A group of us, including Alastair, Dave, Tyler, Kevin, and me, had spend a couple days kayaking rivers around Comox. We paddled the Cruikshank and the White river canyon at still good but rapidly falling flows. The promised 50+ mm rain suddenly turned into “sunny with clouds” in the forecast so that the prospect for a kick-ass creeking-weekend was bleak. Not for long though. Pretty soon, Dave dug out Jeff Strangs phone number and we soon learned that Jeff was planing to have a second look at the NF Klanawa after our Summer 04 Klanawa desaster (don’t ask, it involved 2 flat tires at the same time and spending the night in a logging company Emergency Transport Vehicle).

Everyone seemed to be game for adventure and we decided to drive south the next morning to meet Strang. Then came Lauras phone call. Laura was supposed to paddle with us this weekend but was delayed. After Kevin told her that we were planning to explore a canyon on the southern part of the island, she wanted to know more. Indeed, she wanted to know more than Kevin, who had never heard about the Klanawa before, could tell her. The questions kept coming though until Kevin just made up some details we had no idea about and Laura was game, too.

The next morning we got up early to meet Strang at 9 in Duncan. Laura and Corey were a little late because they came on the Ferry from Vancouver.
Once we thought we were ready to go, we were not really ready to go since Laura and Corey could not decide wether they should come with us or go with another group that headed for the Gordon River. That took about 5 hours. Well, not quite but a little while. All kinds of stuff added up to a put-in time
of 12:30. In the middle of the winter, with sunset around 4 pm, most people would say it’s not the smartest idea to put in at 12:30 when an unknown, steep canyon, 5km long, waits below. Anyways we had less than 4 hours. Lesson learned: A large group needs a long time to get their asses in gear.

The river at the put-in looked really nice and the water level seemed to be just right for a first time down the canyon. Fifty meters from the put-in bridge, was the first drop, a fun 8 feet ledge that partly landed on a rock shelf but had a clean line in the middle. A couple corners into the canyon was the first portage where some massive old growth logs blocked the whole river. The portage was over the logs onto a rock shelf and then back into the river. Lesson learned: With 8 boats, portaging in a vertically walled canyon takes a long time.

The river continued with some fun drops after that, however my mind is a little fuzzy about the exact order. There were multiple clean ledges in the 5 feet range that made for some fun, clean plunges. Some more trees blocked the river and then we came to the first substantial horizon line. It was a drop with a total drop of about 30 feet. It started with a gnarky entrance (thats a 8+ on the European manky-danky-shanky scale for those ESL students among us) and then a 20 feet vertical drop where a lot of water disappeared into an undercut. Most paddlers started to portage right away. I think that Jakub and Strang were still contemplating untill they saw Corey run it. Even though he made the best of it, it looked so ugly that soon all boats were lowered to the pool below on a rope. Lesson learned: portaging 7 or more boats on terrain that requires rope work takes a ridiculous amout of time.

Some more fun whitewater brought us to a doubele drop with two substantial holes. The typical kayaker game “throwing sticks” was enjoyed by the whole crowd for about 20 minutes before we started the portage. This portage was over a 70 feet high cliff that one more time required rope work. The lesson learned here was the same as before times 2 or 3.

Also entertainig: We almost lost a paddle that somehow found its way into the river above the drop, washed through the holes (doing much better than the average wood) and was then found in the pool below quite a while after it was lost. No lesson learned here.

The trip continued and there were some classic drops in this section including a clean 20 feet waterfall and slide drop that was really scenic. Just after the slide drop, we came to a nice pool and some of us started going down a class 3 rapid that started to look kind of scary. Now if something looks scary, most paddlers head for the nearest eddy. And that is exactly what we did. I was the fouth or so boat going for a micro eddy and Kevin and Alastair had already started scouting as I eddied out. From the eddy I saw the mother of all horizon lines at the end of a boxed in canyon that had a couple trees wedged into it. When I was trying to get out of my boat, the person before me pulled up his boat and while doing so, kicked Kevins CFS into the river. The boat plunged into the flushy eddy, deflected off of my boat and entered the current. I was clinging onto slippery rock with my left hand and tried to reach for the boat with my right. I just barely got a hold of the boat but had to let go since I was almost pulled out of the eddy. However, the boat, and this was a real miracle, spinned around on teh eddy line close to me so I could grab it again. By then the person had filtered from my panicy articulations that I was in trouble and grabbed my boat, so I could hold onto the almost lost CFS. Lesson learned: I’m not entirely sure if the lesson was learned.

We then scouted the drop and it appeared to be a waterfall in the 45 or 50 feet range that landed in a large pool. This was one of the most beautiful places I had seen in BC. We had 30 minutes of daylight left and were not much farther than 1/3 into the canyon. For most of us, it was quite clear that we had only one option: Hiking out. Well, one person wanted to ditch the rest and keep going but that is another story. The hike out took about 4 rope lengths and a few hours to reach the logging road. Some people claim that a crazy German was there and started going nuts because part of the group was not helping with pulling up the boats which was a lot of work. Pure imagination if you ask me :-) It got dark and I was really happy that Strang brought the Walkie Talkies that made scouting for the easiest way out a lot faster. Lesson learned: Having someone who is prepared saves the day.

We have to come back and finish this majestic canyon. Everyone who was involved in the adventure keeps saying that they want to go back. I’m sure that we’ll soon find out what the canyon past the waterfall looks like.