Logjams great and small

Hey all

Duncan and I have been exploring the small corner on the bottom right of the truly enormous province of BC, where the rivers are all at a fantastic medium flow, the sun shines all day, and at night you sometimes get an impromptu displayof awesome lightening and thunder storms.

We're learning about what it means to travel together. Duncan is like a specially sensitive mosquito campsite test- get him out of the car at any time of day and wait five minutes. Been bitten yet? No. Excellent, we can stop here then. Mozzies here are ferocious and don't seem to understand that they are supposed to be nocturnal.

After driving up thru Glacier National Park (beautiful!) we abandonned Seattle friends in Alberta and drove west in search of water. And found it. A week of boating in the Kootenays has made us into - if not a seamless team - at least a functional one. A day on Horsethief creek at highflow illustrated the fact that in a 2 person team you have to constantly be on your game. We both had sobering encounters with logs in one rapid, with the result that Duncan hiked out of the canyon while I cautiously pursued his boat down the river. Towing a creek boat past logjams great and small I reflected how wood is such an important hazard here in the northwest.

The locals are awfully nice here. We've had offers of help, shuttles and information from strangers on the river bank who quickly became friends.

Just as I surfaced from the news of losing one friend on theriver, another drowned in on the Sjoa in Norway. Chris Rendu was a great Hurley buddy - a person who enjoyed his boating more than anything else, whether taking photos or trying outhis new tricks on the wave. I've been thinking a lot about those who were with Chris on the river and all those who will miss him now he's gone.

Mick, who runs the NZ Kayak School has a habit of saying things as if they were written on huge bulletin boards on the highway. Sooty told me how he proclaimed one morning at an instructors meeting "Just bring them back alive!" While you can obsess too much about risk, I'm definitely developing a new and more conservative approach to my paddling on this trip.

We met up with the Seattle truck convoy again and ran a few local gems with long shuttles that we simply couldn't manage on our own. Sharing stories, beers and help with flat tires has been fun. We'll next head north to Kicking Horse river, and up to Jasper where as well as being tourists (Banf! Lake Louise!) we'll go in search of the mighty Fraser.

love to you all
Polly