Every summer I seem to pick an adventure worth writing about and '07 was no exception. On a whim, Ty and I decided that a 55 mile canoe trip from Nelson to Trail on the Kootenay and Columbia Rivers was just what we needed. "Nevermind the five dams in the way!" We headed out from Nelson on an August Friday after work.
Our gear consisted of my 15' Coleman canoe, two action packers full of supplies, as well as our paddles, fishing poles and life jackets. As Nelson faded into the dusk and we headed down the Kootenay River, we came upon a Y in the river where the island at Grohman narrows parts the current and while we contemplated our path, I noticed what I thought were geese in the water ahead of us... And then as suddenly as I said it out loud, the geese turned into rocks in the shallows and we were swept into shallow yet ferocious waters. Bouncing between rocks, we ended up high-centred on a rock spinning around like the dial on a compass, while we tried to perform syncronized hip movements and get turned in the right direction again. Finally, while narrowly avoiding a good capsizing, we managed to get going in the right direction again and night found us camped on the western tip of the island. Dinner was weiners and beans and we tried an unsuccessful hand at fishing and harmonica playing. We slept under the stars, the sound of the river lulling us to sleep and morning found us ready to try again. And then just as we shoved off I tossed an empty butane cylinder into the fire to see what would happen... and happen it did. It exploded with enough force to completely extingish the fire, blowing the ring of rocks into oblivion and sending the cannister out of sight like a rocket... We rowed back for a look and found only dust where the fire had been. Good fun.
So on we went, dipping our paddles gently into the emerald wetness, singing with the loons, herons, ducks and geese on our journey. We hit Taghum by midmorning and walked up to the gas station for some sugar which had somehow been missed on our packing list. By noon we had come to the first of five dams on the river and, though our plan was simple, we didn't think it would be difficult at all. That was before we realized how far it is to portage around a dam... You see, they have fenced the dams in and it is necessary to exit and exit the river nearly a mile apart and each dam took about 4 trips to carry all of our stuff down the railroad. This proved harder than we expected in the August heat and by night number 2, we had only cleared two dams. We were actually so sunburned and exhausted by that 2nd evening that we beached the canoe, crawled up the bank just over the high water mark and fell asleep face first in the sand.
Morning found us trying a new technique and rather than carry everything around the next three dams, we went over them, lowering everything with ropes.
Then we had a nice 15 mile stretch until we hit the confluence of the Kootenay and Columbia Rivers, where although we were only halfway there, we picked up speed and navigated the 3' swells and whitewater rapids along the way. At one point the canoe bucked wildly and Ty, sitting in the front was thrown clear of the canoe only to land back on the front gunnel.
We finally made it to Trail by Sunday afternoon. 55 miles, 5 dams and a great story!
We finally made it to Trail by Sunday afternoon. 55 miles, 5 dams and a great story!
