We knew this would be the most challenging day. Eventually arriving at the creek it looked like it was too low, but we had come all this way so decided to give it a shot anyway. The falls are so clean we will at least get to run those right?
The shuttle road was a bit much for the Outback, so we dropped the boats off, set up camp and shuttle, then started hiking back to our boats. We picked them up and continued to the clear cut marking the start of the bushwhack. We dropped in just before the clear cut (recommended) and found our way to the creek without the use of any rope work. The creek was definitely silly low, but we were happy to be there and bashed downstream until we arrived at the first ledge. It proved to be a bit tricky, with a small undercut and room. I saw a line so decided to give it a go, while Nick took the dry line on the left.
The key to the line was to make the turn, and hit a critical boof to land in an eddy on the right away from the wall. This would set me up to ferry in front of the wall to safety on river left. My line can be viewed below.
Below here were some very steep boulder gardens. They were ultra marginal at this flow and we had to use some creativity to get down them, but all went well in the end. Soon enough we were through the final slide and at the lip of the triple, being there was worth the effort! We set about scouting and determined the second drop was not to our liking. The normal boof on the left was dry and the right fell into a bad pocket.
Portaging would be very tricky. The plan was to run the top drop and have the person on shore grab the boater and pull them out of their boat onto the shore. There wasn't an eddy which added to the challenge. We thought it would be easier in the IK so Nick went first.
He had a great line and we got him out just fine. It went well for me too, utilizing my safety strap to attach to my boat before I got out. With both of us out of the water and our boats on the shore, it was painstaking not to loose a person or boat off the slick slabs. We both did a throw and go about half hour after running the top drop, and soon we found ourselves paddling the third falls, which we had only scouted from 1,000 feet up on the hike in! Luckily its ultra clean and we both had good lines.
There is one more good rapid and then we spent the rest of the day dealing with mank. Paddling onto the Lillooet was a huge contrast. We once again paddled to camp and after another scooter malfunction and jog for Nick, we were resting in the Skookumchuck hotsprings and planning our drive to Wells Gray Park the next day...
-Jacob
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