Friday, October 07, 2005
Hi Bruce - Our kayaking trip around the Bowron Lake Circuit was awesome! Thanks for asking. We spent 7 days on the circuit and kayaked 78 miles. We saw moose, loons, otters, eagles and some bear scat but no bear. We had a little bit of everything as far as the weather goes...and often a little bit of everything all in one day! One day we waited a few hours before launch for a storm to blow through. After paddling for a few hours we were roasting hot in the sun so we took off our fleece and rain jackets. Then a few hours after that we were scrambling to put our rain jackets on again before a major thunder and lightning storm struck. Very exciting! The wilderness was absolutely beautiful. The circuit basically circumnavigates a mountain range so the scenery is full of mountains and glaciers and waterfalls and lakes and rivers. It took us 45 minutes of on-your-toes paddling to navigate the Cariboo River at about the half way point of the trip. The Cariboo River was running high and was full of glacial till so you couldn't see any of the obstructions under the water and had to navigate based on instinct. I was glad when that section of the trip was over. We met two couples from Germany (who did not know each other before the trip) and we all ended up camping together most nights although we traveled seperately during the daytime due to our different pace (they were in canoes). Most days they were the only other people we saw. On the last few days of the trip we were leapfrogging with a group of 13 people which really changed the experience for us. Not so much fun in a crowd. We'd love to do the trip again, and would definitely do it in June or September to avoid the major summer crowds. We did the trip in June this time, but will probably choose September next time to see the fall colors and avoid the bugs.
