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Four days of rafting with the guides doing all the
rowing. That has to be boring. Expectations were low going
into this September 2003 trip. Was I ever surprised. First
it was the last trip of the season so there were 4 guides
and 4 of us. Good ratio. The best news was they had two one
man inflatable kayaks we could use. I took one for the whole
trip. An inflatable kayak on class 3 and maybe some class 4
water is a blast. You definately get wet and the waves tower
when you are sitting in the water.
Click on the images to get a larger version of the same (in most cases).
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The river is very scenic. Over the 4 days we were on the
river we saw bald eagles, osprey, herons, vultures, geese,
ducks, otters, bears, deer, turtles, bats, and salmon
jumping up some rapids.
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Salmon jumping. |
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| Bald Eagle |
Turtles |
Osprey |
Blue Heron |
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| Canadian Geese |
Turkey Vulture |
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| There was some nice scenery and some interesting rock
formations to look at even though it rained in the
afternoon. |
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By early afternoon we were all pretty cold so
we pulled into a spot that looked like it might be a decent
spot to camp. It turned out to be even better than we had
hoped. There was a dry lodge with a fireplace and the view
from the bathroom was great. A small fire in the fireplace
sure felt good that evening. All in all Battle Bar was very
good spot. |
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Even though it was rainy off and on at camp the crew was
all in good spirits. In between the rain we managed to get
some exploring done in the surrounding woods. We saw lots of
traces of bears in the area, including a bear den. |
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Eventually the rain subsided and a double rainbow appeared
before a colorful sunset over the river. |
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The third day was sunny and fairly warm. Warm
enough to not wear a wetsuit anyway. Paddling was enough to
stay warm. We went down a narrow gorge which had some pretty
turbulent currents in spots. No way out but down river. We
also stopped at a small stream and hiked up to some beautiful
pools. It ended up being a long day trying to make up for the
shorter day before. The guides found a good spot and set up
for dinner. (Those are the guides to the right.) We saw bears
here and best of all hundreds of bats scooping up bugs just
off the surface of the water. |
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The last day was nice and warm. We started the day off with
Chad, one of the guides, asking if I would like to do a seal
launch. Well, of course I would. What is it? It works
better with a boat that actually slides on the rocks. The
rubber bottom boats don't work very well for good
landings. They work great for laughs though.
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Here I am in the yellow life jacket ready to do something stupid. |
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Its all up to the pushers now. They have to
push the boat out fast enough so that the front doesn't drop
too quickly. |
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What do you think. Did it work? |
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Needless to say the push was not big
enough. The big surprise was not the splash but after getting
out and climbing up to do it again we noticed the paddle was
bent in a pronounced U shape. I either held it too tightly or
it wrapped itself around the life jacket. |
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Never did get a good landing. We managed to
push Chad off and he got one but all I got after 5 or 6 tries
was the biggest splash and major fun. |
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What a great trip. I'd do it again in a minute. Maybe next year.
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