The drive and journey from Jasper to Vancouver was another very memorable trip with people and places I will not forget. It started off saying bye to mom and Pat in Jasper as they headed down what I would say is the most beautiful drive in Canada...the Glacier Highway towards Banff.
I headed towards Vancouver with not much of a plan. I stopped at the Fraser River Upper Canyon and walked into Overlander Falls with Rain. It is a nice 15 footer. After we stopped at Mount Robinson. It peaks at just under 4000m in elevation. I could not see the top for the clouds but still it was beautiful.
I Stopping in Clearwater BC for a paddle with a guy named Mike from Riverside Adventures Rafting. The Clearwater River is BC's big water play river. It was a great river but after coming off the Slave which reached flows of 6000 cm/s the Clearwater River at 500 cm/s did not seem very big. It had a couple desent play waves but no eddy access. I played in a hole most people that hit the line right don't play in. Had a solid little beat down in the rapid called The Wall. Clear sailing after that though. It was a fun river and thanks to Mike for taking me down and letting me stay in his yoga studio/appartment for the night!
The morning took me just down the road to a town called Lytton BC. The landscape became very desert looking through the valleys. Dry dusty rolling hills filled my front windshield as I drove. When I got into Lytton I headed for a rafing company called Hyak to find paddlers. I ran into a lad from New Zealand named Hamish who was keen to go creeking. There are several rivers in the Lytton area including The Thompson, Stein, Nahatluch and many more. We desided on the Nahatluch. We had to walk the shuttle but it was not bad. The creek was sweet. The put in was so narrow I could almost reach accross the river. A real shock after a month on the 3km wide Slave River. But getting back in the creek boat on some technical pushy creek felt good. A little rusty at first when I hit a sneaky rock and got caught up in the hole behind it brefly. I started to feel good in my creek boat again when we got to a rapid called the Nossil. The only one worth looking at Hamish told me. We looked at it from ontop the canyon walls for half a second and then just went for it. The intro was easy with a few slides with green tongues before having to make an S bend turn and get back to the river right side to boof the hole. I didn't make that move. I went straight into the hole and came to a complete stop with a big back loop. The hole let me go after and we laughed about it and continued on our way. The creek was a ton of run. Thanks for going with me Hamish!
I spent that night hanging with all the rad people back at the Hyak Rafting base before heading towards Vancouver the next morning. I ran into bad traffic and got lost but I finely got to Brandon's house (my cousin) to chill and relax for the night!
Johnny
