Week 3 of the Old Schoolers Trip.

With a fully loaded van, trailer and element we headed down the road for Smithers, BC.  A quick grocery stop in Prince George and a long stretch of highway later and we were camped on the lawn at Susan's house.  Susan is the awesome lady that owns Aquabatics Smithers, the raddest  little paddling shop in Northern BC.  The crew stopped in to check out all the gear and pick up some supplies for the trip.  The adult types stopped next door at the Eddy Line Bistro and Cafe to get some hot beverages and some super delicious baked goods.  From Aquabatics we headed over to Tatlow Falls for some playboating action and a few turns in the Dynamic Duo that Susan sent with us for the afternoon.  Ethan spent half the time hand surfing and took a few good whoopin's before we had to pack it in.  Beck and Jackie had organized all the food for our 4-5 days on the Babine while we were on the water so just one more night and we'd be at the put-in loading up the raft.

On day 1 of the Babine Trip Susan dropped us off at the put-in and the first thing we saw when we got out of the van was a gigantic grizzley bear named Theodore.  He's a local there and spends his time scooping salmon out of the river and, it seems, growing at an incredible rate.  With a crew on watch we got the raft loaded and ready to go.  A few group pictures with Theodore posing in the background and  we hit the water.  Day 1 was pretty mellow.  The sun was shining and the higher than average flow kept us moving downstream at a pretty good pace.  With Matt Burton from Aquabatics Calgary in the lead we knocked off 40km before setting up camp on river right.  The kids got to work unloading the raft and setting up their tents.  Dinner was prepared by the kids while some of the adult types napped and who knows what the others did.  It's pretty sweet to wake up in the wilderness with dinner ready to be served.  

Day 2 started off a little cool but the crew was prepared.  Sporting drysuits and extra warm gear, they got breakfast wraps made and delivered before packing up tents and re-loading the raft.  The whitewater on day 2 was a little more intense than on day 1 and the rafters had a pretty sick day blasting through holes and over waves in some pretty impressive rapids.  Peter made it look like he knew what he was doing guiding the raft through all of the day 2 rapids.  Again, the sun was shining and there were Eagles everywhere.  Golden eagles and Bald eagles, soaring, circling or perched looking for the next salmon dinner.  A few fortunate kayakers got to see the back end of a grizzly bear running from the bank as we passed by.  We took a walk up one of the tributaries to check out a cool fossil deposit.  The fossilized ferns were pretty neat, tucked up under an undercut on river right.  After the kids checked them out they floated back down the creek to their kayaks and we headed downsream towards the waterfall camp.

The gear was pulled from the raft in record time once the kids got their train together.  We set up tarps over the cooking area to protect from the drizzle that had set in and got to setting up tents.  Before long we were eating tortellini and alfredo sauce by the fire and the drizzle had stopped.  A few brave souls got clean in the pool of the waterfall on the edge of camp.  The higher than usual water made the pool quite deep and ridiculously cold but, the newly clean kayakers had a big fire to warm up beside once they were out of the water.  The morning river shower was pretty refreshing but it took a long time to warm up without a big campfire to help out.  Set in between a vertical canyon wall and steep, treed terrain the waterfall camp is a pretty remote feeling place.  In the morning we were fed and packed and on the river by 11:00am and the paddling was a good way to get warmed up.

Day 3 offered up some of the most sizeable whitewater.  Grizzly Drop, Pinball and Sphincter were the rapids we were concerned with spotting as we rolled out of camp.  Downstream of the waterfall camp the Babine is tighter and in a more defined gorge so the potential to have big rapids increases.  After blasting down a few rapids with Matt and the kayakers in the lead I decided to take the raft ahead so we could find Grizzly Drop and get stopped before they arrived.  It seemed like a good idea but Grizzly Drop popped up right away and did not have any of the characteristics I thought I was looking for.  There were no Grizzlies, there were no pools full of salmon and before we knew it Peter had smashed the raft through the corner of a big hole and we were through Grizzly Drop.  While we waited downstream the kayakers scouted their lines and, one by one, boofed their way over the diagonal and into the eddy at the bottom of the drop.  Shorlty after, they caught up to us and we headed down towards Pinball.  Now, Pinball isn't too great a concern when you have a 6 foot playboat with infinite maneuverability.  The case changes, though, when you are sporting a 13'6" fully loaded raft.  Peter made it through OK in the end but Pinball definatley bounced the raft around a bit.  Through Sphincter we lined the raft and the kayakers cruised through in a combination of right and centre lines.  With most of the big rapids out of the way we headed down towards Kitsegas Canyon.  Betweent he walls of Kitsegas Canyon there are big waves, exploding boils and very little room for a raft.  Matt took the oars for this section and Peter gave me a hand leading the kayakers through the whitewater.

At camp on the Skeena we did a little fishing, set a fire, cooked dinner and relaxed.  The hard whitewater of the trip was behind us and the sun was shining so our giant sandy beach campsite was a pretty stress free place.  Not long after the crew headed to bed the rain started and it didn't let up until just before we left in the morning.  The gear that had dried the evening before was wet, breakfast was cooked and served under tarps and the energy levels were low on the morning of Day 4.  Still, we packed up camp, loaded the raft and headed downstream towards the end.  At this point the Skeena is massive and it acts like a lost child.  Sometimes it charges frantically forward and sometimes it swirls lazily seeming to have no direction at all.  The kayakers are less affected when the river swirls aimlessly but the raft, on the other hand, grinds to what seems like a stop.  The only way to get downstream is to push on the oars and have the paddlers going full pace.  Needless to say, the last 40 or so kilometers are draining.  The confluence with the Kispiox River mared the end of the trip and the first close bear sighting since the put-in.  Here we met a small black bear that was pretty interested in what we had in our bins.  He was brave enough to come within about 20 feet before we chased him off.  Susan arrived in the van and all the gear that had just come out of the raft was loaded into the trailer.  The kayaks were loaded and we said goodbye to the Babine and Skeena.  It was a pretty awesome trip, all in all.  The scenery was spectacular, the whitewater was lots of fun and a little stressful and the company was great.