Home Already

So, after just under 400 kilometers I threw in the towel on my Fraser River trip.  On day 7 I arrived at  Hansford and saw that there was one Honda Element with a brand spankin new Liquid Logic Stomper 90 on top.  That Element had been driven there by my lovely wife, Rebecka, as if she could read my mind.  She had packed up and driven out to see me on the river.  Her intention was to camp the night and then send me on my way.  I, however, had another idea.  The flat water behind me and newly realized prospect of 800-900 more kilometers of very flat water had convinced me that it was time to go home.

I love kayaking.  Not all kinds of kayaking though.  The Fraser offers up some spectacular whitewater right outside our door and I definitely was not ready to deal with the change in character that I would find just a few dozen kilometers downstream of my house.  The Fraser goes from a rushing river to a slow moving pond and the kilometers seem to get harder and harder to earn as the river gets bigger, wider and slower.  By day 7 I had gone through every reason to continue and just couldn't make it feel like fun anymore.  Despite ther cool wildlife sightings and great camping the trip had changed from an exciting adventure into a slog down river with no reprieve from the monotony of counting paddle strokes.  Every 1000 strokes moved me between 3 and 4 kilometers, depending on just how flat the river really was.  On Day 7 I was able to paddle 3000 strokes without seeing anything different and that was about all I could take.

I learned that when planning an adventure, knowing the route IS actually important.  I had a plan for my food, a plan for the space in my kayak, shelter options, clothing and just about everything else.  I hadn't looked into the route at all.  The promise of Hell's Gate and the Bridge River rapids somewhere downstream was enough to make me want to paddle the whole stretch.  Other than that I just knew that there were about 1300 kilometers of the Fraser between me and the Pacific Ocean.  What I should have checked was that the vertical drop over those 1300 kilometers was negligible and that most of it was burned up in short bursts leaving the rest of the river almost dead flat.  

All in all, the experience was pretty positive.  My remix XP10 was great to paddle all day in, super stable and very direct when the skeg was down.  It had the capacity I needed to carry 25 days worth of food plus my camping and camera gear.  I was able to fine tune my expedition set up a bit more.  This time I had better warm gear that took up less space than ever before and I was totally comfortable with less gear than I had taken in the past.  Paddling Rearguard Falls with a fully loaded XP was sweet and the Grand Canyon on the Fraser was another highlight.  Looking at the video, though, the Grand Canyon really was bout class II.  It was however, a huge rush after 6 days of flat water.  

Maybe down the road I'll get in my boat and give this trip another try.  Some day when I am better suited to appreciate the quite, stress free kilometers that the Fraser has to offer.