do it for the love: January 2013

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.

http://skeenawatershed.com/news/article/historic_protection_for_bcs_sacred_headwaters_announced

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!!!

Beer number X of 15+

So many great big volume features

Picked this epic globe up in Uncle Barrys Used treasure in Clearwater on my way North

Even in the Gopro look how big these canyon walls are....

The classic sign with the best icecream in the world right next to it

The put in Bridge...double rainbow...epic

PG Sign Shot

Alot of sick bow up airtime on this river

The Canyon, flatwater is few and far between in here.

The GC....!

Portaging SIte Z....this photo does this rapid absolutely NO Justice

Through Tanzilla Slot on Day 2....so stoked

The long drive, so gorgeous

The Fat Chief next to the most epic multiday campsite in the world....Wolf Den

Put in Mayhem

Uncle Barrys....Great Store this one

Guess Whos Crib....

Mongrel Mob

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

The Hike up to Scout V-Drive

Wolf Den...no words needed

="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

Monday, January 28, 2013

The Grand Canyon of the Stikine