an amazing breakfast spread (thanks Chef Wayne).

No bugs (or hangovers) here.

The big kids headed off on a Forgetmenot Creek mission, but the plan changed due to some issues with water levels and wood, so they did a second run of the upper Morkill instead. The rest of the group headed to the Holmes River, which is "located about 5 minutes east of town up the Holmes River Forest Service Road. As you drive along the FSR, you'll soon see Beaver Falls which isn't really a waterfall, just a big short rapid. The normal put-in is at the 15 km bridge. The Holmes is a fast river with several long continuous rapids (grade III+). The run finishes off with Beaver Falls (grade III+ to IV) pictured below, before the take-out near the highway". Read more about McBride area whitewater here:

Beaver falls - there was wood.

Beaver Falls had some logs in it, so that last section was not an option, and take out at the rec site upstream was necessary.

PaddleFest = CattleFest!

And, just our luck, there happened to be a cattle drive, taking 150 head up the Holmes FSR - so PaddleFest became CattleFest for a few moments. Fortunately Ricks previous life experience as a cowboy allowed us to get around them doggies in no time.

Right below the put in - seems serene now, but this river becomes full-on very quickly!

The Holmes was quite high (highest those that had previously run it had seen it) and was a full-on exhilarating ride. Everyone had a fantastic time! Another year - another successful PaddleFest - Thanks again to Wayne and Carol for hosting, and to all the shuttle drivers. Hope you can make it next year!

The Flood of 2011

2011-05-19T18:25:00.000-07:00

The Willow River went into flood this spring reaching the third highest water level ever recorded with a peak flow measured Friday May 13, of 440 cubic meters per second (cms). This all happened within the span of a week when a few days of rain, warm weather, and melting snow caused a dramatic spike in runoff. The view of the river from the highway bridge as shown above, was an unrecognizable maelstrom of huge boils, surging diagonals, and exploding waves all moving at the speed of a train. The picture below is what House Rock looked like.

There were a few that considered running it, but unfortunately two enormous logs stuck themselves in the canyon. This made the margin of error on an already difficult run extremely slim. Too bad but for mere mortals like myself, I guess we don't have to prove anything now. Here's a pic looking upstream where Freak My Beak would be. Hopefully the logs flush otherwise we'll have to do some covert river habitat alterations...

For the record, data collection on the Willow River began in 1976 (Environment Canada Water Office, Historical Data). The highest level ever recorded was on May 19, 1982 at 611 cms. That would have been pretty amazing to see. I wonder what Killer Canyon looked like then? Here's a shot below of some manky bits in the canyon taken during this years flood, and here's a short vid of it: Killer Canyon (be sure to watch in highest quality).

Further east of the Willow the runoff has also been pumping on the Bowron River. The Portage Canyon section near flood water levels (class III) is a fast and bouncy good time. In fact the river is moving so quickly that during an unexpected rescue situation, it took about 200 meters to get the swimmer and his gear to shore safely. No worries though, he was dressed warmly!

The stretch of whitewater near the highway bridge that crosses the Bowron is the Boulder section (class II). In terms of difficulty, it doesn't change much with the water level even at flood. This makes it a great run for guided novice boaters wanting to pick up their game. The Boulder section ends at Wayne's World, one of the best surf waves in the region. As of this blog post, the wave is flushed out but we expect it in once things drop a bit.

During the first trip to the Bowron this spring, we found the road to the put-in washed-out. In our attempt to cross things almost ended in disaster. After watching Al expertly navigate the crossing as shown above, I gave er' guns and ended up hung up on the far bank nearly rolling my truck in the middle of the creek. Thankfully Al was there to save my ass and winch me to safety. Now that the water has subsided it's a little easier getting through. Until they fix the road however, you will need a 4X4 to get to the put-in for the Bowron-boulder run.

Another river near Prince George that has also been flooding this spring is the Cottonwood. The picture above was taken from the bridge for the middle section take-out. Not sure if this is a record flood but it's certainly a lot of water. I'd guess that upstream in the canyon it's pretty crazy. Recently there was some media attention on the Lower Cottonwood because of the homes that were at risk of falling into the river. Gotta wonder about the sense of building on a flood plain, check out this vid:

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll get some shots of people actually kayaking for the next blog update. Not the easiest thing to do in a flooded river, that is, bust out the camera and snap the action while sitting in a boiling eddy with no shoreline. No matter, let's enjoy the high water while it's here. Oh yeah, and what's that bright yellow thing shining up in the sky? Nice! See you on the water...

Postscript (July 5, 2011): Water levels have simmered around PG to near-normal levels for most rivers, but the Nechako, Fraser, and Quesnel are still very high. A couple of us got out on the Isle Pierre section of the Nechako River at 940 cms, about 200 cms more than the normal "high" level for the run. Nothing to write home about, but some bouncy good times in the first rapid and a very fast run. Check out the pic below...

Spring? No really.

2011-05-02T19:32:00.000-07:00

Most of the locals I've talked to around Prince George can't remember a spring season that has been this cool. While the melt is certainly underway, there's lots of snow in the bush and the mountain snowpack is still increasing. Things could get interesting once runoff begins in earnest, but that doesn't look like any time soon as the forecasters have called for a cool wet spring. Chalk it up to La Niña I guess.

Despite the slow start, a few of us have managed to get out on the water recently. The Nechako and Willow Rivers are open and flowing although access might be limited due to snowbound roads (nothing a little hike can't get around though). Be sure to check the forum for information on runs that might be happening around PG. If you're curious about the snowpack and the runoff forecast check out the BC Government's River Forecast Centre here: runoff. For information on river levels on many of our local runs you can check Environment Canada's Wateroffice. You'll find the Nechako, Willow, and many other rivers on the list.

Our run last Saturday on the Willow turned out to be the first run of the year for most of us, and levels were surprisingly perfect for playboating (~3.9 m on the online gauge). The water was cold but the sunshine was warm enough even in the canyon to keep things warm. The day was capped off with good times around the bonfire at Al's place up on Cranbrook Hill. Amazingly the northern lights even put in an appearance later that evening. Thanks for the good eats and fun times Leighton! The season has started Prince George --- see you on the water!!

SPRING paddling!!

2011-03-24T10:53:00.000-07:00

Paddling season has officially kicked off in Prince George with the start of our club pool sessions. For all the information about how to get involved, check out this LINK . Keep in mind that pool play is just practice for the real thing --- whitewater rivers! But you can take it as far as you like as really it's just about having fun.

For the newbies, there is a gracious learning period before you'll be able to safely navigate whitewater rivers. It definitely starts in the pool where you get used to being in a kayak and develop the most basic skills like the roll. Following this, we often head to a lake for awhile to get used to paddling with all the gear. Then to a very mellow river like the Nechako to understand moving water, eddy turns and ferries. What are these terms eddy and ferry? Indeed...

Eddy- a river feature formed by an obstacle in the downstream flow. A well formed eddy will have a defined eddy line and a calm pool behind the obstacle. They can be located on the side of rivers or in the middle or rivers. Being able to "catch" or stop in these calm pools is one of the keystones of whitewater paddling. You can use an eddy to slow you down and rest, wait for your friends, look around and scout what is coming next, navigate hazards, and/or to access different river features like surf waves. Eddies are also where you get in and out of a river.

Ferry-the act of crossing a section of river without going downstream, or with going downstream as little as possible. While usually thought of as crossing the entire river, a ferry may simply involve moving out into the current a certain distance before allowing the boat to move downstream. Useful for navigating sections of the river and going from point A to B safely.

Once you develop your skills on flatwater rivers, you can start paddling some mellow whitewater. If you're keen, having fun, and feeling confident you'll continue to progress. Here's an example of a logical progression for aspiring whitewater paddlers in Prince George and where you would be going:

1. POOL: PG aquatic centre
2. LAKE: West Lake
3. Grade I: Nechako River in town
4. Grade I+: Upper Willow River
5. Grade II: Boulder Section of the Bowron River
6. Grade II-II+: Stellako River
7. Grade II-III: Isle Pierre Section on the Nechako River
8. Grade II-III: Portage Canyon on the Bowron River
9. Grade II-III: Lower Willow

(NOTE: the gradings listed here are based on medium river levels. Most rivers are more difficult in higher water and easier in low water. Some of the narrow canyon-type rivers like the Lower Willow are strongly effected by water level. In the low water of August it's usually a grade I-II run but in the flood waters of May it can be grade IV+. Having a good idea what the river level is before putting on is essential and experience plays a big part here. For a detailed assessment of river grades check this link: grade).

Most of the veteran boaters in the club probably took one or two full seasons to get through the above list. It should be made clear that throughout these steps you would have experienced paddlers guiding and assisting you. Sometimes it's worthwhile to head back to the pool, lake or easy river to work specifically on certain skills like the roll. I know for the first couple years kayaking I had to constantly go back to the lake or pool to work on my roll. It's takes a while to get it down solidly --- and it is the single MOST critical skill to learn. Confidence on the water has everything to do with how good your roll is. If you know you can roll it makes a huge difference for trying something on a river cuz no worries if you flip --- you're going to roll back up! And once you're on a real river trying stuff you will flip --- all the time. So beginners and novices should be practicing their roll constantly. Once you learn it in the pool, KEEP PRACTICING!! Don't stop. I can't stress the importance of this enough. Like do 10 in a row and flip over every which way. Then do 10 more. And again. Seriously. On a river it is often the difference between having fun and not.

Whitewater kayaking is without question one of the most ridiculously fun sports there are, and the reward is simple --- the biggest grin on your face ever!! Either from the sense of accomplishment from making a move on a river, running a rapid, or just enjoying the amazing setting of the river wilderness with some great people. For a lot of us what makes this sport so great is being a member of a larger paddling community. This is because unlike many other sports, kayaking is unique in how we rely on each other to get down the river. It makes us a pretty tight knit group, even when you travel to other communities to paddle and meet other boaters. Good times and great friendships.

This spring is looking very promising! And with the melt getting under way we'll be out on the water soon. Can't wait!! Until then see you next Wednesday evening at the pool. If you need more information on kayaking in Prince George, buying gear, upcoming river trips, or anything related to paddling, check out the forum on the right hand menu. You can also find us on Facebook --- please join our club page!! (search under Facebook for Northwest Brigade Paddling Club).

Brigade Executive for 2011

2010-10-26T21:52:00.000-07:00

Last week we held our Annual General Meeting in Prince George and I'm stoked to say we had a great turn out. There was a good discussion about the past year and lots of ideas thrown around about next year's paddling season including club pool sessions, a possible winter trip to Tofino, paddlefest, and swiftwater safety seminars. We also voted in our Club Executive for 2011. Here they are:

Club President Deanna Danskin (aka doubleD)

Deanna has been involved with the club since 2007 and is a regular on river trips and paddling festivals in our area. Anyone that's paddled with her knows how fun she is to have around. Thanks for stepping up Deanna!

Vice-President Fraser Jordan

Having shown a real commitment to the sport in his first season kayaking, there is no question that Fraser has become one of the new leaders in our paddling community. Awesome to have you involved Frase!

Club Treasurer Rick Brine (aka rollingriot)

Rick has been paddling and actively invovled with the club longer than anyone. His dedication over the years is second to none and we are all very fortunate he continues to be a leading member of the Brigade. The club owes you a beer Rick! That's him on the right in the picture above. Beside is his son Mike and of course Deanna in the background.

Secretary Chad Ridsdale (aka Naughty)

One of the seasoned members of the club, Chad has been instrumental in helping new paddlers get into the sport. This past year he stepped this up big time and organized weekly beginner trips to teach the basics. The fact that many of these beginners have stuck with it is testimony to his skill as a teacher and commitment to the Brigade. Chad you are the real schizzle-rizzle dude!

Director of Safety Ian Norn

Ian is another long time veteran of the Brigade who has also been active in getting new paddlers on the water as well as leading river trips. He is also a certified kayak instructor, qualified in swiftwater rescue, and is a virtual encyclopedia of PG whitewater lore and local river beta.

Director of Pool Sessions Matt DeLong (aka Yellowboater)

Matt is one of the keen new faces in Prince George paddling scene from this past season and has become a regular on our local runs. He started paddling in Eastern Canada before moving here last year. Great to have you on board Matt!

Director of Membership Duncan McColl

Duncan started with the Brigade back in 07. Although he usually has busy summers fighting fires all over BC, when he's able to get out on the water it's good times. He is also the club chainsaw pro and is our resident expert on log jam removal.

Director of Paddlefest Jason McLoy (aka heyfredyourhat)

If regularly driving all the way out from Burns Lake to paddle with the Brigade isn't commitment to the sport than I don't know what is. This guy is all over paddling like a starved dachund on a liverwurst saltine! Straight outta Burns... can't wait for paddlefest this year!! Thanks for helping Jay.

Assistant Director of Paddlefest Rob Webster

From Isle Pierre to the Willow River, if you read the forum this year you knew that Rob and his son Scott had a hoot paddling our local waterways this summer. Thanks for helping out with next season Rob!

Director of Social Events Melanie Madill (aka melanium00)

Melanie is also one of the new paddlers from this past season and was a regular in Chad's beginner nights. Can't think of anyone more qualified to lead up the social events calendar for 2011. Thanks Mel!

Director of Social Media Matt Feagan

That would be me, the guy who does all the talking here. I'm still enjoying writing the blog, newsletter and all things club media related and keen to do this for next season. I've been with the club since 2005 and I'm super stoked on the all the new paddlers coming out. Let's try to keep this going!

Member at Large Jaylene Parvitzlovokianeresque
Being a mother of 3 and teaching yoga several times a week takes up a lot of time, which explains why most people rarely see Jaylene on the river these days. I'm convinced she'll get out sometime soon but until then thanks for staying involved!

Member at Large Gretchen Prystawik
Another busy mama not seen on the river in some time but no matter. Gretchen manages all our Guidebook sales and shipping. Thanks for the continued help!

That's all for now. The 2010 paddling season is definitely winding its way down so here's to the good times and next season. Cheers!

Late Season PG Paddling

2010-09-28T18:39:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again, when the days get shorter and the leaves turn color before the snow flies. Thankfully, water levels around Prince George have come up recently, and there's some decent boating to be had close to home.The Willow is near playboating levels and all the mountain runs to the east are up. Enjoy some pix taken from visiting New Zealand Andy Thompson and local Duncan McColl. Cheers! And the season's far from over yet so get on the river while it's still good!

UnLikely 2010

2010-09-21T18:45:00.000-07:00

Last weekend a bunch of us made the trip down from Prince George and the north to the UnLikely Paddling Festival. This has to be the best paddling get-together I've been to, and having been six years in a row it has never disappointed. Awesome whitewater, great people, and a wicked party. Friday night had Drum and Bell Tower play the Likely Hilton, and Saturday Night Blackberry Wood from Vancouver got the crowd jumping till the wee hours. River trips included runs on the Upper Quesnel and Upper and Lower Cariboo. Levels were a little lower than normal for this time of year, but still good times in a beautiful area and friendly community. Enjoy the pix below! And here's a link to a video of the weekend: UnLikely

A Taste of Jasper Whitewater

2010-08-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

The whitewater in Jasper National Park needs no introduction. The rivers and creeks here have been well documented in various kayak movies (Twitch II, Entropy, Greyscale), guidebooks, and websites. For paddlers in the central interior of BC, it’s a bit of a jaunt to get to Jasper. But when our local runs have dropped to low summer levels, the Rockies can still have some prime paddling and the road trip is well worth it. Recently I had the chance to do a few of the classics in Jasper, with Bliss-Stick kayak rep and local Andrew Loughlin.

Maligne River (class IV)
Probably the shortest most fun river I’ve ever paddled. If you are passing through Jasper or have an hour to kill while there, get on this river cause it is super good times. This run requires no shuttle and scouting can be done during the 15 minute hike up from the Fifth Bridge off of Maligne Road, just east of Jasper. Ever climbed at the Rock Gardens? The suspension bridge crossing the river on the way to the crag is one of the take-outs. If you’ve hiked all the way down from the Tea House at Maligne Canyon you would have also passed by this section. The rapids are pool-drop in a fast narrow canyon with deep water before opening up into wide open easy boulder gardens. We skipped a gnarley rapid up top called The Sickle (pictured at the top of this blog post) and put-in above a 4 foot ledge drop shown above. This leads around the corner into a hole then a series of drops called Two Timer and Turbo Booster. After this it’s a class II float to the finish. What a hoot! Levels were considered medium for our run.

Lower Astoria River (class IV)

The Astoria River shown above flows out of Amethyst Lakes in the Tonquin Valley. The lower section starts just above the Highway 93A bridge that crosses the river, south of Jasper. From the bridge you can get a good idea of what you’re in for --- continuous steep boulder gardens and a few fun drops. The take-out is where Highway 93 crosses the Athabasca River. The run is about 3.5 km on the Astoria and a couple clicks of floating down the Athabasca. According to Andrew, levels for our run were low and it's much better at higher flows. It’s still worth doing at this level but I would like to return next year earlier in the season. The action is non-stop with very few eddies and constant holes and rocks to navigate. Other than the three drops you can see under the bridge, there is a surprise canyon drop in the middle somewhere that we didn’t scout, but the line was obvious enough. In the lower part of the run, there was one wood hazard Andrew was able to somehow duck, but I opted for the portage. The river was shallow in many parts and flipping would not be pleasant. Other than a good brace, elbow pads are highly recommended.

Athabasca River – Falls Run (class II)
There are numerous sections of the Athabasca in Jasper Park, many of which are rafted by commercial companies. While there aren’t any significant rapids, there are some stretches like the run below Athabasca Falls that have some fun waves trains, pushy water, and catch-on-the-fly surf. However the best part is the scenery of the Athabasca Valley and surrounding peaks – gorgeous! The take-out is on Highway 93A at the “Meeting of the Waters” where the Whirlpool and Athabasca meet. The put-in is also on Highway 93A at the Geraldine Lakes parking spot, with a short trail down to the river below the canyon at the Falls as shown in the picture above. The run is 12 km long, and most of the action is in the first few kilometres. The water is milky glacial runoff, so bring your mitts. After Andrew gave me the beta for access, I made the solo trip down this run to enjoy the views.

Other Runs
The rivers I’ve listed above are just a taste of the whitewater Jasper has to offer. Other classics include Beauty Creek (V+), Upper Astoria (V), Fiddle (IV), Upper Whirlpool (IV), Sunwapta (II-III), Lower Whirlpool (II), and the Athabasca River Mile 5 section (class II). For more information check out the Kayakwest website, Paddling ABC, and Kayak To Hell. You can also get all the info from the guidebook for the Canadian Rockies by Stuart Smith.

Happy Paddling!

Tatlow Fest 2010

2010-07-26T11:47:00.000-07:00

The 2010 Tatlowfest was held on July 9 -11 at the lovely Tatlow falls site on the Bulkley River. Boaters made the trek from Terrace, Kitimat, Smithers, Quick, Burns Lake, Vanderhoof and Prince George to enjoy some of the whitewater in the Bulkley Valley and help out with upgrades to the Tatlow Falls site.

The paddling focus this year was beginner/intermediate, so weekend runs were on the Suskwa River (class II-III) and the Telkwa (class II). Of course there was lots of playboating on Tatlow Falls as well, as shown above. Levels for the rivers were low, but still super good times.

The Sunday afternoon workbee down at Tatlow falls was needed to complete some badly needed site upgrades. The enthusiasm and energy everyone showed was stunning and more was accomplished in four hours than we had planned for two years. We now have new benches (shown below), new no slip'r trip steps to the outhouse and beach, upgrades to trails, new concrete picnic table pads, and some much needed bank stabilization along the water. For materials, thanks to Kevin and Ben at the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts and to Smithers Lumber. We followed our work up with the necessary beverages, surfing and a good sweat in our new (Thank you Timm Johns!) on-site sauna.

Our thoughts over the weekend were with Rod Leighton who is beginning an uncertain journey forward after a recent mountain biking accident that injured his spinal cord. Along with the rest of his full life, Rod is a staple member in our local paddling community and has been enormously generous to the BVKC as we worked to regain access to Tatlow Falls in 2009/2010. He has donated time, effort, humour,finances, muscle and class to everything we've been working on. Rod was down mowing the Tatlow lawn just a week prior to his accident. Much of the energy of the weekend was focused on hope and optimism for Rod. We heaved rocks and paddled with smiles.

Thanks to those who helped with the river trips, and to everyone who came out to join us for the weekend. You made it great! For more pictures of all the work and paddling and lots of the great people that came out, check here: PICTURES.

Tlell Glover
Bulkley Valley Kayak Club President

The Story of the NECHAKO RIVER

2010-07-20T15:51:00.000-07:00

With the low snowpacks and hot dry weather, the rivers around Prince George have already dropped to very low summer levels. There is one exception however. Unlike other rivers in BC, the level of the Nechako is not totally controlled by runoff. Check out the online gauge for the Nechako at Isle Pierre and you'll see that the level is currently on its way up: link. The river has a number of short whitewater stretches that in high flows offer some decent whitewater, as shown in the picture above at Isle Pierre. The river also has a very interesting and controversial history that few paddlers may know...

In 1952, the Nechako River was dammed near its headwaters as part of the construction of the Alcan Kitimat-Kemano Project. Approximately half the water was diverted westward through a tunnel in the coastal mountains to power an aluminum smelter in Kitimat. The remainder was re-routed through a spillway at the eastern outflow of the reservoir. From the spillway, water flows into Cheslatta River and drops into the foot of the Nechako Canyon via Cheslatta Falls. It is here where the Nechako River now starts. The Nechako Canyon - once a formidable 7 km long stretch of whitewater as shown in the historic photo above - is now a dry riverbed. The 320 km long chain of lakes and rivers that was the source of the Nechako has become a massive 87,000 ha reservoir, shown below with Kenney Dam.

As only half of the pre-1950 flow still drains eastward following the Nechako River, the reduction in flow has resulted in an increase in water temperature and an ongoing problem for the salmon run. The level of the river is managed “in order to achieve a balance among the various needs and interests” (Rio Tinto Alcan, 2010) - primarily power generation and fisheries management. During the summer, flows are typically increased to moderate water temperatures for migrating sockeye and Chinook salmon. This explains why the level of the river is going up right now when all other rivers in the area are decreasing.

In its day, the Alcan Kitimat-Kemano Project was the largest privately-funded construction project ever undertaken in Canada. It created the town of Kitimat in a mostly un-populated area of the province, and was heralded for generating significant economic stimulus in a relatively undeveloped region. Because of this drive for progress however, consequences were not seriously considered. During construction of the Kenney Dam and filling of the reservoir, the upper Nechako River suffered almost a 100% loss of flow. When 50% of the flow was restored 3 years later via the spillway into the Cheslatta, the comparatively large discharge down this small tributary scoured a deep channel and deposited huge volumes of sediment in the upper Nechako (Kellerhals et al., 1979). Fisheries were decimated, and the environment in the upper watershed was forever altered by the reservoir. The long term fisheries impacts due to a reduction in flow have also been significant, but because of the cumulative effects of other developments along the river like agriculture, forestry, and urban settlement, these have been difficult to measure.

Below is a recent picture of the Cheslatta River near the Holy Cross FSR south of Fraser Lake, about 1 km before it plunges into the Nechako Canyon.

There were significant social impacts as well, particularly on local First Nations. The Cheslatta T'en were given just a few days notice before the reservoir started to fill, and they were displaced with little compensation. Many had to abandon their traditional occupations of hunting, trapping and fishing, and were forced to build a new life in a farming community with which they had little in common. Many lost their livelihoods and their way of life (Carrier-Sekani Tribal Council, 1984).

Alcan’s operation has not been without political controversy. In the original 1950 agreement with the Province, Alcan was provided with water rights to the Nechako River. This gave them the license to divert all the flows from the upper section of the river. During the 70s, flows were reduced as Alcan increased power generation at its Kemano plant. It took several years before the federal government was able to take legal action and force Alcan to release more water to protect salmon (Quinn et al, 2008). Later in the 80s, Alcan initiated the Kemano Completion Project to increase its power generating capacity. The plan was to divert even more water from the reservoir for hydro power. This would have taken 88% of the pre-1950 water levels from the Nechako River. Due to significant public opposition, the project was killed by the Province in the mid 90s. After Alcan took the Province to court, the Province agreed to provide Alcan with replacement power from BC Hydro totaling more than $100 million. Alcan then agreed to further invest in Kitimat by upgrading their aluminum smelter which the Province claimed as a victory. Hooray! Interestingly, Alcan generates some of the cheapest power in the world, so what they generate beyond operating their smelter and for the town of Kitimat is sold back to the Province for a profit (Sheppard, 2006).

There is no doubt that Alcan has benefited the northwest, but whether or not these outweigh the environmental and social impacts is debateable. As well, it’s questionable if the agreement Alcan has with the Province is fair deal to the public of British Columbia. Also, while the power generated here may be more sustainable than oil and gas, considering its history it would be dubious to call it green power.

Increasingly, more is being demanded from our natural resources. We also know more now about how the health of the environment and society are linked, and I'd like to think as we continue to move into the 21st century we can make more informed choices and balance our lifestyle accordingly. Of course we need electricity, but at what expense? And for what purpose? In light of what happened to the Nechako and the deal Alcan got for a public resource, I think about some currently proposed megaprojects and wonder if we've actually learned anything at all. Two that come to mind are Shell's bid to develop coalbed methane at the headwaters of the Stikine, Nass, and Skeena Rivers, and the proposed Enbridge Pipeline with tanker traffic on the north coast. If you live in the northwest, these might be difficult choices for you because of the region’s need for economic stimulus. But really, how sustainable and fair are the benefits? And are they worth the environmental impacts and potential risks? The Nechako River will never be what it was 60 years ago because it's a done deal. However other parts of the north still remain unspoiled. It would be wise to critically reflect on the past and what we already have learned before we make similar mistakes.

If you're interested in supporting conservation efforts in the northwest, check here to find about about the Skeena Conservation Alliance: Skeena. Enjoy the summer, and hopefully see you on the river soon.

Smithers-Terrace Trip Report

2010-07-05T21:32:00.000-07:00

Over the July Long Weekend, Ben, Mike, and I from Prince George made the trip out west to check out some of the whitewater in the Smithers and Terrace area. With river levels dropping quickly across this part of the province from low snowpacks and little rain, we didn't really know what kind of action we would find. The plan was to hook up with some of the friendly locals and see what was running once we arrived (for all the great pix from this trip check out the link at the bottom of this write-up).

When we rolled into Smithers on Wednesday night, we met up with Sean who took us out to East Boulder Creek. This run is a northwest classic and a testpiece for any aspiring advanced boater. Boulder is challenging (class IV+) and super steep --- there are seven waterfalls ranging in size from 7 to 20 feet tall, a gnarley slot, numerous shallow technical boulder gardens, all stacked within 800 meters of river. Levels were considered medium, but after having a look I thought it was a little much so I ran shuttle while the boys put-on. I felt somewhat justified chickening out after I watched our guide swim on the first drop --- a stout 20 footer called Blue Fungus. But at the take-out I could hear the hoots from the canyon below and from the grins on their faces, it was clear this run was a must-do for next time.

In the morning we decided to check out the playspot at Tatlow Falls on the Bulkley River with our friend Tlell. This is the local park-n-play spot for Smithereens. While the wave itself can be pretty flat it still gives enough speed and retention for decent surfing. After an hour or so of fun and good times, we packed up and headed further west to Terrace.

Terrace is argueably one of the best whitewater destinations in the world. There are several road trips worth of runs here, mostly in the class IV and higher range. We were lucky to have PG ex-pats Joe and Morgen set us up in there super nice pad on the Skeena River, which put us within easy striking distance of all the goods. Later on Thursday afternoon, we headed up to Williams Creek and ran the racecourse to waterfall section (class IV). Despite very low levels and a bit of bump n' grind between the rapids it was still fun, especially the last drop --- a super clean 10 footer into a nice pool. I imagine this run at higher flows would be pretty amazing. Next year for sure.

Later that night at the pub, Ben and Mike hatched a plan with Corey to run Hirsh Creek the next day, one of the hardest runs in the northwest. Unlike East Boulder, I had no problem opting out of this one. So then on Friday AM while the boys headed to Kitimat for the Hirsch, Joe and I took our playboats to the Kalum River (class III+). I haven't been on the Kalum since the Terrace Paddle Party in 07, but remembered some big water. Yep, this is a super fun big volume run with lots of huge haystacks, a few holes, and good play. During our run, the level was about perfect to form a monster crashing diagonal in the second canyon called "slap wave". Joe had a good chuckle after I got the slap-down. Youch!

Reports from the Hirsch were as expected, an intense full-on class V creek. Ben got a chance to perfect his underwater cartwheel in one of the drops, while Mike found a good sized boulder to test the strength of his helmet on. Nice one! Once again later that evening we ended up at the pub, discussing ideas for what rivers or creeks to do for the next day. Having heard a lot of good things about the Shegunia Creek near Hazelton from a number of people, we figured this was the run for Saturday. We made the call again to the Smithers posse, and thankfully got Corey's girlfriend Amy to run our shuttle.

Shegunia Creek comes out of the Tomlinson Mountain Ranges around the Suskwa and enters the Skeena near Kispiox. There are two runs, the lower (class IV-) and the upper (class IV+). We did the lower run, about 22 km of paddling. The top part and bottom are mostly shallow easy boulder gardens, while the middle section is a long and very deep committing canyon with continuous pool drop rapids. One of the highlights in the canyon section was the Birth Canal, a drop into a long narrow winding chute. Another highlight was near the end of the canyon called the Coliseum, where the shear canyon walls tower almost 100 meters straight above the river. Amazing! There was also a ton of wood on this run requiring careful navigation and a couple portages. After five or so hours on the river, we were driving back to Smithers for dinner and a late night of beers and cheers.

The plan for the last day was to do East Boulder Creek again before heading home, and this time I was in. Levels were slightly higher than the last time, in fact it was primo by local standards. Running a creek like this requires a pretty solid and organized safety plan, and thanks to Sean for leading this up. We pulled Mike out of the creek after his deck imploded when he plugged the landing on Blue Fungus, and I got rescued after getting stuck in the second falls on Double Drop (for that story click here). Two of our crew also got broached on a mid-stream boulder just beside a log jam and needed help getting unstuck. Overall however, it was a great run and the cheers at the take-out this time was definitely well-earned.

Lost and Found: At the put-in of East Boulder on Sunday afternoon, I thought I'm probably gonna be so nervous I won't really want to get out and take pix on the run, so I didn't think of taking my camera. But Mike said he'd grab it and take some of us running the first waterfall. Not being one to turn down a kodak moment, I agreed and ran the falls and Mike gets the shot. Sweet! My camera then ends up in Seans boat and after running the teacup section, I decided I wanted to take a picture of the four waterfalls, which is a very impressive view (that you'll have to imagine now - dough!). We looked for the camera in Sean's boat and quickly realized it somehow fell out while setting up safety earlier. Losing the camera isn't actually that big of a deal it's losing all the great pix I had from our trip. Crapola! Amazingly, a couple weeks later, Corey found the camera floating behind one of the waterfalls, and 3 months later it was finally returned. The camera died but the memory card is fine. For all the pix from this trip check it out here: northwest trip.

That's all from this road trip. Thanks to everyone that gave us the great hook ups along the way, especially Sean, Joe, Morgen, Amy, Corey, and Tlell. Till the next one, keep on paddling!!

PG Paddle Party 2010: Report

2010-06-28T16:56:00.000-07:00

Last weekend the NWBPC held its annual paddle party in Loos, BC. Located in the Robson Valley 200 km east of Prince George, Loos is a small community surrounded by mountains and some amazing rivers. Once again, this year’s event was at Wayne and Carol’s place. It has it all with lots of space for camping, a nice barbeque and fire, good sleeping in their cabin, and stunning views of the area. We had a solid turnout this year with people from Smithers, Burns Lake, Vanderhoof, and Prince George. On Saturday morning, there was a group of tandem canoeists and lots of kayakers keen to get on the river. The canoeists headed off to the bottom section of the Morkill (class I) while the kayakers headed further up to the Lower Morkill (class II+). With summer melt well underway, river levels were considered to be high which is normal for this time of year.

As you can see from the picture above, we had a fair sized group for our kayak run. The Lower Morkill starts from the first bridge across the Morkill and continues 11 km to the take-out located at a rock quarry where the river nears the road. This run is a hoot with lots of fun rapids throughout, calm sections to enjoy the goreous scenery, and some great playspots. There were a few beginner boaters on our trip and considering the challenges they faced, they did amazingly well. Here’s a shot of Mike and Rick Brine, with Deanna in the background.

After our run, we headed up to check out the big Morkill River waterfall. This is a spectacular part of the river where the entire Morkill plunges 30 m into a beautiful canyon below. Truly a sight to behold. We hung out here for awhile, took in the view and a few pictures.

Having heard that years ago a group of Prince George kayakers successfully ran the canyon below the big falls, a couple of us were pretty curious about checking it out this year. According to the reports of the run, it was a technical class III-IVish run with a 10 foot waterfall near the end. Mike and I were keen so after a quick hike down into the gorge to have a look at the entrance rapids, we decided it was good to go. As it turns out, the hike down was one of the most strenuous parts of the run. There was no trail, steep cliffs and drop-offs, and some seriously thick devil’s club. Maybe one day we’ll cut a trail because the hike was more than worth it. This is an awesome run! Definitely big water and fairly continuous in sections, but good eddies to scout from. At our high water levels I would grade this as class III+ and similar in character to the Upper Fraser River above Overlander Falls. There were very large waves, some powerful diagonals, and a few holes and pour-overs.

Above is picture of Mike in the middle of the goodness. After 2.5 kilometres of this, things mellow to class II for awhile before the waterfall shown below. The waterfall is located just below the confluence of Forgetmenot Creek. The mist and roar of the falls was easily noticeable well above the horizon line. It would be possible to run this 10 footer cleanly, but as their were only the two of us we thought it was best to walk. I have heard it has been run once in lower water during the first descent. Here's a pic of the falls:

After escaping a mama bear and cub at the take-out bridge, we got back to Wayne and Carol’s where the barbeque was already in full-swing. A fun night around the fire with good food, some bevies, lots of laughs and chit chat. Jason ended up winning the coveted Paddle Party Prize - a NWBPC Guidebook - while Devin was the clear winner of another category. Hooray!!

Sunday morning started off with a delicious breakfast cooked up by Wayne and Carol, and then it was off to the Goat River for more paddling. Most of the group did the Lower Goat starting at the highway 16 bridge (class II), while Mike and I did upper section above here (class II-III with a class IV canyon). By all accounts the day went very well for the beginners with everyone making it through in style, especially Rob who busted out a combat roll when it really mattered. Nice one dude! For the Upper Goat, I managed to get some good footage of our run through the canyon, pictured below.

We all made it back to the vehicles at the end of the day before the skies darkened and it poured rain for our drive back home. I put together a video of some of the footage from the rivers we ran this weekend, as well as others I’ve been on during the month of June. Check it out here: JUNE (be sure to click on HD)

Thanks again to everyone who made it out to this year’s paddle party. It was a big success because of y’all, and especially because of Wayne and Carol for providing the awesome venue and all their efforts. Until next year, keep paddling!

McKale and Castle Creek

2010-06-10T20:34:00.000-07:00

On June 10th of 2010, Mike, Ian and I went east to check out a couple creeks in McBride, the McKale and Castle. So far as we know these runs haven’t been done in years. Both are written up in Stuart Smith’s Rockies Whitewater Guidebook and appear in the Cariboo edition of the Backroads BC Mapbook.

McKale Creek is located off Mountain View Road on the north side of the Fraser River. The take-out is at the first bridge across the creek and the put-in is 6 kms up McKale River Road. At the start of this road, there is an access gate which apparently remains open throughout summer when the road dries out. This run is easy to scout because the road parallels the creek the entire way. For the short stretch below the put-in and the bottom section between the first and second bridges, the run is similar to the Dore River with shallow class II-III boulder gardens. Beginning about 1 km below the put-in is a very long steep section with continuous, non-stop class III-IV rapids that goes all the way until the second bridge. This steep section has very few eddies and one class IV+ or V drop towards the end. As far as wood goes, during our scout we only found one log jam on the run, located in the bottom section. There were several logs sticking out here and there but nothing that wasn’t navigable. Overall, other than the big drop and the one log jam, all of the rapids were reasonable and the level was on the low side. However after all that scouting we decided against running it on this day. This is a stout stretch of whitewater worthy to return to though, so maybe later this season when I have a few more creeking days under me.

Castle Creek is on the south side of the Fraser, up Eddy Road and then up Castle FSR. We did the lower section closest to the Fraser. In the guidebook the sections above this sound a little mellower. The put-in for the lower is located where a bridge used to cross the creek at about 8 km on the Castle FSR, but has since been removed. We used a new take-out not in any guidebook, from a newly built road heading out from a gravel pit 1.6 kms along the Castle FSR. This road crosses the creek and using it cuts out a lot of the flatwater from the traditional take-out on the Fraser River. The run starts out with about 2 kms of fun class III boulder gardens, with good eddies throughout. Some of this you can scout from the road. Following this, there was a long stretch of mostly flatwater until things picked up again and go into a long canyon. The canyon has three drops, all class III+ maybe the first one a bit harder. The two pictures below is the first drop.

The next picture is the second drop, followed by two pix of the third and final drop.

Unlike the McKale, you can't scout most of Castle Creek from the road. It would be a pretty heinous hike straight uphill through BC hell-bush if you decided not to run the canyon. Not far after the canyon ends though after a few mellower rapids is the take-out bridge.There was no bad wood for our entire run, and the bike shuttle only took about 30 minutes. The level was probably medium-low. Even if you’re not into paddling the Castle, I would recommend taking a trip up there soon to check out the spectacular mountain scenery. Apparently part of the Castle FSR will be deactivated sometime later this summer.

High Water Double L-Dub

2010-06-05T18:58:00.000-07:00

Like much of the interior of British Columbia, the Prince George area did not get a lot of snow this winter. As such, some of our local rivers like the Bowron and Willow haven't peak as they have in previous years. Unless we get rain in the bilibical sense of the word, Wayne's World on the Bowron River - one of the best playwaves in the north - won't even come in this year. So while last Spring's challenge close to home was running the Lower Willow Canyon at epic high water and surfing Wayne's World, this year we've had to look elsewhere...

Enter the Lower Lower Willow --- probably the most technical piece of runnable whitewater closest to Prince George. While this may not be saying much at moderate water levels, the drops and boulder gardens starting below Killer Canyon provide a pretty good test piece for intermediate paddlers. Moderate water levels for this run are around the time when the playboating upstream of the highway bridge starts to drop off.

This spring a small group of us have been getting out on the Double L-Dub at higher levels. In this narrow canyon, even a slight increase in volume has a dramatic effect on the river making for more challenging rapids. When levels approach plus 2, most of the calm pools between the drops disappear and the mid-stream rocks become large holes or waves. It's quite pushy and continuous but there are still good eddies to recover and scout from. This is a short run, especially at this level when things go by like a freight train, but to me it is without question the most exhilarating stretch of whitewater near town. And once you include the 10 minute downclimb into the canyon and the 20 minute uphill hike from the take-out, you have the complete PG paddler advanced workout!! Consider the mosquitoes a bonus.

From the cliff gauge by the highway bridge, moderate levels for the Lower Lower Willow are between minus 1 and plus 1, with whitewater up to grade III+. If you haven't already seen it, here's a video from last summer of the run at moderate levels: VIDEO.

When the level nears plus 2 as it is in all of the pictures included in this post, it becomes grade IV. I've never done this run much higher than this but some locals tell me it's been done as high as plus 3. Although there are large holes in some of the drops at high flows, the main hazard to be aware of in this section of river is wood as there are numerous places for logs to get hung up. Scouting is critical.

Due to a relatively cool wet May, water levels have kept fairly steady on the Willow. Hopefully this will last and we'll have good paddling through June as well. If you haven't seen it already, here's the spring video for 2010 from many of the trips we've done including the Lower Lower and others. Enjoy! VIDEO

Stay tuned for the Prince George Paddle Party on June 26-27th, held out at the confluence of the Morkill and Fraser Rivers. A beautiful place in the mountains with fun people and awesome whitewater for all levels of boaters. Click here for more info: PG Paddle Party. Below is a pic of the 30 m Morkill Falls.

Spring is HERE!

2010-04-25T22:13:00.000-07:00

Spring is here, rivers are running, and whitewater season has begun! After a run of very successful pool sessions at the Prince George Aquatic Centre, paddlers have been getting out on our local rivers like the Willow and the Bowron.

If you're interested in heading out and have some skills and gear, check out the forum for hook-ups. Still need more time in the pool or help with your roll? Check out the thread on Beginner Nights. Any questions on gear, river beta, technique, or whatever? Fire away on the forum and you'll get some good answers.

River trips are heading out in and around PG all the time for all levels of paddlers. Hope to see y'all out on

the water soon!

Pool Sessions Redux

2010-03-28T16:25:00.000-07:00

Pool sessions are happening right now in Prince George. Every Wednesday night from 9-10 pm, kayakers of all levels meet at the Aquatic Centre to practice and learn. These will be held till sometime later in April, depending on interest. We have extra boats and gear, but may not have enough for everyone. You can check out Backwater Paddling to rent if need be (backwater@shaw.ca). Cost is $15 for membership, and $5 for each session. There are no additional costs to get into the pool other than these fees. Instruction is provided free of charge.

Spring is here and the rivers are melting fast, so here's your chance to learn the sport, work on your skills, or learn some new moves before paddling season starts. For more information check the forum on the right. See you there!

UnLikely Paddle Festival 2009

2009-09-21T12:18:00.000-07:00

If you can imagine a huge posse of paddling friends from all over western Canada, a couple of kick ass whitewater rivers, a party with live music near a historic setting, and some great Cariboo hospitality - then you've got the scene for the UnLikely Fest. During the third weekend in September, paddlers gather in the small community of Likely BC for this annual celebration. This festival has always been a wicked fun way to mark the end of summer and wind down our paddling season in the north.

This year marked the 150th Anniversary of the town of Quesnel Forks, shown as it was historically in the above picture from 1885. Located at the confluence of the Cariboo and Quesnel Rivers, the Forks once had a population of a few thousand - mostly miners that came to the area for the Cariboo Gold Rush. By 1950 however, it had been mostly abandoned and became a ghost town. It remained this way until just a few years ago when the community of Likely started to restore some of the old buildings on the remains of the townsite. Now it's not only a great paddling destination but an impressive piece of BC history.

To celebrate the big anniversary, most of the festivities this year were at the Forks instead of in Likely. So on Friday night after a few rounds at the Hilton, we rolled into the Forks campground which was packed with kayakers, rafters, and campers. Good times! The next day the plan was to run the Upper Quesnel.
While toned down from higher water levels earlier in the year, the Upper Q was still at a super nice playful level --- about 0.6 m on the online gauge. Above pic is our club President Chad Ridsdale surfing near First Drop, and below is PG old skooler Ed Day throwing ends on the put-in wave. Saturday we managed a couple runs on the Q, with Deanna and Tlell making their first successful descents. Have to hand it to Deanna who hung in through a couple good beatdowns, and also to Ty Smith who showed up outta nowhere after a summer of canoeing in Ontario, and did the entire run to the Forks. Gotta be stoked on that dude! Below is Smithereen Tlell Glover shredding the Bullion Pit wave, and me getting ejected off the same wave.

Saturday night was a loosely organized jam at the Forks, headlined by Drum and Bell Tower, aka Brent Morton (check out his tunes here: Drum and Bell). He played a solid set of original tunes and I think most of us would have liked to have heard more of him but.... it was an open stage so yep. As far as the other performers go, it was some kind of folk-screamo-rap thing. Or maybe Korn meets Leonard Cohen unplugged? Still a good time round the fire though.

Sunday morning already? Let's go paddling!! Woot!! We hooked up with Cam's gang from south coast as well as Savard's crew and headed to the Upper Cariboo. Water levels were surprisingly up, around 4 or 5 on the rock gauge. Despite our good intentions, it was decided that Cariboo Falls was too high to run, as shown in the picture below. Some great excitement through the first few drops though.

At the bottom of the biggest rapid there was some decent carnage, when Deanna swam and all these guys rushed to her rescue. In the ensuing chaos, Jesse broke his paddle after trying to roll up off someone's boat, and ended up slicing open Cam's spraydeck with the sharp end of his broken paddle before swimming. No harm done though, as Jesse c-1'ed the remainder of the Upper. Once we got to the bridge at the bottom of the run, Tlell, Deanna, and I decided to carry on to the Lower Cariboo, pictured below.

What an awesome weekend! Huge props to Mark Savard from Red Shreds for organizing this year's festival, and also to Ryan and others for the shuttle driving, flapjack flipping, and the constant enthusiasm. Finally, special thanks to Deanna's parents for the delicious borscht, shuttles, pictures, and goodies. Cheers!!

That's all from the Brigade for now, probably until our Annual General Meeting which will be held on October 29th. Check the forum for more details. And hey, the season ain't over yet so get yer gaskets fixed and see you on the river...

Mini Fraserfest Report

2009-09-07T09:18:00.000-07:00

Every September long weekend, a bunch of boaters get together on the Upper Fraser River in Mount Robson Provincial Park. The event has become known as Mini Fraserfest. This is contrast to Kayakwest's Fraserfest which is an experts only event during June or early July's high water (from Kayak Jasper for the 2009 festival: Fraserfest is Western Canada's best scare-a-thon. Last year we rafted Rearguard Falls in pitch black. Better show up this year to see what we have planned. Oh, and the kayaking is incredible as well. Don't forget your roll and maybe practice holding your breath. See you there). Peak waterflow in late June this year was about 200 cms. The Upper Section at this level is class V+ according to Sean and Spence.

Later in the summer, the Upper Fraser is at a more manageable water level, so Mini Fraserfest is good for those wanting to experience the river at a mellower pace. Levels this year were at 50 cms. I had done the Upper Fraser last year, but skipped out on the Upper Fraser Canyon, so I was looking forward to running this section as well as running some other rivers in the area.

A few of us made the trip out from Prince George and Quesnel, and on Saturday, we met Stu and Amy from Fernie, Brian Joubert from Edmonton, and some peeps from the Mistaya Paddling Club for the hook up. We decided to do the Canoe River, 30 minutes away in Valemount. This is a fun low volume run that comes out of the Cariboo Mountains. The top half is continuous boulder gardens (class III) similar to the Dore River near McBride, and the bottom half is more pool-drop (class III+). Below are a couple pix from our run.

After returning to Robson Meadows Campground, Stu, Brian and I decided to run the Canyon section on the Upper Fraser. This section starts below Overlander Falls and continues to a bridge crossing the river on the campground road. The action starts quickly with Carom Shot (III+), then a few techinical-twisty drops before flattening out for a bit. When the canyon starts up again, things really get fast and pushy with some wave trains and holes before the Terminator (IV), a large drop into a deep hole. The line at this level is to go right into the meat. Hold on! Going through upright was difficult, as well as managing the river-left eddy. Here's a couple of pix from our first run down.

Sunday, Kelly, Richard and I did two full runs on the Upper and Canyon sections. A long day, but such amazingly fun, continuous whitewater. All of the named rapids on the Upper (class III-III+ at this level) are unique, and fairly continous grade II-III rapids between them. The scenery is spectacular as well, with Mount Robson and the Rocky Mountains looming above us. Here's a couple pix near the Toilet Bowl on the Upper Section.

The last time through Terminator, Richard and I finally made it through upright. Definitely some good hoots and hollers through the last rapids! What is much more impressive however, is the fact that some river-boarder from Calgary apparently did the entire run from top to bottom, including Terminator AND Overlander Falls. Think about going face-first off Overlander with nothing but a two inches of foam between you and the water. Cojones grandes!

Thanks to everyone that helped organize this event, especially Sara Jordan from Calgary. For more info on the Upper Fraser, check out my trip report from last year here: Upper Fraser.

Heat Wave Whitewater

2009-07-27T20:37:00.001-07:00

Backyard Prince George Creeking
The central interior of BC has been blazing in a heat wave recently, with temperatures in the 30s and nothing but sunny skies. What better way to cool off then head to the river? For some, this may mean floating down a meandering waterway on an innertube with a six pack. Whatever floats yer boat I guess. While whitewater enthusiasts would likely agree with the beverages, we at least need a wave or two right? Okay so river levels are getting pretty low around Prince George. Before they dropped though, a few of us managed to get into the Lower Lower Willow this summer. This run is located below Killer Canyon, and is a great stretch of technical whitewater similar to the rapids under the Highway 16 bridge. Below is a picture of Ian boofing Ed's Hole.

Picture below is Mike running Duck Shit Chute. The trail into and out of the Lower Lower has had a reputation of being more difficult than the run itself. While it is a very steep descent down to the canyon, a long hike out, and more mosquitos than you can imagine, it is well worth the trip. The trails have recently been brushed and cleared as well, so at least now it's a straight-forward walk, not a battle through blowdown and dense BC bush. If you haven't seen it, here's a video I made of the entire run: Lower Lower Willow (be sure to watch in HD).

Clearwater Road Trip

Clearwater is one of the great whitewater meccas in British Columbia. There are several classic runs on the Clearwater River itself, as well as numerous other rivers and creeks in the area. This past weekend, we made a road trip to hit the Clearwater River at primo play levels: 2.5m on the bridge gauge. I have never actually been on a river with this much surf! Apart from the legendary Pink Mountain, there was also Tsunami, Little Pink, and many others. Good times were also had in Sabretooth Canyon. Woop! Having said that, I put together a short video of the trip. Check it out here: Clearwater Road Trip (click on HD for best quality). Don't forget about their whitewater festival this coming weekend, here: Clearwater Kayakfest.

See you on the river.

McBride Whitewater

2009-06-04T14:19:00.000-07:00

Nestled in the Robson Valley amid the Cariboo and Rocky Mountains is the town of McBride. With an abundance of quality rivers and creeks nearby, McBride has earned the rightful reputation of being a whitewater paddlers paradise. Any boaters on a road trip between Jasper and central British Columbia should be sure and spend some time in the area. Boating season in McBride is during snowmelt in early June through July, but heavy rains could also bring things up later in the season. Recently, a few of us made the trip from Prince George to run some rivers and scout a few more. Here's the scoop:

Dore River
The Dore River is located 5 minutes west of McBride off highway 16 up the Dore River Road. It has three sections: North Fork, South Fork, and Main Dore. I've never done the North Fork (grade V), but kayakwest has an excellent write-up you can read here. Last weekend, we had a look up the South Fork (grade IV) to 5 km. There are some tough looking shallow rapids on this stretch like Sucker Punch, and wood is also an issue on this entire section. We ran it from 3 km down to the confluence where the Main Dore begins.

The Main Dore River (grade III+) pictured above, has continuous rapids from start to finish. The biggest rapids are near the first bridge on the way to the put-in. It's a hoot of a run, requiring constant boat scouting and navigation to avoid the numerous holes, rocks, and the odd log sticking out. It's fairly clean compared to the North and South Fork, but one should always be deligent of wood regardless. Below is a picture of Ian on the bridge rapid from a couple years back.

Holmes River

This river is located about 5 minutes east of town up the Holmes River Forest Service Road. As you drive along the FSR, you'll soon see Beaver Falls which isn't really a waterfall, just a big short rapid. The normal put-in is at the 15 km bridge. The Holmes is a fast river with several long continuous rapids (grade III+). The run finishes off with Beaver Falls (grade III+ to IV) pictured below, before the take-out near the highway.

Last weekend on our way to scout another creek, Ian wagered some beers that I couldn't get in my gear, put-on the Holmes at the rec site above Beaver Falls, run the rapid and be back in the truck in less than 15 minutes. Needless to say I had a good buzz by the time we started scouting the next river. If you haven't done it before and your nearby, Beaver Falls is a fun little park n' huck.

Horsey Creek
The next drainage east of the Holmes is Horsey Creek, about 15 minutes further. This is like the Main Dore, but steeper, especially as you continue up the road. I've only looked at this one, but hairboaters take note: the top part is pretty stout as pictured below (grade IV+). Last weekend, the road past this rapid was impassable due to a snow avalanche which had buried the road. It looked like there were still considerable rapids upstream. Lower down, there were also a few logs across the river which hopefully will blow out in high water. Maybe by next visit?

Small River
The last significant drainage east of McBride before Tete Jaune Cache is the Small River, near the Dunster turnoff. It's similar in character to the Horsey with fast shallow rapids in the bottom stretch, and increasing steepness as you go further up. Starting just above the bridge on the dirt road that parallels the river, there is a long class V rapid, pictured below.

Burly!! Again, some wood issues on this river, but nothing impossible so far as we could tell. I think Norno is eyeing this one up for some future descent. Give er' dude!

Other McBride Runs

There are several other whitewater runs in the McBride area, including West Twin Creek, East Twin Creek, Castle Creek, and McKale Creek to name a few. For more information you can check out Stuart Smith's guidebook to Central Rockies Whitewater here.

Thanks to Ian Norn for the great pictures, and Hardy Griesbauer for the older ones. See you on the river!

Springtime Prince George

2009-05-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update on recent runs around our hometown. Levels have been quite high for awhile now and will likely continue with the delayed snowmelt.

Arguably the best playwave around Prince George has recently come into shape on the Bowron River --- Wayne's World --- named after local PG paddler Wayne Giles who found it several years back. It's located in a wave train about 100 m downstream of the highway 16 bridge on river right. It has easy roadside access and decent eddy service, making it the perfect park n' play spot. Below is a picture of Chris Robberts in mid-backstab from a couple years back.

The Willow has also been at high water for a few weeks now. Recently, a few of us have run it when it's been at a 7 on the cliff gauge. Every rock in the river from Nick's Knob, Log Rock, and the big rock behind Surfy City is completely underwater at this level. The rapids under the bridge are the most difficult (grade IV), with intense boils, large reactionary waves, and the ultra-nasty House Rock hole.

Enjoy this video I put together of some recent footage at Wayne's World and the Lower Willow. Be sure to click on HQ for best video quality: Springtime in Prince George

June 19-21 is our annual Prince George Paddle Party. This year will be pretty rockin' with the high water, loads of rivers to chose from for all levels of paddlers, and new venue out near Crescent Spur, about 1.5 hours east of Prince George. Check here for more info and updates: PG Paddle Party.

See you on a river soon!

The Futa & South America

2009-04-02T18:45:00.001-07:00

This past winter, my girlfriend Melissa and I travelled in South America for seven weeks. One of the highlights of the trip was the Rio Futaleufu. The Futa has attained legendary status in the international paddling community for its breathtaking scenery and spectacular whitewater. We spent a week there with Expediciones Chile, owned by American kayak pioneer Chris Spelius. Melissa got to raft, hike, and mountain bike in the valley, while I kayaked. Our accomodations, food, shuttles, guides - everything was excellent, professional, and well worth it.The Futa is located in northern patagonia Chile, near the Argentinan border, as shown on the map above. Much of the river runs through a deep gorge, lined with granite cliffs, lush green slopes, and waterfalls. The area is surrounded by mountains and forests. Below is a picture of Tres Monjas, one of the peaks above the Futaleufu valley.

Amongst kayakers, the Futa is well known for it's volume and power. Normal flows on the Futa compare to peak flow on the Upper Cariboo or Upper Quesnel (about 450 cms). During high flows the Futa can exceed 2,000 cms. During my first couple days there the river was low, but three days of rain brought it up to seasonal levels.

For the unintiated, playboats are not recommended on the Fu because of the sheer volume of the rapids, as well as the speed and continuity of the water. I paddled a Wavesport Diesel 75 all week and compared to my playboat, appreciated the additional boat volume. Pushy! I had brought all my other paddling gear.

The Futa can be divided up into 3 sections: the Upper with Infierno Canyon, Zeta, Throne Room, and The Wild Mile; the Middle or Terminator Section; Lower or Bridge to Bridge; and the El Macal Section.

The first day there, we paddled the El Macal section of the Futa, class II-III. Having not been on a river in a few months it was a great warm-up for what was to come. During 6 days of kayaking, I was able to run --- or look at --- every section of the river.

Upper Section

Below is one of the biggest rapids in Upper Section in Infierno Canyon, Dynamite, class V. This was taken from about 150 meters above the river. The entry v-wave here is the size of a bus. Infierno Canyon has more difficult rapids than any other section of the Futa. Because it is in a vertically walled canyon, scouting is difficult and portaging impossible. For experts only...

The above picture is my guide Caden just below Infierno, in Las Escalas Valley. This is where we put-in to run parts of Upper Section. From here it was a scenic float with a couple of small rapids and cool caves to paddle through before arriving at Zeta.

Above is Caden standing beside Zeta (class V+), the hardest single rapid on the entire river. What makes this rapid so hazardous is all of the undercut walls. Needless to say I walked this one. Below is a picture of Chris Spelius running Zeta from back in the day.

Shortly after Zeta is the Thrown Room (class V), a very impressive and large rapid where the river drops over 20 m within 200 m. After portaging, it wasn't until I was at river level looking back up that I really got an appreciation for how big this rapid is . Truly massive. Here's some borrowed footage of professional kayaker Marianne Saether with a good line at Throne Room: good line. Here's an Exchile guide with a not so good line: bad line.

Following the Throne, the Wild Mile Section of the Upper begins, class III-IV. The photo below is the scout for Chaos and Confusion... named after the feeling of threading between the holes into the white frothy bits below.
Still in the Wild Mile above, busting through The Thing: a random stopper-pile that can swallow you whole if you have bad timing. From here, the river mellows for a while....

... Until the confluence with the Rio Azul. Melissa and I spent two nights camped above, just below the confluence. Here we had the honour of being taken care of by Chris's mother-inlaw, Abuela. Apart from being a great cook, she was one of the most genuine and funny people we met during our travels --- and she didn't speak a word of english. The banter between her and Julion, one of the guides, provided great evening entertainment.

Middle Section

The Middle Section of the Futa starts right at the confluence beside camp. There are a number of rapids before reaching Terminator, a long and difficult stretch of whitewater. Apparently there are over sixty holes here at normal flows. The rapid can be run a few different ways, depending on the level. During our run, there was a pin hazard on the "easiest" creek line (class IV). Excluding the middle line (grade V), the other option didn't look much better to me as it fed into a series of holes at the bottom, which then goes right into Lower Terminator. I took the well worn portage trail. Here's an old video of Corran Addison on the Centre Line at Terminator.

Shortly after Terminator are two super fun rapids: Kyber Pass and the Himalayas. For our run, one of our crew didn't make the "traverse" on Kyber Pass and ended up getting worked in China Hole. Luckily she hung in there and flushed out in her boat.

Lower Section

The most popular section of the Futa is the bridge to bridge run in the lower section, considered to be the heart of the river. This section is considered to be one of the classic big volume runs in the world, with 17 named rapids in 8 miles, ranging from class III-IV+.

Above: descending some massive wave somewhere on the Bridge to Bridge. During my stay I did this run several times, and every run was different just because the push and turbulence of the water made it impossible to stay on the exact same line. The photo below is me dropping into the seam on Pillow Rapid.

Above eddying out below Mundaca. Some highlights while paddling the Lower Section include a solid hole-beating on lower Entrada, and getting "Mas" on Mas o Menos. I also came very close to swimming on Casa de Piedra, the most difficult rapid in Bridge to Bridge. Seven roll attempts before getting up --- intense!

Rio Azul and Rio Espolon

The Futaleufu Valley also has easy access to other rivers including the playful Rio Espolon (grade II) pictured above, and Rio Azul (III) shown below.

The Azul was a fun run and change of pace from the intensity of the Futa, and we often paddled it at the end of the day to unwind.

The Volcano

Last spring, a volcano in the nearby town of Chaiten erupted, causing a national emergency and the evacuation of both Chaiten and Futaleufu. When we arrived by ferry in Chaiten 8 months later, there still wasn't much left of the town. Mudslides and ash had pretty much destroyed it.

One of the days at camp, we all headed up the Azul valley shown above --- me to paddle and Melissa to mountain bike. It was forecast to be a nice sunny day, but we noticed some very unusually dark clouds approaching. We also heard what we thought was thunder...

So Caden and I are paddling through the rapids, and it starts to snow, or wait --- it's volcanic ash! Turns out, the volcano in nearby Chaiten had erupted again and was spewing ash into the Futaleufu Valley. Craziness! We paddled back to camp to find everyone okay. Abuela had briefly thought the end of the earth was at hand - hilarious! Things quickly returned to normal, although it was a little dusty in the town of Futaleufu. Below is a picture of mel covered in ash.

Argentina

For the remainder of our travels, whenever we were in an area with a rafting company, I would find hook ups to run a local river. Although the rivers did not compare to the Futa, it was still great to paddle a new river and meet other boaters.

The first river in Argentina was near Bariloche, the Rio Manso (class III) pictured below. Thanks to the kind folks at Extremo Sur for a great couple days! Especially for the kick-ass barbeque.

Shortly after we went to San Rafael, where Bob Daffe's friend Silvio Gallo lent me his playboat and took us to the Rio Atuel. Silvio's plan was to surf the Forbidden Wave --- a big, bouncy wave right below the dam, beside the police office --- totally illegal to paddle. Being a lawyer, Silvio managed to convince me that as long as were sneaky, we'd be fine. Good rides and a great time! Nice beer banter after too.

Following San Rafael, we went to the beautiful city of Mendoza, where I spent a day paddling the muddy Rio Mendoza pictured below, with Argentina Rafting Co.

While in Salta a couple weeks later, I got out with Grillo and Salta Rafting to paddle the Rio Juramento. Pretty low and mellow, but a beautiful river teaming with wildlife. It felt like I was in a National Geographic show (pictures below, and thanks again Grillo!!):

That wraps up the paddling part of my South America trip. If only the snow could melt here! Till then, cheers.

Willow Canyon: Late Season Play

2008-11-18T21:12:00.000-08:00

The Lower Willow River is the staple whitewater run for Prince George paddlers. When levels are right, it has a couple great little playspots: Surf City and Diamond Wave. Both have good eddy service and trails right to them for easy park n' play. Depending on the level, these playspots are a whole lot of fun.
Above is a picture of Hardy on Freak My Beak , one of the last rapids on the Lower Willow. You can see the river gauge on the cliff wall behind him. This gauge can be seen upstream of highway 16 and is easily visible from the bridge. If it shows anywhere between -1 to + 1, it's considered prime levels for playboating. There's also an Environment Canada real-time online gauge for the Willow River (at Hay Creek) that can be checked here: online gauge. Prime for the online gauge is between a 3.55 meters to 3.9 meters. Keep in mind that a 5 cm change at Hay Creek translates to roughly double in the Canyon. At prime levels the Lower Willow is grade II except for the Beak which is grade III.

Diamond Wave and Surf City are the classic playspots in the PG area. While not comparable to some of the big waves in our region like Dogdish on the Kalum, the Lower Quesnel put-in wave, Mo-Town on the Bulkley, or god forbid Tatlow Falls, these can serve up some nice fun rides.
With winter fast approaching, any day now our rivers will be frozen and that'll be a wrap for another year of boating in Prince George. Here's to next year, and be sure to stay tuned to the forum for news and upcoming Brigade events. Before I go, there's one more thing.... it's supposed to be + 7 this Thursday. Maybe see you out on Diamond Wave!

Grand Canyon of the Fraser

2008-10-20T11:37:00.001-07:00

The Grand Canyon of the Fraser is located about 160km upstream of Prince George, BC. It was here where many of the ill-fated Overlanders met their demise as they attempted to navigate its rapids enroute to the Barkerville Goldfields in late 1862. Fast forward to 2008, and modern sea kayak technology makes the trip through the canyon pleasurable and relatively simple (although you still need basic river skills to handle the waves, boils, and whirlpools - class 2ish at low flows when we did it). Beautiful mountain scenery, a scenic canyon, a sense of history, and a very easy shuttle make this trip a Prince George flatwater classic.

Matt underneath Mt. Baldy above and below is a shot of Rick running through the first canyon:

Rick and Matt in the second canyon:

Nearing the takeout at Sinclair Mills:

Click here for more pictures

Here is an interactive map of the run:
View Larger Map

Fall Paddling Updates

2008-10-09T11:44:00.000-07:00

Some of our posse got out to the Upper Fraser River recently, with three successfully running Overlander Falls for the first time. Check out Ben's Pittman's burly line below:

The Brigade 2008 Young Gun of the Year award winner, Luke Borserio, also fired up Overlander, as did Kim Ward-Robberts:

Good job gang!! I just got back from an awesome trip to Savary Island and Tofino, and had a few days of good surf in the sunshine --- a rare event for the west coast. Pictures below are from Cox Bay.

Otherwise, local river levels are at the low late season point around Prince George, and it's getting much colder so incentives to get on the water around home have been low. We'll have our Annual General Meeting sometime in Novemeber, so stay posted for more info. That's all for now. Enjoy the fall!!

The UnLikely Paddlefest

2008-09-04T11:18:00.000-07:00

Where: Likely, BC
When: September 19-22, 2008

What: The best paddling festival in western Canada, hands down! Hosted by Adrenalin Mountain Adventures the crew at Red Shred's Bike & Board Shed, for paddlers of all levels.

Rivers: From easiest to more difficult, the Lower Cariboo (grade II-III), Upper Cariboo (grade III-IV), Upper Quesnel (grade III-IV), as well as the Chilko River (III-IV) on Monday. At paddlefest levels, there’s a super fun easy surf wave at the top of the Upper Quesnel, that you can park n’ play at all day. For macho gnar-boaters there’s also Cariboo Falls (grade IV-V) at the top of the Upper Cariboo River. Don’t forget that Quesnel Lake is right at the festival site --- great for flatwater practice, total beginners, fishing, canoeing, or whatever.

Camping: Most people camp right in town, but some stay at Quesnel Forks, while others in Cedar Creek Provincial Campground or lodge in Likely. All the action is right out of town, so this is usually the best place to be. Plus you can stumble out of the Hilton in the evening and end up at your tent easily.

Friday Night: Show up and set up your tent, then meet old and new friends while a DJ spins at the Hilton.

Saturday: Paddling all day with organized shuttles. A rafting company may be around as well.

Saturday Night: The Gold Diggers Ball! Yes this is the theme of the weekend. It’s to commemorate the gold miners who came through during the gold rush and who lived at Quesnel Forks (now a nearby ghost town) and in Likely. There is a parade to kick off the festivities, so bring a costume and get ready to party down. Dinner is served at the Hilton by Gecko Tree Cafe, followed by the raucous funk sounds of Mamaguroove until the wee hours. Guaranteed booty shaking freakshow!

Sunday: Brunch served at the Hilton by Bluespoon, then paddling all day with organized shuttles. Later in the afternoon there will be a BBQ at Quesnel Forks served by the Likely Firehall.

Monday: Chilko River trip, shuttles will be arranged by those participating, departing at 9am Monday from Williams Lake and returning around 9pm. Here's a short video of Ben Pittman on Bidwell Canyon, the biggest rapid on the Chilko:

Cost: There is no cost to camping in town or at Quesnel Forks. Cost for the organized shuttles is by donation --- please be generous! All meals will cost $7-10.

Kayak Introduction Course: Captain Holiday's Kayak & Adventure School will be there to do a 2-day introduction to kayaking course. Don provides everything you need - kayaks, paddles, helmets, lifejackets and wetsuits, and absolutely fun and expert instruction. Pre-registration is strongly encouraged, so call him toll free at 1-888-905-2925 to reserve your boat.

More Info: Call Mark at Red Shreds (250-398-7873) or call Ivan (250-989-2100). Apparently there will also be 50 T-shirts this year available for sale from Mark.

Beginners Rock Isle Pierre!!

2008-08-28T13:54:00.000-07:00

The Isle Pierre Rapids located on the Nechako River is an excellent place to learn some basic whitewater skills. Located just 40 minutes out of Prince George, it's a favorite run among beginners and novices and is a great introduction to big water. The Nechako River drains a significant portion of the central interior of British Columbia. By the time it reaches Isle Pierre, it has a lot of volume which gives it some push in the rapids, formed around several large rocky islands.

In some places there are large boils and strong eddy lines, and in the main rapid there's the infamous Isle Pierre whirlpool, as shown in the picture below (grade II at this level).

In high water (+3.5 m on the online gauge), the main rapid has large standing waves at the top and powerful boily water below --- often quite intimidating for beginners. You can decide to run it, like Jess Rayner in the picture below, or take the left hand channel and miss it completely.

By summer, the Nechako is also a fairly warm river as the area it drains is mostly low and mid elevation watersheds. This is a particularly nice characterisitc when swimming is a possibility. Despite being a strong swimmer, Dan managed to stay in his boat on this run pictured below. Nice work Dan!!
Halt! How dare you take my picture! I heard tube skirts were a big hit this summer. Very svelte.

Apart from Isle Pierre, the Nechako River right in Prince George can also be a decent place to practice skills like eddy turns, ferries, rolls, and all the flatwater moves you can muster. Good times! See you on the river...

Torpy Creek

2008-08-24T22:43:00.000-07:00

Torpy Creek is a low-volume tributary of the Fraser River located about 100km east of Prince George. It was pioneered by Sean Fraser, Laura Bakermans, and Kevin Taylor in 2001. The run features two 25+ footers (one is grade 6, the other is 4) and a ~4km grade 3/4 canyon with loads of great boof moves and rapids. The Torpy saw a flurry of local boaters in the first four years after it was discovered, but numbers dropped to zero after 2004 due to wood issues and general apathy. I figured it was time to check it out again, and so on August 24 2008, Ian Norn, Mike Brine, and I made the early morning drive into the McGregors. Even at low flows, the run is great: nice waterfall, lots of boofs, and gorgeous canyon scenery. Enjoy the pictures from the run, and click here for more shots - Hardy

Ian Norn on the stretch between the two waterfalls.

Michael Brine finishing off with a boof

Ian and Micheal style the second waterfall

Lots of nice boofs in a gorgeous canyon to take you out.

Wood is always an issue on this run

Likely Road Trip

2008-08-20T08:32:00.000-07:00

Last weekend a few of us did a road trip down to Likely to run the Upper Quensel and Cariboo Rivers. Having done a number of summer paddling trips to Likely since I started kayaking over 3 years ago, I can say that without question, it is one of my favorite places to boat in western Canada. Hot weather, warm rivers, and primo whitewater!! Sean and Laura made the trip out from Smithers, and Ian and I drove down from Prince George. For mid-August, levels were still pretty high (~6 on the Cariboo, and 0 on the bridge gauge for the Quesnel), and the temperatures were in the low 30s. Lots of play scattered play throughout both runs and quality big water rapids. On Saturday night we all went to the McConkey's new place up Quesnel Lake for a BBQ. Hardy and Gretchen were there as well with there lil' jibber Louise. Sunday, Trevor even managed to make it out for a surf session at the put-in wave. I'm not gonna flap about the rapids much here though. Instead, I made a video of all the named rapids on the Upper Quesnel which you can check out here:

Upper Quesnel Video (be sure to click on "watch in high quality" on the lower right of the viewing screen). I don't like to embed youtube videos because it doesn't give you the option to watch in high quality, and so the images are poor ass.

Also, Ian took some great pix from the weekend and I've posted them on our picassa site.

Likely Pictures (be sure to click on "slideshow")

Be sure not to miss the UnLikely Paddlefest held in later September, and sponsored by Adrenalin Mountain. This year's gonna be awesome, with Mamaguroove rocking the Likely Hilton on Saturday night. Scroll down this site to find the news: Adrenalin Mountain.

See you on the river!

Upper Fraser Trip Report

2008-08-06T08:55:00.000-07:00

Last Monday, a bunch of us did the long drive east from Prince George to the whitewater section on the Upper Fraser River. Known among kayakers for its challenging rapids and impressive mountain scenery, the Upper Fraser is one of the whitewater classics in Canada. The run starts below Moose Lake in Mount Robson Provincial Park, through Overlander Falls, and into the Upper Fraser Canyon ending at Hargreaves Bridge across from the Mount Robson Information Centre.

On this trip we were joined by Brigade old school legends Rick Brine and Ed Day, both still paddling hard and in their 50s. Hardy Griesbauer, Ian Norn, Mike Brine, and myself rounded out the Prince George crew, with Graham Gerry from Quesnel and Amanda Smith from Fernie making up the rest of our group. Levels for our run was 70 cms.

After driving 3 hours from Prince George, we all stopped at the bottom of the Upper Fraser Canyon to scout the most difficult rapid on the run --- Terminator (grade IV+ at this level). Here the whole river drops into a gnarly river-wide hole. Terminator is a mandatory scout for anyone considering running below Overlander Falls. Here's a short video of Terminator:

After leaving a vehicle at Overlander Falls, we drove further up river and put on. The great thing about this run is that the rapids build slowly up to grade III before it's go time. The real action starts at Shithouse Rapid (grade IV), and continues pretty much through to the take-out from there. Below are some pix Ian took of us at Shithouse.

Following Shithouse was Eric's Hole --- a massive drop on river left that you would likely never emerge from. The line was this cool creeky bouldery sneak on the right that spits you out into the huge wave train below Eric's. After this a lot of the named rapids became a blur that Ian, Hardy, or Ed gave beta on, including Boulderdash, Holy Terror, Toilet Bowl, Otter Slide, and Staircase, all grade III+ to IV-. There were also busy stretches of grade III whitewater between the named rapids that gave the entire run a very continuous feel. The only close-call of note would be at Otter Slide, where Hardy, Amanda, Rick and I ended up way too close together above the drop. By the time I got some space and began paying attention to my line, I was way off and ended up pitoning into this jumble of boulders beside Amanda. Kind of terrifying! But also a little funny. Luckily with a little effort I was able to free myself and stay in my boat, and then share a big "wtf?" laugh in the eddy with Amanda.

At Overlander, we paused for a couple pix while Mike debated running the falls. It's a monster if you haven't seen it (grade V), and only a handful of the best decide to make the plunge. No dice for Mike on this trip but I'm guessing he's already planning for the next time. Below is Overlander Falls, followed by a picture of our group at the top of the falls.
Ian's actually run the falls a couple times, as well as lots of descents through the Upper Canyon. Unfortunately he recently put a hole in his ear creeking, and so flipping isn't an option until he heals up. This also explains the full-face in the above picture, but I can't explain the moustache other than it's totally legit.
The Canyon is a step-up from the rest of the run, with numerous grade III-IV rapids leading into Terminator. After Graham traded his playboat for Ed's creeker, he lead Hardy, Amanda, and Mike into the Canyon while the rest of us hiked out to Hargreaves to set up for pictures. It was pretty awesome to see everyone run this. To avoid the meatiest part of the drop, you had to get up on this massive ramping pillow on far river left and punch the hole at the bottom. Some had good lines like Mike and Amanda, and others not so good. Here's a bunch of pix of Terminator:

The last stretch to the take-out is a full-on blast through a number of very pushy drops that you can see looking upstream from Hargreaves Bridge.
High fives in the sunshine all around at the take-out! Really couldn't think of any other place I'd rather be. Great run, and thanks to everyone on the trip, especially Ian, Ed, and Hardy for the guidance, and Rick and Amanda for driving. Also big thanks to Ian and Rick for the great pictures.

For more pictures of the Upper Fraser trip click here (click on slideshow for best image quality).

For the full video click video here (be sure to click on watch in high quality)

Summer Trips 2008

2008-07-28T23:28:00.000-07:00

Lately I've gotten really into making videos of our kayak trips. Some recent trips I've made videos of include runs on the Cariboo River in Likely, and runs on the Lower Quesnel River.

Click here for the Upper Cariboo Whitewater video
(be sure to select "watch in high quality" to the lower right of the viewing screen)

Click here for the Lower Quesnel 2008 video
(be sure to select "watch in high quality" to the lower right of the viewing screen)

Brigade member Ian Norn also had the camera out for a recent trip he did with Luke Borserio and Kim Ward-Robberts to the Dore River, near McBride BC.

Click here for Dore River pictures

Finally, a couple weeks back, I was up in the Northwest part of British Columbia recently, and spent five days on Atlin Lake. Gorgeous country!

Click here for Atlin Lake pictures

That's all for now. Happy paddling and here's to the rest of your summer --- cheers!

Blackwater River

2008-06-15T14:07:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, Al, Kelly from Williams Lake, Trevor, and myself ran the Blackwater River, about 80 km southwest of Prince George. The Blackwater is located near the historic Carrier-Sekani Grease Trail, which Alexander Mackenzie used as an inland route to find the west coast of Canada 215 years ago. The River has been proclaimed a BC Heritage River.

In summer levels, the Blackwater is reknowned amongst experienced whitewater canoeiests for river tripping. In the high waters of late-spring, it's an amazing intermediate whitewater kayak run. The stretch we did starts where the Blackwater Road crosses the river, and goes until just before the Fraser River confluence --- 28 km long.

As with most rivers, the biggest hazard is wood. This years floodwaters brought in heaps of new logs, most of which we encountered in the first few kilometers. Levels were still very high as the picture below taken from the put-in bridge shows:

Scouting in the canyon was manageable, with decent eddies throughout. Below is Al Leighton eddying out after portaging a log-choked rapid about 2 km below the put-in:
Picture below is our lunch spot --- a rock in the middle of the river to avoid the fierce mosquitos. Note the log just above water level in the background.
The character of the river is continuous pool-drop grade II-II+ rapids, with a number of grade III rapids throughout.
There is also one flatwater stretch before the final canyon. However, with the high flows and nice scenery, it went by quickly. Parts of the canyon are over 200 meters deep, as seen below:

The final canyon is the most impressive, and also has the most challenging whitewater. We hiked up on river left to scout this one, which was a bit of a bush-whack but a good call nonetheless. There was one river wide log at water level about half way through. Here's a couple shots below of T-Star looking sharp for the birdie: Note on the take-out: modern short kayaks and high levels on the Fraser River basically make getting to the normal take out as written in our guidebook impossible. A couple years ago, we found a new take-out trail that is now the preferred alternative. From ~ 16.5 km on the Tako Road, head south on the Tako "F" Road, staying on the main "F" road. This year they've fixed the road, and now there's only one short section about 200 m from where you park that requires 4 x 4. The trail head at the parking spot has old signs, and leads all the way down to the Blackwater ~ 500 m upstream of the Fraser River. To recognize this while on the Blackwater, look for a bunch of pink ribbon on river left about 1 km past the final rapid, about ~ 500 m past a cable-trolley carriage that crosses the river. Follow the quad trail from the river to the parking spot --- a solid 30 minute hike uphill.

Stellako River Trip

2008-06-09T19:40:00.001-07:00

Last Sunday, a gaggle of paddlers descended on the beautiful Stellako River. Located about 2 hours west of PG just off highway 16, the Stellako flows from Francois Lake to Fraser Lake.

Considered by many to be a world class fishing river, the Stellako is well known amongst anglers --- particularly for it's sockeye run in the fall. In the high waters of late spring, it's also a fun novice whitewater run. All of the rapids are straight forward grade II, with an optional "waterfall" section (grade III/IV) that can be easily portaged. Check our guidebook for more specific information. My favourite part of this river has to be the scenery - it's in a deep and gorgeous canyon as seen below.From the put-in on our descent, Deanna and Cynthia were practicing their rolls and eddy turns the whole way down, and looked very solid through the rapids. After reaching the "waterfall" section, we all got out for a scout. Here, the river splits into two channels and drops over a number of ledges. The left channel is where the biggest drop is (grade IV), while the right channel is easier (grade III). Here's the boys scouting the bigger one.

Having seen the falls several times before in lower water from a canoe, I was convinced I was going to run it as I recall it looked reasonably straight forward. However my plan changed rather quickly when I got a look --- not so tidy looking in high water. Instead I cheered Ian on while he made it look easy (below).

Watching Ian gave Al enough courage to decide to run it himself. Things were looking great after he punched the first hole, as seen below:
Shortly after, things didn't go so well for Al when he broached the shallow rocks in the middle of the rapid. After being stuck, he flipped and rolled up with a broken paddle blade, and then proceeded to go directly into the pourover where he executed a near perfect backender-flip-hole-pounding-flush roll, as seen in the sequence below (look for the broken paddle):

Startling! But he flushed out and rolled up. Nice work All!! Needless to say I took the chicken line through the river right channel.

After the Stellako, we decided to stop and check out the nearby Nautley River for surf. Levels were very high here as well, and the waves looked great, so we gave er' a whirl.

Unfortunately, their was no eddy service and the challenge was slowing down enough to catch the waves. Once I figured it out, I thought it was pretty fun despite the walk back up.
That's all from Fort Fraser and beyond. Great trip, and thanks again to Deanna and Lyle for driving, Cynthia for keeping us well fed, Ian for the inspiration, and Al for the comic relief. Stay tuned for the next adventure!!

Boon Fest 2008

2008-05-19T20:48:00.000-07:00

For the last two years, kayakers from around the north have met up in Smithers for Boon Fest. The festival is named after Finlay Boon John, Sam and Timm's little boy (pictured above with his dad) who celebrates his birthday on the same weekend in May. This year, Deanna, Luke, Kim, Chris and myself from Prince George made the trip.

The spring thaw has been slow in BC, and with an above average snowpack and the recent very warm weather forecast, river levels were expected to be on the way up. We arrived on Friday night to find just that --- Tatlow Falls, one of the great park n' play spots in the north, was raging and the Bulkley River was nearly bank full. That evening we watched the rising water until the early morning.

The next day, the sun was shining and it was super nice. For those that haven't been, Tatlow Falls is a gorgeous spot, with great views of the Babine and Telkwa Mountains, as well as Hudson Bay Mountain. Later in the AM, a few of us got out on Tatlow to surf. Click on the smaller images below for a larger view and check out the mess to the left of the surfers - one of the worst holes in the northwest.

We didn't last long however --- water levels were rising making the eddy increasingly difficult to catch and the wave stickier. More and more wood was coming down the river as well, so we took off to do the Telkwa River --- a fast and fun boulder garden run that was also running very high. Afterwards, some went to surf the infamous Mo-Town wave below Moricetown Canyon. Later back at Tatlow, Sam dished up Boon's birthday cake, while Timm gave out some great prizes courtesy of Aquabatics and WRSI. The evening was spent around the bonfire chatting and watching a few of the latest kayak vids on a big outdoor projection screen - a nice touch.
On Sunday morning the sun was blazing again and the water levels were up higher still. After it was collectively decided not to do the Suskwa River on account of the flood levels and wood, Sean and Dave left to do the Kitseguecla River, while others either hit the Telkwa again or went on a pleasant Bulkley float-a-thon back to Tatlow. The plan was to hit Mo-Town wave again afterwards, but we were foiled as the wave had flushed out -- eegads!! So Luke and I headed-off to do the Telkwa, which by this point was in the trees and almost above the road. Actually some pretty great one-time surfs, and several supringly large wave trains. Check the grafiti on the left and the best new playboater in the northwest on the right.

The next morning after many failed attempts to catch the eddy and get on the wave, Sean officially declared that Tatlow was too high. Not sure what the level was, but entire trees up to 60 feet long were coming down. Anyway, thanks to everyone that chipped in to make this festival work, especially Timm and Sam, Dylan, Sean for garbage duty, Deanna for driving, and everyone who made it out. Good times!

Vancouver Kayak Club Paddlefest 2008

2008-05-05T18:23:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, we went down to the Chilliwack River to attend the Vancouver Kayak Club Paddlefest. Although this was their first official paddling festival, the VKC have actually been around for 50 years, so this was also a celebration. After getting in late on Friday, we met up with 40-50 other paddlers and friendly volunteers at Tamihi Creek Campground Saturday morning. Trips were planned on most sections of the Chilliwack River, including Sleese Creek, Alison Pools, Tamihi Rapids, and the Chilliwack Canyon, with well organized shuttle service all day. Here's Gee and Luke, awaiting a ride:

We were lucky to hook up with VKC member Philip Morley to run the Canyon. Nothing beats a local guide on a new run! Especially as none of us had done the run before. Here we are at the put-in:

We heard the level was quite low (0.95 m on the gauge), so we didn't really know what to expect. Despite a few bumps and grinds however, it was all good boating with lots of technical drops and rapids.

Chris going deep above, and here`s a few more of the named drops below, something Mel`s Hole I think, and maybe Carousel.

We finished off the day by unsuccessfully searching for this mysterious play wave near Alison's Pool, then tried to fire-up Chris for his big downriver race by chasing him all the way back to the campground through Tamihi Rapids. Here's a shot of Tamihi.

Instead of racing, which incidentally went off like 1-2-3, Luke and I took advantage of what was probably the best thing I've ever seen at a paddling festival: a hot tub! This was run by Don Jamieson out of Sea to Sky Kayaks in North Van. Don's a rad dude for sure, and it was definitely nice to soak in 110 degrees after a cool day on a cold river.

After some dins and a few beers, we met these jokers --- recognize anyone? Original H20 and Clearwater Matt. Hilarious!

Pretty soon it was night-time and we all gathered around the fire. It was great to catch up with old friends like Kaya Downs, and meet lots of new ones. Some awesome prizes were raffled off, and then the band took the stage which was quite literally unbelievable. The highlight had to be when a member of the audience was invited on stage to play along with the cowbell. His solo was mind-blowing! Here it is, totally legit:

We laughed and danced until the wee hours, and I went to bed after an encore of Don McClean's American Pie. No kidding!! The next morning we awoke to sunny skies! And after a sluggish start, a bunch of us were off to the Chilliwack Canyon again, while those with creek boats and cajones went to Norish Creek. This time our Canyon run was with Pete, who I met last year on the Chilko River trip. The water had come up a little more for this time down the Canyon, but not enough for Pete to make this boof:

On one of the last drops in the Canyon, Luke busted his paddle on a shallow rapid --- very unfortunate. Luckily, another boater offered his, then he proceeded to C-1 with Luke's broken paddle all the way to the take-out. Pretty nice guy! After, Chris and I did another quick run through Tamihi, before we headed off back north. Great weekend! And well done VKC for an awesome paddlefest. Thanks especially to all the volunteers. We'll be back next year, or maybe later this season when the water's higher.

Road Trip to Butze

2008-03-12T17:29:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Kim Ward-Robberts, Chris Gee, Luke Boserio and myself made the trip west for 3 days of playboating on Butze rapid. Located near Prince Rupert, Butze is a reversing tidal rapid created by the differential currents in the ocean passage around Kaien Island on the west coast. Unlike Skookumchuck which has one main wave, Butze has several playwaves, holes, and rapids that come and go as the tide changes. Below is an aerial shot of Butze Tidal Rapid.

Having heard a lot about how great the surf is from local boaters in the northwest, and being pretty tired of winter in the BC interior, we were all pretty stoked to get out of town and get on the ocean. After some minor mechanical delays, we rolled into Rupert pretty late. Big time props to Gee for driving!!
Next morning we finally got on the water. If you time it right and show up when the tide starts to change direction, things start to happen fast. Here's local ripper Jake Palmer on the first surfable wave that forms at Butze.

The next wave is an awesome diagonal in the surfer's right channel that also forms the biggest and gnarliest surf wave at Butze called Hawaii Five-O. For our trip, the tide difference wasn't big enough to set up this monster. Here's Luke on the diagonal wave.

After the 5-0 channel does its thing, the "Cradle of Love" begins on the far left channel. This is definitely where the best surf is and where all of us had our best rides. Several different waves form up at different times here, so once it begins it's non-stop action. Shots below are from the Cradle.

For accomodations, we stayed in the dormitory at the Pioneer Hostel, pictured here. Not a bad spot and pretty comfy even if the kitchen was a little small.

Next time, maybe we'll be crashing at one of these jokers pictured below. Here's Jake and Kirk --- our Rupert welcoming committee.

Everyone knows the great cafe in Rupert down in Cow Bay. We hit this everyday, sometimes twice. They have a fine assortment of baked goods...

Sunday night we were looking to get into some trouble, hitting up a couple local pubs, but only Luke the young gun managed to pull a late-night. Way to represent Luke!

I figure this being my first trip to Butze, I should mention something about the whirlies and eddy lines. As the tide currents develop, the boils and eddies become increasingly fierce --- definitely the most intense I've experienced. Most of us had multiple roll attempts crossing an eddy at least once during our 3 days there. On Monday I was pretty spent, and had an especially good time repeatedly battling the eddy line below the Cradle. At one point I even disappeared, but after five or six rolls I thankfully managed to get up. Luke on the other hand, still had tons of energy, sometimes hollering from the wave during his surf. He even dropped into the hole at the Cradle, just because.... well, it was there. Here he is (look closely):

Once the cradle disappears, there's another hole that shows up in the next channel that Terrace local Jason Cathers showed us on our last day. "Is it sticky?" I ask (long pause) "ummm, well...". And that was how I had my first windowshading experience.

That's all from Butze. There might be some action film footage yet, and more pictures so stay tuned. Otherwise, Easter long weekend anyone??

AGM 2008 Finale

2008-02-11T18:37:00.001-08:00

Here's a little photo recap from the AGM we held last week. Thanks to everyone that came out, and big thanks to those that volunteered to help with the Brigade this year. We managed to get through the night successfully, and 2008 promises to be another great season of paddling around Pee-Gee. Check the our forum link to the right to find more specific information on the meeting, and there's lots of info on paddling in our area in the blog posts below.

Dome Creek Information

2008-01-01T09:17:00.000-08:00

Kayakers living in Prince George are some of the luckiest in the world. We have access to world-class rivers in four directions from our doors. One of my favourite things about kayaking in northern BC is the opportunity to explore new rivers. We have tons up here. Here is information on one that we've been talking about for awhile now. I am putting this information up for anyone interested in exploring new rivers in the area. Please heed the disclaimer. If you paddle down this run, please drop us a line and send some pictures/video!

Everything below is available in pdf. Click here for it.
Click on any of the maps for a larger view.

River name: Dome Creek
Mapsheet: 93H11 (Dome Creek)
Put-in coordinates: 53 35’ 36.8” 121 04’ 52.0”
Take-out coordinates: 53 39’ 33.8” 121 03’ 09.6”

Distance: 8.7km (to the flats/gravel pit - see detailed maps below)
Overall gradient: 165 fpm
Steepest gradient: 270 fpm for 600m

Directions
Access will be the issue here. The shuttle will be long, as you have to drive down the Hungary Creek FSR – Tumuch FSR – Dome Creek Cutoff FSR to get to the put-in, and then you have to return to Highway 16 East and travel towards McBride to get a vehicle to the takeout on the Dome Creek Road. Take a look at the roads in the Northern BC Backroad Mapbook. The put-in is accessed via the same roads to get to the Vineyards hike. The take-out is accessed via the same roads to get to the Dome Mountain hiking trail.

Information
This creek has been talked about as a potential kayak run for some years now. A buddy flew it in a helicopter and reported continuous grade 4 rapids. He didn’t see any logjams, but that doesn’t mean anything (see disclaimer below). FishWizard says there is an 8km fish-passable canyon, so there are likely no big waterfalls. The Dome has pretty good volume where it crosses the highway. Google Earth has low-res photos over the area.
Looking at the gradient profile (see below), there is a steep section (270 fpm) in the first kilometer, and then maybe another steep section around 6km into the run. Overall the gradient is similar to the Lower Dore.
The detailed topo map (below) shows an abandoned cabin on river left around 3.6km into the run.
** Caution: FishWizard says there is a man-made log weir 1-2 km upstream from the highway. This is only an issue if you decide to float out to the highway (not recommended) instead of taking out at the gravel pit.

DISCLAIMER
THIS IS NOT A RIVER GUIDE. INFORMATION ON THIS RIVER IS VERY LIMITED AND IS CERTAINLY INCOMPLETE. PADDLING ANY RIVER IN BRITISH COLUMBIA IS DANGEROUS, ESPECIALLY UNKNOWN RIVERS SUCH AS THIS ONE. ALWAYS REMAIN ALERT FOR LOGS AND LOGJAMS – THEY ARE VERY COMMON ON BC INTERIOR RIVERS. THERE ARE LOTS OF OTHER HAZARDS AS WELL THAT COULD BE ENCOUNTERED AT ANY TIME. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE APPROPRIATE SKILLS, EXPERIENCE, AND EQUIPMENT FOR THIS OR ANY OTHER RIVER...

Other Maps

If you want the full sized topo maps for Dome Creek (1:50000 and 1:250000), e-mail me at hgriesbauer at hotmail dott com. They are about 1.5mb each.

Click on any of the images below for a larger one. The first one is a detailed topographic map. The black and white images are satellite photos of the put-in and take-out with roads in red. The gradient profile is at the bottom.

Prince George Whitewater

2007-10-15T18:23:00.000-07:00

Willow River

For some good pix of Prince George's staple backyard whitewater run, the Willow River, check out this link. Lower Willow.

Isle Pierre, Nechako River

The Nechako River is a long meandering class I river, but in a few sections there are some rapids. Isle Pierre, located about 40 minutes west of town is one of them.

The picture above is Jess Rayner in the middle of the main rapid. This run is great for beginners looking to get a feel for big water, as there's a lot of volume pushing through, which creates some fun whirlies and boils. There's also easy options for going around the main rapid for the less brave/experienced.

Bowron River

The Bowron is best earlier in the season when levels are high. Located about 30 minutes east of town, it has a couple different runs: (1) the Boulder Run, located just upstream of the Highway Bridge; and (2) Portage Canyon found further downstream.

At high water, there's also a great park n' play spot that forms just downstream of the highway rest stop on river right called "Wayne's World". We had a lot of fun here with this years high flows. Check out these pix of Wayne's World from 2007 paddlefest: Wayne's World

UnLikely Paddlefest Trip Report 2007

2007-09-18T10:39:00.000-07:00

Last weekend a whack of mad whitewater enthusiasts descended on Likely, BC for the annual UnLikely Paddlefest. People came out of the woodwork for this one, including paddlers from Clearwater, Vancouver, Kamloops, the West Kootenays, Quesnel, Calgary, Whistler, Williams Lake, and Prince George. Once again, the town of Likely opened its doors to the kayaking community, with Merle and Alison from Adrenalin Mountain Adventures pulling off a highly organized festival. Runs went down all weekend on the Upper and Lower Cariboo and Upper Quesnel. Levels were on the low side, but the put-in wave on the Quesnel was still in. Here some pix, including the wicked party on Saturday night featuring Shane Phillips.

Chilko River Trip
After the weekend festivities wrapped up, a few of us headed out to run the Chilko River. This is definitely one of the classic runs in western Canada. Located in the beautiful Chilcotin Plateau and running through steep basalt canyons, the Chilko has lots of fun continuous rapids that should be a "must do" on a paddlers tick list. There are also some amazing play waves throughout the run and lots of wildlife. We saw dozens of eagles fishing for salmon, and a few black bears eating berries on the shore. Kim, Efor, Scott and I made the trip, while a Calgary posse and others hooked up with Adrenalin Mountain. Enjoy the pix below.

Welcome to the new Northwest Brigade Paddling Club website

2007-08-24T13:51:00.001-07:00

Here's our new blog! You can click on the links in the top right corner to see photos, videos, and the forum. Enjoy!

Here is a shot of Matt Collins on the put-in wave from a recent club trip to the Likely area.