Last weekend we headed out to the Stellako river, a short run which is mostly flat or class II stuff with one class III waterfall in it. There had been some discussion and it was concluded that levels would be low, and the rapids might be a bit "boney", but it would be different from the normal runs in the local area.
I picked up Ty and we stopped to pick up the boat he'd be borrowing for the trip, and two hours later we arrived at the take out to find Ross and Jason waiting. We drove both vehicles to the put in since there wasn't enough room for all four of us and all four boats in one car... then having left the boats we drove back and left my car at the take out, before Ross drove us both back to the put in. Fortunately by road the shuttle was only 15 minutes or so!
The put in was in a corner of Francois lake, and the whole place stank of dead fish. There were salmon everywhere, most dead but many were still swimming in the river. Paddling away from shore while waiting for the others, bright red salmon were scattering every time I put a paddle blade in the water. Jason and Ty spotted a black bear on river left further down, given how shallow it was we made sure to paddle past that spot fairly quickly ;) The bear, however, had taken off by the time we got there.
The first part of the run was pretty much flat, although there was some current. Eddies in the river were almost completely lined with dead salmon. Once there was enough depth, Ross and I practiced some rolls while Jason did a few stern squirts. This went on until the first set of rapids, which I bounced over. At a couple of points the boat was more or less high-centred on rocks... it was so shallow. Ty mentioned to keep the boat completely straight over the rapids to avoid being pinned sideways against rocks. There was no depth to capsize and roll up which made me a little nervous, any tipping over would result in a few scrapes!
Ross was paddling a nearly new boat and kept cringing every time he bounced and scraped over some rocks. The early part of the run passed in a similar way, long flat scenic stretches with dead salmon, and very shallow rapids to work through. I found that Ty was absolutely expert at finding a decent line through the rapids, so I'd follow him down, drawing left and right around the rocks.
There was plenty of wildlife to look at - mostly Bald Eagles and the salmon - but every so often we'd see bears. After one of the bigger rapids, we pulled into the eddy behind to stop for some lunch and Ross and I surfed a little on the last small wave. The eddy made it easy to ferry onto the wave, either that or I am getting a little better at ferrying.
Whilst I was munching my snack bar and drinking a little water, Jason asked if he could paddle my boat around the eddy. I noticed he was having a harder time stern squirting... the volume is much greater than in his boat. I duly jumped into his Dagger Juice and immediately noticed how tippy it felt next to my RX. Rolling however was much, much easier and my first roll resulted in my having to brace to stop rolling right over the offside. I tried a couple of hand rolls - a skill which occasionally seems to work and sometimes not - and of course with the other guys looking on it wasn't going to work in a million years. Fortunately Jason was there to T rescue me, it would have been embarrassing to swim again :)
Pressing on we saw a "brown bear" on river right, which prompted some discussion about whether kayaker may be on the lunch menu. But he wasn't interested in us, he just lazily sauntered off up the hill, looking back to make sure we were going. As I got a little video of him I noticed that he was actually a brown Black bear, rather than a Grizzly or Brown bear. Apparently Black bears come in brown in these parts :)
Finally we came to some powerlines over the river which we knew crossed right above the waterfall, so we eddied out on river left and went to scout the falls. They were listed as a six foot fall, but actually the first fall was pretty small, then there was a little pool and then a second, much larger fall. Ross and I immediately said we'd be portaging around the falls... I was still a little wary following a trip to the Lower Willow earlier in the week, when the increased water levels over Freak My Beak had caused me to capsize, miss my roll in the foam pile, get stressed and swim. That shook my confidence, and a capsize over the first fall here would result in running the second fall upside down.
After a long discussion, Jason and Ty - who are a little more experienced - also decided to avoid the falls by taking a slightly easier route down river right. As Ross and I walked down the trail to the bottom of the small fall, we heard Ty whooping as his kayak banged down the right channel. So I guess it was still a pretty fun route ;)
From the falls it was a straight paddle over a long flat section to the take out. The scenery changed from steeper sided canyon walls to flatter, tree covered ground. Most of the yellow leaves had fallen, I think two weeks earlier in the year the view would have been breathtaking. The last obstacle was man-made, a "fish fence" to keep control of the salmon going up the river. There were a couple of fisheries people watching the fence, we had to take out and portage around. Ty couldn't be bothered to get back in his boat and simply draped himself over it to paddle the last kilometer.
As we took the boats out I realised I was shattered... my arms felt like lead and I had that overall "drained" feeling from too much work and not enough to eat or drink. We headed back to get Ross' car from the put in and then loaded up and headed home. The journey back was much quieter!
A cool scenic little paddle, and it was good to paddle another boat - especially since I am awaiting delivery of a nice, shiny red Jackson All-star! More news on that soon hopefully.
Frase.
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