Cariboo Connector

Author: Hardy
General area: Cariboos
Trip start date: 2016-08-16
Number of nights: 5

Here is a trip report from another water-based adventure in the Cariboo.  This time the trip idea came from my friend Trevor McConkey in 2016.  In looking at a map of the region around Quesnel Lake and Wells Gray Provincial Park, he noticed the long, narrow lakes in the area and how they all sort of line up with each other.  This led to a question – could we paddle some 150km from the south end of Clearwater Lake to the western end of Quesnel Lake?

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Trevor’s idea got even better.  Instead of hauling boats along the portages between lakes, he suggested something different.  How about getting two parties to start from either end of the trip at the same time, and just leave boats at the lakes for the other party to pick up?  None of this painful portaging business.  It was a great idea in theory.  So with that as a concept, Trevor, Robyn, Carol and Wayne started from the west end of Quesnel Lake in Likely, and Mark, Eric, Justin and Hardy started from Clearwater Lake.  We would paddle towards each other and hopefully meet up in the middle of the trip at the east end of Quesnel Lake.  Clearwater Lake Tours arranged for us to have canoes to cross Hobson Lake.  Good to go!  The only question for this trip was crossing Lickskillet Creek between Clearwater and Hobson Lakes.  It was very high the year before our trip (2015) and apparently can be difficult to ford.

Day One – After lots of driving, we put on late and paddled some 15km up Clearwater Lake.  Clearwater Lake has nice sandy beaches, mountain views and great camping.

Day Two – We paddled to the end of Clearwater Lake and started the first portage.  We stashed the canoes in the bush and slung some beer for the other group!  Then we were off down the trail that leads to Hobson.  The first part of the trail was nice.  We came across a hemlock tree that had been hit by lightning and was smoldering.  We decided to call it in to BC Wildfire using our inReach.  After our message went through, we continued on. Next stop – the crossing at Lickskillet.  We were relieved and somewhat surprised to find the creek very low.

After Lickskillet, the trail started to peter out.  It doesn’t seem to get much use.  After 15km of hiking, we emerged from the bush at Hobson Lake.  Our hearts sank.  A tree had fallen and crushed the canoe that was stashed for us!  Now what were we going to do?  Relief as we got closer – this was an old canoe!  Our canoes were hidden on the other side of it.  Good to go!  We put on and paddled a ways down the lake and set up camp on a sandy beach.

Day three – the day started off with stellar weather.  Hobson Lake was my favourite lake of the three.  It feels remote and the views are nice.  There was no sign of people.  We paddled to the end of the lake and found the trail heading over to Quesnel Lake.  The trail is about 10km long and is actually an old road, which was overgrown in places.

Sometime that afternoon we popped out at a beach on Quesnel Lake.  Trevor and crew were already there!  By some stroke of luck, both groups arrived at the east end of Quesnel Lake within an hour of each other.  A celebration of sorts was in order.

Day four – off we headed to paddle the 100km of Quesnel Lake back to Likely.  Fortunately, the scenery along Quesnel Lake is wonderful and helped to alleviate the monotony of endless kilometres on flatwater.  After stopping at Silvertip Lodge to talk heli-skiing, we continued on to Niagara Falls.  It was fun trying to paddle up the river outlet to get close (but not too close!) to the base of the waterfalls.

Next on, we had to make some miles.  Quesnel Lake can get big waves in short order, and we had some larger rollers push us along to Bouldery Creek.  There were endless beaches along the lake to camp on.  We had our choice of deluxe campsites.  Mark and Eric spread their sleeping bags on the sand and slept under the stars.  I tried to do the same but couldn’t stop thinking about bears walking on the beach, so I opted for the security of a tent.

Day five – Endless miles.  We stopped at Elysia Resort for a burger.  We were starting to see lots of boats and cottages now.  Camped near Beehive Island.

Day six – Endless miles.  Past Cariboo Island, and back to Likely.

And that was about it.  Maybe one day Trevor will write a companion trip report that describes their trip from west to east.  Thanks for reading and see you out there.