Trip Report: Widgeon Creek Mar 16, 2024

The First Trip 

March 16, 2025 

 

Well, we certainly had a trip.  

The first part of the adventure was the porta-potties.  It was great to discover that they were stocked with TP.  The adventure part was that the TP was biodegradable.  That is a good thing, except it dissolved in your fingers if you tried to unroll it.  Good thing we were cautioned to bring our own. 

 There were nine people in four canoes, who met at Grant Narrows around 9:30 on a damp Sunday morning.  We had originally planned a later start, but everyone was early so away we went.  Perhaps we all wanted to get it done and get out of the rain ASAP, I don’t know, but there we were. 

 All loaded and ready for our adventure, we set off with a very high tide still coming in.  The crossing was uneventful which was good.  Once across, we set up our four-boat parade, chatting as we all paddled through the rain.  It wasn’t coming down very hard so all was well.  Overhead, we had groups of trumpeter swans heading upstream.  The distinctive call from Canada geese lent a familiar feel to the trip.  There was lots of water and we never even came close to gravel or pushing our paddles off the bottom. 

 By the time we made it up to the campsite, we’d actually had a glimpse of blue sky, and the rain had stopped.  The first folks out of the boats had raced to the large tree, but it was dripping wet, so we all moved outside to an open-air table.  Jen had made cookies to share at lunch, and Katie had baked carrot cake muffins topped with cream cheese icing. Thank you both.  I don’t think anyone expected to need extra calories going back to the put-in but I , for one, didn’t care.  Both were wonderful. 

 Since it was really wet underfoot, no one wanted to hike up to the waterfall, so we left after lunch.  It was still dry though overcast as we started off.   

 About half way downstream, the mist turned to a soft rain that gradually increased in intensity for the rest of the trip.   
 
The views were lovely – clouds everywhere of course, but fresh snow was glimpse through them to the surrounding mountain tops.  It was soft grey shifting to white shifting to clouds.  Spectacular.   

 Not many birds were around.  Several eagles were either soaring around or perching in trees.  There were mergansers – the drab crested females playing hard to get with the lovely males trying to vie for their favours. 

 Once we were ready to cross the Pitt River, it was really raining.  We now had an outflowing tide, but it wasn’t strong enough to cause any problems for us.  About half way across, we saw a seal that was seeing us.  Around this time, the rain started to acquire a bit of a bite to it.  By the time we made shore, it had turned into hail, and the hailstones came down harder and faster and thicker.  By the time we had actually unloaded the boats, the ground was white with ¼ inch hailstones.  They smashed into our exposed hands as we were hauling and folding gear, and locating our vehicles.   

 All in all, we had an adventure.  Thanks to Corrine and Ron, Katie and Sue, Bob and Carol and David and Jen for coming along on our first trip of the season.  It was grand!  

 

Leigh B