Not sure what to report here. Sure though that a blow by blow description including every hour driving and glass of water would be even less entertaining than my normal writing, following is a condensed trip report.
Days one and two were mostly spent driving, listening to music, and other random travel stunts. There was a fun little green truss run thrown in to spice things up.
what the 5 hour detour led to...
Jono Hay is visiting from New Zealand and was super fired up to get on this classic run. He just made his way west after a few months in the Appalachian boating mecca of Asheville, NC. Lucky for him we were on our way to BC and gave him a proper introduction to the amazing whitewater the west coast has to offer.
Jono sampling an ample serving of classic water.
Before any paddleboating though, we had to cross the border, which was quite the adventure filled with wild drug dealers with guns and terrorists strolling the sidewalks.
We did eventually make it across the border to the land of loonies and some very serious whitewater. Unfortunatley we visited a little late in the year to find ourselves dealing with the latter. Not to say that we did not experience great whitewater, even classic, we just didn't get on the more high profile runs which were the inspiration for the trip.
We did get on the commitment canyon section of Ashlu creek, which was great fun. This run I didn't even know about until we pulled up to the put-it, which features a not-so-large-but-very-frightening waterfall.
50/50 falls at the entrance to commitment canyon. The walls only get bigger downstream and don't fall away until the takeout.
This concerned me a little about the character of the rest of the run, but once on the run I was relieved to find that most of the water down there was far more forgiving than the entrance falls. Contained in the canyon walls was classic class 5 whitewater made even more daunting by the ever growing granite walls.
Paddlers about to drop the third part of triple drop, the second rapid in the canyon.
Yerz truly dropping in.
We spent a few days doing the mine run and the canyon section before heading further north to the Cheakamus. More to come soon on a fun boat from the tent run and our high water blues on the Daisy Lake section of the Cheak.