Prince George PaddleFest 2011

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!

UnLikely Paddle Festival 2009

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

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.

Torpy Creek

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

Boon Fest 2008

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!

AGM 2008 Finale

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.

Prince George Whitewater

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