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!

Bowron Circuit Kayak Trip: The Chute

July 13, 2025July 31, 2025 / Maria / 2 Comments

If you’ve been following along, this is Part 3 of my Bowron Circuit series. Check out Part 1 and Part 2.

We left off at the end of Day 3, camping at Camp #28 next to the most notorious feature on the Bowron Lake Circuit: The Chute. The Chute is a section of standing waves where the end of Isaac Lake meets the mouth of the Isaac River. The main characteristics of the Chute is that there is a circular eddy on either side of the chute and a sharp right bend in the river at the end of it. If I’m being honest, it’s not that challenging, the trick is not to exit the chute too early. You want to get as close to the end of the waves as possible because if you turn too early, you can get sucked into the eddy, which will turn your boat sideways and then the waves will quickly flip you over.

I’m not sure how the water level contributes to the difficulty of the Chute. It was still Spring when we visited the park, so the water level was really high. One of the kayakers shared that he had done the Chute in the middle of summer when the water level was a lot lower. I imagine the waves are probably more pronounced in the Spring, but in the Summer, you have to worry about not hitting rocks, so it might actually be easier with the high flow.

The biggest challenge we had was that it was very cold. We were lucky to wake up and find the sun shining, which definitely helped, but the temperature hovered pretty close to zero degrees most mornings (one morning we woke up with frost on the boats). The risk of a capsize was a lot scarier at this time of year because of the cold water and air temperatures. In the middle of summer, you’d generally only be worried about losing your gear to the river rather than being concerned about hypothermia from getting dunked in it.

For this reason, more than half of the 5 Guys decided not to run the Chute. Three of them portaged around it, but two decided to paddle it, so Seth and I got to watch them before attempting it ourselves. They navigated the water without any issue, so we decided to follow close behind. I definitely think you have a bit of an advantage doing the Chute in a kayak because you’re not really worried about losing gear. Everything is enclosed in our hatches, so we only had to deal with the cold. The Canoe Bros also ran the Chute, but they spent more time to bungee all their gear to the canoe, so they went after us.

The other advantage me and Seth had is that we were wearing wetsuits. Generally, a dry suit is much better, but they’re also very expensive, so we’ve managed just fine with our wetsuits for years. I still didn’t want to get dunked, but at least I had 3mm of neoprene between me and the cold water. We decided that I would paddle the Chute first so that Seth could assist me if I capsized. Fortunately, we both made it through the Chute without incident! And you know what, it was so much fun! We’re not experienced paddlers by a long shot, but I definitely think that if you can handle paddling 116km of wilderness, you can handle the Chute and I’d encourage people to give it a try. Take the time to plot out your route first and discuss risk management and what you will do if you capsize. Secure your gear if possible to minimize the impacts of capsize, but overall, I think the Chute is a pretty manageable objective and I was so glad that we took it on.

Although, the Chute is only the start of the adventure! Once you run the Chute, you are committed to another 1km of paddling along the fast moving river. The next section of rapids are called the rollercoaster, but they’re mostly just sections of standing waves. It’s not a big deal to go through them, you want to make sure you avoid any rocks in the river, so it’s mostly an exercise in looking for hazards. I suspect this part of the river is a bit easier in the Spring when water levels are high because there are less obstacles.

The river paddle goes by very quickly and then there’s a mandatory portage around a section of the river known as the Cascades. The portage is only 800m and it is all downhill, but the trail is in rough shape and there were a lot of tree roots and rocks that we had to go around. Then there’s another short section of paddling in the river (~600m). At this time of year, the river is moving really fast and there are some more sections of standing waves, so I found it fun to paddle.

However, you have to be careful not to miss the sign for the last portage, because if you go too far downstream, the next water feature is Isaac Falls! The signage is pretty obvious and we pulled our boats ashore for another 500m portage. Once you finish that portage, the bulk of the portaging for the circuit is done. You launch back into the river, but are quickly pushed out into McLeary Lake.

McLeary Lake is one of the smaller lakes on the circuit, but it is really beautiful. There’s only one campsite on it and I don’t think it’s super popular because most people stay overnight at the top of the Chute, but I think this one would be really nice if you wanted to do the Chute later in the day. McLeary Lake felt like one of the most remote lakes to me. I think it’s because it’s shallow and it felt more like a river delta. It’s a quick paddle across the lake, which connects the Isaac River to the Cariboo River, so we pulled our boats up on the sandy shore for a break before taking on the Cariboo. It really felt like we were in the middle of nowhere and I could envision seeing a moose or a caribou at any moment.

We still had to navigate the Cariboo River, which is probably the second most challenging part of the circuit, after the Chute. You can’t portage around the river, so what makes it tricky is that it’s 6km long and there are lots of hazards lurking along the shore or just under the surface. You need to be careful to watch for deadhead (debris under/in the water) and sweepers (debris across the river) that could knock you from your boat. I’m not sure what the current is like in the summer, but in the spring, there was a lot of water and it was moving very fast. I felt that capsizing in the Cariboo River would be more dangerous than the Chute because the current moves so fast, it’s really important not to get separated from your boat.

Fortunately, everything went smoothly for us and it was probably one of the most fun and beautiful sections of the entire circuit. Combined with running the Chute, Day 4 was easily our favourite day of the trip. Because the current was moving so fast, we barely had to paddle at all and we were surrounded by the most scenic and remote mountain landscapes. My jaw was on the floor of the boat the entire time! I think we had less hazards to worry about with the water being so high, but there was one large tree submerged below the surface in one section that played with my imagination because it would be quite easy to capsize if you got too close or didn’t see it.

We had planned for a shorter day because I was worried about the Chute and the Cariboo River, but because those sections of the river are fast moving, this actually would be a good day to knock out some serious mileage if you were behind schedule. 5 Guys and the Canoe Bros were all aiming to make it to Unna Lake, which was a lofty 35km of paddling. Our goal was Turner Creek (Campsite #34), which was only 15km, and we decided to check it out before choosing if we wanted to paddle further.

We ended up paddling all the way to Turner Creek for a late lunch before stopping. Once you exit the Cariboo River, you’re at the bottom of the circuit, starting with Lanezi Lake. I’d heard the south end of the circuit was particularly stunning and I didn’t want to rush through it. The wind picked up pretty much right away when we got to Lanezi Lake, so it was a bit of a work-out to get to Turner Creek, which is a few kilometres up the lake. We ended up arriving shortly after 1pm. It felt a bit early to stop, but it got a bit stormy when we landed on the beach and started to rain, so we quickly ran up the camp to the shelter.

The shelters early on the circuit are more like little ranger cabins. They’re not very big and seem to be historic to the park. On the second half of the circuit, the shelters are modern construction and clearly designed to accommodate more people. The shelter at Turner Creek was the same as at the Chute, but this one had windows, which is much more practical if you want to use the woodstove. As soon as we got to the shelter and saw the views from the campsite, it was a very easy decision to stay and have a lazy afternoon. We watched as 5 Guys and the Canoe Bros all paddled past us on their way to Unna Lake.

Turner Creek is a large site and I think it’s pretty popular in the summer, so it’s hard to believe we had it all to ourselves! We picked a campsite with a gorgeous view of the lake, with the fire pit right on the edge of the site overlooking the view. Seth got a fire going in the woodstove and we unloaded the boats and changed into dry clothes. The rain was short lived and after a few hours of wind and waves, the sun came out in the late afternoon and the water got really calm. I mostly just read and soaked in the sun for a few hours, which was much needed! Seth opted to go for a quick swim, but I was still too chilled for the water, so I just enjoyed the view.

At this point of the trip, we hadn’t seen a lot of the other paddlers who started with us. There was a group of New Brunswickers who paddled faster than the rest of us and we didn’t see them after the second day. But there was also a solo kayaker who was doing the circuit with a 10 foot sit-upon kayak. We talked to him briefly on day 1 (he shared that his kayak felt very “tippy”) and then we hadn’t seen him since. I have mixed feelings about the appropriateness of this kind of kayak. Really, they are not appropriate. 10 feet is very short for this kind of trip and sit-upons lack the stability of an ocean kayak. I can’t imagine it felt very comfortable in the challenging conditions of Isaac Lake. But on Day 4, the solo kayaker eventually caught up with us and he did end up finishing the circuit, so I guess I don’t have any right to judge him. I would not recommend it, but I guess it can be done. He pulled into another site for the night, so we still didn’t get to talk to him.

We spent the rest of the evening eating and enjoying the view. I made supper and Sseth got a campfire going looking out over the lake. The weather really cleared up and we didn’t get any more rain that day. Instead we just enjoyed the solitude of the site before eventually going to bed for the night. This was the only night on circuit that I was a bit cold overnight. We packed really warm sleeping equipment, but the next morning when we woke up there was frost on the kayaks, so it obviously got pretty cold overnight!

On Day 5, we finally got a morning where the lake was dead flat in the morning and we were super excited to launch the kayaks! The sun was still hanging around and we had a really enjoyable paddle along the edge of Lanezi Lake. The mountains on the south side of Lanezi are super picturesque. There’s a few small campsites along the edge of the lake and as we were approaching one for a snack break, Seth spotted a marmot along the lakeshore! It didn’t seem like marmot habitat, but I guess this guy found a good place to make his home between some loose rocks.

The weather was very temperamental, but not necessarily in a bad way. We could see the storms moving around throughout the day. You’d look one direction and it would be rainy and dark, and then you look the other direction and it’s blue sky and clouds. We weren’t immune from the rain, but the wind stayed low all day, so it didn’t bother us. We had another snack break at the end of Lanezi Lake, at Camp #37, which is a really beautiful site.

From there, you briefly return to the Cariboo River to paddle into Sandy Lake. The river is really wide in this section and it’s not fast flowing. Sandy Lake is small compared to some of the other lakes and we did get a spot of bad weather as we were paddling into it. But there are some really nice campsites! As the name suggests, there are sandy beaches along Sandy Lake and the campsites are very large, with lots of room for tents to spread out. We took a break for lunch just as the wind was coming up, but fortunately it was short lived and seemed to calm down again after we re-launched.

The last section we had to paddle for the day was to re-join the Cariboo River until we reached Unna Lake. Unna Lake is probably the most well known site on the circuit, so it has a lot of campsites and is very popular as a place to stay. To get there, we had to paddle 21km in total, which was pretty achievable 5 days into the trip and considering we had decent paddling conditions.

We weren’t sure what to expect from the Cariboo River in this section. We thought it might be fast moving like the section from the previous day, but it was more like a lazy river. We had to work a little bit more with the paddling, but we saw lots of birds along the way, especially kingfishers, which are my favourite bird!

Unna Lake is actually located off the circuit, so in order to get there, you have to paddle past the next portage to Babstock Lake, until you get to a little entrance off the river to the lake. The lake is pretty sheltered and I think it’s popular because it’s usually quite calm. There’s a huge beach with lots of campsites at Unna Lake, and if you paddle further into the lake, there’s a second lake called Rum Lake, which is where the group campsite is. The other attraction on the far end of Unna Lake is the trail to Cariboo Falls. There’s no hiking in the park except for this trail. It’s a 1km trail that hikes further along the river to the thundering Cariboo Falls.

We could see the Canoe Bros across the lake heading out towards the trail, but the campsite was empty so we assumed they were on the way out. Again, we had a very large and popular campsite all to ourselves, which felt a bit surreal! We picked a nice spot to set up and then the sun came out and I finally felt like I might be warm enough to go for a swim. There was no one around, so the only real option for swimming was skinny dipping. I can tell you, we never miss an opportunity for skinny dipping and given the low crowds on the trail, neither of us used our swimsuits on the trip 😉

I finally went for a swim and because Unna Lake is so shallow, it was surprisingly warm. It felt nice to wash my body, although we had been doing heated cloth baths throughout the week and those are pretty nice too! We figured there was no rush to hike to Cariboo Falls and decided to just relax along the beachfront instead. Unna Lake is very sandy, so I can understand why it’s so popular in the summer. That said, if you can’t make it all the way to Unna or it doesn’t work with your itinerary, I honestly think Sandy Lake is just as nice, and probably gets less people.

Later in the afternoon we got a little bit of entertainment. Once you hit Unna Lake, you’re on what is considered the West Circuit. If you don’t have enough time for the entire Circuit, you can plan a shorter itinerary on the West Circuit, which involves starting your paddle across Bowron Lake in the opposite direction. You’re permitted to paddle as far as Unna Lake, after which you have to turn around and paddle back to Bowron (because of the currents on the Cariboo River). So generally, the circuit did feel a little bit busier after Unna Lake and it was harder to guess how many people might be interested in the same campsite.

As we were relaxing, a very large school group with about a dozen canoes entered the lake. They were all on the west circuit and staying at the group campsite on Rum Lake for the evening. It was at this point, when we saw the Canoe Bros starting the paddle back, that we realized they had actually been camping at Rum Lake overnight and had been planning to stay a second night. They had to pack up all their gear to vacate the group site and then they opted to paddle on to Babstock Lake instead. So we still ended up being the only people at the Unna Lake campsite for the evening.

We planned to eat supper and then go to the Cariboo Falls trail in the evening, but around 6pm it got super windy! Unna Lake was the only campsite we ended up staying at that didn’t have a shelter, so I made a nice little tarp shelter with our paddles and the wind really put it to the test. It’s only a 10 minute paddle across the lake, but we decided to wait until morning with the wind being so high. We had planned to have a campfire, but I ended up getting chilled by the wind and decided to have a lazy night in the tent instead. I did a bit of reading and went to bed super early, but the exhaustion really catches up with you on these types of trips and I think it was much needed. Check back next week for Part 4!

The Road Goes Ever On

Canadian Outdoor Adventure and Travel Blog

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Bowron Circuit Kayak Trip: The Chute