To do: Paddle the Murray River

The best moment for this 56 km paddle comes fairly early. From the Kinuseo Falls parking lot, carry your boat down the 3 km trail past the upper viewpoint and down to the river below Kinuseo Falls. This is the hardest part of the trip. But it is not the best moment.

Once you get down to the river, paddle across to the island, get out and line upstream past the rapids or power through them to paddle in the mists below the falls. This is the most beautiful and most magical moment of the trip.

After spending some time at the base of the falls, point your prow downstream. There are a few minor rapids, but nothing past a class II. That said, you can’t just drift down river; get too close to the bank and fallen trees can capture and capsize the unaware paddler. Jet boats are frequently seen heading up the river, and they’re not used to seeing paddlers here. And once water levels drop in summer, there are a number of boulder gardens, where you may have to get out and walk if you miss the deepest channels.

There are plenty of places to stop and rest and relax on the many islands in the stream, which is good, because most people do this route over two days, although it can be done in one very long day as well.

If you’re the sort to want to stop and fish, the Murray has a decent crop of bull trout, (catch and release only) and Arctic Grayling, (catch and release only until about 2 km below the falls).

You’ll pass under three bridges and take out at the fourth if you’re paddling from Kinuseo to Tumbler Ridge, and it is possible to arrange for a pick-up/leave a vehicle at any one of these locations to shorten the trip.

And if you want to make the trip longer? Go past the boat launch on Highway 29. This is your last viable option to take out before you hit the confluence with the East Pine River, about 120 km later. Paddle upstream to the take out.

This section of the river features some class III features: ledges and chutes and a whirlpool that can trap the unwary. It will take another two or three days to paddle this section, making for a three to five day paddle, all told.

While Kinuseo gets all the press (you can still find it on a number of top ten lists for highest waterfalls in BC, though it’s not anywhere near the tallest; most spectacular? Certainly. Tallest? Not even close), there are plenty of other worthwhile waterfalls to visit in the Tumbler Ridge area.

Bergeron Falls is one of them. At 100 metres high, it is almost twice as tall as Kinuseo, but moves only a fraction of the water, especially later in summer.

Bergeron Falls is set in a natural amphitheatre above the Murray River. Bergeron Creek flows through a narrow gap in the rocks, but as it hits the rocks on the way down, it fans out, becoming much wider at the base than at the top. The trail to the falls climbs steeply up from the trailhead until it gets to a cutline across the mountain. Left will take you to Bergeron Cliffs (another fine destination), while right takes you to the falls. Keep left at the junction to get to a viewpoint from the cliffs at the top of the falls. Note the crumbling nature of the rocks and stay well back from the edge as you admire the views of the magnificent falls.

There are a number of other interesting destinations just above the falls, like Hidden Valley, a mossy, steep-sided valley that parallels the main cliff edge.

And, if you’re doing the side trail to Hidden Valley, why not take the side trail of the side trail to Dipper Falls, a small, pretty waterfall. You can also visit Scalpel Ridge off the main trail, which follows a narrow knife edge ridge before descending to a bench in the forest beside the creek. Of course, looking down at a waterfall isn’t quite the same thing as looking up at one, so for the more actively inclined, the trail continues down to the bottom of the falls. This section is considered difficult, with an elevation gain (and loss) of 450 m, compared to 170 m to go the viewpoint.

Still, the trek down to the base of the falls is worthwhile as you stand next to (or beneath) the falls, feeling the cool spray on your hot skin. In early summer, Swallowtail butterflies have been seen congregating in the hundreds at the base of the falls, and mountain goats are frequently seen on the cliffs around the falls too.

Destination: Bergeron Falls

Gone Fishin’

Imagine a perfect summer evening. The air is still warm from the heat of the day, but the sun is hidden behind the hills, as the sky moves from blue to purple.

You’re on Moose Lake in a small boat, slowly being pushed along by an electric trolling motor, it’s soft thrum nearly inaudible. In the distance, you can hear the evening calls of the birds.

Then, before you, you see the telltale ripples of a fish surfacing to take one of the evening’s admittedly plenty of insects. Then another. Another. Farther away you see an energetic rainbow trout leap fully out of the water to splash back down. As you keep looking there are dozens, perhaps hundreds of expanding concentric circles about you, breaking the glassy surface of the lake.

And then the tip of your rod twitches as one of those rising fish takes your lure, and the fight is on.

This, my friends, is not a word picture created whole cloth to lure unsuspecting anglers to Tumbler Ridge, but an actual moment from last summer.

Moose Lake is one of Tumbler Ridge’s most popular fishing destinations. The lake is annually stocked with 2500 rainbow trout to keep anglers happy, and while you’re not going to catch a lunker here, the fishing can be fast and furious and the fish are feisty.

If it’s lunkers you’re looking for, your best bet is to head slightly further up the road. Gwillim Lake is about 50 km from town, almost exactly halfway between Tumbler Ridge and Chetwynd on Highway 29.

Fishing Gwillim is almost the opposite of fishing Moose. If Moose is small and intimate with plenty of small fish, Gwillim is big and blowy with the occasional giant fish. One local angler says he spent the better part of a week getting skunked on the lake.

As he was about to leave in frustration, he felt a tug on his line, and pulled up the biggest lake trout he had ever seen. After that, he went back every chance he could.

In addition to lake trout, anglers will find bull trout, northern pike, moun-

Continued on Page 14 tain whitefish, artic grayling, and burbot here. The lake has low nutrient levels, and is succeptable to overfishing. It is not stocked.

Boot Lake is another small, stocked lake, southeast of town. You can access it from Highway 52, north of town, or by following Highway 52 south as it makes a long loop around Bearhole Lake Provincial Park. This road is much longer, but is also generally in much better condition as the first 10 km of the Hourglass road is frequently very rough.

Boot Lake is stocked with rainbow (5000 annually) and brook (3500 annually) trout. While fishing for brook trout differs slightly from fishing for rainbow, you don’t need specialized gear for either. (Note that, as this magazine was going to press, a fire in the area had closed access to the lake; always check with the local visitor information centre before heading out.)

If you do follow Highway 52 south of town to get to Boot Lake, it will also take you past Stony Lake. Unlike many of the lakes in the area, Stony’s prime catch is pike, an aggressive, mean looking fish that’s all teeth and bone. Unlike trout, which are all about finesse and patience, pike will eat just about anything that looks appetizing. There’s lots of pike here, which means they don’t get very big. But they are quite hungry, so it’s hard to get skunked here, even if fishing from the shore.

Another popular lake to fish is Quality Lake. The lake is shallow and prone to winterkill, so it is stocked annually with 1500 catchable rainbow trout, which grow quickly in the nutrient rich water.

Fishing Quality Lake can present a bit of a challenge, espe- cially without a boat, as there are only a few places to cast from shore. Best bring a belly boat or small, hand-launchable craft (there is no boat launch) and get out on the water.

If you are looking for something different, the Murray River has some good sized bull trout lurking in its depths. There’s also whitefish, rainbows, and arctic greyling.

The best place to fish the Murray is near a confluence, like where the Wolverine River flows into it, once the river starts running clear in summer. Some people spincast here, but fly fishers will tell you that catching a greyling on light gear with a caddis or a nymph is magical.

As you move up the streams that flow into the Murray, you’ll find smaller versions of the same fish (greyling and bull trout). People have had luck catching fish around Flatbed Falls, for instance, but also along the Wolverine and up Bullmoose Creek.

Want to know more about fishing around Tumbler Ridge? The Visitor Information Centre has a guide to these and other places you can fish around Tumbler Ridge. They also hold a fishing derby at the end of June each year. Call 250-242-3142 for information.