San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
CANOE TRIP
PADDLING THROUGH B.C.
You might hear a loon calling for a mate with its long, warbling plea. You might see a trout jump, a bald eagle sail overhead and maybe even a moose swimming across the lake.
Ahead is a 75-mile paddling loop linked by 13 lakes, six rivers and seven portages. It is the heartbeat of Bowron Lake Provincial Park, located in the Canadian Rockies in British Columbia, east of Quesnel. The Bowron Lakes Circuit typically takes seven to 10 days to complete. We’ve met kayakers who ripped through in three days; seniors in canoes, who take their time to squeeze out every piece of magic along the way, take up to two weeks.
The route works its way through lakes large and small, edged by forests where glacier-filled mountain ridges tower on the horizon. The rivers are more like connector links, easy Class I. The portages, once you get past the first day or two, are not difficult.
The loop provides access to some of the most remote wildlands available to paddlers anywhere, with no roads or trails available, and no motors on boats permitted. To reach the starting point, it is a 950-mile drive from San Francisco to Vancouver, British Columbia, another 660 miles (though all the road signs are in kilometers) through Hope and up the Fraser River Canyon to Quesnel, and then 75 miles east (much of it on hard-packed gravel) to Bowron Lakes Provincial Park.
Reservations to paddle the Bowron circuit are available for May 15 through Sept. 29, with 9 a.m. and noon launch times, at www.Discover Camping.com. For this year’s season, there is plenty of space available. This is the opposite of many worldclass adventures, such as getting a trailhead date for the John Muir Trail or Mount Whitney, where getting a permit is like searching for a polar bear in the desert.
Portage & paddle
Each paddler is required to take part in an orientation — that is, a video and Q&A with a ranger. There is no cell phone service. Six two-way radios are posted around the circuit
and are available to the public for emergencies, and floatplanes can be dispatched for rescues. Otherwise, you are on your own.
Yet the storage space in a canoe allows many luxuries, such as an ax to split firewood (available at woodlots along the circuit), expanded camp kitchens and plenty of food, and lots of rope. Rain is common, and you must have gear that will keep you warm and dry. Restrooms are available at most of the lakes.
The trip begins with a 1-mile portage to Kibbee Lake. This weeds out anybody not ready for the realities of the expedition.
What we did was load all of our gear in two backpacks and a dry bag, which my pal Jeffrey Patty carried. I portaged the canoe. For this, you learn how to kneel to the side of your canoe, then raise it so the yoke rests on your shoulders, and then stand. My canoe, an Old Town Tripper, weighs 78 pounds, and I would not advise trying to portage heavier boats (such as kayaks with pedal drivers). Lighter rental boats are also available (but they don’t always have the capacity for two big guys with plenty of gear), and rangers also allow boaters to use small tow dollies.
The first lake, Kibbee, is small and pretty with a campground at its far end. Most paddlers, eager to get on, make short work of it. You then face a butt-kicker portage, up a hill and down the other side, more than a mile, with canoe rests posted along the way so you can catch your breath. The trail feeds out to the foot of Indianpoint Lake, a gorgeous lake edged by forest, with a series of lakeside campsites.
A third portage then connects Indianpoint to Isaac Lake. Isaac extends ahead for 4 miles, then turns right and spans another 19 miles, long and narrow. Some 20 campsites are sprinkled along its shore, each separate, private and with lake views.
Kibbee, Indianpoint and Isaac are the prettiest lakes of the circuit and also provide the best fishing, views and camping. The best suggestion is to take your time at the start, enjoy these three lakes, get acclimated and enjoy the ride. Once you pass, there’s no going back.
Trout, eagles, loons
While we paddle, we’ll keep a fishing rod out and keep a trout or two for dinner. What works best is to troll a No. 12 olive wooly worm, or black Seal Bugger or leech streamer, with no weight; that is, you tie it directly to your line. The water is clear, so I use 6-pound ultra-green line to a black barrel swivel, then a near-invisible 4-pound test fluorocarbon leader. Most of the trout run 12 to 15 inches.
Another trick is to paddle near the shore, not out in open water. The relative motion of your boat near shore makes it feel as if you’re going at a good clip and making progress. That’s also where the fishing is best. Out in the middle of a lake, on the other hand, with no relative motion to the shore, even when you paddle hard, it feels as if you’re standing still.
From Isaac Lake, a gentle stream pretzels its way through forest to Lanezi Lake. The main hazard here is the chance of encountering a downed tree, called a sweeper, which could pin and dump you and your gear. For those with any experience, they are easily avoided.
You emerge at Lanezi, with four camps on the right shore. Lanezi then connects to Sandy Lake, and most breeze right through to the portage to Babcock Lake and beyond to Spectacle Lake.
As we emerged onto Spectacle, we rounded a point and a momma moose and its calf emerged right next to us, swimming. I scrambled to pull my camera and managed a less-thanstellar photo, yet it was an electrifying surprise. Where else are you going to see something like that?
Beyond, Spectacle Lakes then merges into Swan Lake, where we sighted both loons and a bald eagle. A wider river then pours you into Bowron Lake, for the final paddle back to parking lot.
Many, when they have completed the route, often wish the adventure was not yet over. Most would like another crack at Indianpoint and Isaac Lake. Next thing you know, you’ll be planning another trip.
That’s because the Bowron Lakes Circuit provides access for a paddling adventure like no other in the world.