Sayward Lakes Canoe Route by Stand Up Paddleboard

A glassy start.  Heading north on Mohun Lake.  Sept 2016

Day 1:  Friday September 2, 2016  

Victoria, BC... Fernwood...   5am.  It is pouring.  Not a spring shower, but full on November rain. It doesn't do this in September.  Especially on the start of a multi-day paddle board camping trip.  The forecast isn't great - a high percentage of rain each day.  But, not the sort of forecast where you can easily make the call to not go.

The invites went out to a good number of SUPing friends, but for this or that reason, the available crew for this trip was two, Graham and I.  We are headed north of Campbell River to tackle the 47 km Sayward Lakes Paddling Route.  You'll notice I called it a "Paddling Route".  In most print it's referred as a "Canoe Route". But, for this trip we didn't have canoes.  The vehicles of choice are stand-up paddle boards (SUPs).

The inspiration for this trip is credited to Paul Kendrick, who first toured this route by SUP in 2012.  He wrote an excellent blog describing this trip.  SUP'ing the Sayward Forest Canoe Circuit

Packing for a SUP camping trip has special considerations - you need to be a minimalist.  Every piece of gear is scrutinized.  But, safety doesn't get squandered in the goal to minimize the load.  You need to think 'glass half-empty'.  What if someone breaks a paddle?  a spare paddle is a must.  What if I break a fin?  a spare fin gets packed.  What if I get thirsty?  Whisky gets packed.  Here is my packing list for this trip, both individual and shared gear.

On the drive up the conditions rapidly improved, becoming mostly clear as we drove the gravel roads on route to Morton Lake campground.  We arrived at Morton Lake campground around 10am.  This is the put-in and a free place to park the car. It was pretty quiet.  We were the only ones preparing to do the route.  The campground hosts were doubtful about this trip.  Paddleboards.  Hmm.  Usually people do this in canoes.  Their doubt became justified when one of the hosts drove down to the launch to inform us that the passenger door of our parked car was left wide open.  Rookies. Oops.

We lashed the gear to the decks of our boards and headed north on a glassy Mohun Lake following the traditional counter clockwise direction.  11am.  Beautiful start.  You will notice in the photos that neither of us is wearing an ankle leash.  This was a conscious decision.  If you are travelling in a group there seems to be no reason to use a leash on a lake trip.  A leash would be more hassle than help.

One quirky find on the paddle north is a small tree growing from a stump, that is decorated for Christmas.

Graham inspecting the decorated tree on Goose Lake

Portage #1.  At the end of Goose Lake is a 1.6 km portage.  The Sayward route portages are known to be well maintained and "cartable" - you can attach your water craft to a two-wheeled cart, pile on your gear, and pull the whole works across the portage.  That is more appealing than shouldering a 70 pound hulk. In younger years that would not be a problem, but about a year ago I had a total hip replacement.  Easily travelled portages would help ensure all that titanium, plastic, and ceramic stayed intact.

For this trip I custom built a 2-wheeled aluminum cart.  The main ingredient is 1 inch aluminum angle which forms the frame and uprights.  The design needed to fit these criteria:  lightweight, strong (no plastic PVC piping), can fit on the deck of my board, leak-proof tires, good clearance to avoid rocks and roots. I plan to write an Instructables one day on how to make one. 

SUP cart, almost completed. Not shown are webbing that attaches to the frame and foam padding.

Loaded for the first portage.  Everything lashed to the deck.  It's hard to see, but I attach a foam cover to the trailing edge of the fin, to eliminate the chance of the sharp fin cutting my leg when I pull the board across the portage.

The first portage and the majority to follow were quite good for two-wheeled carts.  A few rocks and roots, but for the most part you just pull your gear on well maintained paths.  On occasion there will be an abrupt depression in the trail that necessitates a short carry with person on each end, to avoid the ends of the board from "bridging" the depression.

Graham admiring the well constructed bridge

The next section we encountered is called the ponds.  But after a dry summer they were too low to paddle.  Luckily, it was a short carry to by-pass this dry area.  The paddle down a creek into Twin Lake was excellent, with just enough water to permit clearance of our board fins.

Creek travel.  Kneeling forward on the bow of the board lifts
the fin and allows you to see underwater obstacles before they snag.

A rare rough and steep downhill section to Lak La More

The 0.9 km portage to Lak La More offered some steep challenges, but the carts proved up to the task.  It was about 4pm.  We still had not seen anyone on this long weekend.  We paddled a calm Lak La More and then into Amor Lake.  Just as we entered this lake were treated to the iconic calls of a loon.

Michel Gauthier's must-have guidebook described some stellar island campsites.  We decided to check them out.  The southernmost island campsite was spectacular.  We tossed the gear ashore and tried some SUP fishing for an hour, hoping for a pan-fried trout for dinner.  The freeze-dried curry meal I packed tasted quite good.  Interesting echoes of the loon calls.  And, so quiet.  Deafening.  Until you get into the woods you don't appreciate the constant drone of sound that a city creates.

In spite of rainy weather in the days before we scavenged some dry-ish wood and had roaring fire as the sun set to the west.  We felt good about day one.  The portages went smoothly.  The paddling was exemplary.  Whisky sipped in a toast.  Life is good.  We decided that bears would not be swimming to the island that night and took a pass on hanging the food.  The clouds to the south looked threatening, but it seemed to us that the weather was moving away from us.  Hope.

Amor Lake campfire

Day 1

Day 2:  Saturday September 3, 2016

We awoke to dry conditions and 10 degC temps.  This was not expected, but it was surely welcome.  It wasn't a sprinter start to the day by any stretch.  We had read that it's good to get onto Brewster Lake before the wind comes up, but it seemed quite calm, and the urgency seemed low.   We got on the water shortly before 10am.

Morning cup o' joe at Amor Lake

We paddled with a light tailwind to the end of the lake.  The Mr Canoehead campsite is right at the portage start.  It would be excellent for a group camp.  This campsite gave me the opportunity to recount the tale of the famous Canadian super-hero, Mr Canoehead.

Sensible amenities at Mr Canoehead campsite

The portage to Surprise lake is a stones toss in length.  We took in the beauty that is Surprise Lake, and leisurely paddled the short 1km distance.

The portage to Brewster Lake is the longest on the trip at 2.3 km.  This is where we met our first group of canoeists, 4 young guys from Victoria, maybe mid-20s.  They were clearly having a blast on this trip.  Unfortunately, one of their canoe carts was falling apart, but with the aid of a wee bit o' dram they overcame all obstacles.

Brewster Lake afforded us a light tailwind, as we headed due south, exploring beaches and campsites along the way.

Graham southbound on Brewster Lake

I should say at this point that we each are riding very different SUP boards.  Mine is a 10 foot all-rounder board, capable of surfing waves and flat water paddling, but really not purpose-built for either.  Graham's was made for touring.  It's 14 feet long, wide, stable, and designed to travel in a straight line.  And, as it turns out, it's a lot better behaved in windy conditions.

A closer look at how my board is packed

As the end of the lake came into view so did something else - whitecaps on the far shore.  We had heard about this.  The wind and waves continued to increase as we approached the S end of Brewster.  Worse, the waves were coming a bit from the side.  My board has some rocker in the hull which make it rather unstable in side-chop wave conditions.  But, it was doable, and I was able to stay standing (barely) and on the board.   For Graham, it was a great down winder, in control.  Once we passed Brewster camp it was calm.

I was somewhat anxious about the upcoming creek section.  Would it be too shallow for our SUP fins?  As it turned out this section was one of the more fun paddles.  There was some walking in the shallows, and kneeling with weight on the bow to pop the rear fin clear of logs just under the surface.  But, overall it was a great paddle through a meandering and picturesque creek.

Master of the creeks

The Sayward route offers a variety of paddling experiences

The day was going well.  The creek sections were easily paddled by paddle boards even during these late season months.  We cruised into Gray Lake around 3:30pm.  Another portage and some more creek travel took use to Whymper Lake.  

I'll pause for a minute to talk about footwear.  I think we nailed it for effective footwear on a SUP canoe trip.  On the longer portages we wore running shoes and socks.  That is the best for keeping a good footing.  For the paddling, I wore 3mm neoprene boots.  These worked well for the sections where you need to walk on a gravelly bottom. 

In all trips, something doesn't go well. That's part of the experience you sign up for.  The "experience" happened between Whymper Lake and Fry Lake.  As we approached a 400m portage sign at the end of Wymper Lake a conversation ensued that resembled this:

Mike:  I read in the guidebook that it might be possible to navigate this next section if the water is high enough

Graham:  I'm a bit leery of getting my board banged up on the shallows.

Mike:  We've been doing well today with the creeks.  I think we've got the techniques to deal with shallow bits.  Worst case, we walk, and carry a bit.

Graham:  Why not.  Life isn't meant to be all easy (<- I swear Graham said something like this.  It's my blog so that's my call !)

The fun of the day came to a halt.  The creek between Whymper and Fry Lakes was full of hate:   shallow, big slippery rocks underneath, fairly fast flowing, and generally evil.  It was a bad decision to forego the portage.

"I wish we had taken the portage option !"  Sigh...

My SUP is old and was already abused before this trip, so I opted to work my way through the shallows and rocky sections taking a few scrapes and dings along the way (but no holes luckily).  Graham's board was quite new and it would have been tragic to treat it like mine.  Part-way down the creek we decided the only sensible choice was to bail out and bushwack all Graham's gear up a hill to the portage.  It was already becoming a long day at this point and this extra effort took a toll on our energy and our spirits.  The portage was wide and smooth.

This leads me to a lesson learned on this trip:  Bring a beater water craft.  It doesn't matter what you paddle - kayak, canoe, or SUP - it's going to get scratched and dinged on this trip - guaranteed.

Shortly we were on Fry Lake and looking for a campsite.  We were both whipped at this point and cruised into Orchard Meadow campground, relieved to find a vacant site.  Actually, the place was nearly empty on account of the dismal forecast.  The campground hosts, Dale and Judy, were super welcoming.  Many thanks for your kindness. We setup camp and cooked up another freeze-dried wonder.  Dale and Judy lent us the interior of their truck to store our food for the night as there was a bear in the area.  Thanks!

We slept like the dead.  Graham had a GPS watch which indicated today was a 20+ km trek.

Day 2

Day 3:  Sunday September 4, 2016

Next morning was cooler.  7 degC.  Glad I brought my 3 season sleeping bag and not my thin summer bag.  Still no rain.  Just wall-to-wall blue skies.  Darn.

Incredible morning on Fry lake.  Calm with a light mist rising off the water.  We paddling towards Lower Campbell Lake trying to be mindful of the submerged trees that are often inches under the surface.

Fry Lake was formed when a dam was built in the 1950s flooding the area and raising the water level.  The trees were not cut down before the flooding - these behemoths present a navigation challenge for those who chose to paddle standing up and with 10 inch fins that are poised to hit a log, stopping the board dead (while the standup guy continues to propel forward !).  Other than a couple of close calls, neither of us was fated to impact one of these submerged gems.

Fry Lake showing its best

We know there are good sized fish in at least Lower Campbell Lake.  We ran across a fisherman just as he reeled in a large "Cuttie".  That's a fisherman's term for a Cutthroat Trout.  No surprise that it was the first I've heard of this term.  The fisherman shared some of his learned wisdom.  What stood out for me was "you'll never catch anything in these lakes without live bait".  We only had lures.

A keeper "cuttie"

Lower Campbell Lake is large.  You feel small paddling a SUP on this lake, and pray that it doesn't get windy and wavy.  Today, the wind and waves gods took a rest and served up a relaxing and gentle tailwind. The 7km or so to Gosling Bay went by too quickly.  We hung out at Gosling Bay in the sun for about an hour chatting with a guy from California who was in the middle of an epic cross continent journey.  He did well to end up here as this area is what I'd call a "local knowledge" spot.

Gosling Bay on Lower Campbell Lake

The 1.1 km portage to Gosling Lake was wide and easy with our SUP carts.  At this point we were getting fairly quick with the pack-unpack portage routine.

Encouraged by the sight of a fresh caught trout we pulled out the rods and lures at Gosling Lake and Higgins Lake.  SUP fishing really works, although I can't yet report on what happens if you actually hook a fish.

SUP fishing on Higgins Lake

Some ponds to paddle before Higgins Lake

The roughest portage was between Higgins and Lawier Lakes.  It's only 400m, but it serves a dose of hate.  Lots of roots and rocky sections.  However, it's well discussed in Michel Gauthier's guidebook so it doesn't come as a surprise.

A real test for the home-built cart

By the time we got to the south end of Mohun Lake the skies were no longer friendly.  It was looking quite dark to the west.  It seemed like the promised weather was coming.  We had planned on a 3rd night, but the thought of spending the last night in the rain led to our decision to forge onwards to the end.  The visions of burgers and beer began to form.

The final paddling leg of the journey was on Mohun lake, about 7 km.  I was a fine paddle in calm conditions on another big lake.  After landing we recovered the car from the parking lot and had a cool down swim.  Then, it was into Campbell River for that burger followed by an uneventful 3 hour drive back to town.

The rain started up around Comox.  The decision to cut short the trip seemed wise.

I would do this trip again and with a SUP.  It is an incredibly beautiful part of the island.  An extra day on Amor Lake would be in the cards.  And, next time, the fish will bite.

Day 3

Mohun Lake on the drive out from Morton Lake campground