Beautiful British Columbia, its a place worthy of the popular hashtag! Epic scenery, huge mountains, amazing whitewater, as a paddling destination you couldn't ask for more.
After passing out in the car from exhaustion we woke up to day one in BC. We needed a warm up river and it just so happened that the Cheakamus river was just down the road! Waterfalls, technical rapids, and paddling through Harrison Fords latest movie film scene, the Cheak gave us a perfect first day!
Day two saw us a little unsure what to do next. We still had the Ashlu and the Fear Canyon of the Elaho in the area, but we knew these would be running when we came back later in our trip. The Stikine was looking very unlikely to come in at this point so we decided to head North to the Clearwater.
For those that don't know, BC has had terrible issues with wildfires this year, and the further North we got the thicker the smoke. Tired from the five hour drive we quickly made dinner and settled in for the night.
We woke up to what looked like heavy fog, it was smoke! After some Tim Hortons wifi we met with friends, Fabian and Lukas and headed to the put in. Getting our kit on quickly to avoid the mosquitos we put on a kilometre or so above a section called the Gattlin gorge which we'd been told was still a little high, needless to say I was a little nervous.
High volume and pushy was the name of the game, we scouted and ran all the rapids with only a couple of questionable lines! A short lunch break on a stunning island whilst watching salmon jump gave us the fuel we needed for 20k of flat water. Although tedious and tiring, we couldn't help but admire the beauty of where we were, even if the smoke was giving me a headache.
Just when we thought it would never end we reached a rapid called 'Sabretooth' and then the action started again! The last rapid and probably the crux was the 'Kettle Rapids', huge radials, big holes and terminal eddies. Watching Lukas and Fabian have successful runs gave Andy and I the confidence to drop in, and what a ride it was!
We reached the takeout drained and exhausted but mostly stoked on what was one of the coolest rivers I've done! Narrowly missing picking up our hire car due to the road being about to be closed because of a nearby fire, we cooked up some much needed grub and dreamt about what would be our next river.....
Photo Credits to Fabian and Andy Kettlewell.
It might be a bit colder in BC but Eddy doesnt go anywhere without his Life Shorts 2.0
Leave a comment