Gordon Banks » Kayaking

Telegraph Cove

Gordon — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 01:13:34 +0000

Recent pics of an eleven day sea kayaking trip to the Broughton Islands off of Vancouver Island. The Broughtons offer endless small islands to explore, paddle or camp. The biggest trip obstacle is the Johnstone Strait crossing (3km) which you navigate leaving and returning to the Telegraph Cove. We rented a double sea kayak from North Island Kayaks out of Telegraph Cove, British Columbia. Telegraph Cove makes for a very easy putin/takeout location. You can organize out of the Telegraph Cove Resort campground or go luxurious with one of their cabins on the Cove’s boardwalk. Getting yourself and your backpacking gear to Telegraph Cove is really all you need to do logistically to make this trip happen. We flew from Vancouver to Port Hardy, BC, you can get a cab at the airport, we negotiated a 45 minute grocery stop at the IGA in Port McNeill with our driver (Reg, Rainbox Taxi, 250 956 8294). You can buy last minute items at the small dockside store in Telegraph Cove. Many sea kayakers or boaters; short on time, use various water taxis to get shuttled out into the Broughtons. The rates seem to vary greatly, but expect $400 to $600 for any destinations beyond Johnstone Strait.

Upper Boulder Creek

Gordon — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 03:53:40 +0000

Cory Walker, Gary Eldridge, Bruno Lutz running Upper Boulder Creek (UBC) during peak run-off (June 27, 2009). The gauge was at 700cfs in the morning. Elephant Buttress Drop shown. Super fun level. All photographs: Cheyenne Willis. Video: Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS (read: cheap).

Mobile Flows

Gordon — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:48:46 +0000

iFlows Mobile

iFlows was put together by Chris Webster to check whitewater flows on mobile devices from Phateye. This is not an iPhone app, but a light-weight webpage that provides flow data that should be easily downloaded over slower EDGE cellular data networks. Just go to the mobile Phateye URL and bookmark it. Especially nice, if you’re on a roadtrip and want to check a flow on location.

NSV 2009 Update

Gordon — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:58:53 +0000

Sean Lee in the California section of NSV

I hadn’t been in NSV for a while, so yesterday was a bit of an unknown, we discovered a bunch of new wood to be heads-up for. A small handsaw could easily eliminate a majority of these strainers.
Sean, Andy, and myself put-in with around 250cfs on Saturday. This is a medium low level but not too low, when broaching becomes a hassle in the upper part of the run. We discovered that Cascade #1 had a new major strainer in the middle of that drop. This will need to be removed before anybody can run this drop. This strainer will require more than a hand saw to remove. Boating down the upper woody section, I was taken out by two strainers that were difficult to avoid. Thanx to Sean and Andy for rescuing my boat; the second incident requiring a “live-bait” rescue and rope work in very cold water.
The California section seems to be good to go, no new logs to be aware of. Thread-the-Needle drop can be run middle or right now at 250. There should be enough snow left this coming week to run NSV. And as always; bring an extra layer and your A-game.

Dynamic Duo in Narrows

Gordon — Thu, 21 May 2009 19:58:36 +0000

This section of the Narrows went fine, but just after we go over the horizon and into Mr. Bill, shit starts to hit the fan.