Canoeing the Crooked River

Описание: A late spring canoe trip along the Crooked River, north of Prince George, in North Central British Columbia. The river begins at Summit Lake, 50 kilometres north of Prince George, at the Arctic-Pacific Divide. The lake drains north into the Crooked River, which in turn drains into the Parsnip, the Peace and the Mackenzie rivers and into the Arctic Ocean. Fifteen kilometres north of Summit Lake, the Crooked River winds through a provincial park of the same name, just south of the community of Bear Lake; this is the stretch that we paddled. The birds were singing, the fish were jumping and the mosquitoes were stretching their wings. It's hard to imagine today, but this placid and winding river (creek, really) was once part of the main transportation route in western Canada. The Crooked was connected to the Fraser River near its north bend, via Summit Lake and the nine-kilometre long Giscome Portage to the historic Huble Homestead, now a Regional District Park. This was the first group event in which we have participated in person since the start of the epidemic, and the 14 participants spread between six two-person canoes and two one-person kayaks all kept the requisite social distance.