Class 5
3-4 days on River
110km
Not really at Terrace but kind of on the way to Terrace
From Williams lake drive 3 hours inland until you reach Tatlayoko Lake turn off, drive for 30 mins until you reach the lake, carry on driving down to the South end of the lake. The road was discontinued so we had to paddle the last 5km south across the lake.
Day 1 (5 hours)
Paddle the last 5kms of flat across the lake, paddle approx 20kms of flat class 2.
Amazing scenery, we camped with views of glaciers.
Day 2(9 hours)
Starts off class 3, picks up into low volume class 4-5 boulder garden action.
Flatens out for a short distance and drops into Birthday canyon, This is a short canyon and is bigger than than it looks!!
1km after Birthday canyon Doran Creek drops in from River left, doubles the flow and immediately drops into "Abortion Canyon" THE ONLY DODGY CANYON ON THE RUN.
We scouted on river right, there is a huge rock in the middle of the canyon with a class 6 rapid on the right of the rock. There is a possible portage at river level on the left side of the rock. Although it appeared to be chocked 30 feet high with logs and we were not game to drop in. We took 2 hours to scout the canyon from river right, only to decide to portage the whole canyon on river right which took 2-3 hours. After the canyon we dropped back in and paddled the last 1km to the Trifluence of Homathko, Mosley and Tiedeman where we camped.
Day 3 (7 Hours)
This is the big water day, a couple of kms of open big water, the walls start closing in and you are faced with the biggest rapid on the Homathko "The Bet". We all took the easy 15 min portage option on river left. There is another three canyons after this, all were good to go. Scout all the entrance rapids and the rest of the big rapids in the canyons could be scouted from river level at the flow we had which was just under 200cms.
After the last canyon "Waddington Canyon" we paddled for 2 hours and set up camp. We saw a 1000 pound Kodiac Grizz about half an hour upstream of our camp!
Day 4 (5 hours)
Flat but moving water all the way to Bute Inlet. We were picked up by a float plane and flown back to our car at Tatlayoko Lake.
Put In: Tatlayoko Lake
Take Out: Bute Inlet
Float Plane Company/ www.tweedsmuirair.com
Helicopter Company/ www.whitesaddleair.com
It is possible to be picked up by Helicopter after Waddinton Canyon, skipping out the last 50km of flat and cutting a day off the trip.
We put on end of September with the recommended flow of around 200cms.
Check flow here British Columbia-Homathko River near mouth-Discharge
5 comments:
Just a small note - on day two.
The original name for "abortion canyon" is "Good Morning Gorge". The name does not make the canyon any easier, but it does allow for continuity in trip reports. Of note, in my past two descents we ran the first half of the canyon too a difficult eddy on river left. Here we portaged (definitely the preferable side to portage as it is flat and does not require much elevation gain). Look for a small side canyon which will put you in right below the unrunnable nozzel type falls). There is a gorgeous camp-site on river right below Mosely Creek.
What did you think of the Tragic Canyon (the one with three sections, whirlpools, big boof, and the death hole). Both times that section was F^&*in terrifying.
Anyways, names do not make an area any more special. Congrats on the descent. I often wonder why that river does not reach the status of acclaim such as the Stikine.
Oh, and next time think of running the BET! That thing is crazy fun.
One more note-
When we ran the Homathco it was at 300 CMS. I have had some friends run it higher and found the river to be a "hell of a long portage!"
The level you guys ran it was probably different and might have made for a very different river.
Curious do you know what CMS it was?
for river levels go here:
http://scitech.pyr.ec.gc.ca/waterweb/fullgraph.asp
Whoops - Disregard my last comment. I finally read the whole post and saw your discharge level.
One last question... Was Shane with you guys?
It was just under 200cms, just myself ,Cory and Tom on the trip.
We had beta on the river left portage but we scouted from river right, Couldnt see any options to exit the canyon once in. Although there did look like a possible portage around the unrunable falls at river level on the left. But couldnt tell for sure. Tragic canyon was big and fun, the bet didn't look like a good idea at the flow we had.
Nice post. Looks like a phenomenal run I can't wait to get on it.
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