the bowron lakes adventure: days 5-8

if you are reading this and have not read "the bowron lakes adventure days 1-4", i suggest you do that 1st.  thanks.

Now, on with the show....

Day 5


Due to all the rain the previous evening, we may have cheated a little and set up the tent in a bit more sheltered area.  OK, we totally cheated, but by cheating we had a great sleep and didn't have to put the tent away wet.  we deserved the epic sleep after the epic day of paddling.

is this cheating?  say "no" please.

 we packed up our gear and headed back out on Lanezi lake.  but just before we left, i spotted the superbee again.  snapped a quick picture of it ripping it up on  the woodpile.  i think we're being followed.

vroom vroom

 There was all kinda of stuff growing and we literally were canoeing through a rain forest at points.  this devil's club was one of the weirder things we saw.

devil's club

 Our first stop after we got into the canoe was a bit of a backtrack, but it was worth it to log another geocache.  The "W" shows designated wood cutting areas, set up in an effort to keep people from randomly collecting wood and trashing the shoreline.

got wood?

 The mountains along the lake were some of the best vistas of the trip, including the tallest peak in the park and some crazy snow fields and bowls.

father mountain and snowfields.  sweet views all day

 Another thing we saw a lot of were slide chutes.  not sure if they were snow or rock slides, maybe a bit of both.  most now sported some cool waterfalls from the higher melting snow.

dualing waterfalls

recent slide and fallen trees.

snow bowl above the alpine

 We got to the end of the lake, took a few pictures facing backwards, and entered the caribou river again.  views were minty.

looking back up lanezi lake

 Just at the mouth of the river, we stopped at this semi-flooded site for some hot chocolate.  we heard later that this site was dry 3 days later.

another flooded site, but dry enough for hot chocolate

 We filtered all our water with a MSR water filter.  Better safe than shitting and barfing uncontrollably in the middle of nowhere for a week.

 After the caribou river ended, we entered sandy lake.  the headwind was insane and the whitecaps were over a foot.  no time for pictures, just find the only sheltered spot and call it a night.

sheltered? yes.  dry and not flooded? no.

can you light a fire underwater?  no.

 We pulled the canoe up as high as we could.  the tent pads were no where to be found, either flooded and floating or floated away.

the tarp is tied to the outhouse. 

these trees do not need more water.

flooded.

 The highlight of the campsite was dinner.  we had mango chickpea curry that we had, once again, dehydrated at home.  SOOO good.

dinner.  yummm

 Day 6

After a brutal windy day yesterday, we full on deserved the glorious day we got today. we left our flooded site and back into the canoe and onto the lake.  so calm it was hard to believe it tried to kill us last night.

bye bye flooded site

hello calm water and sunscreen.

We got back onto the caribou river and headed to una lake. there is a trail to caribou falls we wanted to hike, but unfortunately, it was closed due to bad trail conditions, so we paddled around a few small lakes instead.

una lake.  a weird island tree.

 Today was the last day we would have to portage.  the mountains were in the background and the entire feeling of the trip changed.  smaller lakes, different forests and different weather.  3 portages today, but 2 were less than a kilometer, and all the lakes were very calm.

me and the portage cart.

 like i said, the lakes were generally smaller, and a few marshy spots.  marshy spots = moose.  we spent 30 minutes watching one in skoi lake swim from one shore to the other and eat a bunch of moose food, whatever that is.
 

the marsh into skoi lake

the moose

the last lake for the day was spectacle lake.  it was the biggest lake of the day, and calm and flat the whole day. a great way to end the day.

 When we got to the camp we were pretty relaxed.  there was another new cook shelter, but we slept in the tent because it was so awesome out.  we spent the evening hanging out, cooking and watching wildlife.  some kayakers joined us at the camp site, but it was a big site, so we each had lots of personal space.

an eagle a few meters from the tent.

fishing. caught 4 kokanee salmon

evening on spectacle lake

an evening fishing outing with doug, a kayaker.

the new cook shelter

 Dinner was another dehydrated awesomness.  chicken and peppers.  totally good time.

Day 7

We totally could have made it back to the lodge today, but we didn't want to.  So we spent 2 hours paddling to the last campspot on the circuit and had a relaxing day reading, fishing and just generally enjoying the awesomness that our lives had become.

paddling the end of spectacle lake

 The last campsite (site 52) was on the upper bowron river.  a river that eventually will end in the pacific ocean.  we were 5 km from the headwaters on a sandy stretch.  cool to chill out and watch the river flow by.

upper bowron

  There was a cabin, but it was our last chance to stay in the tent again, so we did.

last cabin on the circuit

tenting is better sometimes.

 accross from our camp was a huge marshy area, so we hoped for more moose sightings the next day as we were going to be paddling trough it.

 the mountains were still awesome, even from a bit of a distance.  a week and 100 km of paddling ago we were on the other side of them.

 It certainly was bear country, as the sign said, but we didn't see any until we were back in the car.  lots of bear poo on the trail though.

maybe this sign should be at the beginning?

trusty axe.  well worth carrying the weight.

 The sany shore here was easily eroded by the faster moving river.

crazy root exposed by erosion

trusty peak 1 stove.  bought in 1996.

what what what?  how did this beat us here?

Our last night was awesome.  relaxing day and looking forward to paddling tomorrow, but not looking forward to the return to civilization.  I tried to convince christine to do the circuit again, since we had enough food, but no dice.

Day 8

The last day.  Bitter sweet.  We packed up and got back into the canoe and back into the bowron river. it was going to be another short day of paddling, which was totally ok with us.

We come around the corner and are greeted by the 1st and 2nd of 9 moose.  these 2 were less than 10 meters away.  didn't seem to mind us.

a bull moose eating along the end of the marsh

One moose decided it didn't want to be around us, so it took off.  heres the video.  pretty amazing animals.

soon the landing was in sight.  as we got closer, our arms got more tired, but there was an idea to go around again.  i for one wasn't ready to get back to reality just yet.

the landing at our lodge

the canoe was tired too.

epic trip.  can't wait to do it again.  thanks christy :)