Bowron Lakes Canoe Circuit - British Columbia


A 116 km/71 mile loop through spectacular mountain scenery - self billed as one of the 10 best canoe trips in the world - don’t know that its that good, but in the top 20 or 25 for sure.  It is well worth doing if you are in that area.  Could be combined nicely with a trip to Jasper and Bannf National parks or Glacier Nat’l park, or while going to or from Alaska.  It is a long ways from just about everywhere, so not really something you’d want to do by itself - or not?  I drove 4400 miles round trip from Denver, combining Bowron with a river trip in Montana on the return.

You are paddling beautiful long lakes surrounded by mountains.  There are 7 portages and 3 river sections connecting the lakes.  The portage trails are designed for using canoe carts, and except for the 2nd one were in very good condition - I mostly took the 85# boat with 60lbs + gear in it across by myself at a brisk walk.  The only really tough portage was the second one, which had a lot of little mud holes and logs that caught at the wheels and made for hard going uphill.  The 7 portages total 6.5 miles and there are 4 or them a mile or more in length.  At the registration center, they weigh your gear and tag it so that you have no more than 60# of gear (not counting paddles, axe, pfd and fishing gear) in the boat on the cart.  You carry the rest on your back - we single tripped all of the ports.  I only saw two other boats that were not using canoe carts - one guy was carrying O.T. Discos without even a portage yoke - ouch!  Everyone else used carts.

There are two distinct ways to trip.  A “Group”, defined as 7 to 15 people is assigned an itinerary and campsites (all large group sites).  Less than seven people is a “party”, and you do your own itinerary, but must camp only in designated sites (but not in “Group” sites).  Campsites had built up tent pads, and we needed sites with 4 pads, which dictated our itinerary.  The majority of camps had 3 or 2 tent pads.  There are 4 or 5 or so large picnic shelters scattered throughout the circuit - we stayed at camps with shelters twice - very nice.  There are also a half dozen or so old cabins you could choose to use for free - but probably buggy and mousy.  All of the campsites we stayed at were very nice - all had outhouses and fire rings, and most had “benches” around the fire rings.  You are not allowed to gather firewood - except from marked woodlots.  The first one we stopped at was empty; the second had sawn log chunks, but it was green and hard to get burning;  the third had really nice, beautiful splitting wood that we’d carry with us to next camp.  Water was taken from the lakes, but some were very silty and we deliberately camped at sites with creeks nearby, which were a good source of clear water.

Most people take 8 to 10 days to do the full circuit.  We had planned 8, but did day 2 and 3 combined taking advantage of a nice tailwind.  On day 5, park rangers came by our camp and told us there was a fire ban in effect, and a fire burning in the park (about 10 or 15 miles away) and that they would let us know if we needed to evacuate.  Next day, they caught up to us (in power boats) and gave us the evac order - get out asap.  We spent one more night in the park, and made it back to our vehicles the next day - so a 7 day trip.  Weather had been very hot and dry and lightning had sparked that fire (and about 250 others burning in BC)  we had a lot of smoke in the air, occasionally obscuring the mountains, but not causing any difficulties.  Most of the smoke was from a large fire a hundred miles to the south of us. 

We didn't fish, but talked to others who did and they were having good luck.  Lake Trout, Whitefish and other trout - supposed to be good fishing.  Also supposed to be good wildlife watching - we only saw 1 Black bear, a Cow and Calf Moose, two mink and two weasels, all swimming, each separately, a half dozen eagles and an osprey.

Its well worth doing this trip, and I'd recommend it.  I can send you  some links if interested.  You really need to make a reservation as the quota fills up fast.

I doubt I would be single-portaging it (like you), these days, but it sounds like a great trip.  Thanks for putting it on the radar screen!

Jimbo