Southwest British Columbia updater, Similkameen and Ashnola rivers.
Posted by Chris on April 11, 2010 at 10:18 am | In Uncategorized | No Comments
I’m sitting on the ferry from Whidbey island to the Olympic peninsula, and as I type this I realize that I am actually looking forward to this little updater. A lot has kept me from posting regularly and after nearly an entire year since my last post I’m finally going to put down some words and pictures on this virtual piece of paper.
Reflecting back on last year, after my video camera finally died and my waterproof Olympus internally froze while canyoneering/scouting for a local exploratory run, I knew it was going to be tough for me do any posting. Throw on top of that starting a new business and being totally broke, I became more concerned about things like food, rent, and gas money to get to Robe canyon.
The scaling back of my time and money led me to lower my expectations about where I was going to spend my time paddling, but not IF I was going to paddle, ‘cause, shit man kayaking is fucking awesome! Heck, I didn’t even make it farther south than Robe last year.
Regardless, it turned out to be a fun year, I was even able to spend some time just across the border exploring some new –to me- rivers on the southernmost border of British Columbia.
Over the last couple of years I’ve been trying to acquaint myself with the nooks and crannies of the lower Fraser Valley. I am always in search of high-value (i.e. quality whitewater, 1-3 hrs from home, and no driving through a major metropolis) runs and the Fraser Valley has exceeded my expectations. I am surprised that this drainage full of everything from big water play-runs to difficult, committing canyons seems to be so under appreciated.
The next few posts will re-cap a few of last years trips to the lower Fraser and few rivers that run off the east-side of the cascades in S.W. B.C.
Sunny, arid, east-side kayaking is what I like to think about right now, so I will start with the Ashnola and Similkameen rivers.
Last Memorial day weekend we decided against a group trip to Leavenworth mostly due to the terrible holiday traffic that usually plagues the east-west running Highway 2 over the cascades. Instead we decided to take a chance and cruise north and east over the crows nest highway through Manning Park to see some new territory and hopefully find some cool new runs without the crowds of people that we usually associate with our annual group trip.
A few of us left early to scout for some good camping. Turns out the Canucks like camping on the east side too! So after getting skunked out of the “established” campsites we refined our search for “dirtbag” campspots. We ended up spending a good part of our day exploring random dirt roads looking for the elusive sweet spot that could accommodate a large group like ours. What we found was a number of desert-like clearings and a couple of trailer trash mini-settlements before finding a decent camp just off the highway and next to the river, just before dark.
These people must really love where they live.
The next day we met up with a few other folks and put our kayaks in on the mighty Similkameen river. We got a fairly early start and had healthy flows -somewhere around 2000 cfs- on this 28 mile long river. Quickly we found ourselves in the first canyon. The rapids were pushy class 4 wave trains with some random big holes to dodge. We kept a fast pace and soon found ourselves exiting the canyon where we began a long section of super scenic class 3. This was a beautiful section of river in an arid canyon interspersed with Ponderosa pines. Some in our group even saw a bear cub while passing through here.
Jeff R. dropping into the first canyon.
Erik likes shooting rapids!
Usual class 3 views.
Nice take-out at the visitor center in Princeton.
After some time we made it to the second canyon. The entrance rapid looked menacing from the top but generally boated really well. Following the first rapid were a succession of fun class 4 rapids with some decent playspots, unfortunately the canyon ends about as quickly as it appears and you are left with something like 8 miles of class 2. It’s a long paddle to the take-out but there are a few consolation playspots along the way to break up the monotony. I recommend an early start, a playboat, and high water for maximum fun on this river.
From the Similkameen we headed further into the dry land east of the Cascades and about an hour and a half later we turned on the main road up the Ashnola river. Almost immediately we were driving parallel to the river and were getting our first views of the silty, brown, snowmelt-swollen waters of the Ashnola.
Busy, busy…
Jon Dufay in one of the early technical rapids.
We made our way up the road, car scouting rapids and noting our various excellent camping options, which was a big relief after the absurd effort spent searching for a camp near the Similkameen. We drove about 18 miles above the usual take-out before we encountered any flat water so we decided to put in there. Yup, 18 miles, we just kept car scouting and the rapids just kept showing up so we figured we would put-in at the top and attempt make it all the way to the bottom.
The river started out feeling more like a creek, kinda small, but with quite a string rapids, all in the class 4 range. There was always a feeling that some wood could be lurking around any corner, so we were extra careful not to drop into anything we couldn’t see from above. The river has a character similar to the icicle creek near Leavenworth, and some claimed that the lower, harder section resembled the N. Fork Payette at this juicy flow.
Hilary Neevel boofin the brown.
Jeff Robinson near the start of the bigger rapids.
Leif Embertson boating a husky roadside rapid.
As the run progressed the juicin’ side streams were slowly adding to our flow and the river began to feel less creeky and more like a river. As the flows climbed, the size of our group began to recede, and the difficulty of the river began to increase a notch until it became bank-full technical class 4+ with some class 5’s thrown in. For quite awhile the remainder of our group managed to boat scout dozens of great rapids, taking turns leading until our adrenaline maxed out then retreating to the back of the line to recoup. As we descended the last (and most difficult) mile the rapids seemed to clean up even more and we were rewarded with some truly great read-and-run class 5 hole bashing right to the last eddy. We were stoked!
After some heavy partying at our not-at-all “dirtbag” yet free riverside campspot, we awoke to an appreciable gain in flow in the already swollen riverbed. A few of us decided the best way to cure our hangover would be to partake in another run of the lower mile on our way out of the valley. It turned out to be a suitable remedy, and left us all craving another chance to make a trip to shoot the husky rapids of the Ashnola.
Hangover medicine!
Ryan Bradley nipple deep.
Me, hungover and stuck in a sticky one. Thanks Leif for knocking me out.
Love this photo.
Hale and Leif on the last rapid.
Ryan slicing and dicing.
Hale was really glad to be paddling the Ashnola.
So, it’s now mid-April, Im still broke, the business is picking up, taxes are about due and the snowpack here in the Republic of Cascadia has been looking quite thin. After a mediocre ski season, pessimissim had begun to overshadow the excitement of the crews usual positive attitude about sunny Washington kayaking. At parties, I was hearing murmurs of what was to become a lackluster boating season. Biking plans were being made instead of boating plans and the general enthusiasim to “get after it” had been replaced with the complacency of what was SURE to be a bad paddling season. Maybe it will or maybe it won’t be a bad season, but if there is one thing we have learned from this winter it’s that we just have to take it for what it is –like we have a choice- and liberate ourselves from expectations. We will go kayaking, probably a lot, and it will be damn fun!