Page 8 September 1983 Cassiar Courier _AGAS SOME LIKED IT WET PLAIN SAILING SOME GOT IT WET Building Bridges A rewarding pastime. A SEASON FOR GROWING Just walking in the rain SIAR SUMMER “ROLLER FUN” “Slim Pickings” at the store a Not even the weather stopped the campers my. __ Cassiar Courier September 1983 Page 9 A Wilderness Experience Almost on our doorstep flows a truly great and wild river—The Stikine. The River rises in the center of the Spatsizi Plateau east of Eddontenajon. Last year | flew in with some southern friends to Tuaton Lake, near the source and paddled down to the Highway 37 bridge. The Lake is at about 4500 feet elevation, near tree line. Superb fishing and hiking kept us there for a few days be- fore heading on down the River. The upper Stikine, flows gently a few miles into’ Lazlui Lake. We were greeted there by a young hunting and fishing guide who spends the summer months guiding in the Spatsizi and the winter months running charter sailing cruises in the Caribbean. Nice life! At the outlet of Lazlui Lake the river takes a sharp left bend, plummets over a rock slab, and churns through _ a narrow, 400 m long channel. A huge eddy at the bottom of this section, which must be portaged, was home to a greedy Dolly Varden, which had three grayling in its stom- ach and my hook in its mouth. The upper River is crystal clear until it meets the Spatsizi River about 80 miles downstream. It starts off as a small alpine stream, 8 metres across and slowly grows to be the mighty mud- dy flow most readers have probably seen while driving down the Stewart-Cassiar Highway. Near the abandoned Indian Village of Caribou Hide, we hiked up onto the plateau, and were greeted by a herd of caribou. Our twelve day journey, which can be done in five, had only one rather anxious moment. On our last. day, we came upon Beggarly Canyon. The portage route is a grunt. It requires a 200 foot ascent and a bash through the forest. We were reluctant to portage and, upon scouting the rapids, decided that it was probably negotiable. We were a party of seven, in three canoes and one kayak. Upon drawing straws Judy, a fairly inexperienced kayaker was given the kayak. She is a gutsy lady who never tackled such a challenge. | expected her to dump. But the sun was shining, the water below the rapid was calm and a pebble beach 150 metres downstream awaited us for lunch. The three canoes went through unscathed. We waited below for Judy,cameras ready for the spectacular dump to come. To our astonishment, just as she started to head down to the rapids we heard the unmistakable noise of an engine. Usually this would be just an annoying intrusion into a wilderness experience. Just when Judy dumped, a power- boat and two men arrived from downstream. Of course, they were right there, ready to throw a line out and rescue her. But, instead of pulling her across and downstream, they hauled her upstream on a short small rope that burn- ed both her hands and the would-be rescuer’s. Her head came close to the struggling engine. Though the res- cuers were well-intentioned, they didn’t know what to do, panicked and gave Judy quite a scare. Later that evening, around the campfire by the Sti- kine bridge, we reminisced and felt a bit sad that it was' over all too'soon. The next day we scattered back to our respective homes in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, London. and Cassiar, the trip now but. a memory and photos. This summer, with friends from Whitehorse and Cas-. siar, | canoed the remainder of this lovely River. We didn’t paddle the most magnificent portion of the River—The Grand Canyon of the Stikine. This unnavigable 50 mile section starts just downstream of the Highway 37 bridge and goes to Telegraph Creek. B. C. Hydro plans to dam the River through the canyon, as well as portions of the Iskut River, the major tributary of the Stikine. At Telegraph Creek the River is broad, muddy and fast flowing. It flows 150 miles to the sea, through the spectacular Coast Mountains. The most challenging por- tion of this section is between Telegraph Creek and Glen- ora. Our escorts from Cassiar, Tony de la Mare, Marjorie Crawford, Peter and Pauline Snell camped with us in Glen- ora and took vehicles back to Cassiar the next day. Tony came down with us to Glenora in his inflatable boat. Next morning we said goodbye and headed out, fully loaded. Contrary to expectations, the closer we got to the coast, the warmer and sunnier the weather was. We were faced with headwinds practically every day. By the second day out, we were in the midst of the towering granite moun- tains with their blue-white hanging glaciers. One of our most surprising discoveries were seals over 100 miles upstream from the ocean feeding on the migrat- ing salmon, We were treated to some of these delicious sockeye, just netted that day. And | was saddened to find a bald eagle drowned in a net. It no doubt had been at- tracted to a flipping netted salmon. Bruce Beaton, Paul Temple and Jan Dale at a campsite by Great Glacier. Others on the final lap of the trip were Jean Kapala, Bob Wintonyk and Sue Omura. We stopped to visit the salmon cannery, actually a freezing plant, located just upstream from the Alaska’ border. The Great Glacier Salmon Company nets King and Sockeye salmon from the lower Stikine. | certainly found river salmon to be superb, not the slightest bit reduced in quality. Biologists from the U.S. and Canada were study- ing the salmon caught here to understand this internation- al fishery: is the source of considerable controversy. Alaskans are actually more aware of the Stikine than Can- adians and are more concerned about the potential impact of damming this free flowing river. Great Glacier = By now the river is slow and sluggish. In the last 25 miles' to the sea through Alaska, the river drops less than 50 feet. Side channels can be taken to avoid the winds that often flow up from the ocean. The main channel is % mile wide by now. A highlight of the trip is Chief Shakes Hotsprings, lo- cated about 15 miles upstream from the delta, at the end of a side channel. The mosquitoes were just terrible. The U. S. Forest Service has constructed a beautiful cedar building with a hot tub. The hot waters, not the slightest bit sulphurous, soothed the bites we had endured while hauling our gear:over a 100 metre long boardwalk and set- ting up our tents. The hotsprings have created a magical microclimate. Enormous spruce trees, and ferns grow by the springs. Frogs live there year round. We didn’t wish to leave the tub, or the sanctity of the mosquitoe-proof shelter. Jean and Bruce were kind enough to endure the mosquitoes and prepare supper, which was served with hors d’oeuvres and wine, to a most grateful crew soaking in the tub. The next day we paddled ‘out to the delta, and the sea. The landscape became lower and less rugged. We ar- rived at Garnet Ledge, another U.S. Forest Service cabin available to the public and !ooked across a calm sea to the lights of Wrangell. Having heard that an.extra fee is charg- ed for arriving at U. S. Customs after hours, we decided to spend the evening at Garnet Ledge Hut and make the crossing to Wrangell Island the next morning. The hut was hot and stuffy. And rumour has it someone snored so much that evening that nobody could sleep. Well, feeling very apologetic, | offered to treat everyone to breakfast when we arrived in town. | was amazed to see our crew, which never had broken camp before 10:30 a.m., and never before at least two coffees, sprinting across the open waters at 7:30:in the morning. It was a glorious day to end the journey. Wrangell was full of delightful shops and pubs. We were acquainted with Anchor Steam beer, and were treated to a feast of crab on the lawns of the ferry terminal, soaking in the sun and salt air and waiting for our ferry to take us back to Skagway. by Jim Gilpin SESS eh | Seacés g Machine Zipains aealls Overhaul & Tune-Up BOB CROTEAU 528 Malozemoff - Piione 778-7807 “ie < Ee <>