"Moose Encounter, Of A Strange Kind""

On another back Channel paddle on the Peace River we encountered a confused moose swimming towards us. Needless to say we were quite alarmed at first but the poor thing looked extremely tired. I noticed that the young moose had a massive tick infestation on its' ears and on parts of its body. We thought it may have been trying to release these buggers somehow but I doubt that the water would have worked. We did edge the moose towards shore where it weakly emerged from the river and clumsily disappeared in the bush. When you paddle in Northern BC it is almost impossible not to encounter wildlife on every outing. Makes for great stories and photos and never is there a dull moment.

"Back Channels"

The sometimes fun part about paddling long and wide rivers like THe Peace River of Northern BC is that there tend to be lots of "back Channels". These are seperate water areas from the main river flow and some of them can carry on for quite a few km with their own flow but more often than not they are rest areas with calmer water and some great fishing spots. Camping spots too. Here we actually saw a black bear and we were watching him from our rafted up position. It was very foggy on the river in the early evening hours and we were looking for a place to camp, so needless to say we took our pepper spray and headed on down river a bit further where we hit another back channel that actually had a camping area already established.

"Halfway River, Almost There"

This is the end of the Halfway River In NorthEastern BC and just around the bend it feeds into the Peace River. I used to use this spot as a put-in site to travel down the Peace. The Peace River is wide and lazy for the most part but there certainly are action spots along it's length but it is certainly manageable in a seakayak. This is a Quest x3 from Seaward kayaks of Ladysmith, Vancouver Island. I came across this picture looking for the next two posts and realized that I did manage to get a paddle or two in ..in the cold winters of northern BC. This was getting closer to spring though and I believe I was harbouring the same feelings that I am now.......can't wait to have the ability to go paddle if you want to.....outside that is.......almost there!!

"Paddling The Peace"

 

The Peace River in Northern BC, which is backed up by the WAC Bennett Dam, is typically a lazy river but when the flood gates are open during repair which is not very often the flow can increase to 60,000 cfs and higher. The standing waves in the background were fun to surf and pound thru. Luke and I were newbies pretty much in this shot but we swallowed our collective anxiety and played here for awhile. Just a few years ago. I remember the excitement I felt when this shot was taken and now I sit today nursing s shoulder injury from trying to do a "back deck roll" at the pool session last evening. They looked pretty mangeable on "U-tube". Ha. Oh. that U-Tube. Thanks for the tips Brian. I did manage a few attempts before the injury and was successful on two occaissons. Need lots of fine tuning yet. I must say it is good to see the talent that does come out to the pool though and hear the stories. Especially Darrin's whirlpool capture in Chile. Maybe my shoulder ain't so bad afterall.