Homathko Multiday

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

Khtada River

Class 5

An all day mission, From Terrace take Highway 16 towards Prince Rupert following the Skeena River for about an hour. Khtada flows into the Skeena via an inlet on the opposite side. This requires a big ferry across the Skeena which is around 1km wide at this spot, the paddle across took us around half an hour. Look for the Power lines that cross the Skeena and just a few kms upstream you will see the inlet, you can see a small bit of white which is the last drop. Paddle into the inlet and find the track on River right, the hike in took us around two hours with a few rests, the bugs are crazy over there, be prepared!!!
Put in at the bottom of the Davis lake, paddle right for a few hundred meters to find the first huge slide and away you go....

Page 17, Northern BC Backroad Mapbook

Shames River

Class 4 5

1-3 hours on river
5 kms long , Low volume, continuous gradient, Starts out with some bed rock slides and moves into some steep boulder gardens and then some cool mini canyons. This is another classic Terrace after work run, highly recommended. "BEWARE" there was a big log jam at the bottom of the boulder garden section and we had to take a river right channel.

Put in: From Terrace, take Highway 16 towards Prince Rupert, 5 mins later you will come to Shames River, drive up the shames mountain road on river right, follow the river you will cross two bridges and the put in is the third bridge.

Take out: The take out is 1.8 km up river from Highway 16 on river right, there is a small clearing in the brush.

Page 18 , Northern BC Backroad Mapbook

Northern BC Backroad Mapbook

You would be wise to get yourself this book

Copy in the put ins and take outs yourself!!!

Hirsch Creek

Class 5 "This run is the fuckin shit"

4 hours on river, To get to put in drive 6.6 km from take out bridge( locals call it the jumping bridge), You should find an old overgrown road on your left,walk down it for 50 meters and then turn into the bush on your left, bush bash hell fuck your way through it for 15mins or until you reach the river.Really nice run, goes through a canyon with 200m high walls. Gets really constricted in the canyon to about 5 meters wide in some parts. Loads of awesome drops, some really hard rapids and some really hard portaging. The locals call this one their "Gem" and it is totally amazing, one of the best runs I have ever done. Would be a wise move to take someone who's done the run before!!

Check the flow here

http://scitech.pyr.ec.gc.ca/waterweb/fullgraph.asp

Province= British Columbia= HIRSCH CREEK NEAR THE MOUTH

Anything from 0.6 to 1.1 should be good
Good luck and enjoy,

Page 18 and 19, Northern BC Backroads Mapbook

Kleanza

Class 4-5
3 hours on river. Several tight steep low volume canyons. Clean(we had one portage). A really nice solid run, continuous easily managable drops in tight canyons with must run situations. Definitely a must do run if your at Terrace. Access by logging road on River right.

Page 34, Northern BC Backroads Mapbook

Williams Creek

ROCKSTAR

Class 5
2-3 hours, Basically two large but runnable/portagable class 5 steep slide drops.Both are amazing,super photogenic. The put in is a bridge that crosses the river roughly 16km up logging road on river right. After the drops paddle 7km of class 3 to the bridge(this is the put in for the Mid Williams)

MID WILLIAMS

Class 4 and 5
2-4 hours , Lots of really fun drops, two solid rapids/drops that are easily portagable. This is a local after work run "Everything goes"

Page 19, Northern BC Backroads Mapbook