Bowron Lake Canoe Circuit Day 5: Tracks in the mud

Today's Travels: Sandy Lake - Cariboo River - Unna Lake - Babcock Creek

Km Paddled: 6.9 (plus side trip to Unna Lake) Km Portaged: 1.2 Total Km Traveled: 89.2

Another foggy morning.  We lay in bed for a few minutes listening to the ducks playing in the lake.  As the bacon and eggs sizzled in the pan, the eagle flew by.  Even after everything was cleaned up, the fog was still thick.  But since we'd be on the lake for a few kilometres and the water was calm, he headed out anyway.

The GPS showed us the way and we did our best to keep the shape of the shoreline within vision.  It was a very shallow lake, therefore we often were quite far off shore just to avoid hitting our paddles on the sand.

About 3.1 km later, Sandy Lake ended and we arrived back on the Cariboo River as the fog started to clear. 

We left the fog behind us as we started down the 4.0 km river stretch to Unna Lake.  The river was wide and slow.

We found Unna Lake.  We paddled through the horse tails to get in to this little lake.  We're now into the pine lands - complete with beetle kill pine.

We enjoyed the views of the mountains,  the same mountains we left yesterday.  We stopped into a campsite to cook up some smokies for lunch.    There were many tracks across the beach where we pulled up the canoe - moose, bird, and wolf.

After a great lunch, we paddled across the lake to the waterfall trail head.  We were all excited to see the 24 metre high Cariboo Falls.  Excited to see the double rainbow in the spray off the falling waters.  But when we pulled up to the trailhead we were greeted with a big sign that said "Danger Trail"  and flagging tape that indicated the trail was closed and we weren't to pass.

We paddled out of Unna Lake and back upriver towards Babcock Creek.  We looked to the left and saw a cow moose hanging out in the golden grass.  Just like the picture in the brochure.

We got to Babcock creek and paddled upstream to the portage.  We had to walk a part of the way since the creek was so shallow.  In the mud, there were grizzly bear tracks.

The bear went the same way we were going.  But darkness was coming and it was either portage to the next site or head back to Unna Lake.  So onward we went, slightly stressed about the fresh bear tracks.  We got to the site, and sure enough there were also fresh grizzly tracks that went right in front of the site.  It was a nervous night, hoping that tracks were all that we'd see of that bear.