1st Whitewater of the Year

 

We camped 2 days this week at the Nicola River between Spences Bridge and Merritt.  The Nicola has a great Class 2 run with a canyon and one Class 3 drop.  

As retirees we able to snag the prime campsite at the end of N'kwala Recreation Site that we've been lusting after by showing up on Tuesday.  Nice and private and room for 3 trailers and 4 trucks.

Our New Trailer up against the rocks.

The first day we decided to start the run from the campsite.  Big mistake.  We thought we'd done it before, but it turned out it took us a long 5 hours, most of which was flat water (though scenic).  

See, scenic.

Also we ran into a log jam and had to take out our boats and portage across an island.

Lunch break below the logjam.

There were lots of birds along the route: many eagles, sandpipers, mergansers with ducklings, mallards, flycatchers, eastern flycatchers, a rough-winged swallow colony in a roadbank.

We were all pretty tired by the time we reached the action.  And because it was very busy, I took no pictures.

Water levels were the highest we ever remember paddling the Nicola.  After Leo and I ran the canyon we watched Dale flip over (extra points for paddling an open canoe through the maelstrom) and miraculously stand up in the middle of the river and empty his canoe.  It turned out he flipped on a rock and the eddy behind it was only 2 feet deep.

On the shuttle back to the campground we ran into these guys along the road.

Weather was nice but not as warm as we were expecting.  See our last Nicola paddle for tshirt and short action. (I was shocked to see our last "annual" trip to the Nicola was in 2015!)

See, chilly.  That's Cathy and Glen's identical trailer, not ours, in the background.

See, chilly, with bonus shot of Birgit and Dale's nifty A-frame popup trailer they can tow with their Jeep and accompanying portable outhouse.