Exploring the Nanika
Canoe Trek with Kids Day 2

Leroy got up early the next morning, lit a fire, and made some video of the sun coming up on the mountains. There’s nothing between the far end of Kidprice lake and the start of the snow capped mountains. I can only imagine what the scenery at Nanika lake would be. Our second day in the park dawned cool and clear, but with no clouds in the sky it promised to be another scorcher. We boiled water for our Scrambled eggs and coffee, and while we waited for Anna and Alice to finish up their breakfast, Leroy flew his drone out over the lake for some more video clips. Our main goal today was to make it to Nanika falls and get the drone footage Leroy was looking for. As we were coming back to the same site in the evening, there was no packing up to do, and – even better – no portaging on the books for today.

The last time I had been here, we had canoed Stepp lake and portaged to Kidprice with just one canoe on a day trip. It had been too windy on the first day, so we got up early the next day and went out and back. On reaching Kidprice lake, it had been so windy that the waves were coming in over the bows of the boat. We had been forced to beach the canoe half way to the falls, and walk through an old wildfire burn to see the falls. This time we were going to be able to canoe to the trailhead on the far side of the river and get a better view. After dislodging a number of large toads that had sheltered under the canoe for the night, we put in and got paddling.

BC parks has done a great job of making this route accessible. All the portage trails and campsites are marked so that they are visible from the lake and each one starts with an informational sign with a map and a summary of the trail ahead. The campsites have picnic tables and outhouses, and many also have metal lockers to keep food and gear safe from bears. All the signs have warnings about avoiding the mouth of the Nanika river that drains out of Kidprice lake as the currents can be quite strong, and the falls are not far.

We weren’t sure how far out the stronger currents started, so we gave the river mouth a very generous berth. When Anna started asking why, we explained to the kids that the water there would pull you in, kind of like going down a drain. We kept our eyes open for any kind of signage on the shore, but didn’t see anything other than a rudimentary cable car across the mouth of the river. In the end, we went way around the river and then backtracked along the far shore (better safe than sorry), finally spying enough coloured canoe paint on the rocky shore to let us know where to pull out. Once we got up the to trees, it was more obvious we were in the right place – a bright yellow warning sign graphically depicted what would happen to canoes that went further down the river. We set off down the trail, picking the odd huckleberry, blueberry, or salmon berry from the many bushes as we went.

At 18m (59ft) high and quite wide, the Nanika falls are quite impressive. I certainly wouldn’t want to go over them in a canoe, or anything else for that matter. The trail skirts the river edge just upstream from the falls and then continues on mostly level to the view point while the water drops away. I got the kids settled with a granola bar and some berry bushes while Leroy concentrated on flying his drone up and down the river to get the kind of angles he was looking for. Looking across the falls I could see the small clearing where I viewed them from nine years ago. This time we definitely had a much better vantage point. When Leroy had his drone safely back in hand, I got some still pictures and we started back to the boat. We had accomplished our main objective for the trip, but it was still only mid-day. Another hot, sticky, and windless day – great for boating, not so great for sitting on shore with the bugs. We decided to continue up Kidprice lake and check out where the Nanika river comes in from the west.

The real mountains are at this end of the route. While there are a lot of things I like about living in Vanderhoof, it definitely has a different kind of scenery – one of skies and farms, not mountains. These ones are impressive, rocky peaked ones with patches of snow hanging in the shadows of the north slopes. As we made our way to the end of Kidprice, we got around the last of the smaller hills to bring the peaks of the Sibola Range of the Hazelton mountains into full view. On the other side of them is the Tahtsa reach of the Nechako reservoir – a watershed that originally flowed east to join the Fraser river and so on south to Vancouver. Two river systems so close, and yet they reach the ocean so far apart. Neat how that works.

We paddled for an hour – not entirely sure where to find the mouth of the Nanika – before reaching the end. The upper Nanika is not a large river, but it flows quickly enough that I wouldn’t want to have to pull or paddle a canoe upstream. We considered a few places to beach the canoe before spying a gravel spit along the side of the main channel. We got the kids out of their life jackets to run and splash while Leroy flew his drone up the river. It was fantastic – I’m not sure words can do it justice, and even photos can’t convey the feelings of accomplishment that come with a trip like this.

We spent about half an hour at the end of Kidprice lake. Alice found herself a goose feather to replace her special rock that she had picked up near the falls then accidentally dropped over the side of the canoe. Anna had a great time splashing in shallows of the river and watching the little shore birds poke their beaks in the sand. The lonely, small puff of cloud that we had seen after leaving the falls had drummed up a few friends and a bit of a breeze was picking up from the west. We got back in the canoe and started our return trip with a hint of wind at our backs.

We all had another good swim in the lake when we got back to camp. The breeze kept some of the bugs away while we had our dinner – Mac and Cheese again for the kids, Chicken Stew again for us – and we pulled out a bag of Hawkins Cheezies to celebrate the adventures of the day. Tomorrow promised a lot more hard work of paddling and portaging.