Ryan Stuart, explore's gear editor
Ryan Stuart's tell all blog spot on his gear addiction and life and times as explore magazine's gear editor
Once in a lifetime
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Opportunity knocked on the long weekend and we had to answer.
This spring's run off was unusually late. The rivers flowing into the Campbell River watershed were very low, but that didn't stop BC Hydro from maintaining their minimum flow regime for the Campbell River. The idea is to make sure every single salmon egg has a chance to hatch. But it also caused the dam controlled lakes above the river to drop to record low levels. Buttle Lake was at natural levels and Upper Campbell Lake was close. Then the weather got hot and snow started to melt. Over the May Long Weekend river levels spiked. The combo of low lake levels and high run off produced a never-seen-before rapid at the outlet of Buttle Lake. The two metre drop was a churning rapid with two tongues.
I was visiting my wife's family at Strathcona Park Lodge, an outdoor education centre on Upper Campbell Lake that they own and run, over the long weekend. My brother in law is an avid whitewater kayaker like me. So we grabbed some boats and gear and went to paddle the rapid along with another relative. It had two powerful tongues that ended in huge, chaotic haystacks. We tried to surf the waves but we kept getting kicked off. We ran the rapid several times and then headed for home.
It wasn't the best day I'd ever had on the river but it was unique and well worth the adventure.
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