The most recent adventure to Vancouver Island was my first, and while Todd provided an excellent wrap-up in terms of a trip report and the usual eye candy, I thought I would chime in with a little verbal musing of my own.
Filming the previous rapid, I was the last of the group to catch the large eddy behind a house-sized boulder where everybody was pondering the next step. I could feel this tingle in my body and wondered why the pace of the group appeared to have stalled more than the usual approach to another horizon line. That tingle was not fully realized until I drifted over to Bryan who then stated, “We’re boxed in now!” Ah-ha ... the extra acute sensations I was experiencing was in response to the sudden change in river character – vertical walls on each side with very limited scouting and portaging options. This “spidey sense” is important for boating in the Northwest and indispensable when dropping into rivers on Vancouver Island – don’t forget it!
This was my first trip to the Island, but I had heard the many rave reviews from Mr. Gillman’s previous adventures and this one promised to include many of the same antics. Gold River would be our “Zone” (an apparently NW dialect) for this mission and after dropping Jakub’s car off, we had a huge list of classics and potential first and second and maybe even third descents thanks to the gracious beta from Vancouver Island’s Shane. Readers should be reminded at this point that the Northwest and BC in particular is notorious for beta that is light on important details such as marginally runnable rapids that are difficult to scout and portage, and rather the beta takes the “its all good … go get it,” tone.
So it should have come to no surprise when on our third and final day – the day we were supposed to be busting out three classics – we encountered our second fully boxed-in and vertical-walled junk pile of a rapid. And we were still on run numero uno. The spidey sense had been running on hyperactive for the last 36 hours and maybe due to fatigue this early in the season, almost allowed to us to get ourselves in a real bind.
As the dealing unfolded, an hour later we had not progressed much. Todd was still upstream making room on the camera memory card for many more incredible pics; Shertzl had not said in word in the last 45 minutes and still had not found a egress less than 5.11c; on the other hand Ryan had verbally dissected every possible line we could make out from upstream and none of those options sounded good to me; Jakub kept giving the signal of nervousness by pretending to chew his fingernails and pounding his heart; and Bryan had decided to go get a second opinion from Jakub’s perspective on the other side of the crick.
Heading home on the ferry, spidey sense back in recovery mode until it will surely be called upon in the coming weekends, we all relished in those memories. Some of which were not fun in the moment, but all of which worked out in the end with reasonable options for safe travel. Standing on top of boulder in the middle of the river, not knowing if I would be paddling downriver to the next eddy or attaining upstream to the top of the gorge; throwing my boat from a forty foot cliff and jumping in after it; portaging through the dense underbrush of the BC forests where the ocean on the other side of the mountain is closer than the nearest road; and getting deep in the sh!t – this is why I will go back to the island and love every minute of it!
If you read/skimmed all of that hoping for some pretty photos, you will have to just go back to some of Todd's posts ... and you should:
Van Island:Gold River Zone:Day 1
Van Island:Gold River Zone:Day 2
Van Island:Gold River Zone:Day 3
Showing posts with label Van Island. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Van Island. Show all posts
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Hot Spot: Gold River; Part 1
Throughout our community of whitewater paddleboaters there are certain places that, due to a particularly dense concentration of high quality rivers & creeks, have become embedded in the collective conscience / lore, & are destinations on every traveling boater's life list. These zones have a couple things in common, most notably that there's a large "main stem" river into which any number of runnable tributaries spill, all within a close proximity of some kind of "base camp". Places like Fayetteville, WV, Hood River, OR, & Squamish, BC come to mind. This past weekend a crew of friends from Seattle, Bellingham & Victoria linked up to do some exploring in one such hot spot -- Gold River, BC.
Bryan Smith, Jakub Drnec & I had earmarked this 3-day weekend a while back with a Van Island adventure in mind. Jakub was hot to check out a couple rivers whose life expectancies, due to impending independent power projects, are especially short. As mentioned in recent posts, we've been experiencing a very cold Spring -- more like an interminable Winter -- so flows have remained low everywhere north of the Columbia. Throughout the past month we all kept our target weekend open, & as if on cue, more hospitable weather & more water arrived at the beginning of the week. On short notice, we made some calls & managed to cobble together the rest of our team, the usual suspects, who represent the underemployed dregs of Norfwest society .. but are damn fine boaters & perhaps even more importantly, great company on a long-weekend roadtrip.
One rig got an early jump on the Friday urban-escapee traffic & made haste to catch the boat outta Tsawwassen, while the other went north to Horseshoe Bay to pick up Kato.
We barely made it onto the ferry as the next-to-last vehicle allowed to load.
The plan was for all of us to meet in Nanaimo & formulate a quick strategery over dinner. Once off the mainland we came into rain, which increased in intensity throughout most of the night. Though no one was looking forward to a cold, muddy camp scene after a long day of travel, the rain was a welcome event just the same. The forecast called for sunny & warm for the rest of the weekend. We settled on GR as our destination & were psyched to finish out the remaining 3 hours of travel.
The route to GR takes you up the east side of the island to Campbell River, then northwest through the interior, over a divide in Strathcona Provincial Park, & then back down toward Nootka Sound on the Pacific side.
Hours of windshield time ..
.. leads to delerium.
GR is in the interior of the island, but sits at just 300 feet above sea level near the head of Muchalat Inlet, a great arm of Pacific that stretches deep into the island. From town you can see the big peaks of the Strathcona towering to over 6,000 ft, & in this year of heavy snows & persistent cold weather, they're still caked with big snowpack. It's a zone that's chock full of things we like a lot: big rivers & creeks, polished granite, lakes, rugged coastline, big mountains, big trees, wildlife .. & a very laissez faire attitude.
We pulled into our lakeside camp late Friday night, surprised at how dry it seemed. The rain had subsided long before we crested the pass in Strathcona & to me it looked like the storm hadn't really hit GR. We fell asleep to a chorus of croaking frogs & woke to chilly clear-blue skies.
From our camp on Star Lake
Dorking around with morning reflections on the lake
Within a 15-minute drive from camp, we had access to maybe 7 different runs, hence the "hot spot" title. We crossed the Ucona River & were disappointed to see low flow. We posited that perhaps a smaller, more channelized stream such as Pamela Creek, might be doable. So we continued on, only to find the same (predictable) situation there. But Pamela was perhaps the most seductive put-in I'd ever seen.
Her temptation overwhelmed the group, which didn't want to spend the day driving around looking for water on what was clearly a low-water day. So we decided to just drop in, knowing that we'd likely be groveling for some love on Pamela, but then would confluence with the Ucona, & with the extra flow, we'd have plenty of water for the second half of the day.
To the best of our knowledge, Pamela had been run once & the reports were "waterfalls in a spectacular gorge". The reports were spot-on .. once we got past the weak sauce low-flow boulder mank. In the gorge, the crystal clear water flowed over smooth granite & the mank was all but forgotten.
Tretwold on the first drop of the first one-two punch
The exit drop
Ryan B. on the same series, from below
Kato on #1
And Kato on #2
Stoked!
Another double
Shane coming out of the bottom of the second drop
Ryan in the beautiful gorge/pool just below the double
I took a ton of photos of the gorge/pool & the slide just below. The clarity of the water & the smooth rock were phenomenal.
Erik Schertzl
Below here the gorge ended & we banged down through an intensely beautiful run-out section to the confluence of the Ucona. For future reference, 2 to 3 times the flow would have been nice in there. At this point our plans were to continue boating the entire way through the Middle & Lower Ucona. The 5-km lower stretch would be considered exploratory, as at the time all we knew about it was that a team had attempted/portaged it. The Ucona drains a piece of southwestern Strathcona Park & flows westward to meet the lower Gold. Its final canyon is pinched tight between Ucona Mountain to the north & Crumble Mountain to the south for the duration of its steep 5-km descent.
We confluenced at several km into the upper/middle run(s) & were immediately into a stellar granite box canyon with plenty of water. Seeing the familiar sight of mist billowing up from below a horizon line, we got out to scout & saw an absolutely perfect 20-footer into a deep crack. Looking downstream, we could see another steep horizon line into a massive wide-open pool, but this drop appeared to be blocked by wood.
Chris dropping the first ledge ...
... & throwin' horns in the pool below.
Looking down on the bottom of the gorge. The plan became, get out river-right & portage the log, then put in immediately downstream of the log & run the last waterfall.
Looking up into the first falls
Bryan on the second falls
Ryan
The author .. separation anxiety.
Jakub .. our Island host
Schrtlvision
Afterglow ..
We took much longer than planned on Pamela & the middle Ucona. By the time we got to the point where we needed to decide whether or not to continue on through the lower, it was nearly 5 o'clock. We voted to leave our kayaks at river level & send one group for the shuttle vehicles (requiring a loooooong walk on a lonely logging road), while the other group attempted to scout some of the lower canyon. The scouting didn't work out so well so we dorked around instead. I made Wayrad run the rapid just below our takeout, so I could take advantage of nice light.
And then we climbed out of the canyon & built a fire on the logging road & waited for the other group. We ended up camping there with the plan to drop into the Lower Ucona bright 'n early.
Dinner, being prepared by Kato (& Tret), never tasted so good!
Bryan Smith, Jakub Drnec & I had earmarked this 3-day weekend a while back with a Van Island adventure in mind. Jakub was hot to check out a couple rivers whose life expectancies, due to impending independent power projects, are especially short. As mentioned in recent posts, we've been experiencing a very cold Spring -- more like an interminable Winter -- so flows have remained low everywhere north of the Columbia. Throughout the past month we all kept our target weekend open, & as if on cue, more hospitable weather & more water arrived at the beginning of the week. On short notice, we made some calls & managed to cobble together the rest of our team, the usual suspects, who represent the underemployed dregs of Norfwest society .. but are damn fine boaters & perhaps even more importantly, great company on a long-weekend roadtrip.
One rig got an early jump on the Friday urban-escapee traffic & made haste to catch the boat outta Tsawwassen, while the other went north to Horseshoe Bay to pick up Kato.
We barely made it onto the ferry as the next-to-last vehicle allowed to load.
The plan was for all of us to meet in Nanaimo & formulate a quick strategery over dinner. Once off the mainland we came into rain, which increased in intensity throughout most of the night. Though no one was looking forward to a cold, muddy camp scene after a long day of travel, the rain was a welcome event just the same. The forecast called for sunny & warm for the rest of the weekend. We settled on GR as our destination & were psyched to finish out the remaining 3 hours of travel.
The route to GR takes you up the east side of the island to Campbell River, then northwest through the interior, over a divide in Strathcona Provincial Park, & then back down toward Nootka Sound on the Pacific side.
Hours of windshield time ..
.. leads to delerium.
GR is in the interior of the island, but sits at just 300 feet above sea level near the head of Muchalat Inlet, a great arm of Pacific that stretches deep into the island. From town you can see the big peaks of the Strathcona towering to over 6,000 ft, & in this year of heavy snows & persistent cold weather, they're still caked with big snowpack. It's a zone that's chock full of things we like a lot: big rivers & creeks, polished granite, lakes, rugged coastline, big mountains, big trees, wildlife .. & a very laissez faire attitude.
We pulled into our lakeside camp late Friday night, surprised at how dry it seemed. The rain had subsided long before we crested the pass in Strathcona & to me it looked like the storm hadn't really hit GR. We fell asleep to a chorus of croaking frogs & woke to chilly clear-blue skies.
From our camp on Star Lake
Dorking around with morning reflections on the lake
Within a 15-minute drive from camp, we had access to maybe 7 different runs, hence the "hot spot" title. We crossed the Ucona River & were disappointed to see low flow. We posited that perhaps a smaller, more channelized stream such as Pamela Creek, might be doable. So we continued on, only to find the same (predictable) situation there. But Pamela was perhaps the most seductive put-in I'd ever seen.
Her temptation overwhelmed the group, which didn't want to spend the day driving around looking for water on what was clearly a low-water day. So we decided to just drop in, knowing that we'd likely be groveling for some love on Pamela, but then would confluence with the Ucona, & with the extra flow, we'd have plenty of water for the second half of the day.
To the best of our knowledge, Pamela had been run once & the reports were "waterfalls in a spectacular gorge". The reports were spot-on .. once we got past the weak sauce low-flow boulder mank. In the gorge, the crystal clear water flowed over smooth granite & the mank was all but forgotten.
Tretwold on the first drop of the first one-two punch
The exit drop
Ryan B. on the same series, from below
Kato on #1
And Kato on #2
Stoked!
Another double
Shane coming out of the bottom of the second drop
Ryan in the beautiful gorge/pool just below the double
I took a ton of photos of the gorge/pool & the slide just below. The clarity of the water & the smooth rock were phenomenal.
Erik Schertzl
Below here the gorge ended & we banged down through an intensely beautiful run-out section to the confluence of the Ucona. For future reference, 2 to 3 times the flow would have been nice in there. At this point our plans were to continue boating the entire way through the Middle & Lower Ucona. The 5-km lower stretch would be considered exploratory, as at the time all we knew about it was that a team had attempted/portaged it. The Ucona drains a piece of southwestern Strathcona Park & flows westward to meet the lower Gold. Its final canyon is pinched tight between Ucona Mountain to the north & Crumble Mountain to the south for the duration of its steep 5-km descent.
We confluenced at several km into the upper/middle run(s) & were immediately into a stellar granite box canyon with plenty of water. Seeing the familiar sight of mist billowing up from below a horizon line, we got out to scout & saw an absolutely perfect 20-footer into a deep crack. Looking downstream, we could see another steep horizon line into a massive wide-open pool, but this drop appeared to be blocked by wood.
Chris dropping the first ledge ...
... & throwin' horns in the pool below.
Looking down on the bottom of the gorge. The plan became, get out river-right & portage the log, then put in immediately downstream of the log & run the last waterfall.
Looking up into the first falls
Bryan on the second falls
Ryan
The author .. separation anxiety.
Jakub .. our Island host
Schrtlvision
Afterglow ..
We took much longer than planned on Pamela & the middle Ucona. By the time we got to the point where we needed to decide whether or not to continue on through the lower, it was nearly 5 o'clock. We voted to leave our kayaks at river level & send one group for the shuttle vehicles (requiring a loooooong walk on a lonely logging road), while the other group attempted to scout some of the lower canyon. The scouting didn't work out so well so we dorked around instead. I made Wayrad run the rapid just below our takeout, so I could take advantage of nice light.
And then we climbed out of the canyon & built a fire on the logging road & waited for the other group. We ended up camping there with the plan to drop into the Lower Ucona bright 'n early.
Dinner, being prepared by Kato (& Tret), never tasted so good!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Vantasy Island: The (not so) Exciting Conclusion ...
Happy Friday! Below is the end of our Vantasy Island adventure .. but if you haven't yet seen it, please scroll down past this post & check out Bryan's latest entry regarding a big win for BC rivers. Grassroots opposition is working!
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.
Before we even launched on the Klanawa, Jakub knew that he might have to bail on the rest of the trip. His wife had called & let him know that his son was sick & getting sicker. It was obvious that Braden, with his mangled boat & injured ankle, was pretty much done for the weekend too. It worked out well for Jakub, who needed a ride back to Vic (but who didn't want to force us to drive all the way back) .. So there in the fading light, alongside a logging road in the middle of nowhere, we drank one last beer with our tour guide & then bid farewell to Jakub, Braden & Chris. That was a good day!
Before leaving, we made sure to get some local recommendations, but being left with only one rig presented some shuttle challenges. Then, as the designated MiniVanIslandVan driver, I very nearly crippled our progress on the way home. We were all just fired up on our day on the Klanawa, &, since we were almost certainly the only moving vehicle on any road within 20 km of us, I was driving fast & taking chances. I charged head-on into a huge puddle of snowmelt/rainwater doing about 45 m.p.h. & BOOOOOM!!! We bottomed out, slamming the underbody of the van on a big submerged rock. I'd never felt that big of a shot to the bottom of a car before! I limped the rig up out of the puddle, totally embarrassed & scared that I'd really done some damage to the borrowed van. Steam billowed up from underneath, but a quick inspection with headlamps didn't reveal anything out of order. So we cautiously continued on, counting our blessings, as being stuck indefinitely out in the woods due to my own stupidity would have been a sad end to this story.
Upon returning to our cabin, I got in touch with Shayne out in Nanaimo, who said we were welcome to join up with his friends on the Gordon on Sunday. The Gordon's a classic, so I was stoked to have a "sure thing" in the pocket to offer the Van Island virgins that comprised my crew.
In the morning, we discovered a half-deflated tire on the rig, so we preemptively swapped the spare, & then set out for a long bumpy drive south toward Port Renfrew. Passing over & beside several beautiful gorges, we drooled over the unknown goods, but kept our eyes on the prize & pushed on toward the Gordon ..
Until we got another flat ..
At this point, all we had was the half-flat spare & we were a long way from civilization. We'd have to make do & take it slow, but we were already pushing our luck on meeting our crew on time. Trouble came when our weak-ass jack caved-in on itself under the weight of the van, leaving us with a flat, a half-flat, a busted jack & deep-fried nerves. We'd have to MacGyver our way outta this ... which, fortunately, we did.
We came into a what could only be called a "community", like a crossroads or neighborhood, with no commercial services. We spotted 2 guys in a yard & I jumped out to ask them for some advice. They said we'd need to find "Brad" in the 4th house on the right on a different road. This Brad apparently had tire fixin' skills, and lucky for us, he was at home.
Brad was excited for visitors & told us to pull the van right up to his garage. He was a bit embarrassed about the condition of his "shop", which was littered with a million different tools, fasteners, & junk. But he got right to work on our tires & told some amazing stories the entire time. He's a logger by trade, but fell back on wrenching after an injury forced him off his logging crew. His advice regarding getting hurt on the job: "If you work, wear hockey gear & don't get hurt. Aaah, nevermind that -- DON'T WORK!"
Brad's garage/shop
That's our tire on the machine. We stood amidst what he called his "toolbox".
This is Bruno. He had a thick chain restraining him.
I was pretty sure he wanted to chew my face off, but he turned out to be nice .. smelly, but nice.
15 minutes & 20 bucks later, we were outta there, but we were waaaay past-due on meeting Shayne's crew on the Gordon. We'd have to call an audible .. we'd backtrack a half-hour to the Nitinat, which was reportedly foot-shuttle friendly. Only thing is, Where the hell is this river???? We spent hours driving back & forth between 2 obvious landmarks along the same 5-km-stretch of road, looking for a supposed Provincial Park that existed on the maps, but not in real life. We followed some rarely used roads & trails trying to locate the elusive gorge. It was getting late & I was getting very kranky about our wasted day. We ended up bushwhacking several times & finally found what looked like a stretch of incredible whitewater set among ginormous old growth red cedars. Yessssss!
I'm always fascinated by all the vegetation & mossy trees we come across during our bushwhack missions.
So are the Coloradans ..
Given the time & a takeout above some "unrunnable" falls, we'd have to make quick work of the runnable stuff. We had no idea where the takeout even was ..
Clear, green water on the Nitinat
Evan dropping into the first rapid
Leif on a different line in the same drop.
The entrance of the gorge reminded me a bit of Ernie's Canyon, which is a backyard run for us Seattleites. The basalt bedrock intrusions & boulders were full of sieves & potholes, but the water lines were clean as a whistle.
These potholes were big enough to climb through.
ScottFish
ES
The crew among the beautiful basalt gorge
Leif leading
Scott
Evan
One of several big drops on the Nitinat.
We made it to an obvious horizon line that revealed a very steep, twisting, blind secion of ledges, beginning with a 10-12 foot clean vertical drop. It was just before dark. Scott volunteered to billygoat up the river-left canyon wall for a scout, & came back saying that the first drop was all glory, but anything after that was impossible to see. We quickly made the decision to get the heck out while we still had a bit of light. After the second roped pitch, Evan & I bushwhacked downstream to see if we could sort out anything on the "falls" section. Looked pretty good to us .. full-on, but good.
Turns out, we made it to the "take out". After climbing out of the canyon, we were thrilled that the MiniVanIslandVan was parked a 10-minute walk upstream of where we reached the road. We were still way out in the middle of the Island & would not be making the last ferry over to the mainland. Stopping for burgers at the first tiny sign of civilization, we made a friend. We called her the Silver Fox. She was in her 50's or 60's, dressed to the nines, & quite tipsy on wine. She made a beeline to our section of the restaurant & invited herself onto the couch with Scott. Upon learning that we were "stuck" on Vantasy Island for the night, she insisted that we stay at her house with her.
And her 28 y.o. son.
And her elderly tenant ..
Outside a cool steady rain set in. Ughh ... decisions.
The Silver Fox ignoring Scott's sweat stench & admiring his "cowboy in off the range" masculinity.
The Silver Fox promised to cook us pancakes in the morning, & while Scott may have been her huckleberry, we had a ferry to catch in Victoria in the a.m., & an awkward night in this lady's house followed by a leisurely & equally awkward pancake breakfast wasn't on the agenda. I feigned receiving a call from our "friend in Mill Bay" who had room for us. We hightailed it outta there, laughing our lungs out at the ridiculousness & hilarity of our never-ending SitCom-worthy day. I swear sometimes Larry David is writing my script. In fact, we did end up sleeping in Mill Bay, but not at a friend's house -- Leif & Scott caught z's in the van while Evan & I set up our bivvies in the mud. We were in a parking turnout alongside the highway.
This is what we looked like at 6:30 a.m. the next morning
In those old Fantasy Island episodes, as I remember it, Mr. Roarke's guests signed up for some far-fetched, totally unrealistic experience that he could somehow provide on the Island. These well-funded, naive people showed up from LA & Houston & Chicago expecting some pretty big things -- Mr. Roarke could make their wildest dreams come true during their visit. But on Fantasy Island, as in real life, it's a thin line separating dreams from nightmares. (insert evil laughter here.) What one wants & what needs are usually two disparate things, & on the Island you usually get what you need in spite of what you want.
A month or so prior to our trip, I was the de facto Mr. Roarke (hopefully a lot less creepy though). I promised my buddies an amazing experience on Vantasy Island -- bedrock gorges, waterfalls & old growth all within spittin' distance of the ocean. They were coming from frozen Colorado & needed to just go kayaking. They wanted some adventure, classic new whitewater, waterfalls, & good times. It was a tall order, but I'm stoked to say that we got what we wanted and what we needed.
Check out the video piece that Evan & Jesse from Thrillhead put together:
Thrillhead TV - Vancouver Island Spring 08 from Thrillhead Creations on Vimeo
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.
Before we even launched on the Klanawa, Jakub knew that he might have to bail on the rest of the trip. His wife had called & let him know that his son was sick & getting sicker. It was obvious that Braden, with his mangled boat & injured ankle, was pretty much done for the weekend too. It worked out well for Jakub, who needed a ride back to Vic (but who didn't want to force us to drive all the way back) .. So there in the fading light, alongside a logging road in the middle of nowhere, we drank one last beer with our tour guide & then bid farewell to Jakub, Braden & Chris. That was a good day!
Before leaving, we made sure to get some local recommendations, but being left with only one rig presented some shuttle challenges. Then, as the designated MiniVanIslandVan driver, I very nearly crippled our progress on the way home. We were all just fired up on our day on the Klanawa, &, since we were almost certainly the only moving vehicle on any road within 20 km of us, I was driving fast & taking chances. I charged head-on into a huge puddle of snowmelt/rainwater doing about 45 m.p.h. & BOOOOOM!!! We bottomed out, slamming the underbody of the van on a big submerged rock. I'd never felt that big of a shot to the bottom of a car before! I limped the rig up out of the puddle, totally embarrassed & scared that I'd really done some damage to the borrowed van. Steam billowed up from underneath, but a quick inspection with headlamps didn't reveal anything out of order. So we cautiously continued on, counting our blessings, as being stuck indefinitely out in the woods due to my own stupidity would have been a sad end to this story.
Upon returning to our cabin, I got in touch with Shayne out in Nanaimo, who said we were welcome to join up with his friends on the Gordon on Sunday. The Gordon's a classic, so I was stoked to have a "sure thing" in the pocket to offer the Van Island virgins that comprised my crew.
In the morning, we discovered a half-deflated tire on the rig, so we preemptively swapped the spare, & then set out for a long bumpy drive south toward Port Renfrew. Passing over & beside several beautiful gorges, we drooled over the unknown goods, but kept our eyes on the prize & pushed on toward the Gordon ..
Until we got another flat ..
At this point, all we had was the half-flat spare & we were a long way from civilization. We'd have to make do & take it slow, but we were already pushing our luck on meeting our crew on time. Trouble came when our weak-ass jack caved-in on itself under the weight of the van, leaving us with a flat, a half-flat, a busted jack & deep-fried nerves. We'd have to MacGyver our way outta this ... which, fortunately, we did.
We came into a what could only be called a "community", like a crossroads or neighborhood, with no commercial services. We spotted 2 guys in a yard & I jumped out to ask them for some advice. They said we'd need to find "Brad" in the 4th house on the right on a different road. This Brad apparently had tire fixin' skills, and lucky for us, he was at home.
Brad was excited for visitors & told us to pull the van right up to his garage. He was a bit embarrassed about the condition of his "shop", which was littered with a million different tools, fasteners, & junk. But he got right to work on our tires & told some amazing stories the entire time. He's a logger by trade, but fell back on wrenching after an injury forced him off his logging crew. His advice regarding getting hurt on the job: "If you work, wear hockey gear & don't get hurt. Aaah, nevermind that -- DON'T WORK!"
Brad's garage/shop
That's our tire on the machine. We stood amidst what he called his "toolbox".
This is Bruno. He had a thick chain restraining him.
I was pretty sure he wanted to chew my face off, but he turned out to be nice .. smelly, but nice.
15 minutes & 20 bucks later, we were outta there, but we were waaaay past-due on meeting Shayne's crew on the Gordon. We'd have to call an audible .. we'd backtrack a half-hour to the Nitinat, which was reportedly foot-shuttle friendly. Only thing is, Where the hell is this river???? We spent hours driving back & forth between 2 obvious landmarks along the same 5-km-stretch of road, looking for a supposed Provincial Park that existed on the maps, but not in real life. We followed some rarely used roads & trails trying to locate the elusive gorge. It was getting late & I was getting very kranky about our wasted day. We ended up bushwhacking several times & finally found what looked like a stretch of incredible whitewater set among ginormous old growth red cedars. Yessssss!
I'm always fascinated by all the vegetation & mossy trees we come across during our bushwhack missions.
So are the Coloradans ..
Given the time & a takeout above some "unrunnable" falls, we'd have to make quick work of the runnable stuff. We had no idea where the takeout even was ..
Clear, green water on the Nitinat
Evan dropping into the first rapid
Leif on a different line in the same drop.
The entrance of the gorge reminded me a bit of Ernie's Canyon, which is a backyard run for us Seattleites. The basalt bedrock intrusions & boulders were full of sieves & potholes, but the water lines were clean as a whistle.
These potholes were big enough to climb through.
ScottFish
ES
The crew among the beautiful basalt gorge
Leif leading
Scott
Evan
One of several big drops on the Nitinat.
We made it to an obvious horizon line that revealed a very steep, twisting, blind secion of ledges, beginning with a 10-12 foot clean vertical drop. It was just before dark. Scott volunteered to billygoat up the river-left canyon wall for a scout, & came back saying that the first drop was all glory, but anything after that was impossible to see. We quickly made the decision to get the heck out while we still had a bit of light. After the second roped pitch, Evan & I bushwhacked downstream to see if we could sort out anything on the "falls" section. Looked pretty good to us .. full-on, but good.
Turns out, we made it to the "take out". After climbing out of the canyon, we were thrilled that the MiniVanIslandVan was parked a 10-minute walk upstream of where we reached the road. We were still way out in the middle of the Island & would not be making the last ferry over to the mainland. Stopping for burgers at the first tiny sign of civilization, we made a friend. We called her the Silver Fox. She was in her 50's or 60's, dressed to the nines, & quite tipsy on wine. She made a beeline to our section of the restaurant & invited herself onto the couch with Scott. Upon learning that we were "stuck" on Vantasy Island for the night, she insisted that we stay at her house with her.
And her 28 y.o. son.
And her elderly tenant ..
Outside a cool steady rain set in. Ughh ... decisions.
The Silver Fox ignoring Scott's sweat stench & admiring his "cowboy in off the range" masculinity.
The Silver Fox promised to cook us pancakes in the morning, & while Scott may have been her huckleberry, we had a ferry to catch in Victoria in the a.m., & an awkward night in this lady's house followed by a leisurely & equally awkward pancake breakfast wasn't on the agenda. I feigned receiving a call from our "friend in Mill Bay" who had room for us. We hightailed it outta there, laughing our lungs out at the ridiculousness & hilarity of our never-ending SitCom-worthy day. I swear sometimes Larry David is writing my script. In fact, we did end up sleeping in Mill Bay, but not at a friend's house -- Leif & Scott caught z's in the van while Evan & I set up our bivvies in the mud. We were in a parking turnout alongside the highway.
This is what we looked like at 6:30 a.m. the next morning
In those old Fantasy Island episodes, as I remember it, Mr. Roarke's guests signed up for some far-fetched, totally unrealistic experience that he could somehow provide on the Island. These well-funded, naive people showed up from LA & Houston & Chicago expecting some pretty big things -- Mr. Roarke could make their wildest dreams come true during their visit. But on Fantasy Island, as in real life, it's a thin line separating dreams from nightmares. (insert evil laughter here.) What one wants & what needs are usually two disparate things, & on the Island you usually get what you need in spite of what you want.
A month or so prior to our trip, I was the de facto Mr. Roarke (hopefully a lot less creepy though). I promised my buddies an amazing experience on Vantasy Island -- bedrock gorges, waterfalls & old growth all within spittin' distance of the ocean. They were coming from frozen Colorado & needed to just go kayaking. They wanted some adventure, classic new whitewater, waterfalls, & good times. It was a tall order, but I'm stoked to say that we got what we wanted and what we needed.
Check out the video piece that Evan & Jesse from Thrillhead put together:
Thrillhead TV - Vancouver Island Spring 08 from Thrillhead Creations on Vimeo
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