Yale to Hope

Went down the Fraser River in a Voyageur canoe from Yale to Hope today. We were on the water at 6:00 AM and saw the sun rise over the mountains. My first experience with moving water. It was awesome. Eddies, whirlpools, rollers and standing waves. It’s really interesting how the current moves.

Obviously where the Fraser is wide it moves slowly. Obviously, where it is narrow like Hells Gate, it moves fast. Likewise you can have shallow parts in the river that moves faster than others. Rollers are awesome. We avoided those in the canoe but it was sure impressive to paddle beside them. I’m sure a raft would be safer for shooting the rapids but it sure felt like being in a time capsule crossing fast moving water in a Voyageur canoe just like in the olden days.

Obviously water follows the flow of gravity down. The greater the drop the faster the water. Although the current does generally flow downstream usually there are eddies on the side of the river where the water backpedals and actually goes up stream. Padling up an eddie is entirely possible and sometimes you don’t even have to paddle the current will take you.

Realizing that helped understand how and why the Natives but their fish nets the way they do. The net goes out from the shore at an angle down stream so when the salmon swim up the eddie they get trapped in the net. I say a First Nation’s brother use this very effectively in the Cheakamus. Today we saw several similar nets in the water. Seemingly the Spring Salmon are starting to run.

Whirlpools are cool. We were crossing the river and I said look at that. That whirlpool is gonna suck you down like tornado. We’re supposed to try and avoid those our steer person said. Standing waves are cool. Another part of the river the current swirled around and took us fast upstream. Indeed the current is fascinating and I look forward to gaining more experience as we prepare for the Thomson.

I had to keep my camera in the dry bag for the fast water so I couldn’t get ant pictures of the rapids. I didn’t want to lose another camera and everyone has to paddle in the rapids. I was able to get some pictures as we entered Hope.

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