Lafferty Creek

Overcast morning but gradually the cloud disappeared. Very windy and Luke’s tent blew away into a bush.

We had a quick breakfast of porridge and scones made from scratch the night before and were off soon after 10.

We hit Lafferty’s Riffle soon after and went through four standing waves in a row that thoroughly soaked us, the waves seemed to be about 6’ high. Very exhilarating! Sam finally got me back for the soakings of previous days as I was in the bow and took all the splashing this time.

We stopped about a half hour later at Kraus’s hot springs for a very welcome soak in the warm sulphurous water. It is right on the edge of the river and apparently gets destroyed every year by the spring runoff and then rebuilt for the summer. The only downside was we had to wash ourselves in the cold river to remove the smell of sulphur.

Apparently before August this area can be used as a camp ground, but as it has a good berry patch, it is then closed to allow the bears to go about their business. Kraus’s cabin has disappeared but the old tool shed was still there, just behind the pool, and people who had not put their paddles in the Paddle Shed put them in this.

We paddled for another 2 hours, the river slowing and widening as we left First Canyon and entered the Splits.  The river spread out between various channels and Luke gave us strict instructions to follow him as he knew the main channel.  The country became flatter and marshier, however the skies grew bigger and we were treated to wonderful flying saucer clouds and patches of blue sky.  We stopped for a quick potato salad and salami lunch on a sand bar - as usual delicious!

Then we paddled on, covering over 50 km in all, our longest and most tiring day yet, ending up at about 6 pm on a big terrace on river left. We were lucky that the wind mostly chased us down the river. It was interesting how every now and then the wind blew remarkably warm - a classic chinook.

There have been surprisingly few birds on this trip, likely due to the cold silty waters incapable of supporting many fish. Today we saw several ravens and a couple of kingfishers.

At one point we saw 5 bison on the right bank, sitting very calmly right by the river. They were very impressive!

We stopped on a wide stony beach on river left. As soon as we landed the mosquitoes attacked us, they were vicious!  In no time Judy had her bug jacket on and I wasn’t far behind.  It was very gusty and rather dusty from the dried silt on the terrace but that did not stop the bugs.

Dinner was chilli and very tasty. Luke produced some Glenn Fiddich as a cocktail and then we had a beer - a treat!

After dinner Jason lit an impressive bonfire on the beach - a first as we had not been allowed bonfires in the park. Meanwhile the bugs kept attacking us, especially once the wind died down. The fire and sunset were spectacular and it was after midnight before we went to bed.