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!

Bowron Circuit Kayak Trip: Isaac Lake

June 29, 2025September 3, 2025 / Maria / 3 Comments

My last blog post covered the basics of the Bowron Lake Circuit and a re-cap of our first day on the circuit. After a warm and cozy night on Indianpoint Lake, we were up early to continue our adventure to Isaac Lake. We packed up the boats and were on the water by 8am. Sadly, we only had a short 1km paddle to the end of Indianpoint Lake, followed by yet another portage. Fortunately, the portages keep getting shorter. This one was only 1.5km, and it would be our last portage for 2 days.

I’m really glad we opted to stay at Campsite #8 on Day 1 rather than pushing to Isaac Lake. I was exhausted after our second portage on Day 1, but I felt a lot more rested on Day 2. The portage was a bit annoying in that it had a lot of potholes and Seth’s kayak took a sideways tumble early in the portage. But overall, it was pretty flat and it felt like the easiest of the 3 portages to me.

I should note that Seth and I did not purchase or rent an expedition cart for this trip. We already owned small carts that we use to get our kayak from the car to the launch, and we opted to just use those. They have plastic wheels and are lower to the ground then the expedition carts, but honestly, they worked great! Everyone else was using expedition carts, which are a little higher, and everyone complained about them being really tippy. At first, I babied my cart, but by the end of the trip, I was just hauling it over every bump, root, and rock. It held up for the entire trip with no issue and very limited tipping. We did bring a spare wheel with us in case we blew out a tire (since they’re plastic), but we didn’t end up needing it.

Eventually we arrived at Isaac Lake, the biggest lake on the circuit. I think it’s time to share a map of the circuit to give you an idea of the unique topography of this area. The circuit is very rectangular, with Isaac Lake having a notable corner in it. The west arm is ~7km long, while the main arm is ~31km long. We paddled Isaac Lake for 2 full days and it is definitely one of the more memorable lakes (both good and bad).

The water was really calm when we arrived and we could see a lot of the other groups still packing up along the shore from Campsites #11 and #12. I always live in fear of the afternoon headwind (which seems to be a thing everywhere we paddle), so our goal was to have early mornings and do as much paddling as possible before lunch. Since the water was so calm, we ended up paddling the entire 7km of the west arm in one go, over about an hour and a half. Overall, we paddled pretty fast on this trip, usually averaging around 4km an hour.

I should also mention that there are two kinds of campsites on the circuit: individual sites and group sites. If you have more than 7 people in your party, you have to make a group reservation. The benefit of the group reservation is that you have guaranteed campsites. Only 1 group leaves per day and only that group can stay at the group campsites. The downside is that you have to follow a fixed itinerary (I think it’s 8 days). There was no group on the circuit when we did it, so we were able to use group sites if desired. We made a stop at the group campsite (#14) at the end of the arm for a snack, and then continued our paddle down the main arm.

Isaac Lake is quite beautiful. It’s so long that you cannot see the entirety of the lake at any point and it is completely surrounded by mountains. The mountains were a bit coy when we paddled the lake because of the weather. It didn’t rain very much on Day 2, but it was overcast and the clouds hid a lot of the mountains. It did start to get a bit windy as we paddled down the main arm, so we stopped at Campsite #18 for lunch.

Campsite #18 is another campsite with a shelter. The wind really picked up while we were having lunch, so we strongly debated just having a short day and spending the night to take advantage of the shelter. But I knew there was another shelter 8km away at Campsite #20, so I was really on the fence. Our goal was to get to the end of Isaac Lake by the end of Day 3, and that would be a lot easier from Campsite #20. But the wind seemed to drop down after a while and we decided to make a go for it. We did have to fight with a headwind for a few kilometres, but the wind dropped off entirely before we got to Campsite #20 and it was almost flat water when we arrived. Thanks to the extra distance, it was one of our bigger days on the circuit and we travelled a total of 23km.

We had to name the other groups we were sharing the circuit with to differentiate them from one another. There was a group of 5 kayakers that we creatively named 5 Guys (but apt because they were young burgers-and-beer kind of guys), and they were already settled in when we arrived at the campsite. They were very friendly and there was one tent pad left, so we took it and got to know their group a bit better around the campfire. We didn’t get any more rain for the rest of the night, so we ended up not needing the shelter. 5 Guys had a pretty raging campfire, so that kept us warm for the evening, and we had a good laugh as they regaled us with stories of accidentally capsizing in Kibbee Lake, 20 minutes into their trip!

On Day 3, we really got a bit of everything. We were up early and on the water by 8am again. When we paddle at home, the ocean is usually dead calm at 8am, and will often stay that way until at least 11am. I was surprised by some of the conditions on the Bowron circuit. I wouldn’t say it was windy in the mornings, but it was rarely flat water, even at 6am. The wind was never concerning in the mornings, but always a bit more breezy than I was anticipating.

We got in a few hours of easy paddling along the shoreline, but we had 21.5km to go to get to the end of Isaac Lake. Isaac Lake has a lot of little headlands along it, where the mountain meets the water and creates a small point. Around 11am, it started getting really windy. Usually it’s windier when you go around a headland, but once you make it to the other side, the wind dies down because you’re somewhat protected by the next headland. At 11am, we went around one headland where it felt like we were getting completely assaulted by the full strength of the wind across the lake. We could see really far down the lake and it felt like the wind was tunneling the whole way up it to hit us broadside. The way the wind was blowing, there was no shelter from the next headland and we had a very slow paddle through some nasty waves.

Eventually we reached the next headland and got a small break directly behind it. We were afraid to go around because we knew we’d be getting hit directly again on the other side, so we decided to wait it out for a little while. Like I said, the weather was all over the place on this trip and it was fairly normal for the rain and wind to storm up and down the lake, so conditions changed quickly and frequently. We figured if we waited even for 15 minutes, the wind could change, so we pulled our boats onto the very limited amount of available shoreline and settled in to wait.

Unfortunately, the wind only seemed to get worse and we could see whitecaps forming in the lake. After about a half hour, 5 Guys caught up with us and also opted to pull into the lakeside to wait. Shortly after they arrived, me and Seth decided to make an attempt at the headland, but the second we became exposed, we were getting hit by whitecaps, so we quickly did a 180 and returned to shelter. We ate our lunch while studying the waves for another 45 minutes or so. Eventually it looked like the wind was coming down a little bit, and we decided to go for it as a group. It was still pretty nasty, but definitely better than our first attempt and this time we made it through to the next section.

I think we were probably just at the windiest part of the lake and it did seem like the only way out was through. Once we made it through the next section, the wind definitely died down a lot and we all felt comfortable to keep going. Me and Seth took a short break at a real campsite, but then the rain showed up and we decided it was more comfortable to weather the rain in the boats.

One upside of the rain is that it does generally calm the wind and it can sometimes be windier on sunny days. The wind continued dropping and by the time we paddled through the rain, we seemed to have passed through one storm into another. The wind actually switched direction and we ended up getting a nice little tailwind for the rest of the day. The group of canoers that we nicknamed Canoe Bros, caught up with us later in the day and said that they had experienced the same thing. They described it as two storm fronts and they ended up catching a break for a while when they got caught in the calm between the two, and were able to ride it out for a few hours.

Fortunately that was the end of our wind woes for the day. 5 Guys branched off to do some fishing and Seth and I enjoyed the gentle tailwind propelling us the rest of the way to the campsite. Our goal for the day was Campsite #28, which is the last campsite on Isaac Lake. It’s a large site and I think it’s a popular spot for people to stop. It’s combined with a group site, but since there were no groups, we put it to good use between us, 5 Guys, and the Canoe Bros. It has a large shared shelter with a set of picnic tables and a woodstove, although the woodstove isn’t super useful because it’s an open-air shelter.

But the weather really cleared up in the afternoon and we actually got a couple of hours of sun! So we all lay out on the banks of the lake to soak in as much warmth as possible. The reason this site is so popular though, is because of it’s proximity to the most notorious water feature on the circuit, the Chute. It’s an optional paddling feature for those brave enough to try it, so people like to stop at the campsite for the night to assess the objective and hope to see someone else attempt it first!

It’s basically a line of standing waves, with an eddy on either side. What makes it tricky is that there’s a sharp turn at the end of the chute and if you exit to early, you can get caught in the eddy and then the waves will hit you broadside and quickly capsize your boat. No one attempted the chute in the evening, but we all spent hours discussing and sizing it up. Trying to figure out who was going to run it and whether we could wait around long enough to watch them attempt it first!

Seth was all for running the chute (mostly because he didn’t want to portage any extra distance). We assumed 5 Guys would all be down for the challenge, but they were having serious doubts after their capsize in Kibbee Lake. We caught an absolutely gorgeous sunset over the lake while debating it and Seth and I decided that since we had wetsuits, we would give it a try in the morning, but were really hoping to see someone else attempt it first.

Tune in next week to find out if we were successful in running the notorious Chute!

Bowron Circuit Kayak Trip: A Paddler’s Paradise

June 22, 2025July 11, 2025 / Maria / 4 Comments

I’m so excited to write about this trip! I’ve been wanting to paddle the Bowron Lake Circuit for a while now, and Seth and I finally took a week off to do it in mid-May 2025. Bowron Lake is traditionally known as a 116km canoe circuit, but it can be done in a canoe or a kayak, so we were thrilled to undertake this adventure with our 16 foot sea touring kayaks.

The Bowron Lake Circuit is a renowned paddling route for it’s premier access to remote wilderness and wildlife. It’s an 8-10 hour drive from Vancouver, located ~700km north of Vancouver and 2 hours east of Quesnel. It’s a series of 12 lakes, which are connected by either rivers, or 11km of portaging trails. It’s a loop circuit, so you don’t have to undo any of the distance you paddle, and there are 54 campsites spread out around the circuit. It does require a permit, which indicates your starting date, and then you have up to 14 days to complete the circuit, staying at any of the first-come-first-serve campsites along the way. In order to maintain the remote wilderness setting, there is a limit on how many boats and people can start the circuit every day.

From what I understand, the circuit is very busy in the summer and the permits often sell out. It is less busy in the late Spring and early Fall, which is why we opted to paddle the circuit in mid-May, just 1 day after it opened for the season. It was a bit busier than we were expecting (several others started at the same time as us, around the May long weekend), but still relatively empty. We didn’t have any trouble getting campsites and had the campsite completely to ourselves more than once.

We had a long time to wait in anticipation of this trip because the permits for it released in October 2024. The circuit is located in Bowron Lake Provincial Park and is managed by BC Parks, but they don’t follow the same 4 month release timeline as other parks. A number of reservations released in October, which is when we booked ours, but it seems that it was only half of the reservations, with the rest releasing in March. In any case, we went early enough that the permits weren’t sold out on our starting date.

There’s a few benefits to going so early in the season. The biggest is that there aren’t a lot of crowds, but other perks were that there were limited bugs, no smoke, and no fire bans. So we enjoyed having a campfire every night and didn’t have to worry about getting eaten by mosquitoes. However, there are also several downsides to doing this circuit in May, the biggest of which is the weather. Bowron Lake is located quite a bit north of Vancouver, and it was a lot colder. The ice actually only melted off the lakes 2-3 weeks before we started the trip, and the weather was pretty variable. It rained most days that we were on the circuit and it dropped near zero degrees celsius most nights. Plus, it could get pretty windy some afternoons and even some mornings. We still had a great time and don’t regret going in May, but we missed out on some of the other attractions of the circuit, like swimming.

I plan to write a full guide to paddling the circuit, but I want to dedicate these initial posts to my trip reports and sharing about our personal experience on the circuit. At 116km, this was by far the longest paddling trip we’ve ever gone on. It was our first major lake trip (we usually do sea kayaking) and our first time portaging the boats. Bowron Lake is a good option for kayakers though because the portage trails are all accessible with a cart, so you don’t have to do an overhead carry with your boat, making it accessible to kayaks and canoes. You have 14 days to finish the circuit, but we opted to complete it in 7 days and 6 nights. This seemed to be the most popular duration, though we did meet one group doing it in 6 days and one group doing it in 8 days. I think I would prefer to go slower in the summer to enjoy swimming in the lakes, but 7 days was a good duration for May.

The trip started with a full day drive to Bowron Lake Provincial Park. We left Vancouver early in the morning, stopping in Cache Creek for lunch and Quesnel for supper. It’s still a good 2 hour drive from Quesnel on highway 26, so it was quite late when we finally arrived. We did play tourist on the way there though. There’s a historic gold rush town located just before the turn-off to the park, Barkerville, and we figured there was no better time to visit. Barkerville is now just a tourist attraction, but it’s definitely worth the stop. It has more than 125 heritage buildings dating back to the mid-1800’s gold rush era, including Barkerville’s Chinatown, as well as evidence of early indigenous settlement dating back more than 10,000 years!

Our experience was unique in that the attraction was open for the season, but because we arrived in the evening, it was technically closed for the day. They leave the gate open for people to browse, so we were able to walk the completely empty streets of Barkerville, which was honestly, a bit spooky! It’s definitely a can’t-miss experience if you happen to be in the area.

We did see another attraction along the highway to Bowron Lake – wildlife. Shortly after turning onto the highway we encountered about a dozen deer, which reminded us to slow down our speed. Once we got our of deer territory, we moved into bear territory, spotting 3 separate black bears along the way. We were getting a bit nervous about what we might encounter on the circuit, but we didn’t end up seeing any bears along our paddling route. Before arriving to Bowron, we spotted a fox along the road, which was probably the most exciting encounter!

There are a few options for where to stay before starting the circuit. There is a mandatory orientation at the park registration centre before starting the circuit, which is offered from 8am-noon, so you do need to arrive quite early. You could stay in Quesnel and drive in, or there is limited lodging in the small town of Wells on highway 26. We wanted to get an early start, so we stayed on the lake itself. The options I learned of were Becker’s Lodge, Bowron Lake Lodge and Campground, or the BC Parks Bowron Lake Campground.

My preference would have been to stay at the BC Parks site, which is the cheapest, but I couldn’t book a single night at the campground because it was over a long weekend and the system only allows you to book the entire weekend. We probably could have got in FCFS, but I opted to book 1 night at the Lodge Campground instead. It’s located right on the lake and is quite beautiful. The Lodge also rents canoes, but most people seemed to be renting and staying at Becker’s Lodge rather than Bowron Lodge. We own our kayaks, so we didn’t have to navigate rentals.

We were up early on Sunday morning to head over to the Registration Centre to complete our orientation. It was pretty straightforward and we got our permits to start the circuit. If you’re going in a canoe, you also have to get your gear weighed. To limit impacts to the portaging trail, you’re only allowed to portage with 60lbs of gear in your boat, everything else has to go in a backpack that you wear. It turns out they don’t weigh kayaks (I guess it’s harder to overload the kayak hatches than a canoe), but we followed the same rules as the canoes anyways. We didn’t want to be towing fully loaded kayaks (it’s hard on both us and the boats), so we also brought backpacks to carry gear while portaging. Logistically, this was more challenging as a kayaker, because we had to pack and unpack the backpacks at every portage and squish the empty backpack into the hatch, but we made it work.

We had 7 days to complete the 116km circuit, which works out to an average of 16.5km per day. In reality, we did a lot more than that and I ended up tracking 135km on my GPS (which would average to 19km a day). That said, I tried to pace our days to do shorter distances on days with portages, and longer distances on days with only paddling. The circuit is very front-end loaded when it comes to portaging, so I planned for a pretty slow first day, especially since we’d be portaging with all our food weight.

There’s 3 portages totaling ~6km in the first 15km of the circuit. The third portage ends at Isaac Lake, which is the biggest lake on the circuit. On the day we started, there were several other groups starting. There was a group of 5 male canoers, a group of 5 male kayakers, a group of 3 male canoes, and a solo male kayaker. You can probably notice a common denominator in all those groups: male. We got to know a lot of these guys over the course of the week, and they’re all nice people, but I was the only woman on the circuit the entire time, which was a little disappointing. Ladies – Bowron is really fun, add it to your bucket list!

My point is that all of these groups had the goal of making it to Isaac Lake on day 1. I considered if we would also head for Isaac Lake, but I didn’t really want to overdo it early in the trip, nor did I want to do 3 portages in one day. So we decided to make the end of the second lake our goal for day 1, which I think was a good decision.

The circuit immediately starts with the longest portage, a 2.5km trail to Kibbee Lake. We were the first people on it for the day and the trail was in relatively good shape. The challenge was that it’s mostly uphill and we were fully loaded. It is humbling to drag a 45lb kayak while wearing a full backpack and we were quickly out of breath and sweating. That said, I think we did a pretty good job at our first portage, taking about an hour to finish it. It was threatening rain all morning, but it stayed dry until we arrived at Kibbee Lake.

Kibbee Lake is only a 2.5km paddle before you’re back at the next portage. The launch point at Kibbee Lake is really nice and starts with a leisurely paddle through the lake’s inlet. It started raining pretty much exactly when we got to Kibbee Lake, but we preferred that timing. I don’t really mind paddling in the rain. With our neoprene skirts and rain jackets, we get less wet paddling than we would on land, so it wasn’t too big a deal. Since the forecast for the week was pretty cold, I purchased a pair of neoprene gloves before the trip and they were worth every penny throughout the week! They kept my hands nice and warm, even when wet.

It rained pretty much every day that we were on the circuit, but it was one of the least defining parts of the trip if I’m being honest. I thought it would be miserable to be out in the rain for a full week. But it was the kind of rain that moves around a lot. It would rain for 15 minutes and then move on. At no point on the trip did it rain so much that our waterproof layers wetted through, so it honestly didn’t bother me.

We had a nice paddle across Kibbee Lake, but too quickly we arrived at our second portage. This one was a little bit shorter, at 2km, but it felt so much worse. Looking at the map, the topography on the second portage is actually more gentle than the first portage, but I guess I was feeling tired, because it did not seem that way! It starts with a hill and I was pretty quickly cursing my kayak. I don’t really use those arm muscles very much, so my forearms were screaming from pulling the kayak and my hands were hurting from dragging it. But I think my biggest problem was that I was hungry. I complained for the entire first half of the portage, which was all uphill, before finally pulling over and claiming that I couldn’t go a step further without having lunch!

The rain stopped again when we started portaging, so I think it was a good call to stop and eat. We parked our kayaks on the side of the trail and opted to just eat our lunch in the woods. I felt much better afterwards and let the downhill half of the trail propel me to our next milestone, the start of Indianpoint Lake.

At this point, some of the bigger groups had caught up with us, but they all had the goal of getting to Isaac Lake. I had studied the campsite map before the trip and noted that some of the campsites have shared shelters. I’m not sure how popular these shelters are in the summer when it’s warm, but they ended up being pretty popular on our trip, given that it was cold and wet. Indianpoint Lake is 6.5km long, but campsite #8, which is located near the end of the lake, is noted as having a shelter. So I made campsite #8 my goal for the day.

First, we decided to try our luck at a woodlot. The circuit has a number of woodlots scattered throughout the park where you can stop and pick-up wood. I thought this was going to be national park style woodlots, but it’s really just specific areas of forest with lots of blowdown. The woodlots aren’t marked on any map because it seems that BC Parks regularly moves them around, so you can just see the signage from the water. There’s one located early on Indianpoint Lake, so we decided to check it out, but it ended up being our first and last woodlot. Since it was early in the season, it was really easy to forage deadwood around the existing campsites, so we didn’t bother with any of the other woodlots after that because it was a pain to lug the wood around in my kayak.

After checking out the woodlot, we had a very enjoyable paddle to the end of Indianpoint Lake. It rained again, on and off, but the lake was actually very calm. The wind usually comes up in the afternoon, so we were expecting it to be windy and were pleasantly surprised to arrive at 1pm and find completely flat water! The mountains around the lake were mostly clouded in, but it actually looked kind of mystical with the rain.

Everyone else opted to bypass Campsite #8 on their way to Isaac Lake, so we ended up being the only ones staying there! It was our good luck, because I totally loved this campsite! It only has two tent pads, but it has an old log cabin with a woodstove(!) and the most beautiful view of Indianpoint Lake. It was nice not to overdo it and we still tracked a total of 13.5km on my GPS. We got our tent set up and then hung out under the under-hang of the cabin, sparing me from having to set up the tarp. We had a few snacks and then around suppertime, Seth got a fire going in the woodstove and we spent a very enjoyable evening in the warm cabin. Someone has insulated the roof inside with reflective material, so it reflected the heat quite well. We felt so cozy in the warm cabin listening to the rain hitting the tin roof.

Later in the evening, Seth decided to take advantage of the warm cabin to do some cold therapy and ran down for a quick swim in the lake. Usually I’m down for swimming in any lake and my cold tolerance is quite high, but I didn’t swim very much on this trip. It was probably the main downside of going early in the season. I was chilled for a lot of the trip and rarely willing to subject myself to the cold water (though I did eventually relent twice later in the trip)! Eventually the rain cleared up and we got some really beautiful photos of the lake around golden hour. We didn’t catch too many sunsets on the circuit – partially because of the mixed weather – but also because it was light so late in the evenings that we usually went to bed before sunset! Paddling is all about the early rise, so it was a small sacrifice to make.

I’ll conclude this blog post here because it’s already quite long! I’m hoping to cover two days each on my future posts, so tune back in next week to hear about the gnarly weather conditions we battled while paddling almost 40km along Isaac Lake, the biggest lake on the circuit!