PADDLER 20
“ One could easily imagine having your hands full in stormier weather on Isaac , and the advice you ' ll hear is not to paddle past a campsite if things are looking dark on the horizon .”
PADDLER 20
Villageois boxed wine that at the time could have passed for a $ 120 bottle of Bordeaux . An InReach message from my wife Jacky and son Eadon that night accidentally signed off with ‘ Bob Voyage ’, which , after a few glasses of Villageois , we all thought would be a pretty hilarious outdoors-themed Youtube channel .
ISAAC LAKE
On our second day , we paddled almost the entire 40km / 25m of Isaac Lake , stopping to catch a few lake trout , which we decided to harvest for our evening meal . Isaac is the longest , deepest , and , in this paddler ’ s opinion , most beautiful lake on the circuit . Its crystal clear emerald waters drop steeply off the shore to depths of 183m / 600ft , and its surrounding peaks with hanging glaciers tower more than 2500m / 8200ft . It ’ s intimidating , both in size and grandeur . One could easily imagine having your hands full in stormier weather on Isaac , and the advice you ’ ll hear is not to paddle past a campsite if things are looking dark on the horizon .
Fortunately for us , most of our twelve-hour day of paddling was in light rain and calm conditions . We arrived at the infamous ‘ Chute ’ section of the trip around 20:00 after a double rainbow and crimson red sunset . We set up camp in the dark that night , and fried the trout over an open fire . Coated with dehydrated mashed potatoes , flour , and spices , the smokey flavour and texture of the fish was something Michelin-star restaurants strive to achieve . A fishing rod should 100 % be on your packing list for the Bowron .
THE CHUTE
Day three began with sizing up the rapids where Isaac Lake flows into the Isaac River . Known as ‘ The Chute ’, this is the most technical section of the circuit and should only be attempted by paddlers with at least some white water canoeing experience . While not extreme by any stretch , it ’ s capable of putting a good bit of water over your bow or even capsizing you in an eddy if you ’ re unsure of your bottom turn . A quick search on YouTube for ‘ Bowron Lakes Chute ’ will reveal more than a few failures over the years . Our group , fueled with the previous day ’ s confidence and a bit of bravado , quickly decided to ‘ shoot the Chute ’ and paddle the Isaac River . Thankfully , Bob Voyage and the ‘ Lake Slayers ’ ( a freshly adopted group moniker ) encountered little drama this morning .
With a buoyant outlook , the day then turned to navigating the more technical Cariboo River portion of the circuit . According to a park ranger we spoke with , a majority of the rescues ( about five annually ) happen along the Cariboo River . It isn ’ t the speed or level of rapids here that is a cause for concern , but rather the opaque silty water hiding deadheads . On this day , our group paddled the section into Lanezi Lake without incident and made camp at probably the nicest campsite on the circuit – a group site with a cabin for drying out wet gear .
LANEZI LAKE
It rained for most of night three , but our reliable NEMO Equipment Dragonfly tent kept us dry – as it did for the entire trip . An InReach weather report arrived in the morning that was decidedly dicey , so after a bit of debate , a consensus was reached to spend the day recuperating at the cabin - because even Lake Slayers need a bit of rest sometimes . We enjoyed soaking in the incredible scenery of Lanezi , bathing in its waters , carving paddles , hunting for mushrooms , reminiscing around the campfire , and drying out our wet gear . We even made good friends
“ One could easily imagine having your hands full in stormier weather on Isaac , and the advice you ' ll hear is not to paddle past a campsite if things are looking dark on the horizon .”