Final Thoughts...

Well our grand adventure has come to a close.  We are both still thinking it's a little surreal not only that we did it (without too many mishaps lol) and how strange it is to be back like it never happened almost.

We learned a little about ourselves as individuals, we learned just how much we rely on each other as a couple and how well we work together.  We learned that there can be such a thing as too much food lol.

Nature can be good and bad to you.  While the sun shines and is calming on the water it can also bite into the skin and make your fragile body hurt.  Rain can be miserable but it can provide rainbows.  Animals are all around us, every insects if you take the time to look hard enough.

Regrets?  My only regret is that I didn't use every last bit of the 5 days to really take the time to be in the moment.  Sure I saw the beauty and majesty but there were moments when I just wanted to get to a campsite and sleep.  Or just get through a small patch of current and river because I was afraid.

Would we do it again?  Yes.  And we would take the memories we made and the lessons we learned from this first time and expand on them.

I bought a book at Becker's Lodge and it's a photo book from a guy that's done the circuit over a hundred times.  In that book he says that even tho he's done it that many times each trip is different - because of the weather, the season, the animals and himself.

While this trip is so far from what we live day to day, I would recommend taking this trip to ANYONE in a heartbeat.  No matter what your skill or experience.  It had great, good and bad but that's what a journey is isn't it?

What will our next grand adventure be?  Check out the 2018 blog link below!

https://kstraveluk2018.blogspot.com/2017/10/its-been-decided.html

Saturday September 9, 2017

I had set my alarm for 4:30am this morning and it went off as planned.  Kels got up to use the outhouse and came back to the tent however within about 15mins we both heard the bear cache rattle.  thinking the guys were up we looked out the tent.  It was still dark out but we didn't see any headlamps or flashlights.  But the rattling was still going on.  Looks like we have a visitor in camp.  We couldn't make anything out so we prudently decided to stay in the tent and make as little noise as possible.  We heard something around our camp stove playing with my dish bucket but couldn't see anything still.  Since the only noises we heard were the rattlings we were confident that it wasn't a bear.  Bears breathe heavy and you can hear them walking, scuffling along.  We didn't hear any of that.  It also started to rain about 5am as well.  So we waited until it was light out, a break in the rain and heard the guys moving around and talking up the hill before we got up.  Didn't find any evidence as to what was sniffing around however.  We finally got underway about 7:45am.

There was once again another super shallow part we had to get out and pull the canoe across but it was fine paddling after that.  The Bowron River was a good size with super tall reeds on either side.  Marshy land perfect for moose feeding.  Alas we saw none this morning,  We did however see mink, red crested grebes, loons and beaver dams.

The river was very windy and twisty but we eventually made it onto Bowron Lake itself.  Onward to the lodge!

We pulled up on the shores by Becker's Lodge about 10am.   SUCCESSFUL TRIP AND WE DIDN'T TIP OVER!!  We emptied the canoe and Kels went up to grab the car and let them know we were back.  I washed out the canoe from all kinds of debris.

Once Kels brought the car down and brought our cooler out, we transferred our leftover food into the cooler and loaded up the car.  We headed up to Becker's Landing for a hot shower and check out.

We left Bowron Lake about noon and made our way to Bakerville for lunch and sightseeing.  We ended up eating at Wake Up Jake's and they had very hearty, homecooking.  It was nice to have someone serve us for once lol.

Bakerville was a very awesome experience.  We wandered the streets, took in the sights of fully in character costumed people and wandered in and out of shops.  The craftsmanship from back then was amazing like the stove pictured below.  It was a beautiful stove.

One of the shops had this just gorgeously carved deer antler that had so much detail on it.  It was also very expensive but the work that went into it you can see how it would be that price.

We left Bakerville about 3pm and decided to stay the night in Quesnel.  We were both pretty done in and checked into a Best Western for the night.  After a quick trip to the grocery drug store and Subway for dinner we both climbed into the ever so soft and comfortable sheets.  We watched a little tv and fell asleep.

Friday September 8, 2017

This was a miserable day.  We woke up at 4am to rain.  Spitting at first then it poured.  We slept will 7 then with a break in the rain we packed up and got out the rain gear.  It was pretty overcast out and didn't look like it was going to clear up.  My stomach wasn't very happy either.  By the time we got underway it was 9:30.  It rained intermittently the whole day.  We had weird sandy portages - your paddling through a sandbar and then next thing you know your beached but the lake continues on in front of you so you have to get out and pull it over the sandbar.  There were two actual portages as well from small lakes.  Ok they weren't small they were tiny.  And because we were on the west side it was packed!  The portages over these weren't that tough but my stomach still hadn't let up and I may have left some of my breakfast on the trail of the first one.

The lakes on the west side neither of us were impressed with.  At one point we were slogging through reeds trying to paddle.  It was terrible.  Our rain gear did it's job however between the rain, getting in and our of the canoe (your feet were never dry or warm) and my upset stomach I caught a chill.  By the time we made campsite 52 I made some soup and changed out of wet clothes and crawled into my sleeping bag to get warm.  Or try to at least.  We ended up sharing a site with the same dudes that we had camped with for most of the trip.  Turns out they are childhood buddies from elementary school and pretty funny.  After dinner we played a round of crib and shared a lemon loaf. 

The goal is to get up super early to be able to see some moose on our last day!

Thursday September 7, 2017

Little bit of a rough sleep - wasn't sure if it was the sound of rushing water all night or still working off the fatique of a sunburn.  We got up at 7 and were underway by 8.  Our goal was Sandy Lake this particular night.  First up was McLeary Lake.  It was a very hazy smoky day.  There were a lot of deadheads in this particular lake so I kept a watchful eye up while Kels paddled and steered us to the Caribou River.

The Caribou River was a little unnerving as it was SUPER silty and you couldn't tell if it was 5 ft to the bottom or mere meters.  And there were lots of swirls and eddies to navigate.  There were a lot of deadheads along the banks here as well.  Needless to say I didn't take the camera out to snap pics here.

We stopped at camp 35 for lunch about 11:30.  My energy levels had taken a drastic downward slope at that point.  But the food helped.  It was kind of funny but at this campsite there was an unusual toilet:

We pushed on from the site and met the two guys we had camped with the first night.  They pulled in for a bio break just before Sandy Lake and we pushed on.  

The large flow through between Lanezi and Sandy Lake was very shallow.  Especially the bit going through Sandy.   We pulled around to campsite 39 about 3pm and it was perfect.  Beautiful sandy beach.  We decided on one of the 4 tent pads closest to the bear cache and set up.  Once done we changed and headed in for a swim.  The 2 guys pulled into campsite 38 for the night about that time.  We were excited for a full swim and bath but after we got out about 100m it was still only knee deep!!  Down on our knees we went and helped each other bathe.  Once out I went back and grabbed some clothes to do laundry.  Hanging them on the line in the hazy sun and bit of a wind.

There was a lovely bench in memorandum that we sat and watched the rest of the movie we hadn't finished the night before.  About 5:30 we started dinner.  We had our first bannock of the trip and it was pretty good.  We cleaned up and retired to the tent to watch another movie.  It started to spit rain so I ran out and grabbed the clothes off the line.  Unfortunatly they weren't dry yet so I hung some in the tent to be able to wear some on the morrow.

We figured theres only one more night of camping!  

Wednesday September 6, 2017

We were pretty sore and hurting units in the morning and neither of us slept all that great.  When you roll over on a sunburn it isn't pleasant.  So we got a bit of a late start at 9:30.  

We ended up paddling until 11:30 and stopped for a short break on a rocky beach camp with water feeding out of a tributary from a log jam.

The kaykers caught up and passed us so we followed them down to the end of Isaac Lake and the pullout for the Chute.  We had previously decided to portage the whole way past the chute and not run it (you have a choice).

It was a beast of a portage.  VERY large rocks and roots protruding.  We put in at the river and had a rough go getting down to the Isaac Falls pull out.  I completely froze going down a particularly rough patch.  We came close to tipping but Kels kept it together, kept us on a good path and righted us.  We made it to the pull out before the falls.  After a short break we portage a final tough one and made it to camp 30 at the bottom of Isaac Falls.  We decided we had enough and were camping there for the night.  We pulled the canoe all the way into the campsite and setup camp about 4pm.  Another canoe came down about an hour later with a father (70's) and son (30's) team.  They shared stories and some garlic bread and we shared some coconut pineapple loaf.  Because the river falls were right there and VERY chilly we did a quick camp wash down behind our tent and went to bed and watched another movie.  Well half of it anyway.

Tuesday September 5, 2017

Little bit of a rough sleep - but then again sleeping on the ground is never comfortable no matter how you look at it.  Woke early and got up.

Starting making the last of the fresh bacon.  As I was making breakfast I saw something hopping in the forest quite close.  It was a bit of an erratic pattern and seemed like a bit of a longer creature so I tried to stay still and whispered to Kels.  I then saw it deposit something smaller and furry on a path to an empty campsite.  I went to investigate and it was a dead mouse.  I knew the creature would come back for it's kill so I hunkered down and waited.  Sure enough it camp back and it was a weasel!  It was more curious about me than taking back it's kill.  It came pretty close too.  I'm afraid it was so erratic in it's movement that trying to capture a picture was quite tough and the one below doesn't do it justice at all but it was very cute and we were quite thrilled to see our first glimpse of creatures with fur.  It blends in really well with the rocks but it's slightly off the the left in the middle of the picture.

After this encounter we were pretty excited and ate breakfast and finished taking down camp.  And thus began Kels's never ending water filtration...

Pushing off at about 9am the water was calm, the sun was out and we knew we only had one portage this day.

However getting to it was interesting.  The riverway through the marsh was marked but it was shallow.  Not shallow enough that we had to get out and pull but we were def pushing off the bottom a few times lol.  At the pullout there was a group of 5 kayaks.  They helped us out and we helped them  It was 4 older ladies and one older man.

The portage itself was relatively easy compared to the first two.  We stopped briefly at the put in and I used the outhouse at that campsite.  Outhouses are not nice things but it you can use them while keeping the door open cause there isn't anyone around it's at least moderately bearable.  Still no sign of the kayakers we pushed off.   We picked up a hitchhiker during the last portage and I named her Betsy and she kept me company while we paddled.

We paddled a fair way and then stopped on a rocky beach about 1pm for some lunch.  Just as we were packing up the kayakers pulled in for some lunch themselves.  They told us there were heading for campsite 21A that night.  We had originally planned for something in the 20's ourselves so we talked while paddling away and decided to push past 21A.  The sun was out and the water particularly calm.  We pushed and pushed and kept thinking we'd missed some campsite markers (basically 2x2's with orange plastic screwed to the top - thus hard to see from a distance) but it turns out there was just A LOT of km between some spots and Isaac Lake is HUGE.  SO by the time campsite 20 came into view (an packed of course) we were close to being done.  But onward we pushed!  And when 22 came into view we gave 'er.  When we hiked up to the campsite - lovely beach but oh was the hike up not fun - we found out there was only 2 tent pads and we got the last one.  It was with the same guys we camped with (but didn't really see) the first night!  When we went back down to the canoe there was another couple disembarking and we had to tell them this campsite was full.  They looked about as done as we felt.

We set up camp, had a bath in VERY muddy bottomed water and had dinner.  Unfortunately with the sun baring down on us all day both of us got too much of it and forgot the sunscreen so we were very crispy and looked like lobsters.  The 2 guys that had also set up camp told us that night we had paddled 30kms.  It felt like it!  We were done.  We retired to the tent pretty quick.

PS:  The 2 guys were out like a light and warned us they were snorers.  They weren't off the mark and as our tents were pretty close we heard exactly when they dropped off.  The best part however is when the farting starting.  We heard one let 'er rip and then a tent zipper being undone.  Despite being tired ourselves (or maybe because of it) we started giggling.  A bit later after I had dropped off, Kels said they let another one go that was quite loud and must have woken the other guy up cause he said he heard it and then his buddy go Duuuuuuuude.  

Monday September 4, 2017

Woke up far to early.  Had the last hot shower for a week and went out to cook breakfast - first one on the camp stove.  After collecting out 40L and 20L buckets I also moved the food from the cooler.  There was a lovely fog covering Bowron Lake itself all morning.

Just before 11am we loaded up Becker's Lodge truck with all our gear and they drove us down to the registration office.  We unloaded our gear and headed up to watch the mandatory video.

When we weighted in and our food alone was close to 60lbs (the mandatory maximum weight for canoe portaging).  So we strapped on dry bags to our packs.  The first portage was a rough one.  We hadn't quite figured out how to balance things and the packs were very heavy.

The first put in was Kibbee Lake.  We were swarmed by butterflies.  They were ruthless and fluttery and would not leave us alone lol.

The first paddle was amazing.  The water was calm and the sun was shining, not a cloud in the sky.  It didn't take too long.  The second put in for the portage was sandy and butterflies amassed once again to greet us.  When we put our feet in the water a swarm of small fishies nibbled on our feet and ankles.

The second portage was...awful.  Everything we read and everything people had told us was that it was a slight incline.  Uh not even!  It was a steep incline and VERY poor trail conditions.  Ruts, pot holes, mud, tree roots and large rocks on top of the incline made it terrible.  We were both drenched in sweat.  Everything burned and ached.  By the time we got the entry of Indianpoint Lake there was a bottle neck of people.  We everything and changed back into our water shoes.  Originally the goal was to just do the first 2 portages and camp.  We did better.  We pushed ourselves and made it all the way to campsite 6.

The lake was crystal calm and the reflection of the surrounding mountains we just spectacular.  We set up camp and had a lovely dinner of steak and potatoes with gravy.  We took a dip in the lake which was a tad on the cool side but it was nice to be able to wash the sweat away.  We packed up dinner and watched our first movie.  We were pretty sore but we had made it the first day.