We booked tickets to Seattle for an August trip to British Columbia around the beginning of the year. Originally, our plan was to do a sea kayaking adventure, but our recent packraft investment made us change our plans.
Dani looks out over the Squamish River on the Ashlu Bridge the morning after the rain.
Our former neighbors, Joe and Erika, not only let us borrow their awesome camper van, but provided airport pickup and drop off as well. We arrived @ SeaTac on Saturday morning and got breakfast in Edmonds - where we dropped Joe to ferry back to Port Angeles. Below is our road trip route:
Pictured below is the Squamish River valley - and one of the rivers that we would run in our packrafts. Our plan was to continue up the Squamish River to its confluence with the Elaho River - where we would turn NW and continue into the Coast Range on an old logging road. The upper stretches of the Elaho - Simms Creek and the Clendennig looked to be incredible packraft options.
However, at the confluence we ran into a fire crew that let us know the entire area was on fire - and had been for some time. We audibled and chose to stick around the lower Squamish.
The Squamish River Valley is nestled between some incredible ranges. Almost all of the peaks are glaciated, and there are several large ice fields - such as the Pemberton Icefield that drain the basin. All the ice means that the river moves the most water in the summer when glacial melt is high.
It also means that the mountains are covered in cascading waterfalls in almost every direction.
Put in location - we were able to get a ride with one of the fire fighters after hiking the forest service road. I left my helmet in his car and had to speed hike the extra miles up to the fire camp to get it back before we could raft.
Camp
After exploring the Squamish - we headed up the Ashlu river. Pictured above and below the Ashlu has Class V+ sections that are popular with kayakers. We hoped that the upper basin would have a lower gradient and some better water for the packrafts.
Our trip up the Ashlu was short lived. The road became too narrow to travel by car long before we were able to reach the upper valley - so we set up camp in a nice remote spot and called it a day.
While up the Ashlu canyon we opted for a hike Tuesday morning to salvage the lack of runnable river. We started up the Sigurd Lake trail for about ~1500' to a small waterfall. The trail took us through some incredible old growth forest with some of the largest trees we've seen.
After the hike we spent about 3 hours floating down the Cheakamus River just outside of the town of Squamish. This urban trip was really great. We saw a lot of jumping salmon- and ran a good Class III rapid at our takeout by Fergie's Cafe.
We took the rafts out into the Howe Sound on our final morning for a nice relaxing paddle and saw a harbor seal. The plan was to then take the Sea to Sky Gondola up for a hike high in the mountains - but the $40/person prices and heavy smoke turned us towards Lighthouse Park - a historical park in an old growth forest just across the river from downtown Vancouver.
Long drive back to Seattle - should have stayed longer. Thanks again to Joe and Erika for letting us borrow the camper van and providing airport transportation. We owe you guys!
next time ..........
Garibaldi Lake > Upper Pitt River > Pitt River Hot Spring > Pinecone Lake > Mamquam FSR
