Vancouver Island – The North

At the middle of April, Mike, Lawrence and myself headed up to the little paddled region of Northern Vancouver Island. We wanted to hit a number of different rivers in the Sayward, Woss and Port McNeil region.  We headed up and spent the first couple of nights at Woss Lake Campground. The plan was to paddle the Davie which we found at great flows, in the morning and then head to Kaipit creek in the afternoon.

After a great morning run down the Davie with some fun rapids, lunch and then off to the creek. At the take out gauge the river looked like it had water but not too much, we headed up. Bouncing down the first little bit it, we came to a couple of log jams, fairly fresh wood, across a couple of rapids. These were easy to avoid and short walks had us back on the river. Heading around a couple of slight jogs in the river things started to get interesting and then another rapid was blocked. We portaged that one quickly before getting to a nice staircase drop, the canyon was starting to close in on use now. With Lawrence catching an eddy on river left and seeing that it was clear, Mike and myself headed down. I took a few photographs of Lawrence running that rapid…we made it a bit further before we arrived at a dogleg where the river disappeared around a bend to the left. Lawrence and myself hiked up for a look see and seeing the diagonal curler heading into a big hole backed off by a rock, we decided it was time to hike out. A 180ft climb out of the canyon, then a carry through a cut block, a great view, a herd of elk, a walk on a logging road, Mike going for a bit of a jog, we had the car loaded and headed back for a late dinner.

The next day we headed south to the Tsitika valley and went for a bouncy, rocky paddle own the 10% graded Catherine creek. We found a bit more wood than the last time I had been there, and had a few changes to the river bed. We were making good progress till I had a small slip and put a stick into my left hand. It stuck into my hand about 3/4″ deep and an inch wide. After pulling out the stick and doing a bit of cleaning and bandaging to my hand, I was still able to grip my paddle. The rest of the river went smoothly with a more portages and some encounters with rocks. I was going to need stiches, and the boys wanted to go for another run. Off to the Adam river we went, I drove the shuttle for them before heading to the Port McNeil hospital and getting 4 lovely stitches.

My trip was done as paddling wasn’t going to be possible for me for a week, the lads headed off to Gold River and got runs in on The Ucona, Heber, Pamela, and Monkey Canyon of the Gold river.

Good times had by all.

Enjoy the Pics.

Lake side Camping

Loaded for the river, after the rain

Davie Put In

Checking lines at the Davie/Nimpkish Confluence

Mike in the midst of the Davie

Dave paddling the Jackson Karma down the Davie

Hiking out – off for the next run.

Stoked

Take out of the Kaipit

Kaipit Creek

Hiking through the cut block

Late night supper

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