The Grand Canyon of the Stikine
This past September myself, Matt Burton,
Adrien Kiernan, Corey Boux and Jules Domine met up for trip down the
Stikine. The whole experience of getting to down and returning from the
river was an unforgettable experience and one I will never forget and
hope to do again.
Me and Matt had planned a trip North
earlier in August with a different crew but a spike in water levels saw
us abandoning these plans and hoping for another window in early sept. I
had been boating out around Whistler and met up with Jules, Corey and
Adrien and we had been keeping an eye on the gauge. When we saw it
dropping in we made the decision to mission North. Matt was on the
Babine on a work trip so I made the call to Simon and organized for me
to pick him up in Jasper 3/4 of the way through his trip home and drive
all the way back North again.
A long drive later we crashed at Sue's in Smithers and enjoyed some great food at her new cafe next to the
Aquabatics Smithers shop, be sure to stop in anytime you are passing through here!!!
Here
we waited for the other boys to join us in Typical Corey Boux fashion, a
day late. We left Smithers at 3pm and made the 8hour journey North to
the Highway 37 bridge. This is a really awesome drive and it passes my
favorite icecream shop in the whole country at the Kitwanga Junction.
The biggest best value icecreams out there!!!!
We managed to see 15+ bears on this drive and probably only 2or3 other vehicles. You really are out there in the depths of BC.
Aiming to put on on the Monday we awoke to snow down to the river and bitterly cold conditions.
Huddling
around the camp fire procrastinating we were unsure on the latest
weather forecast and were worried should it warm the snow would melt and
cause a sharp spike so we decided to put it off for a day, check the
weather in Dease Lake and go for a two day descent starting on the
tuesday.
Big thanks to the boys for being up for this as I was
limited on time and had to be back in terrace on Thursday morning ready
to head out to Haida Gwaii for a 2week sea kayak trip.
We
woke Tuesday to a Medium water level and we fired up to get on and get
her done. We paddled to day all the way through to Garden of the Gods
where we learned on our arrival of the passing of Jeff West which put a
bit of a dampener on the mood. We had met Jeff as he was putting on the
previous day and to hear this was a huge shock to all of us. Not to
mention the fact the Creature Crafters were camped 100m down the beach
from us this was a weird time to be on the river.....!
The
whitewater on the Stikine is something I will never forget and the
Canyon itself I can not think of words great enough to justify the
epicness of this place. The GC of the Stikine is the most epic river
trip I have ever had the pleasure to kayak on! Its beauty and majestic
canyon wall make this river such a special place. The amount of in
between quality whitewater is immeasurable with so many un named
beautiful rapids.
Northern
BC already holds a very special place in my heart and I always love
returning North to the Terrace area, the Stikine being one of the 3
rivers originating from the Sacred Headwaters is truly a gem and to
spend time in that canyon was something that I am very privileged to
have experienced.
I can not
imagine putting a eco system like this at risk for projects like the
Northern Gateway and Coalbed Meathane Mining. This place is far to pure,
untouched and special to become a victim of development and
exploitation. Check out this link for a recent success to ban this in
the Sacred Headwaters.
Anyhow
I really do struggle to find the right words to express how magical
this place is. I have some pictures mainly from gopro and a video which
Adrien put together. I hope you enjoy and encourage you all to visit NW
BC and experience the beauty and rawness of this epic place in Canada!!!
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| Beer number X of 15+ |
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| So many great big volume features |
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| Picked this epic globe up in Uncle Barrys Used treasure in Clearwater on my way North |
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| Even in the Gopro look how big these canyon walls are.... |
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| The classic sign with the best icecream in the world right next to it |
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| The put in Bridge...double rainbow...epic |
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| PG Sign Shot |
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| Alot of sick bow up airtime on this river |
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| The Canyon, flatwater is few and far between in here. |
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| The GC....! |
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| Portaging SIte Z....this photo does this rapid absolutely NO Justice |
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| Through Tanzilla Slot on Day 2....so stoked |
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| The long drive, so gorgeous |
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| The Fat Chief next to the most epic multiday campsite in the world....Wolf Den |
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| Put in Mayhem |
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| Uncle Barrys....Great Store this one |
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| Guess Whos Crib.... |
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| Mongrel Mob |
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| Scouting
V-Drive....You scout this bad boy so high up it gives you little
persepctive on what to expect size wise when you roll in...Jules
thumbing up...shes goooooood |
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| The Hike up to Scout V-Drive |
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| Wolf Den...no words needed |
<iframe
src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/52216125" width="500" height="281"
frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen
allowFullScreen></iframe>
href
="http://vimeo.com/52216125">Kayaking the Grand Canyon of the STIKINE river from
href="http://vimeo.com/whiteboxmag">Adrian Kiernan on
href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo.
All in all I am so stoked to have completed this adventure! Def a big highlight and personal achievement in my life for myself.
However
big thanks to Simon and Nikki here at AQ as I could not have done it
with out the time off, support and in the end the boat to paddle down
this amazing river so thanks heaps for helping me out here....Good folks
I tell ya that own this buisness.
I will be chucking a couple more post on here soon from my September missions.
Peace
Blair
