Peace Out!

We finally broke out the canoe after a busy summer of working in the yard, working out of town and just basically running around like headless chickens (who all still have their heads, btw... for the time being).
We did a trial run down the Columbia.  With grand plans, we set out from Revelstoke at about 4:00 on a saturday night, expecting to paddle the 48km to the truck in the next 24 hours.  This, of course, didn't happen.  Headwinds and flat water scuttled our grand plans so we rigged a sail and sailed back up river, it was awesome!

Starting out on the Columbia

Tobin caught a nice Bull trout!  We lost it right at the boat, but it was a real beaut'.

Hurray, camping!

Laziness is the real mother of invention.

After cutting our teeth on the Columbia, and deciding the boys could tolerate more than 20 minutes in the boat, we piled in the truck and drove to Hudson's Hope.  The plan was to paddle the Peace, from Hudson's Hope to Taylor, BC.  About 100km of gentle water with a reasonably remote feel.  This is what I was after, and secondly, I really wanted to see the Peace river before it gets flooded by Site C.  Site C is pretty much an inevitability, and it will be sad to see another big, historic river turned into a lake... I wanted the boys to experience this river so they can appreciate the irreversible effects of some industries.

Hudson's Hope , worst weather of the trip!

Lunchtime!  Or was it snacktime?  Or just leg stretching time for the fifth time that day?

The Gates!!  Woooo, the Gates!!!

Roaming around the boat, getting snuggles

So nice to hang out on the river

Tobin was so industrious, he was out of the boat and setting up camp before any of us

Helping with dinner

Smallest kid gets the biggest bowl

This is what I was after!

Just look at those two

"let's go!"

 Who can see the bottom (of their beer)?

We took a wrong channel so had to line back up across a gravel bar, this was very exciting for the boys

Camp 2, tent ended up somewhere drier later in the evening...

The boys were SO tired every day, Tobin just hanging out on his chair enjoying watching the current go by.

Breakfast, fueling up for the day!

"we want to push off, can we push off?" was the cry heard every time we beached.  This was usually a pretty complicated affair involving one of us hauling a kid into the boat once the water got too deep and we started getting separated from them.

Nick wears his camo like an invisibility cloak.

Had the trip gone differently, the next 3 pics would probably be a metaphor for our collective states of mind and enthusiasm.  Instead, we all had a good time, but this series cracks me up.

Hurray, I love canoe trips!

I'm tired and hungry and there are bugs.

\

This sucks, I wish we were watching the Teletubbies.

Site C, looking upstream from where the dam will be.  Water level will be 30m higher, flooding out beautiful riparian cottonwood spruce habitat and high productivity farmland.  Sad.

Grey Owl, paddling through Site C.

 

From the base of where the dam will be.

  

 Okay, this is where I go from being all 'nature guy canoe paddling bird watcher' to 'HOLYSHITLOOKATTHATBOAT!!!!".  Our take out happened to be right at the place where these INSANE river jet boat races were going on.  It was like rally car racing on rivers.  To back-track, growing up in Kelowna, the highlight of the summer was the Regatta.  And the best goddamn part of Regatta was the jet boat races.  We could hear them start up from our house, and as soon as they did we would jump on our sweet bmx's and pedal down to peer through the fence at the pits.  The boats had these huge, supercharged, blown, unmuffled big block V8's and they were A-W-E-S-O-M-E.  Not just cool, it would bring tears to my eyes listening to them and watching the rooster tails spraying out the backs. I would lie awake at night wishing I had one, and I would stand on the beach hoping someone would offer me a ride in one.

So consequently, you can imagine the reversion to my bmx pedalling self when we heard these boats in the distance.  Ann-Marie started losing her patience when, as we were tying the boat on the truck, I would yell "THEY'RE STARTING!!!" and drop the rope to run down to the beach to watch the racers do a massive aquatic burnout in their jet-powered vehicles of my youth.  Goddammit, it was awesome.  Here's a short video of some of the early heats.

You know they're loud when they drown out a helicopter