Motivated by a couple of birthday boys needing a big adventure, four dudes headed up to Johnston’s Landing to explore and hopefully paddle Fry Creek. Randy Speers of the Wild Rose just had a birthday and was told to get lost for a few days by his wife. Mikkel was to celebrate a birthday on the Tuesday and is always up for a paddle, especially on his birthday. My university mate Emmett, was visiting from Vancouver looking to get away from it all and be lost in the woods for a few days. I was just stoked to get way from the store and hit the reset button.
Mikkel on Fry
We arrived at the landing in Monday early afternoon. The next challenge was to pack all of our camping supplies (beer) and kayak gear into 4 whitewater kayaks and paddle the 3km to the mouth of Fry Creek. Mikkel towed his All Star to accommodate more luggage (beer) but for some reason only brought enough beer for an evening party at an old age home. Upon landing at the creek we were met with representatives of the Unitarian Church who owned the land an charged a small fee of $9 to stay on their piece of paradise, he even informed us that he would pick us up by power boat next time, grr. The society collects money to ensure they can stop development in the pristine area of the Fry Creek. We set up camp on the river left of Fry and had a view to die for with the wonderful Kootenay Lake with the backdrop of the rolling mountains covered in life. After a few sips of beer the lads grabbed our fishing rods and tried to catch some dinner, we fished for hours until we all had attempted the art known as fly-fishing. I lost a fly in the rocks behind me on shore, Emmett managed to catch the back of his t-shirt, Mikkel made out without mishap and Randy just stood back and snickered. We ate like kings that night it sure was a good think we brought spaghetti with us.
Mikkel mastering fly-fishing
The next morning we made the 7 km hike with boats and gear to just below the confluence of the creek. The path that ran all alongside the river right of the trail made the hike relatively easy. We put on by 12:15 and took out by 3:00. The upper section was an endless boulder garden of turquoise water and a few nasty holes and ledges. The majority of the more technical rapids were in the first kilometer of the run. The level was perfect to boat scout most rapids and take the occasional breath in the large eddys. In a worst-case scenario situation always go left if you plan to run Fry. For some strange reason almost all the good lines were on the left with potential maiming or death on the right.
We pulled out before running the entire canyon. We plan to go out again at lower water levels in the early fall to stomp the lower canyon in a more manageable flow. The Canyon was unique and looked like something that was out of a really cool kayak video game, you go left and you are most certainly dead, the other line on the right is as easy as pie. The canyon was a section of absolutes and our team wasn't feeling absolutely confident after the hike up in the morning and quite possibly the lack of liquid courage consumed the night before.
Me on Fry
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