By Owen Perry
http://owenperry.ca
Photography:
http://circa1983.ca

Thanks
Thanks to Northstar Canoes
www.northstarcanoes.com
and Nemo Equipment
www.nemoequipment.com
for the supply of canoes and equipment for the trip, and to
Beckers Lodge
https://beckerslodge.ca

A Canadian odyssey

Located about an eight-hour drive north of Vancouver, one of the world’s most exceptional canoe circuits. Bowron Lake Provincial Park, named after mid-1800s BC Gold Commissioner John Bowron, has a rich history dating back thousands of years with the Carrier, Shuswap and Iroquois First Nations. More recently, the town of Barkerville, once the largest population centre north of San Francisco, was famous for the Cariboo Gold Rush in 1862. Stories of exploration, hunting, fishing and gold panning run deep through this part of British Columbia. It is remote. It is wild. It is a setting fit for an odyssey.

The Odyssey
The story of Odysseus follows the Greek hero home from Troy to Ithaca after the Trojan War. It lasts ten years, and through it, Odysseus encounters many perils, including the eventual demise of all of his crewmates. While the experience my friends and I had in the Bowron wasn’t nearly as extreme or perilous (we thankfully all made it home safely to our loving families afterwards), there were definitely moments where it felt like a true Odyssey; a superlative test of physical and mental ability. In fact, it would surprise me if anyone completing the full Bowron Lakes circuit is the same person they are going out as they were going in.

With that being said, I wouldn­t recommend the Bowron Lake Circuit to anyone who is a complete beginner. Of course, don’t let that discourage you. In the two times I’ve paddled the circuit, I’ve met families with young children along the way, and they truly seemed just as happy and in love with the Odyssey as we were.

The primary dangers to avoid on the Bowron are the Cariboo River and, more generally, foul weather and fierce wind on bigger lakes like Isaac, Lanezi, and Sandy. Sweepers and deadheads during the river sections can be sudden but are avoidable with strong paddling and skilful steering. Weather, on the other hand, can’t altogether be avoided.

Conditions can rapidly change on the larger lakes, as we discovered on our fifth day when we had to paddle into a gale wind and ice rain for six hours between Lanezi and Unna Lakes. But what would a canoe trip be if you didn’t have to overcome a little adversity? As Yvon Chouinard said, “The word ‘adventure’ has just gotten overused. For me, adventure is when everything goes wrong. That’s when the adventure starts.”

Bowron Provincial Park only permits about 4,500 canoeists to paddle the circuit every season to protect its natural beauty from human impact. We often found ourselves paddling an entire day without seeing another soul. Landscapes and scenery that would draw millions of tourists per year in a place like Banff or Lake Louise, feel like yours alone during the journey. Silence, too, is rarely broken. Except for the sound of your paddle and the occasional loon call, you feel lighter and more in tune with the natural world. It feels like time has stood still here, the landscape remaining more or less unchanged since the end of the last ice age.

Bob Voyage
Depending on how leisurely or expedient you intend to be, the 116km/72m route can be done in anywhere from 11 hours, 47 minutes, 58 seconds (the record) to 14+ nights (as we discovered one couple along the journey had planned for). As for myself, a father of one with a super supportive pregnant wife at home, I planned a six-night trip with the option for a seventh if we needed it. Our intention was to push hard the first few days, then relax and have some more leisure once we reached the midpoint around Lanezi Lake.

When it comes to portaging, a majority of it is done at the beginning of your journey. Three portages, about 6km/3.7m in total length, between Bowron, Kibbee, Indian Point and Isaac Lake are all completed on the first or second day. We started our trip after staying at Becker’s Lodge (highly recommended!), allowing us to begin the first portage around 10:00. With sunny weather and tailwinds, we made great time and arrived at a campsite on Isaac Lake around 19:00. After lighting a campfire and eating a meal of homemade dehydrated shepherd’s pie, we enjoyed a mug of Le Villageois boxed wine that at the time could have passed for a $120 bottle of Bordeaux. An InReach message from my wife Jacky and son Eadon that night accidentally signed off with ‘Bob Voyage’, which, after a few glasses of Villageois, we all thought would be a pretty hilarious outdoors-themed Youtube channel.

Isaac Lake
On our second day, we paddled almost the entire 40km/25m of Isaac Lake, stopping to catch a few lake trout, which we decided to harvest for our evening meal. Isaac is the longest, deepest, and, in this paddler’s opinion, most beautiful lake on the circuit. Its crystal clear emerald waters drop steeply off the shore to depths of 183m/600ft, and its surrounding peaks with hanging glaciers tower more than 2500m/8200ft. It’s intimidating, both in size and grandeur. One could easily imagine having your hands full in stormier weather on Isaac, and the advice you’ll hear is not to paddle past a campsite if things are looking dark on the horizon.

Fortunately for us, most of our twelve-hour day of paddling was in light rain and calm conditions. We arrived at the infamous ‘Chute’ section of the trip around 20:00 after a double rainbow and crimson red sunset. We set up camp in the dark that night, and fried the trout over an open fire. Coated with dehydrated mashed potatoes, flour, and spices, the smokey flavour and texture of the fish was something Michelin-star restaurants strive to achieve. A fishing rod should 100% be on your packing list for the Bowron.

The Chute
Day three began with sizing up the rapids where Isaac Lake flows into the Isaac River. Known as ‘The Chute’, this is the most technical section of the circuit and should only be attempted by paddlers with at least some white water canoeing experience. While not extreme by any stretch, it’s capable of putting a good bit of water over your bow or even capsizing you in an eddy if you’re unsure of your bottom turn.

A quick search on YouTube for ‘Bowron Lakes Chute’ will reveal more than a few failures over the years. Our group, fueled with the previous day’s confidence and a bit of bravado, quickly decided to ‘shoot the Chute’ and paddle the Isaac River. Thankfully, Bob Voyage and the ‘Lake Slayers’ (a freshly adopted group moniker) encountered little drama this morning.

With a buoyant outlook, the day then turned to navigating the more technical Cariboo River portion of the circuit. According to a park ranger we spoke with, a majority of the rescues (about five annually) happen along the Cariboo River. It isn’t the speed or level of rapids here that is a cause for concern, but rather the opaque silty water hiding deadheads. On this day, our group paddled the section into Lanezi Lake without incident and made camp at probably the nicest campsite on the circuit – a group site with a cabin for drying out wet gear.

Lanezi Lake
It rained for most of night three, but our reliable NEMO Equipment Dragonfly tent kept us dry – as it did for the entire trip. An InReach weather report arrived in the morning that was decidedly dicey, so after a bit of debate, a consensus was reached to spend the day recuperating at the cabin – because even Lake Slayers need a bit of rest sometimes.

We enjoyed soaking in the incredible scenery of Lanezi, bathing in its waters, carving paddles, hunting for mushrooms, reminiscing around the campfire, and drying out our wet gear. We even made good friends with a group of four women calling themselves the Bowron Babes, who, like the Lake Slayers, were taking a day off to recover at the cabin. They caught a beautiful 4lb lake trout in the morning, which we helped prepare and cook for lunch over the fire. It was a good day for our souls and group camaraderie.

The gale
The fifth day of the trip was befitting of an odyssey. Despite a weather report calling for 50km winds out of the northwest, we knew we needed to try and slay some lakes. Once on the water, though, we were immediately padding into a fierce headwind that would not relent for six hours. My Northstar Canoes’ Polaris’ performed admirably on this day, keeping upright and cutting through the chop.

However, the icy rain and whitecaps left us cold and wet as we reached camp at Unna Lake around 16:00, where we hurried to build a bonfire, hot drinks and dehydrated butter chicken to warm up. While our gear was soaked, our spirits were not. Maybe it was the roaring fire or perhaps the dram of Japanese whiskey, but we all shared some good laughs recounting the difficult day that was.

The morning greeted us with a bluebird sky for the first time since day one. The serene surroundings of Unna Lake were reflected in its calm waters as we dried out our gear in the morning sun. After breakfast, we ventured out across the lake to check out the magnificent Cariboo Falls, and on the way, we came across a prolific blueberry patch you needed to see to believe. Returning from the falls, we encountered our friends, the Bowron Babes, as well as a cow moose and her two calves, who seemed unbothered by our presence.

Offering only an occasional glance in our direction, they feasted on lake weeds as we paddled past them in our canoes. After packing up our Unna Lake camp, we set out to our final campsite for the trip at Spectacle Lake.

Spectacle and the final stretch
We made it to the Spectacle Lake campsite around 18:00, surrounded by a golden light, enjoying a final dinner of pesto pasta and a dessert dressed up with blueberries gathered earlier in the day. We were joined soon after by the girls, who had a much longer day of it than us after having to set up camp on Sandy Lake during the storm the night before.

Together, we shared battle stories from the previous day, recounting the moments and discussing our next day’s adventures. And, for the first night of the trip, we saw the Milky Way overhead as we leaned back in our NEMO Equipment Stargazers.

Morning blessed us again with some good weather as we made the final push through the Bowron River and Bowron Lake finish line. The Lake Slayers were sore, but riding high on our sense of accomplishment, we ended our Bowron odyssey at Quesnel, BC’s finest Chinese food restaurant. We were not the same people at the start of the trip as we were going in.