George River Solo 2018

Day 24
Start Time: 8/7/2018 2:57 PM
Duration: 4:20
Distance / Total (km): 20.8 / 302.2

I woke up at 8:30am but it was after 10:00am by the time I packed up my bedding and moved to the Pod. It was mostly cloudy and reasonably warm as I made my tea & oatmeal. I went out around noon to pack up the Marmot and wander over to view the rapid. The main part is a huge R5 that fans out to a bumpy R3, it is all a very scenic spot but I need to keep moving.

There were mosquitos here on the land, the only way to avoid them was to get on the water so back to the Pod to pack up and carry my loads down to the water. Around 3:00pm I pushed off under clearing skies and made my through the runout of the R5 and then a nice R1 section of fast current. The river widens for the next 5km, giving a better view of the hills now surrounding me, an esker crosses and bedrock outcrops appear, I drift along on the current and tailwind taking it all in. Where the river narrows again there is a nice R1-R2 section, after a gap there is another R1, which leads to an R3. I had a great run on the 3, going right of the island and sticking mostly to the river left shore, took on a bit of water which I had to bail at the bottom, somehow Douglas had managed to remain completely dry!.

The river once again spreads out and passes through and around a myriad of islands; between the islands are short R1/2 sections. It is quite confusing here, my maps are almost useless so I just follow the current that twists and turns sometimes turning back on itself before resuming its northern flow. Once again the river narrows (narrow is a relative term, it is always a big river) and there is a sweeping R3 that is the last rapid of the day that I will be running. Had another fun ride through this rapid, there was now a short section of calm water leading to the waterfall where I planned to camp.

The “waterfall” is a 3m ledge that crosses the entire river; there is a large rock outcrop on river left right at the drop. I crept along the shore until I could get a good view and nervously paddled down to the outcrop. J jumped out dragging the canoe up on the rocks lest it be swept over the ledge. I tossed the gear up on the rocks and then pulled the canoe up to the flat top. I walked along the shore to check the campsite, spectacular view of the ledge and a cone shaped hill beyond the eastern shore. Always looking for the easy way I figured I would load up the canoe, drop it over the rock face, hop in and paddled down to the campsite instead of carrying all my gear along the shore. I had done something similar here in 2010 but that was with two people lowering the boat over the edge. I had it all set up, I wiggled the boat to the edge and watched as it slid off the rock into the water……….OH CRAP! The boat submarined perfectly, Douglas, who remained dry through the rapids completely submerged, the boat rolled to the right. The gunnel sank below the water level, the boat half filled with water as I guided it along the shore while fuming at myself (and laughing) at my great plan!

After getting the boat down the shore to a place I could safely unload, I ended up doing most of the carry I tried to avoid. I picked out a flat area of small stones to set up the Pod and Marmot, the black flies were bad here, as they tended to be when the sun started to sink signalling the start of evening. After doing a massive bug kill in the Pod I set up for the night and then went out to put up the Marmot. The mosquitos now replaced the black flies, never a moment’s peace around here! Back in the Pod, I made some tea and settled in. I made a bag of Pepper Beef with Rice (Alpine Aire), bland! Even with extra hot sauce. It is really cooling off quickly, by 10:30pm it is down to 10°c.

It has been a very nice day on the water, great scenery, rapids, a bit of sun in the afternoon and no rain other than the brief sprinkle in the morning. The only blemish was my stupid “lift over” screw-up something that should never happened. I would have been better off if I had simply run the ledge, there is a spot tight to the rocks on river left where it would be easy IF you hit the right spot and brace. I headed off to the Marmot at 12:30am, there are three waterfalls coming up in quick succession, as long as they don’t hold me up too much I should have a fairly short day as I plan to cover only 12km.