Taylor Creek Backpacking Trip: Windy Pass

November 8, 2025November 20, 2025 / Maria / 1 Comment

I took 4 weeks of holidays in August and September this year, so I still have so many trips to write about! I know the fair-weather backpacking season is over now, but I still want to share about the cool trails and adventures I had over the summer. Please indulge me as I continue to write about August well into the Fall season.

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you may recall that I visited South Chilcotin Provincial Park for the first time last year. It had been on my bucket list for a long time, and I ended up doing an impromptu 6-day hike in the park last August. It’s not a very popular park, but I absolutely loved my time exploring around the core area and it’s quickly become one of my favourites. After 6 days of exploring, I left with 3 more trips on my bucket list than when I started!

Given that this isn’t a crowded park, I thought it was a great option to visit with my husband, Seth, and our dog, Sadie, who doesn’t like other dogs. Seth and I went on holiday in late August this year and decided to do a shorter, 2-night trip around the Taylor Creek area. Technically, most of this trail is outside the park boundary, but it’s still in the same general area with the same kind of terrain. There’s a cut-out in the park where Eldorado Mountain is located (north of Tyaughton Lake, but south of Tyaugton Creek) – it’s called the Taylor Creek Basin, and that’s the area we decided to explore.

Similar to when I visited the park last summer, I spent the first day of my trip driving. It’s ~5 hours from Vancouver to Tyaughton Lake if you don’t hit any traffic, but we spent the better part of 8 hours getting there. The fastest way is to drive north out of North Vancouver to Pemberton and then take the Hurley FSR up to Gold Bridge. The Hurley is all gravel road, so it does slow you down, but was speedy in Brandon’s 4Runner last year. Alternatively, you can take Highway 99 to Lillooet, followed by Carpenter Lake Road. Carpenter Lake Road is also gravel, but in better condition than the Hurley. The last option is to drive to Lillooet via Highway 1 and Highway 12. I think this is probably the least popular option, but on the day we left, there was a major accident on the bridge to North Van, followed by slowdowns on Highway 99. Because I live in Coquitlam, the fastest route was to go via Highway 1, so that’s what we did.

It did seem like a particularly long drive, but I’ve never driven Highway 1 past Lytton, so it was exciting for us to try a new route. It’s a pretty drive and we did most of the route to Lillooet with minimal stops. We had supper at Lillooet Brewery, since it was the only dog-friendly place in town, and it has the Sowilo food truck on site. It was a great choice because the views from the patio are fantastic, and the food truck does delicious vegan bowls. I’d definitely recommend!

But we still had the final part of our journey, which involved driving Bridge River Road onto Carpenter Lake Road. I don’t think this is a popular drive and is a mix of old asphalt and gravel roads, but it should be more popular because it is breathtakingly stunning! It’s way faster to drive on the Hurley, but Carpenter Lake Road drives through a narrow canyon to the dam at the end of Carpenter Lake (see first photo) and I was in awe during the entire drive. Once you pass the dam, you drive along the lakeside for a long time. It’s strange because you expect such a beautiful lake to revolve around recreation, but there’s really nothing happening and no rec sites until you get to the end. We did the drive around sunset, so we had beautiful views of the lake and saw a lot of deer (so watch your speed). We spent the night camping at Mowson Lake Rec Site so that we could get an early start on the trail the following morning.

The biggest challenge we had on this trip was the weather forecast. After a mild summer, with minimal forest fires, we were heading into a heat wave during the last week of August. Seth doesn’t handle the heat very well, so we knew we’d have to focus on early mornings to avoid hiking in the middle of the day. We were up and away to the trailhead before the rest of the Rec Site had woken up in the morning.

Like I said, our plan was to explore around the Taylor Basin area. Seth prefers day hiking to backpacking, so we wanted to camp in the same spot for two nights, doing a day hike on our middle day. Chilcotin is a pretty rustic area. It does have designated campsites in some parts of the park, with outhouses and bear caches, but wild camping is also permitted. There are some areas (like Siwash Meadows) where people wild camp repeatedly, and other areas where people just random camp. There’s an old cabin located just next to Taylor Creek, below Taylor Mountain, where people will often wild camp. The cabin itself is completely dilapidated, so you can’t camp in it, but it’s a nice area. Our plan was to camp for 2 nights next to the cabin, or potentially wild camp somewhere in the alpine nearby.

We decided to park on Tyaughton Lake Road and do a loop trail to the cabin and back. There’s a road junction near North Cinnabar Creek and that’s where we parked the car. The first part of our day was hiking up another gravel road that eventually transitioned to trail. I think this was probably an old logging road at some point, but now it’s a nice, forested trail with a gentle incline. We had to hike uphill for ~12km, covering 750m of elevation gain. The trail is never too steep and it’s mostly forested, so it was nice to spend the day hiking in the shade. Seth and Sadie both liked it as there were a lot of blueberries and huckleberries on the trail, so we were able to stop frequently for snacks. We were very cognizant of bear safety (there are grizzlies in the park), so we kept Sadie on leash all day and made lots of noise.

The trail mostly follows Taylor Creek and around the 6km mark, you have to cross the creek. It looks like there was a bridge at one point, but it’s been washed out, so we had to ford the river. Fortunately, it was an easy crossing, but pretty cold. It didn’t stop Seth from doing a quick dunk to escape the heat! After that the trail gets a bit steeper and we stopped a few times for lunch and a break. We got to Taylor Cabin in the early afternoon, and we were the only people there. There’s no outhouse or bear cache, but it’s still mostly in the trees, so there is shade.

At some point before the trip, I got it in my head that I wanted to camp in the alpine (rather then at the cabin). I knew the weather would be clear and that it wouldn’t be windy, so I was keen to do a bit of stargazing. But I was very concerned about having access to shade. We decided to spend a few hours relaxing in the shade at the Taylor Creek Cabin, but ultimately ended up hiking another ~1.5km along the trail to look for somewhere to camp with a better view. I think I pushed Seth too far on this part because it was still very hot and it was a major slog to get up to the alpine.

Once you arrive, it’s not that simple to find somewhere to camp. There are limited water sources and despite it being very barren, there’s not that many flat places to camp. You want to avoid camping on any meadows or flowers and stick to bare rock or gravel, so it can be a challenge to find somewhere that’s flat, bare, and near a creek.

We identified a few potential locations, but none of them were great. There is a decent-sized creek that we thought would be perfect, but once we got close to it, we realized it was incredibly silty. Eventually we found spot next to a very small clear-flowing creek – it wasn’t ideal, but there were a handful of trees around to provide some shade, and we found a bare spot where we could avoid damaging any wildflowers. We had a few marmot neighbours located further upslope and they were pretty vocal in their dislike of Sadie. We kept her under control so that she couldn’t bother them and they eventually ignored us.

Seth was a bit annoyed about the extra mileage, but once we got settled, everyone was happy with the location. It was nestled under Taylor Mountain, south of Camel Pass, and we had a beautiful view as the mountain turned orange at sunset. We set up our camp kitchen very far away from our tent so as not to leave food smells on it while cooking, and we dug catholes further from the trail. We’d seen two mountain bikers when we started our hike in the early morning, but we hadn’t seen a single other person since then. It was one of the most remote places I’ve ever camped, and I felt very aware of the fact that we were truly in the wilderness. We had a nice supper and then spent time securing our food from bears.

For this trip, Seth and I each used a bear bag. A bear vault would be ideal, but all we had were bear bags, so we each bagged our food in dry bags to contain the smell and then put the dry bag in the bear bag. We couldn’t hang the bags, so we tied each bear bag to a tree, apart from each other. I don’t mean we just looped a rope to the tree, I mean we held the bag up to the trunk and wrapped the rope around the entire tree trunk and bear bag multiple times to secure it to the tree. We didn’t want a bear to walk off with the bag or make it too easy to get it off the tree. Fortunately, no bears came along to test it.

It was a beautiful night, and I did do a little bit of stargazing. I really wanted to do astrophotography with Taylor Mountain, but the milky way was on the opposite side of the sky from the mountain, and the moon was quite bright. I didn’t get any nice photos, but I did enjoy watching for shooting stars.

In the morning, we got up early again to try and beat the heat. It still found us mid-way through breakfast, but the air temperature stayed cool for a bit longer. The challenging thing about South Chilcotin is that the park is very exposed. We had the benefit of the shade from the trees the previous day, but we were going to be in the sun for most of the next two days. Our plan for the day was to take the Pearson Trail over to the Taylor Creek Trail, so that we could hike the High Trail up to Windy Pass for lunch. If you continue on the High Trail for a little bit longer, you end up at the base of Spruce Lake, which is the circuit I did last year, so I didn’t have any overlapping of trails, but sort of felt like I was connecting the two trips.

You can find a few places to wild camp along the Pearson Trail too, but they’re not any more ideal than where we were already camped (and a bit more exposed overall). But it’s a beautiful area! Pearson Trail hikes up to a little Pass, which I’m not sure of the name, and then you start hiking down the Taylor Creek Trail, parallel to Harris Ridge. Harris Ridge doesn’t have a trail, but people do like to hike along it. I was curious to explore it but given that it’s not a marked or named trail, I figured it was better to stick with the named trail, since I haven’t actually done either.

The Taylor Creek Trail goes in and out of the woods, providing beautiful views of Harris Ridge, and eventually of the meadows along the High Trail. Given that it was early and we were going downhill through the trees, that park of the hike was enjoyable. Eventually you hit a trail junction for High Trail, which is the official start of South Chilcotin Park. You can hike down through the Meadows towards Eldorado Cabin, or you can hike up towards the alpine and Windy Pass. This part of the trail is a steady uphill and it is exposed the entire way. I didn’t find it too bad because it was still morning, but Seth struggled with the heat and uphill. We were really hoping that “Windy Pass” would live up to its name, but it was only lightly breezy at best. All the trail blogs I’d read mentioned that it is usually quite windy up there, so I guess we just had bad luck.

The trail to Windy Pass reminded me a lot of the Lorna Pass Trail. We did it last year and it’s all exposed, but instead of being completely barren rock, there are lots of green patches and wildflowers around. I loved Lorna Pass and I loved Windy Pass too. It’s challenging because it’s all uphill, but I think I get an adrenaline boost hiking in the alpine meadows because they’re so beautiful, so I never remember the painful part! Sadie seemed to enjoy it too, though we were careful to keep her hydrated. The were a few creeks along the way, so it was possible to fill up our water when needed, but overall the creeks shown on the map aren’t reliable and are often dry, so don’t assume you will be able to fill up along the way.

We didn’t see any people all morning. When you get to the top of the pass, you do need to hike a little bit further if you want to get the view of the park. From the top of the pass, you can only see back down the High Trail, you need to continue to the viewpoint if you want to be able to see the rest of the park. I liked the viewpoint a lot because we were looking out towards the route that I’d done last year and I could see the Castles, which is another trail route in the northern part of the park that I have yet to visit. We encountered 1 couple on our way to the viewpoint that had hiked up from Spruce Lake and were heading back towards Gun Creek on the Lick Creek Trail. We had a nice conversation, and they were the last people we saw on the trip. So, over the course of our entire trip (3 days), we saw 2 groups (4 people). 2 backpackers and 2 bikers.

We found a single tree providing shade at the viewpoint and ended up hanging out for an hour. I’d been keen to do a bit more ridge hiking up from Windy Pass on the way back, but it was not in the cards for Seth and given the heat, I had to agree that it wasn’t a good idea. Instead, we went back the way we’d come and ended up clocking 12.5km and 550m of elevation on my GPS for the day. I enjoyed the hike back down Windy Pass, which had a nice headwind to cool us down. But it was a slog to hike back up the other side to the pass at Taylor Creek. Sadie was slowing down, so I ended up carrying her backpack. We crawled our way up the pass, taking another break in the shade along the way.

Eventually we made it back to our tent. It was still in the sun as it only got shade in the evenings, but we were able to hide among some of the trees to get a bit of shelter while we both took creek baths. While relaxing, I noticed that we could see a herd of ~8 mountain goats exploring around the side of Taylor Peak. They climbed around the mountain side, eventually making their way up to the meadows on top of the mountain. We were able to watch them all night, and they eventually returned to the mountainside to bed down for the night. We enjoyed a very chill evening, and I made an apple crisp for dessert before heading to bed. Tune back in next week for part 2!

Hiking Trophy Meadows

October 19, 2025October 10, 2025 / Maria / Leave a comment

I recently posted about my experience backpacking the Berg Lake Trail in Mount Robson Provincial Park. While that was an adventure on its own, it wasn’t the end of my trip. We had a few more holidays left after finishing Berg Lake and we decided to visit Wells Gray Provincial Park on the way back to Vancouver.

Wells Gray Provincial Park is sometimes better known as “the waterfall park” and is popular both among British Columbians and tourists. It’s a large park located north of Clearwater, which is a ~5 hour drive from Vancouver. Like I said, the park is most well known for its waterfalls, but it’s also popular for paddling, with lots of water access campgrounds located on Murtle Lake and Clearwater Lake. It also has some really nice wildflower hikes. We didn’t have the time to do any paddling, but we set goals to see waterfalls and wildflowers!

My post on waterfalls is coming next week. After spending a night in Clearwater to shower and treat ourselves to real food, our first stop in Wells Gray was to visit Trophy Meadows along the trail to the Sheila Lake Wilderness Area. It was the first week of August, so it was a little past peak time for wildflowers, but there was still lots blooming in the meadows. Access to the trail is at the south end of the park, very close to Clearwater, so you don’t have to drive too far. Take a right onto Spahats Creek FSR, right after you pass the turnoff for Spahats Falls. From there, continue on the FSR to Road 201, which will take you to the trailhead. It’s a gravel road, so it’s not in great shape, but you should be able to make it all the way to the trailhead in most vehicles.

I’ve heard this trail is really popular and can get very busy, but we visited on a Friday, so the trail was pretty much empty. The trail starts uphill through the forest for ~2km, with over 200m of elevation gain, before you reach the start of the meadows. Once you reach the meadows, you can really take your time and customize the trail to whatever length you prefer. The meadows are huge and sweeping and completely covered in wildflowers. It’s very beautiful and you can see the surrounding mountain peaks in the background. There’s limited shade though, so I recommend going early to avoid the midday heat.

The meadows continue for ~2.5km and there is an outhouse located around the midpoint. Once you reach the end of the meadows (around 4.5km into the trail), it’s not much further to hike to the Sheila Lake Wilderness Campground. You can hike up to a little plateau that looks down on Sheila Lake. There’s ~20 tent pads located around the lake and it’s a really beautiful campsite. The tent pads are all in great shape and there’s a few small open-air shelters around the lake that have been constructed for cooking. There was only 1 tent set up when we visited, but I think it gets pretty busy on the weekend and we did see a few groups hiking in on our way out later in the day. It would be a really nice place to camp and I’d like to return someday for an overnight.

If you hike all the way to the end of the meadows, I recommend adding on the loop around Sheila Lake. There’s a few small tarns up there and it makes for a nice little circuit before heading back to the trailhead. It’s ~12km round trip if take this route. If you’re looking to do a shorter hike, then just hike through the meadows. If you’re looking for a longer hike, it is possible to continue a little further. We hadn’t planned to go further, but we were feeling strong after 6 days at Berg Lake, so we decided to hike up to Long Hill.

The alpine area at Sheila Lake is all very open and you can see Trophy Mountain and the surrounding peaks from the lake. There’s not really an official trail past the lake loop, but you can follow a faint trail up to the pass at the base of Long Hill. Some people will even route-find their way up Trophy Mountain, but we decided to target Long Hill for our lunch break. It added another 3km to our day (15km in total), as well as another 150m of elevation gain.

The trail continues past some more ponds and then gets pretty steep as you hike up the mountainside to Long Hill. There’s a few boulder fields that you have to guess your way across, but overall it’s not too difficult. There’s not much trail to follow, but it’s not hard to read the terrain. We stopped at the top to enjoy our lunch and the view of the alpine, though it was pretty windy. We returned via the campsite and of course, I had to go for a little swim in one of the ponds.

We saw a marmot on the way back and enjoyed the meadows just as much on the way down. Actually, I’d say we enjoyed them a little bit more on the way back as the lighting was better. Overall it was a 6 hour hike for us, which was a bit ambitious immediately after hiking 6 days to Berg Lake, but we really enjoyed it and I would definitely recommend. We did climb 650m of elevation across the 15km trail, but it’s not very steep at any point (except for the summit to Long Hill), so I’d say it’s a pretty accessible trail for most people.

Maria’s Guide to the Bowron Lake Circuit

October 12, 2025November 20, 2025 / Maria / Leave a comment

The Bowron Lake Circuit is a well known and popular paddling circuit in central BC, recognized for it’s remote setting and access to wildlife. The complete circuit is 117km long, including 11km of portaging and 106km of paddling across 12 lakes. It can be completed using a canoe or a kayak, but due it’s length and location, it does require a certain level of preparedness. The Circuit has been on my bucket list for a while and I finally completed it with my husband in our 16 foot Boreal Storm kayaks earlier this Spring. I have written several trip report blogs detailing my experience on the circuit, but I also wanted to create a guide to accompany those posts to help others plan and prepare for the experience. The first set of permits usually release in late October for the following summer; however, the release date for the 2026 season this year is Dec. 2, 2025.

Experience/Fitness Level

The first question to ask yourself is whether you have the experience and ability to paddle such a long and remote circuit. This was by far the longest paddling trip I’ve ever done. As a kayaker, most of my experience was sea kayaking, which has components that are more challenging than lake paddling, but the remoteness of the Bowron circuit is definitely an important planning consideration.

This isn’t like paddling at Deep Cove or Alouette Lake, where there are lots of other boaters and relatively simple conditions. I think it is absolutely required to have previous paddling experience before attempting the Bowron Circuit. Ideally, you should have at least a basic paddling course and know how to do partner rescues and self rescue. In addition, because of the remote setting, you should have experience backcountry camping and have a working knowledge of basic first aid. I recommend a Remote First Aid course, or at minimum, a Standard First Aid course. The circuit does have emergency radios located throughout, but I also recommend carrying an inreach or satellite device in case of emergency.

You should be prepared to paddle up to 5 or 6 hours per day (with breaks) and plan to be completely self sufficient. You should also be prepared for the challenges of portaging. While 11km may not seem like a lot, towing or carrying your boat is tiring (and the process of unloading and reloading your boat can be time consuming). Completing an overnight trip in advance of the circuit will help you get used to using the same muscles day after day, which can be exhausting. You can make the trip a bit easier by planning your visit during peak season. While it will be busier during that time, paddling and weather conditions will generally be more forgiving and easier to manage in the summer.

The Circuit

As stated, the circuit is 117km long on paper, but it is a bit longer in practice. I measured 135km on my GPS by the time I finished the entire route. From your starting date, you have up to 14 days to complete the 117km circuit, so you can plan for a slower pace, but most people will complete it in 7 days. We regularly paddled between 15 and 25km per day and were on the water for 5-6 hours per day.

The trailhead is located ~90 minutes east of Quesnel, which is 7-8 hours north of Vancouver. Once you leave Quesnel, there’s no cell service anywhere in the park. There’s a bit of development around Bowron Lake, where the circuit starts. There’s a park registration centre located at the north end of Bowron Lake, which is where you start the circuit. It is a regulated trail, so you need a permit to complete it.

The trail starts with a portage and then progresses through the 12 lake circuit. Some transitions from lake to lake require portaging, while others are connected by rivers that can be paddled from one lake to the next. There are 54 campsites spread out around the circuit. You need to reserve a permit to complete the circuit, but the campsites themselves are first-come-first serve, with the exception of group sites, which are a separate permit.

The most notable lake on the circuit is Isaac lake, which is the largest lake, at ~35km long. Isaac Lake can be challenging because it can get strong headwinds in the afternoon. The end of Isaac Lake also marks the halfway point on the circuit with a notable water feature known as “the Chute”, which I’ll discuss further below, followed by the Cariboo River. After the Cariboo River, the paddling gets a bit easier and groups are generally more spread out. The last campsite is located at the head of the Bowron River, which is a great place for wildlife viewing, before finishing with paddle back up Bowron Lake to return to the start of the circuit.

Permits

The Bowron Lake Circuit is located in Bowron Lake Provincial Park, which is managed by BC Parks. A permit is required to complete the circuit and there is a cap on how many people and boats are permitted on the circuit on any given day. There types of permits available are:

Full Circuit – The full circuit is what is discussed in this post. This is the 117km loop that starts and ends at Bowron Lake. With a full circuit permit, you have 14 days in which to complete the circuit.

West Circuit – If you don’t have enough time to do the whole circuit, you can get a permit for the west circuit, which is an out and back route down Bowron Lake. On this route, you can go as far as Unna Lake, after which you must turn around and return to Bowron Lake.

Group Booking – If you have 7 people or more in your group, you must make a group booking. The group booking is a bit different because you must stay at group sites, which means you will have a fixed itinerary. I believe the circuit itinerary is 8 days, but you can do either the full circuit or west circuit as a group.

In 2025, the circuit was open from May 17 to September 28 and permits can be hard to get depending on when you want to visit. Peak Season is late June to end of August. If you plan to paddle during this time, you should book a permit as soon as they release. BC Parks usually releases a series of permits in October, following by a second set of permits in March. The release date for 2026 is Dec. 2, 2025; I’m not sure if they’ll do two releases or just one. These can be obtained from camping.bcparks.ca

Time of Year

Time of year can also play a large role in determining when to paddle the circuit. If you don’t like crowds, then you may want to avoid the summer months and paddle in the Spring or Fall. Summer can be very hot or smoky and the water level in some of the rivers can get pretty low. However, the benefit of paddling in the summer is that you’re likely to have less rain, calmer paddling, and warmer nights. It’s also better weather for swimming as the lakes will be warmer.

The benefits of paddling in the shoulder season is that there will be less people, less bugs, and less likelihood of smoke and fire bans. However, the weather can be significantly more challenging in the off-season. We paddled the circuit right after it opened in May. It was very warm in Vancouver leading up to our trip, but the circuit is located much further north, so it will stay cool later in the Spring and earlier in the Fall. The lakes only become ice free at the end of April, so the water will be quite cold in May. Our experience was that it was really cold overnight in May and we had to battle with frequent rain and higher winds. Rain is manageable, but high winds can be a show stopper on a trip like this.

If you’re more experienced in the backcountry, shoulder season is a good option, but if you’re a novice paddler or camper, I recommend just going in the busy season. The number of people on the circuit is controlled, so while it will be busier, you shouldn’t lose the remote feeling of the setting.

Getting There

Getting to Bowron Lake Provincial Park isn’t challenging, but it is remote. Unfortunately, there aren’t many options for transit, so I believe driving is the only option available, unless maybe if you book a guided tour. If you’re traveling from Vancouver, it’s ~700km to drive to Quesnel along the highways, followed by another ~110km inland to the park on highway 26. This highway is paved from Quesnel to Barkerville, but the final 30km is gravel road. It’s in good condition, but it will slow down your driving speed. We drove slower on the entire road because we saw a lot of wildlife along the way and didn’t want to hit a deer or a bear.

Rentals

We had the benefit of using our own kayaks for this trip, but it’s easy to rent if you don’t have your own boat (most people don’t). The two most popular places to rent that we encountered was Bowron Lake Lodge and Becker’s Lodge. Rentals are surprisingly cheap and they will drop the boat off to the registration centre for you.

Canoe vs. Kayak

While I’ve been calling it the “Bowron Lake Circuit”, it is technically called the “Bowron Lake Canoe Circuit”. Traditionally, I think more people canoe this route than kayak it, but kayaking is definitely growing in popularity. The Portages are all in fairly good condition and the majority of people use a cart to tow their canoe or kayak. If you had to do an overhead carry on the portages, then canoeing would definitely be the way to go, but given that you can take either boat on a cart, I think there’s fundamentally no difference and that you should do whichever one you like more.

I don’t feel that the canoers had any advantage over us in our kayaks. There could be an argument made that it’s easier to portage a tandem canoe because you have 2 people and 1 boat, but I would counter that a good sea touring kayak is more appropriate to handle strong winds than a canoe and won’t make a mess of your gear if you accidentally capsize. You can make an argument for either option, which is why I think it personally doesn’t matter. There are lots of paddling routes that aren’t feasible with a kayak due to the need to overhead carry, so if you like kayaking, this is one of the limited circuits where you can actually bring a kayak.

What isn’t appropriate is a short kayak, a sit-upon kayak, or a stand-up paddleboard. If you’re going to take a kayak, it should really be a sea touring kayak.

Portaging

This was my first time portaging my kayak and whether you go with a kayak or a canoe, there are some important considerations for portaging.

The portage trails are in relatively good condition and can be navigated with an expedition cart, but they are still fairly rugged. They all have hills as you portage from lake to lake, and some trails will get muddy, have significant potholes, or have rocks and roots you need to navigate. In order to protect the condition of the trails, BC Parks have set weight restrictions on your boat.

If you travel in a canoe, you will be required to weigh the gear that will sit in your canoe while portaging. You are not allowed to have more than 60lbs of gear in your canoe while portaging, everything else must be carried in a backpack. To accommodate this, most canoers will leave their paddles and safety gear in the canoe, along with maybe a food barrel or cooler. Everything else must be in a backpack that you wear while portaging.

Kayaks are a bit different. I thought our gear was also going to get weighed, but I guess kayaks are more restricted about how much gear can actually fit in the hatches, so they don’t get weighed. There was another group of kayakers while we were doing the circuit and they opted to portage their kayaks fully loaded, but Seth and I brought backpacks and portaged our kayaks partially empty. I don’t regret this choice. Pulling the kayak is really tiring and I don’t think I would have been able to do it if the boat was fully loaded, plus it puts a lot of strain on the boats (which we love and don’t want to damage).

Logistically, this was a bit more challenging because we had to strategically pack our kayaks to also fit a large backpack. We had everything in smaller dry bags and packed the empty backpack in our larger hatch. Then, at the portages, we would remove most of the dry bags and load them into our backpacks. The only gear we left in the kayaks was our paddling gear and our food bags, which were too bulky to easily fit in the backpack. It slowed us down on the portages because we had to unload and reload everything at every portage, but I personally believe it made the portaging less painful and I would do the same thing if I ever go back.

River Paddling

The last thing I want to highlight before talking about itineraries is that there is a challenging section of river paddling on this trip that you should be aware of. At the end of Isaac Lake there’s a more challenging whitewater section of river, with two water features known as ‘the Chute’ and ‘the Rollercoaster’. These are not required water features – they’re about 1km in length and you do have the option to portage around them. We had originally planned to portage around them, but ended up paddling it instead.

The Chute is located right at the end of Isaac Lake and is easy to assess because it’s directly visible from the large campsite at the end of the lake (Camp #28). A lot of paddlers will spend the night at Camp #28 to assess the chute, watch a few others run it, and then decide whether to paddle it themselves or not. The chute is a bumpy section of water that is mostly made challenging by the fact that it’s surrounded by eddies and you have to make a 90 degree turn at the end to continue down the river. If you exit or turn too early, you can get sucked into an eddy, or get hit broadside by the waves, causing you to capsize. We ended up running it at the same time as a half dozen other paddlers and we all managed to navigate it safely without capsizing. The water level was very high, so the waves were also high, but we didn’t have to worry about hitting rocks, which is more of a challenge in the summer. My recommendation is to assess at the campsite and make your decision then.

The Rollercoaster is just a few sections of standing waves. I didn’t find it overly difficult, the only trick really is to watch for rocks so that you don’t hit anything accidentally. Once you finish the Chute and the Rollercoaster, there are 2 mandatory portages past other river features that are not navigable – the cascades and a waterfall. Instead, you’ll bypass these obstacles and get kicked out on McLeary Lake. However, there is one more obstacle left.

McLeary Lake is connected to Lanezi Lake by a 6km paddle on the Cariboo River. This is a beautiful and fun section of paddling, but there are several hazards you need to be aware of (and there’s no option to bypass the river). When the water is high, there are fewer sweepers and deadhead hazards as they are below the surface, but you still need to watch out for them in case they are just under the water. What was more concerning for us was the speed of the current. The river moves very fast, which is fun, but it could be easy to lose your boat if you capsized. When the water level is low, you need to be more cognizant of sweepers and deadhead so that you don’t hit anything with your boat, which could also result in a capsize. I did prefer having a kayak for these sections because risk of losing my gear if I capsized was pretty much non-existent in a kayak.

Itinerary

The main consideration for your paddling itinerary is how many days you want to do the trip. There’s 54 campsites in the park and it will vary how busy each one is. I wouldn’t worry too much about which specific site you will stay at, rather focus on the average distance you will need to paddle every day and whether or not you will have any bonus days to rest or sit out bad weather.

The most common length of time to complete the circuit is 6-8 days. In my opinion, 6 is a bit ambitious, 7 is reasonable but doesn’t allow for setbacks, and 8 is comfortable. Beyond 8 days, you need to be prepared to bring quite a lot of food with you, but that’s not to say you can’t take that long if you have the time. I felt that we did the circuit at a pretty fast pace. We would get up really early every day to paddle flat water, and in many cases we were arriving at the campsites pretty early as well. It’s nice to arrive early at the campsite to get the one you want, but I wish we could have stopped a bit more along the way to enjoy other sites during the day. The reason we didn’t was that it was very cold in mid-May and when I wasn’t paddling, I wanted to be getting into warm, dry clothes, so we didn’t take long breaks. Paddling in the summer, I’d prefer to stop and swim more, so a longer itinerary would allow for that.

Below I’ve compiled a few suggested itineraries depending on different durations and objectives. The campsites are only suggestions, you need to be flexible with campsites and be prepared that if one is full when you arrive, you may have to paddle a few more kilometres to the next one. I know the text is a bit hard to read on my blog, so click the photo to view a higher resolution version on my flickr.

Campsites

Like I stated above, don’t worry too much about specific campsites. Before I went on the trip, I kept trying to google “nicest campsites on the Bowron Lake circuit” with no luck. The reason for that is that the campsites are all very similar. There’s not a lot to differentiate one from another. There are a few large sites that are nice, and some have slightly nicer lake views than others, but honestly, they’re all nice.

In the early season, which is when I went, the campsites with shelters were definitely more popular because it rained a lot and it was cold. The sites with shelters have woodstoves, so it was really nice to stay at them. Most of the sites with shelters are large, except for the few on the front end of the circuit, but there is definitely some overflow space. If you have a small group, I think it would be fairly easy to stay at any of the small sites, but if you’re a larger group, you may want to plan accordingly.

In my opinion, some of the stand-out sites are Camps #8, 15, 28, 31, 34, 37, 38, 39, 40, 44, 48, and 54. But be prepared to stay anywhere. The only one I really recommend prioritizing is Camp #28 if you’re planning to run the chute. It’s nice to have some time to study it and consider your approach! From my experience, Camp #54 can also get really busy because people are trying to reduce their distance on the last day. Camp #54 is a pretty site, but I kind of wish we’d stayed at #48 instead. I’ve included my breakdown of all the campsites and I rated each one as how I would prioritize where to stay. Again, take it with a grain of salt, there are no bad campsites.

Gear

As noted, this is a trickier trip to pack for because you have to fit everything in your boat, while also being prepared to carry a good portion of your gear when portaging. We managed this in the kayaks by packing everything in organized dry bags (1 for kitchen, 1 for food, 1 for sleeping gear, etc) and then choosing the best way to fit everything in the kayak and in the backpacks. We couldn’t fit our kayak wheels inside a hatch, so these were attached to the outer part of the kayak using bungy cords.

There is also a lot of safety gear required for a trip like this. If you’re renting boats, they will provide you with the accompanying boating gear, but you should still plan to bring all your personal safety items. Below is a copy of my kit list from this trip. It’s not perfect and everyone will want slightly different things depending on time of year, but this worked well for us!

Food

Food is one of my favourite topics when it comes to the backcountry. When backpacking, your food will likely be the heaviest thing in your bag, so it’s important to minimize the weight. When paddling, weight is less of a consideration, but because of the limits to how much weight you can carry in your boat, it is still something to consider. I’m really big into dehydrating my own food, so we decided to just bring all dehydrated meals. There wasn’t as much space for food in our kayaks as in a canoe, so we thought this was the easiest option. Some canoers will bring coolers, but keep in mind your icepacks will not last longer than a few days, so plan to eat all your perishable food by day 3. Glass is not permitted on the circuit.

Some people get really into calorie counting for these types of big trips. You should definitely plan to bring larger meals than you normally eat, because you will be doing a lot of physical activity, but my experience is that I don’t really start to get really hungry until at least day 3, so normally I’ll start packing extra snacks for the second half of the trip. On a remote trip like this, I’d plan to bring 2 extra days of food in case of emergency. You could easily get grounded by bad weather or high winds, so be prepared with food reserves. Check out my series on dehydrated food if you’re curious.

Other Considerations

Water purification – One nice thing about the circuit is that you’re paddling on freshwater all day every day, so you don’t need to do any big water carries. That said, I recommend bringing a water filter with you. I used a gravity filter with a 4L reservoir that we could fill at the campsite every night.

Wind – Most paddlers are used to afternoon winds and the Bowron Circuit was no exception to this rule. Water conditions are generally calmest in the early morning or evening, so plan accordingly. There’s a lot of daylight through the summer, so our approach was to get up early. This meant we were usually first to arrive to campsites as well.

Wildlife – Due to its remote location, there is a lot of wildlife around the Bowron Circuit, and fortunately, the wildlife has not become habituated to people (yet). It is pretty likely that you could see a moose or a bear on the trip, along with smaller wildlife like marmots, beavers, and birds. Make sure to always practice bear safety, all the campsites have bear caches. Fishing is permitted with the proper permit.

Woodlots – There are woodlots scattered throughout the circuit. These are changed every year, so they are not marked on a map. Because I visited in May, there were no fire bans and we were able to have campfires every night. Since it was so early in the season, it was easy to collect deadfall around the campsites. It may be more challenging to find wood later in the season, in which case it might be a good idea to collect wood at the woodlots. Remember to never cut down live trees.

Have fun! This is an amazing experience!