Northwest, BC is little off the beaten track and certainly not as known and visited as popular whitewater destinations in BC like the Squamish / Whistler area. However an awesome and endless selection of paddling in all its forms combined with the amazing wilderness available and the amazing community of boaters calling the region home makes the Northwest and area a must hit for anyone looking for a whitewater-mecca to explore. Be sure to click "read more" for the rest of this trip report...

Spencer Cox - East Boulder Creek

Sometime shortly after spending 3-weeks in Quebec last summer the idea surfaced to spend next years holidays exploring our own backyard… BC. Going somewhere new is always great, but going somewhere a little familiar can be awesome as well. You spend less time trying to find water and more time paddling, which after filming Grayscale last year and traveling quite a bit off the beaten path, sounded like a good option. I started pouring over maps and contacting friends up there for beta as soon as last years rivers ran dry. There is currently no guidebook extending into the coastal ranges, and while there are several established runs, finding them at the right levels requires a little research. We decided to go for the month of July because on average it and August are the driest and warmest months and July benefits from the leftover spring runoff where as August can be a low water month. In hindsight it was a good choice as we caught the tail end of what had been a record breaking May and June for water levels.

Morrice Town Canyon on the Bulkley River - floods just before we got there.

We started the trip in a rented F-150 in Calgary with about 7 boats, a bike, and a whole lot of gear in the box and strapped to our home made 8 foot wide 2x6 rack. A short evening of driving got us to Mt. Robson where we host Fraser Festival every summer. This year the small crew on hand enjoyed nice high levels on the Upper Fraser and Raft Run. A few swims as usual but no major carnage. On Monday we headed up to Quesnel, BC (in the Central Interior) with our friend Graham to check out the Middle Cottonwood and Lower Quesnel Rivers. The Middle Cottonwood was first on our list and it turned out to be a great Grade 4 pool drop style run with nice bedrock canyons and interesting features. With the exception of the rapid, Take Me Home Sweet Jesus, everything was runnable and enjoyable. The Lower Quesnel was up next and offers some of the best “park and play” in all of BC… just make sure it’s a 4wd you are parking as the road down to the put-in wave is fairly steep and can be a little loose in places. The wave was just on the high side of in which meant you could get some nice long soul surfs but tricks were limited and flushes were frequent. The rest of the canyon was moderate whitewater with a pushy big water feel to it. The road back to the put-in is quite full on and Graham’s Tacoma was the only vehicle up to it that day so we piled on for a Mexican shuttle and went for it.

Terrace, BC Ferry Island Basecamp

After leaving Quesnel the next day was basically a driving day, we made our way up to the Smithers area stopping in for a round of black fly infested golf and a session at Mo-Town wave for those that didn't partake in the golf madness . We stayed in Smithers that night and headed off to boulder creek for a higher than recommended run the next day. That was our first real creek run of the trip and due to the high water and the fact that none of us had run it, it took almost 3 hours to complete the 1km section down to the highway bridge. After Boulder we continued West eventually making it to Terrace, BC and setting up a base camp at the Ferry Island municipal campground where we remained for a little over two weeks.

Sean - Hallway - Boulder Creek

From Terrace the opportunities are endless. We enjoyed multiple runs down the local big three, Shames, Mid Williams, and Kleanza, many at higher than normal water levels. These three creeks by themselves make Terrace world class! The character changes on all of them as the levels change, but to a point they remain continuous, challenging, and runnable. Their numerous rapids, drops, and canyons can pretty much be enjoyed from the boat without any major scouting (once you’ve been down once or twice) which makes for some great flowing whitewater paddling. Not that one easily tires of the above three, but there are many other great options as well. We hit the steep canyon of Legate Creek at a high water level which ended in a long portage. We did the classic mission up to the Khatada River which involved ferrying across the Skeena where it is a few km wide followed by a 3km hike through boggy mosquito infested jungle. As levels dropped we also hit Kitnayakwa Creek which is a super steep boulder field above the bridge and enjoyable continuous canyon sections from the bridge down to the Copper River

Spencer on Upper Upper Williams Creek - 1st Drop in Rockstart Canyon

Sean on Kleanza Creek - Campground Canyon

After sometime on the Terrace classics we jumped in Sean’s truck and the girls drove us back to Smithers where we put-in on the Upper Copper river, somewhere up behind the Hudson’s Bay Mountain (ski-hill) road. From here we enjoyed two days of amazing moderate whitewater, coastal mountain scenery, and 30 degree weather. The water was quite high and most of us were wishing we had our playboats as there were some amazing surfing opportunities. The end of Day 1 down to Kitnayakwa Creek and the start of Day 2 brought several larger class 4-4+ rapids. Later in Day 2 we encountered Matson Canyon, which at the high water level was huge water Grade 5. Most of us entered it blind with Bryce stopping to grab a surf immediately above the mank on the huge green entrance wave. A few monster waves and one big surging pour-over kept things interesting until we all made it out, a bit shocked at the size of what we had just come through. After about half an hour those that scouted also paddled through with similar results and thankfully no swims. The enjoyable moderate whitewater continued until 18km rapid where everyone was forced to portage. Below here only four of us (Sean, Bryce, Spencer, and Chris) put back in to complete Day 2 by paddling down into the Skeena and all the way back to our camp at Ferry Island where the cold beer was waiting. An awesome two day whitewater trip for sure!

Matson Canyon - Copper River - Terrace, BC

After a few rest days and some more classics around Terrace, with a group of visiting Scottish boaters, and a return trip to Day 2 of the Copper (this time in playboats for some) we headed North to check out the Nass valley, an area where we had spent a week the previous fall. Levels were high on the Nass and our previous river side camp spot was underwater. We found camping near the takeout for the Tchitin River and built a huge bonfire to battle the bugs. The Tchitin was another classic Terrace run. Everything was runnable, no portages, no out of boat scouting… Awesome. We left the Nass valley shortly after that, partly due to the bugs and partly due to the high water and headed back to Hazleton which is about halfway between Terrace and Smithers.

Tchitin River - Nass Valley

We setup another base camp in Ksan at the same campground where Sean and Dave were almost eaten by a baby black bear last fall. After checking out our options we opted for a giant mission on the Babine / Skeena. Since the shuttle to the put-in is long enough we decided to just do the whole thing rather than worry about leaving something at the takeout. So, early in the AM we got moving and headed up to Thomlinson Creek where you can put-in at what is normally the start of Day 2. After a bush whack from hell we got in the water by about noon in our playboats. The Babine was awesome with tons of huge big water features complete with whirlpools and funkiness. Within 3-4 hours we were at the confluence with the Skeena River. From there we endured a lot of “scenic flatwater” and some amazing HUGE volume rapids. By dusk that evening we were back at our camp in Ksan having logged a grand total of 103 river kilometers that day as told by my GPS. The highlights included seeing an amazing number of eagles and a fisherman’s boat launch to break up the last 20km.

Skeena River - Fisherman's Boat Launch

The next day was a rest day so we got a late start and headed back to East Boulder Creek to hit the 1km section as Dave and Joel hadn’t a chance to run it yet. It was lower and most of us agreed far more technical and a little sketchy in a few places although slower and not as pushy. That evening we again broke out the maps and started to work out the details of the Shegunia River. Local legend suggested there to be 30 runnable drops, deep canyons and a gnarly put-in. Armed with Joel’s huge F-350, my Backroad Mapbook and Mapping GPS we started up the maze of back roads with Sean as our shuttle bunny due to a sore shoulder. Timm Johns had pointed out drainage on the map where the previous group was rumored to have access the river. I did the math and it was 1500ft down a side stream over 2-3km. The only beta we had was the statement, “bring ropes” with no idea why. The wasn’t sounding so good so a little more map research found us a spur road which went down to within 800m horizontal of the river. A steep pleasant hike through an open cedar forest got us there and we were on our way. We put-in about 5km above where the last group was rumored to have accessed and floated about an hours worth of fast moving flat-water to get to there side channel. Shortly after that we were greeted with some of the most amazing granite canyons any of us had ever seen. There was some quality whitewater but the 30 drops rumored to be on the run never did materialize. Instead just tight technical Grade 4 boulder gardens and the bottom of a tight and absolutely committing gorge. We were back at the campground by early afternoon and in the future will stick to our "on the river by noon" scheme… no point on getting up early after all.

Joel - Shegunia River -Canyon Rapid

Joel - Shegunia River - one of many deep canyons.

We left Hazleton that day and headed back to Ferry Island in Terrace. Lower flows towards the end of the month allowed us to get on Kitnayakwa which was a very enjoyable day. We also got low water runs in on Kleanza (which is a different character than at high flows) and Shames. Towards the very end of our trip the Kalum finally dropped to a level where “Dog Dish” comes in. “Dog Dish” is one of the most amazing waves you will find in BC. It’s fast, steep, huge, and has a foam pile on top. Any trick is possible and many were thrown. Our last day was spent creeking on Kleanza and heading over to Joe’s house for a salmon BBQ, a bonfire and some fishing... a very enjoyable memorable way to end the trip.

All and all a month in the Northwest was an unbeatable amount of paddling in an unbeatable place. On top of the rivers there is awesome rock climbing at Chist Creek and Copper Mountain, awesome biking all over the place, giant cedars and spruces, sea kayaking opportunities, endless waterfalls cascading off the granite domes, amazing wildlife and some of the worlds best salmon and steelhead fishing. It’s pretty hard to beat the Northwest as a destination for an amazing summer trip.

Chris - Khatada River - 1st Slide

Jen - Kitimat - Exploring the coast

Joel and Bryce - Portaging - Shegunia River

Additional Photos available in the Gallery !

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