The Kitlope Valley is the ancestral home to the Haisla people and is now protected from logging and development for all time. The valley, located about 60 miles south of Kitimat is the largest intact temperate rainforest left, 800,000 acres of unlogged watershed, truly one of the world's last great wildernesses. The Kitlope has been called the Canadian Yosemite; wall to wall waterfalls. Visit the Great Canadian Parks following website on the Kitlope to learn more about this national treasure.
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/kitlope.htm

We'll travel in comfort by boat (washroom on board) from Kitamaat Village to the lake with Kitlope Eco-tours (http://www.kitlope-ecotours.bc.ca/) catching some crabs on the way for our first dinner. We'll spend the afternoon getting comfortable in the boats and paddle down the lake to look at the Man Who Turned to Stone.

On the second day we'll shoot the beautiful Kitlope River (a class 1 river with no rapids, see the picture), pick up the prawn trap and camp in the fiord. Paddle between 2000 meter towering granite cliffs, visit an old village site, and reset the prawn trap for the next morning.

On day three we'll paddle into the beautiful Kowesas Valley and stay at the Nana Kila lodge. Hike the amazing old growth forest and explore the archaeology of the area including petroglyphs, pictographs, culturally modified trees, village sites, and totem poles. Catch a salmon for dinner on the way to Kemano, a pretty easy task when the pink salmon are running.

The trip ends on day five with the return boat ride to Kitimat, stopping for a soak in the Northwest Coast's best hotspring on the return boat trip (not Weewanie either). This trip is as amazing as it sounds.

In May and June, we run instructional courses through Kitimat and Terrace Parks and Recreation departments. The cost is $150 per person and includes a pool session covering safety techniques and rescues, and two days of instruction. We spend Saturday at Lakelse Lake and Sunday at the ocean. Call in early spring.

In the days before European contact, the North Coast was crisscrossed with "grease trails" between First Nations groups who used them to trade with the Tsimshian and Nisga'a peoples for the oil of the eulachon, or candlefish. Eulachon come up the rivers of this area in March and were a rich source of food energy at a time when other food stores were running out providing huge wealth and power to the people of the North Coast. This website gives you a little information about the eulachon and the grease trail network.
http://www.princerupert.com/nature/Eulachon_cooked1.htm

We'll follow one of those trails north to the Skeena River, paddling up the slow, meandering Quaal River, portage over a small saddle into the Ecstall drainage and then out to the highway 40 miles away. Lots of history and archaeology. At the mouth of the Quaal, at an old village there is a huge petroglyph site, perhaps the largest in the world. 220 petroglyphs are scattered over almost a kilometre of beach, there's a fish trap in the bay, shell middens, and the remains of a native-felled cedar tree among other sites of interest, and that's just the beginning. We'll finish with a visit to the hotsprings and explore Port Essington being picked up at Tyee on Highway 16 near Prince Rupert. We will be accompanied on this trip by the Cultural and Resource Manager of the Gitga'at First Nation (Hartley Bay).

Price includes guide service, instruction, use of all equipment, and transportation among other things. You can choose between an archeological tour of petroglyph sites in the Prince Rupert area or a paddle to a sandy, offshore island. We usually see porpoises and lots of eagles on the island trip. Both are very pleasant ways to spend a day. There's lots of opportunities for bird watching, fishing, crabbing, or just lying around on the beach. Or, if you've had canoeing experience, float a section of the Skeena River in the ocean kayaks during the salmon season and do some bear watching or paddle to a hotspring.