British Columbia!

Looking into the Box of the Ashlu

photo by Lance Reif

This fall I was able to finally head north of the border and experience some of the amazing rivers that BC has to offer.  After working a weekend guiding on the Tieton river I headed north to meet up with Michael Shields and LJ Groth at the Ashlu drainage.  The previous week some of our buddies had been getting on Tatlow creek but unfortunately levels had come down so we got to paddle some other classics in the area.

 LJ Groth in the Mine section of the Ashlu

photo by Lance Reif

I arrived at the Ashlu drainage at about 4 AM after getting lost in Vancouver for a while.  With the rain coming down, I drove up the dark canyon of the Ashlu river outside of Squamish.  The brown star (aka Michael's car) was parked where they said they would be, but being about 4 AM there was no sign of the other guys, so I just decided to sleep in my car.  LJ and Michael woke me up when the light was entering the canyon.  After cooking up some food we started to scout the Box section of the Ashlu.  It is a pretty committing stretch of whitewater.  As the name suggests, the canyon boxes up and opportunities to walk off the river are limited.

Michael Shields at the 30 footer on Callaghan Creek

photo by Lance Reif

The put-in rapid on the Box is called 50/50.  Its a 30-40 foot stout drop that the 3 of us decided to put in below.  So we climbed out way down to the river and committed ourselves to this magnificent gorge.  The first rapid we ran felt a lot bigger than it looked from the rim of the gorge 100 or so feet up, but lines were good.  After several more big rapids the three of us began talking about how big it felt.  We were only about 5 rapids in and we came to a point where we could hike out.  We scouted the next rapid and after some talking we decided that flows were pretty high and we should hike out and come back another time.  Michael was the only one in the group who had been on this stretch and remembered hiking off last time with some locals and he thought the flow was lower than what we currently had.  So off into the jungle of BC we headed.  

Lance Reif on Callaghan creek

photo by LJ Groth

We all felt good about our decision to hike off the Box, but without beta on the other stretches of the Ashlu we headed into Squamish to find an internet cafe and find some other rivers to run.  Michael and LJ called some friends and with the help of the internet we were able to get beta on Callaghan creek, the Cheakamus river, and the Mine section of the Ashlu.  So the next few days we were able to get on these classic runs.

Callaghan creek was awesome!  The flow we had seemed a little low, but all the good rapids went.  There is a sweet 10ish foot waterfall the is followed up by a nice rapid that leads into one of the best looking 30 foot drops you will ever see; super clean, into a nice pool.  LJ and Michael were scouting from the lip when I got there.  I asked them what the line was and they replied "do whatever you want."  This seemed strange to me with such a big looking horizon line, so I stepped out of my boat to take a look for myself.  They were right though, it looked good to go, so I got right back in my boat and fired off.  All three of us had great lines.  Michael and I dropped our bows into the pool while LJ decided to boof the crap out of it and stomp it down, making it look easy.

LJ Groth stomping the 30 footer on Callaghan creek

photo by Lance Reif

The Cheakamus river was super fun.  The road to the put in was pretty rough, so we were not able to drive all the way up it.  Having a bum knee, LJ decided to pass on hiking his boat up the road but Michael and I shouldered out boats to the put in.  The first rapid was a nice big 10ish foot boof and then from there to the takeout was continuous class IV+ whitewater.  I was having so much fun on this stretch, and just when I didn't think it could get any better a group of girls hiking alongside the river decided to drop trow and give us a full moon.  I pulled into the eddy formed by the rock they were on and thanked them for the beautiful view then pealed out and headed to the take out.  Quality stretch of whitewater and what a view.  Unfortunately, we didn't take any photos from this stretch, sorry.

 

Lance Reif

30 footer on Callaghan creek

photo by LJ Groth

We then returned to the Ashlu and were able to get on the Mine section.  We knew of 2 portages and that one of them kinda snuck up on you, luckily we got good beta from a friend of LJ and Michael's.  So we got around the first one easily, and then the 2nd one had 2 options.  Hike early and through the woods, or catch a must-make eddy right above the portage.  So we scouted the eddy from the rim of the gorge along the other portage trail.  It looked small, but not too hard of a move.  I volunteered to go first, mainly because I had no interest in hiking my boat through the BC jungle again.  I was able to catch a smaller eddy than we scouted from above and then hiked down to the next eddy and signaled them in.  The whole run was sweet, I got tooled a few times and swear that is the fastest I have ever moved downstream while upside down.

The dam on the Ashlu

photo by Lance Reif

Overall BC impressed me.  Quality runs, and tons of them.  Unfortunately the Ashlu river is in danger.  Currently they are working to dam it up and divert water through a tunnel carved in the mountain to create hydro power.  The project is nearly complete, so get up there to check out this amazing river.  In my opinion, the Ashlu is one of the most beautiful river canyons in the world.

For my parting shot I give you Spirit falls on the Little White.  This is in Washington, but it reminds me that although BC is sweet, the Gorge aint so bad!

Lance Reif

Spirit Falls, Little White Salmon

photo by Max Blackburn