Day 1 of 2026 Bowron Lakes Canoe Circuit
"The Sisyphus Portage and the Waves of Woe"

Date: August 13, 2026

Group Camping Spots (shown in red) were predetermined by the Parks Service.  Day 1 would start at the Ranger Station next to Bowron Lake Campground with a portage east to Kibbee Lake, then a portage to Indianpoint Lake to Site 7.  

Site 2 was NOT used for group camping. 

The very first of the the portages started uphill and seemed like it just kept going up.  The trail was lined with berries, poisonous plants and a tree trunk with huge claw marks on it.  Bear scat was seen on the trail.  

Pushing a canoe full of gear up a hill with more gear on your back was harder than any of us thought.  We quickly discovered that one of the canoes didn't have a grab handle in the front, which make pulling it that much harder.  Adding webbing helped, but it was still hard to pull that one canoe.  The red canoes were much heavier than the others.  They were considered indestructible, but it wasn't fun moving the on ground, especially uphill.  Regardless, we worked as a team to continued to move upwards and upwards.  We felt like Sisyphus moving a rock up a never-ending hill.

Our boats finally get wet; we are off on our Canoe Adventure!

After our second portage, we find that Indianpoint Lake has significant waves.  Even though we started about as early as we could have, we likely still arrived later than ideal, allowing the afternoon wind to build up waves.  

We rested for a few hours and hit the lake after the waves quieted down a bit.  The waves and headwind was still a bear and a wakeup call to the reality of conditions we would likely encounter on the giant lakes we would travel on.  From this point forward, the fear of afternoon winds and dangerous waves were more than just a theory.

We fought our way across to our campsite and settled in for the night.  Scouts voted to wake up at 5am to beat the afternoon winds.