Ron suggested the Bowron Lake canoe trip on the knowledge that his parents had done this trip "back in the day" and really enjoyed it. We knew that permits were really hard to come by but there were a few walk-in spots available. The rangers were incredibly helpful when we told them that we didn’t know much except that we wanted to do the trip and helped us figure the rest out. The canoe circuit included: 12 lakes, 9 portages, and 3 rivers for a total of 22 miles hiked and somewhere around 65 miles paddled. We decided to forego the wheels that everyone was using to transport the canoes and carry our gear and canoe ourselves. We carried our gear, stashed it in bear boxes at the other end of the hike, hiked back for the canoe, and then carried the canoe across the portage route. In the first part of the trip, we were surrounded by very green rolling hills. There were a few marshy areas to paddle through with very green grass. We were told that it had rained for two weeks straight prior to our start date, but we were lucky and had blue skies with a few clouds. The first day we completed the three longest portages and settled into a camp on the longest lake on the circuit. We also looked awesome with our heads inside the upside-down canoe.
We paddled the next few days on Isaac Lake and were joined at a few camps by other groups. One rather large group did not find room at the group camp and joined us. Even though there was only 1 tent site (surrounded by rushing streams), there was also an old trappers cabin that the park had kept around for the circuit and the group tucked in around this area. They all came one by one to chat with us and were really happy to find space. In return, they shared some fresh duck eggs and bacon for breakfast! Isaac Lake was also reputed to have some good fishing and Ron proved that rumor correct catching a 17” rainbow trout.
The exit for the lake was down the Isaac River where we got to run “the chute” and “the rollercoaster”. Both were pretty fun and with the high water, we even had some waves. The route demanded two portages around the cascades and the falls. We camped that night at a single tent camp with Lake Lenazi lapping at our tent site. This area offered great views of steep mountains, an ice field, and even a glacier. From here we floated down the Cariboo River and did a short hike to rather impressive water fall. We also completed the last three portages and moved out of the mountain area and back into the rolling hills. Everyone we had talked to had told us that the Bowron River would be absolutely teeming with moose so we planned to get up super early in the morning to increase our chances of moose viewing. After floating down the whole river and poking every side channel, we still had not spotted one. We were starting to loose hope when the river opened up to a large grassy area and we immediately spotted 5 moose! Ron was super tough and carried the canoe solo for half of the portages (super tough!). We are now in Prince George and plan to get to Alaska by the last week of July.
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