The Bowron Lakes

Catherine and I just returned from a 7 day and 6 night canoe expedition through the Bowron lake chain in Bowron Lake provincial park just out side of Wells/Barkerville in the Quesnel mountains. We tested our new tent, rain gear, dry bags and other equipment in some of the worst conditions the park has ever seen. In case you haven't heard it has been pretty rainy in much of BC this errrr summer. Dawson Creek has seen 2 once in 40 year floods in the last month and many spots around the province have had flood notices and record water levels. The main highway north between Prince George and Dawson Creek was closed for several weeks due to wash outs and missing bridges. It has only recently re-opened with single lane alternating traffic for much of the lead-in to the pine pass just south of Chetwynd. In any case, back to the Bowron. To begin our trip we spent a nice night at Becker's Lodge as this was the outfitter from whom we rented our canoe. We caught the owner in a good mood and he offered us a lightweight Hellman Prospector (Kevlar) boat which turned out to be awesome. The boat managed moving water well and cut nicely through the wind. It served us well. Another piece of our new gear did not serve us so well. We discovered that our new cook stove would burn out and not re-light. We wasted much of our gas trying to cook bacon and eggs the first morning before departing. This proved to be a lucky break in the end. It forced us to buy a much cheaper/less techy stove from Becker's. We bought more fuel and our cheaper stove worked 100% of the time. Had our stove worked the first morning we might have been screwed. The stove we bought was a JetBoil and while I love the pot construction (helps to heat up really quickly), the burner is a piece of shit and unreliable.The stove disaster set us back in the morning and we just made our 9am orientation. We did not manage to start the first portage until noon. The first day saw a couple of rain showers on the way to our first site. We paddled through Kibbee Lake and to a spot about halway down Indian Point Lake. We set up camp and had a good dinner. The wind came up and our enormous blue tarp needed emergency adjustments but served us quite well the first night and several others.

The next morning we had a lake bath which was quick and cold and would be the last for 5 days. We paddled to the bend of Isaac Lake the second day and were caught in a thunderstorm en route. We stopped and threw up a tarp. I unsuccessfully tried to build a fire the whole time we were waiting the storm out. Much of the wood for the whole trip was water logged and difficult to burn. By the time we arrived at the bend in Isaac Lake we debated staying at a shelter area, it was marshy around the site and swarms of mosquitoes swayed our decision (along with a trio of Germans who were pressing on) to keep going. We paddled to a site a little further on, set up camp and then the rains began in earnest. The wind came up, the clouds settled in and it rained for 50 hours straight! FML! That night we snacked in the tent until full, played some crazy 8 countdown, and fell asleep exhausted.

We spent 14hrs in the tent that night because the rains did not let up. finally in a modest lull we tore down camp, packed up and pressed forward on Isaac Lake in the pouring rain and wind. The only up side was that we had a tail wind. 1.5 hrs later we arrived at the Cabin where the German trio stayed the night (by themselves, shit shoulda kept goin). They invited us in to warm up and have a tea. That was great! We stayed for several hours and swapped travel stories. Catherine and I decided to press on to the next cabin because in the end we needed to make some distance, even just a little bit. We paddled another 2 hrs, the wind having changed for the second half and arrived to the second cabin to find more Germans. (this time a water logged family of four and the patriarch's Canadian cousin) We walked in and their canoe had vomited all over the Cabin. It was kinda dark and an awkward entrance. Again we were offered tea and a spot by the fire. They made some space on hangers and we added our gear to the canoe vomit. Catherine and I warmed up and then started figuring out where to put our tent. As we tried different spots around the cabin the German trio showed up and then it was kind of crowded. Luckily Catherine spotted a great site in amongst the cedars behind the cabin. We set up shop and pitched the enormous blue tarp over the tent. This time it worked how I had envisioned. It created an A-frame over our space which added a huge cooking and storage area around our tent free from the rain. The cabin only came with one designated tent spot and it was in between arms of Lynx creek. By the time we set up our tent the creek had come up enough to run completely over the tent site. Because of this the German trio undertook a real construction project to get their tent set up. They flattened ground, hammered in tent pegs and cut down a tree to brace their tarp. We went to bed on night three - 28 hours of rain.

It was blueberry pancakes for breakfast the morning of day four. A good breakfast and some dried out gear got us going and we decided despite the rain to make a big push and paddle 20kms or so to the end of Isaac Lake. We departed just before the German trio and set off in a steady drizzle. We ate and drank regularly for this paddle and it kept our spirits and energy up. I also finished 99 bottles of beer on the wall, a lifetime first! Four and a quarter hours later we arrived at the shelter on the end of the lake at the head of the Isaac river. We were the first to arrive that day and our canoe and bags barfed all over the shelter. A fire was started immediately and we brewed some tea for us and the German trio who were to arrive shortly after. It was very nice to dry everything out and be warm by the stove. Invigorating enough for me to set out and do some fishing before dinner. Did not catch anything but improved my casting ability greatly.

The next morning I was up at 5:30 for some reason but enjoyed getting a fire going for all the campers and organizing us for the paddle down the river and on to Sandy Lake. It was to be a big day of paddling. The weather finally broke on this morning. The sun tried poking through and everyone was cracking jokes about the weird object in the sky. We set out down the river at about 9:30am, our earliest start. The first set of rapids were fun. The first portage was not. We paddled the Isaac river and managed the portages but we were clearly fatigued. After the Isaac river we fished on McCleary lake. I caught bottom and Catherine didn't fare much better. We reeled in and entered the Cariboo river. This river is silty and there are warnings about avoiding deadheads and sweepers including an example of a halved canoe left on the waterway to remind you to pay attention. We enjoyed this section as we got some sun and were able to take a few nice photos. The Cariboo spews you into Lanezi Lake. We saw fish jumping and decided to put a line in. When we did so we realized I had left my net (unused) at the last portage. Oh well, you don't need a net to keep fishing. I passed the rod off to Catherine and she trolled for a few clicks. Unsuccessful, she reeled in and put the rod away. As she was doing so it bounced out of the boat, I missed it, boat kept going, by by rod. So, no rod, no net, no fish - FML again! We continued paddling Lanezi Lake and it seemed like it would just never end. We finally stopped at a flooded out site to eat lunch with an enormous Marmot. There were Marmot holes everywhere including one under the unwalled facilities, it was a nervous poop! After lunch we trudged on and on and on it seemed, eventually passing through the narrows that join Lanezi Lake to Sandy Lake. We had decided to Camp midway on Sandy Lake so not much further after the narrows. However, I hit the wall and we weren't going anywhere until I munched a couple of snack bars and hit the Gatorade. With enough energy to finish, we arrived exhausted 40 minutes later. We set up camp and then sought out some wood at another poorly marked woodlot. Upon our return we had our second lake bath, dried gear, cooked dinner and had a fire and hot chocolate with toasted marshmallows. The winds and rain came up again and we quickly retired for the night.

The next morning there was some low cloud and fog but the lake was glass and the mountains looked impressive. We never seemed to get going as fast as we would have liked, however packing, cooking, organizing, loading is a production and in the end it just takes time to do it right. We left on the morning of day six at about 11am. The only paddlers ahead of us were a father and sons trio who passed by our site at about 8am. We quickly paddled the rest of Sandy Lake in the morning and down the lower Cariboo. At Babcock Creek you can choose to do an out and back to Unna Lake but we decided we were tired enough and had to make some good distance so we skipped it. We ran into the paddlers that had passed our site at the Babcock Creek portage. We followed these paddlers through Babcock Lake and Skoi Lake, past moose families until we arrived at Spectacle Lakes. Here they stopped to fish and we pressed on. We stopped a little over halfway at a group site and shelter. We enjoyed a soup lunch with fresh fruit in the sun and then watched and waited out a thunder cloud and rainstorm. We decided to continue making ground and go to the next site, hard to leave a nice well-equipped site but we did. As we paddled to the next site we saw that it looked pretty busy. Then we saw people scramble to hide behind the trees at their fire and tarp. Okay we get the picture - no room at the in and fuck off. We were cheesed off at that action and so paddled on. This last stretch dragged on and we were getting tired. This was made worse when the final campsite we were shooting for was not on the right place on the map. We plugged on, silently, because this is best for us at this kind of juncture. Finally we camped at a site at the head of the lower Bowron River. The sun came out and shined on us as we set up and ate. It was a good last night with a fire. Not much more to say, we were pooched.

The final morning greeted us with cloud of course but also some blue patches and sunshine poking through. We got on the water relatively efficiently and headed downstream. The sun came out and the mountains appeared in all their glory. It was beautiful. We floated and leisurely paddled the river which snakes through a lowland known as moose flats. We understood why almost immediately as we passed just feet from a sow and calf. Golden eagles overhead, ducks at our side, deer and moose, frogs and red wing black birds it was so nice to be finishing our trip under the sun. As we exited the river only the tops of water course markers were visible and the river entrance signs had only the top foot exposed. There had to be at least 5 or 6 extra feet of water in the lake. We paddled into a headwind for the first half of Bowron Lake and then stopped midway with the end in sight to eat something and enjoy the sun. The hard paddle of the first half was balanced by glassy waters for the second half and we leisurely cruised in to Becker's Landing. The trip was a challenge in many ways but really that is what it was all about. It was glorious and really epidimizes what great opportunities we have in Canada for exploring natural beauty.

We packed well and had enough food and warm /dry clothes for the whole trip. Ironically I sunburned a little the last day as the only thing we packed and didn't use was sunscreen. After checking in and returning our canoe we b-lined to A&W for a poutine. A great trip that will be done again!