Lac la Hache to Bowron Lakes

Okay we're all packed up ready to go. Early in the morning hit the road while it's still quiet. I was just talking to there's two motorcycle two different parties motorcyclists in the campgrounds on tenting and there's a guy from Bellingham on a BMW who just came back from Alaska and he was saying that for the fuel thing because another guy was talking to from Washington was talking about fuel carrying fuel with you between stops to get to Alaska he said that a company named Giant Loop L-O-O-P giant loop makes an armadillo bag they make dry sacks for motorcycles but they make a dry sack or a bladder for fuel that you can strap over your side of your bike like a like a saddle bag so we'll look into that that might be something for the next trip but I don't know I mean Alaska is a big goal but he did it but I don't want to see if I just take my time just do a little bit every day I could probably accomplish it we'll see as for my way I finally got a luggage rack and saddle bags but I I did the the dry sack with my tent and sleeping bag and stuff in the dry sack and bungee strapped it I was gonna I was gonna tie it on with twine but that didn't work but I've got some heavy-duty bungee cords from Canadian Tire and they work old-school bungee cords old school but they're heavy-duty bungee cords but I was worried it was gonna fall off but no it held like a rock so far so good and the thing with the guy in the BMW he says the thing with the saddle bags is better because instead of a big heavy pack because your weights lower for when you corner and I still have my pack but I got like food and lighter stuff in it because it's just that when it when I have a heavy pack like when I go out Baker and you sit on the bike when you're standing the weight on the pack is evenly distributed but when you're in the bike the seat lifts it up and it tilts to the side and you got this heavy pack tilted to the side while you're riding it's very uncomfortable it's very irritating but the lighter the lighter pack is fine so the saddle bags help and the dry side bungee corded to the back it works you know I know everybody's got these big freakin Harleys that look like Goldwings and and obviously those hard saddle bags are a lot better they hold more and the big luggage racks but you know if you want a Goldwing buy a Goldwing I don't know everybody does their own thing this is my thing so here we are and here we go well we started off early and it was dense thick fog but the fog has lifted one of the things that a guy was saying about the fuel dry sack is that when you're not using it you just roll it up and put it near in your side bag and then when you're at a spot where you know that it's a long distance between gas stations you can just unroll it, fill it up and use it. I think it's a good idea so anyways this is a test run we're picking up new ideas seeing what works what doesn't work next time I'm gonna bring my my leather motorcycle jacket you know I thought that you know it's the leather vest this is summer but in the mornings it's cooler and especially in Alaska I'll bring my motorcycle jacket and a face shield for the rain all right to where Williams Lake and the fog is continuing to lift Williams Lake is a bit more of a city I never really clued in that there was a lake at Williams Lake I guess that was kind of obvious but yeah it's it's more there's more businesses here in Williams Lake onward and upward okay so this is upstream on the Fraser River on the way to Canal Clubs Lake just outside of a way up Wells on the way to Barkerville I just saw the map and realized that but I have to turn before Barkerville to get to the bar when lakes turn off but I think I'll stop off at I think I'll go to Barkerville first over here yeah I'll go to Barkerville the ride from Canal to Wells and Barkerville was very pleasant it's hard for me it's easy to forget that I'm on the Fraser Valley it's the the geography has changed again and it's much more green and more trees but the ride from Ash through Williams Lake to Boggy and I got wet pretty cool I didn't dress for this I was expecting summer, you know, hot, sunny but the sun came out and and the ride from Canal to here was very pleasant all right this is the road to Bowron Lakes just outside of Bakerville and Wells 28k on a dirt road to Bowron Lakes the dirt road looks pretty packed no potholes so let's do it all right this is the Bowron Lakes Provincial Campgrounds and just up the road is that Becker's Lodge you can rent canoes and what do you call it, dollies or whatever to carry the canoes for the portage this looks like a boat lodge this is this is pretty nice okay so I guess you could I don't know, I guess they have kayaks here you can rent this is pretty nice so you paddle to the end of the lake your portage and you paddle to the next and the next and the next this might be worth doing one day okay this is Bowron Lake Lodge right by the the the boat lodge and they're a private firm where you can put a tent right on the grass right on the lake and Becker's Lodge is further up and then down here is the Provincial Campsite so this is good okay this is just by the registration center if you're going to do the canoe circuit and if you do the canoe circuit here's the scale you're supposed to weigh your gear because it's supposed to be maximum 60 pounds in the canoe or kayak on the dolly because if it's too heavy they don't want the trail to get all worn out so if it's more than 60 pounds you've got to carry it on your back I guess I don't know, I guess that's one of the rules we'll see and these are the food caches they have along the on the campsites along the route you have to reach up and turn the thing inside to open it and bears can't open it so you leave the food in there, not in your tent so that bears don't come in your tent and there's signs saying along the route and beside the campground that I'm camping in that there's a bear in the area so I better they say keep it in your vehicle oh I can't have a motorcycle so I'm going to have to throw it in a bag and throw it over a tree whatever, whatever we'll do what we have to do alright I went for the lakefront site option paid a little bit extra for it this was 40 bucks instead of 45 for the lake view but this is on the lake you can swim in the lake and it's much less chance of bears the other place was high up and it was full of bears but this is just going to be on the lake in the open stars this is this is nice like what can I say this is nice so yeah there's no wifi this place has showers by the way the other place didn't have showers this place has showers this is beautiful I could come up here on the day for a trip and put the kayak in or I could come here camping overnight here and put the kayak and paddle around and yeah this would be a nice, I could put in right here this would be freaking awesome they said you could paddle to the other end of this lake and paddle up some river at the other end of this lake this is a Bowen Lake there's a whole chain of lakes if you're doing the circuit this is where you end to start the circuit after I set the tent up I'm going to hike up there you portage the first little bit like your canoe or kayak is on on dollies so you kind of roll it and you roll it to the first small lake and then cross it and then lake, portage, lake, portage and then you go around this huge it takes 3 to 6 days I think depending on how fast you go this is nice and also it's weather permitting like sometimes it will be pouring but anyways this is nice okay tent is set up I'm going to throw my gear on the tent I'm going to check out some options I'm going to check out that trail to the beginning of the Bowen Lake circuit that you have to portage but I'm also going to see if I can rent a kayak or a canoe for the day if you could for a couple of hours because that would be awesome I just wanted to comment this tent here I really like these kind of tents because the flexible poles they fit into this holder my other tent didn't have that so I threw it out this way you don't have to screw around with tent pegs and these things just hook in for the fly I lost one so I just tie it on manually I really like this kind of tent it's really simple up, down, up, down and you don't have to worry about the tent pegs if it gets windy or whatever you can throw some I remember when I was on Hogsback I put some big boulders in the corners just to hold it down but anyways this is nice also I forgot to mention I had an insulite wrapped up that didn't fit in my dry sack so I just brought my sleeping bag and I have an old school summer sleeping bag that I just use as a ground sheet instead of insulite and it's very comfortable I had I have a backpackers air mattress very thin air mattress it works very well but I did it when I went I went snow camping on Seymour overnight once and on the snow it was like sleeping on a on a cold water bed it just sucked all the heat out of me and my buddy who goes hunting he says yeah the air mattresses aren't good for the snow because your body can't heat them up and that's why you need insulite so I bought the insulite but it wouldn't fit in my dry sack so I just stuffed this old summer sleeping bag in and used it as a ground sheet and it works very comfortable for this old man sleeping on the ground and my old gym locker lock just for a minimum amount of security while I'm off doing errands with all my gear inside the tent minimum security ok this is the registration office for the canoe circuit and this is this is where, that's the parking lot and this is where you portage your canoe, your dolly you drive it up here, this is the start of the circuit, where I camp my tent is the end of the circuit so you register here you put your canoe or your kayak on a dolly and you roll it up this path and you roll it down this is like I say the starting point and of course bears are in the area and there's those metal food couches along the route so I'm going to check out to see how far this portage to the first lake is it's a nice trail it's a little bit uphill for portaging a canoe but that's ok ok here we are live in action somebody's portaging the canoe on the trail, they're stopped alright here we go here's a valiant crew portaging their canoes, they've got these roller things and they're going to go the whole distance I don't know how much further it is but this is a long haul to portage I would not recommend this for an in and out day trip if you're going to start the canoe trail go down here and then you finish where I put my tent that's a lot nicer for the most part the trail is dry there was one kind of a muddy dip and there's a couple of light muddy spots but it's been sunny I guess that's why they have the weight restriction because if it's raining and you have everybody with too much weight then it just digs up the trail but if you're sunny it's not much of a problem there we go, it's a long slog ok now it's literally downhill so you could technically go cart it down ok, it's up and then down I can hear them behind me yep, there are kids still coming but here now it's literally downhill so I don't know, you've got to be careful it doesn't roll over you ok, I see water and I see food caches maybe people can camp right at the beginning after that long portage there's no real spots to camp though those are the food caches for the bears ok, this is where you put in for the beginning of the famous Barrowin Lakes trip, it's kind of anticlimactic but this is why they start here and you don't finish here because you get that long physical portage out of your system and yeah yeah, so you go down, you put in here and you go over there, there's lots of guys that have videotaped the canoe trip, but not too many have videotaped the first portage so I wanted to get that in because that's significant this trip is the Barrowin Lakes canoe trip, doing the whole circuit it's not for the faint hearted I mean when you compare it to like a fun run or a marathon, this is like a marathon I mean it's magnificent, it's magnificent but you have to be physically prepared and you also have to be prepared for the conditions, because during that trip it could rain the first couple in the first canoe said they did it before, they did it in three days, which was really fast it takes three to six they said they were hoofing it because there was a forest fire approaching and some people got turned around and they didn't want to get turned around, so they were going from dawn to dusk in the first three days, so three to six days it takes to do the complete circuit and they said that first portage there's other portages like it so yeah I'm also going to check out the Powell River one here they come, here they come they're not riding it dum dum dum dum okay so they take it off the dollies and put it in here yeah I have to admit, it's next level but this is a nice trip no question about it but the Powell River one I'm going to check next there's a bunch of lakes there and I think the start is easier but this one you get the hardest part over with first and there are other portages but the ending is a lot nicer when you finish one I forgot to mention as I'm heading back here, it was 30 minute hike in, a 30 minute hike and they pretty much caught up to me when they're going downhill, with portaging with the canoes they caught up to me without a backpack without a canoe, without a dolly so they said going down, I don't know they're in good shape but it was about half an hour just to hike, and half way up is going up and then half way the other half is going down ok, we're multitasking here so I got my campfire stove going here I got some pre-made roasted chicken rice it's already cooked you just got to heat it up, I threw a little water in there, and I got some pre-cooked chili I'm just going to heat it up, so it's rice and chili is what's for dinner on the lake, there's no restaurants around here I just kind of hope the boonies be this place is full of RVs and families with young children so this is perfect, no crazy parties no drinking, no loud music this is nice ok, I got I'm going to keep pumped on this one it's my propane at least it's got a little bit of room the rice is hot, but the chili's not hot yet here we go oh, there's the fire ok, now it's finally working, when it first works it has to heat up the main tube, and it goes kind of wonky and then once the main tube is kind of heated up, then it goes to a blue flame. I got this instead of propane because I can just fill it I know how much I have, and this is supposed to work at high altitudes in the cold but anyways, this is what I have, and this is what we're doing ok, we're in the homestretch, now it's finally warm the rice is warm I finished off the rice without the lid on it over the heat to get the water off and now this is hot so now I'm going to chow down on the lake living the dream alright, here we are, this is first night on the beach of the Barwon Lake, this is the ending of the lake circuit beginning, as I said, you have to hike and portage a long way, but you can do a day trip right here so I rented a canoe for a few hours and he let me take it over to my tent tonight and it's not charging me in the morning so I'm going to get up early, paddle around to the other end of Barwon Lake and I'm going to go up Barwon River and I'm going to paddle back this is awesome ok, that guy's paddling solo but he's paddling in the middle of the boat, which makes sense what the guy did for me he gave me a big giant rock to stick in the front, so I'm sitting in the back with a giant rock in the front, like I'm a kayaker, you know I've done a little bit of Voyager canoe, I've done a little bit of Dragonboat canoe, but paddling solo in the canoe, you keep zig-zagging I asked him about the J-Stroke and he just said basically paddle two on one side, paddle two on the other but then I started trying the J-Stroke because I don't know if you go the J-Stroke in or the J-Stroke out I tried the J-Stroke out and that kind of worked, I just paddled on one side and I kind of twisted it with my hand when I was paddling on the right side, I twisted it with my left hand and I kind of flip pivot with my right hand the paddle out a bit to make the J-Stroke and that was working, it was keeping it straight anyways, we'll try the solo canoe to the other side of Barwon Lakes and Barwon River tomorrow morning and I might get a canoe because you can put more gear in a canoe but anyways he's up in the middle, which kind of makes more sense we'll work with it, we'll try it out and see what works nice the sun sets on the Barwon Lakes yeah, I was over at the campsite when I was having a shower and everybody was like are you watching this on there? they said no, a plane flew low overhead and it looked like it crashed and we heard a bang and some smoke so I went to my bike and the lady at the desk said it was an ultralight, they said that there's an airstrip nearby but the lady at the desk said the ultralight crashed so she was on the phone I said do you have cell phone service? she says no, I'm calling 911 through WiFi oh so it's covered, so that's pretty tragic I rode up there but I couldn't hear or see anything but if the guy crashes, he's got no cell phone service so that's not good so hopefully it's unchecked but other than that, this is a beautiful place sunrise sunset so the sunset from Whitecliffe now this is the sunset at Barwon Lakes the lake is behind me this is the sun sun sets in the west, so the lake is in the east nice