Words By: Ben Ghertner
Photos By: Ben Ghertner & Harold Schaefer
One day, last June, while sitting in traffic driving home from Vancouver, I got a call out of the blue from my buddy Harold Schaefer. It had been a while since I had heard from him. The last time he called me like this, he invited me to go on an epic multi-day trip in Northern BC. So, I wasn’t surprised when he asked me if I wanted to fly into the Sustut river with him a month later. It sounded like an epic trip, so I agreed immediately. A month later, I was standing at Alpine Lakes Air, loading our gear into a prop plane for 5 days on the river.
The trip started on Johanson Lake, an hour or so flight from Smithers. I was somewhat surprised when we landed on the lake to find other people staying at a hunting cabin on the lake. I knew that there was the alternative access option to drive a 14-hour shuttle and access the lake by road, but I was still surprised that there were buildings and other people in such a remote area. Harold and I put on our gear and loaded our boats, so we could find a nice private spot to have breakfast. We stopped just downstream to make some coffee and oatmeal before starting our first day of the trip.
Once we had fueled up our stomachs, we started paddling down the tiny trickle flowing out of the lake. The creek must have only had 2 or 3 CMS (cubic meters per second) flowing down it. Any less water, and we would have had to drag our kayaks. Over the first couple hours the creek quickly became deeper and by midday there was almost enough water to call the creek “running.”
After lunch, the shallow gravel that had been characteristic of the morning, turned into shallow boulder gardens and we entered our first bumpy class II rapids of the day. The river picked up quickly following the first rapid and entered a steep “pinball machine” rapid that split around an island. We went left but both got pinned and had to shuffle ourselves out from between the shallow rocks. The right side didn’t look like it would have been any better. Luckily this was the manky-ist rapid of the trip.
After the large pinball rapid, there were a few small rapids before the river mellowed to flatwater for a few kilometers. When the river picked up again, we found ourselves quickly at the top of a horizon line. We were able to catch an eddy, just big enough for two boats, at the lip of a small boof in the middle of a steep boulder garden. The drop was boat scoutable, and we both sent sweet boofs off it, without taking any photos unfortunately. After the big rapid, the river mellowed out again and it was a couple hours of lazy floating down to our first camp spot, a nice sandy beach just downstream of the confluence with The Sustut River.
The river had been gaining flow all throughout the first day. By the morning of the second day, it felt like we were paddling on a real river. We were still scraping on rocks occasionally, but by the time we reached the first rapids of the day, the river had enough flow that we could avoid hitting rocks all together. The morning was mostly flat with a few small class II wave trains and one class III rapid. After lunch, the river picked up a bit and gave us several quality class III wave trains. The most notable rapid appeared to have a horizon at the top but when we got close it was clear it was just a small boof into a long wave train. Eventually the class fun rapids mellowed back to flatwater and the river geology began to change from wide open alpine landscapes to canyon headwalls.
After the change in geology, we reached the first class IV rapid of the day. It was a weird flume-drop that we were able to boat scout. Neither of us had smooth lines but made it to the bottom no problem. Soon after the class IV rapid we reached a clear horizon line and the first of the class V rapids on the trip. There was an easy spot to get out on the right side of the river so we climbed out of our boats to take a look
From the river right we had a good enough view of the main line to decide not to run it. The rapid started with a large guard hole backed up by a boulder. Then most of the water that wasn’t going into a deadly sieve on the right pushed into a large undercut boulder on the left. We had heard that past groups had either portaged, which looked to be extremely challenging and sketchy due to the steep terrain, or had run a small sneak shoot on the left side of the river. From where we were standing, we couldn’t see the left shoot well, so we got back in our boats to look from the other side of the river.
After half an hour struggling to get a good look at the sneak line due to the steep terrain, we decided to run the rapid. The sneak line was fun in its own respect, starting with a 5 foot boof. We then were able to slip through a gap in the rocks along the left wall that was just big enough for a kayak and finished the rapid with another 5 foot near vertical drop. There was a short pool at the bottom of the big rapid before another horizon line.
We ran a line down a steep flume on the right side of the next rapid. There looked like there may have once been a good line down the center, but a larger boulder had fallen in and the main line was now a drop onto the big rock. The sneak wasn’t very technical but had a fun 8-foot-tall ramp through a narrow slot.
After the pair of large rapids, the whitewater mellowed for several kilometers. It was getting close to dinner time when we got to the last significant rapid of the day, a long lead in to a 4 foot tall boof. Harold and I sent huge boofs then continued downstream another kilometer, leaving the canyon behind us, and found a beautiful beach with stunning mountain views to camp for the night.
The third day started with a mix of flat water and fun class III wave trains. By this point the Sustut had become a sizeable river and there were some fun small waves to surf along the way. After two hours of boogie and flats we found ourselves at the top of a horizon line in a big canyon. The first rapid was a long class IV wave train with two big wave holes at the bottom on the right and a sneak option on the left. We both ran the right line and got out to scout the second big class V of the trip just downstream.
It was easy to get out and scout the class V on the left side of the river. Unlike the previous day’s class V, this one was easy to scout and would have been easy to portage as well. The main line, on river right, consisted of one huge hole backed up by an undercut wall followed by a second ledge hole, so we both opted for a sweet boof line on the left instead. After the class V the rapids mellowed out and we stopped for lunch when we got to an old railway bridge over the river. While exploring our lunch spot we ventured into the woods behind us and found a spooky old cabin just out of site of the river.
There was no more whitewater on the Sustut after lunch but rather we spent the rest of the day floating through mellow sections of flat water. Mid-afternoon we were surprised to pass some people, with a motor boat tied up on shore, fishing. They were as confused about where we had come from as we were about where they had come from. We told them we were on our third day of paddling down the river, and they told us there was a fishing lodge just downstream they were staying at. We got to the confluence with the Skeena around dinner time and stopped at a large beach right before the confluence to camp.
We woke up on the fourth morning and started the last leg of our trip down the Skeena River. The creek we had started paddling as a 2 CMS trickle was now a 500 CMS roaring river. The last two days were just fun big water on the remote and scenic Skeena. There were too many class III-IV big wave trains to recount and several high-quality surf waves along the way. We camped our last night on a beach at the mouth of Poison Creek, which I can attest is not poisonous. We made it to take out by early afternoon on the fifth day, which was good because the climb out was quite challenging. Harold’s mom was nice enough to pick us up, two hours up a logging road, and drive us back into Smither’s where we had started the journey 5 days prior.
All in all, the Sustut was an awesome trip. The camping was amazing. It would have been easy to spend twice as long in there, hanging out at all the beautiful camp spots. The white-water was a lot of fun, but not super action packed other than the two big rapids. It would be a comfortable river for a solid class IV boater not intimidated by the remoteness. The plane flight in was on the expensive side at $1000 per person, but not entirely unreasonable for 5 days in such a beautiful and remote place. We had perfect flows for our trip from July 30th to August 3rd. Any less water would have made the first day unpleasant and we probably would have had to drag our kayaks. I would highly recommend the trip to anyone looking for a multi-day kayaking adventure in Northern BC. I can’t wait to make it back to the region for the next one!
Thanks to Harold for organizing the trip and for taking half of the photos in this trip report (of course he took all the photos of me). And thanks to Jason Cathers for sharing a trip report with beta on the rapids on his blog (https://jcathers235.wordpress.com/category/six-day-multiday-johansen-creek-sustut-river-skeena-river/).