The Nahatlatch is an eastward flowing, fast-paced, white-water river that quickly snakes its way into the Fraser River just above Boston Bar, BC.
Its associated canyons, lakes, and mountains provide and overall excellent retreat from the BC lower mainland. Regardless of your favorite personal outdoor activities, this area can easily suit the likes of mountain bikers, hikers, rafters, rock-climbers, and the ever-present wanna-be campers fleeing the city on weekends.
First, directions to this terrific area are needed:
a) If coming from the Vancouver area, head east on the Trans-Canada through Hope and up to Boston Bar.
b) Entering Boston Bar be careful to watch out for the left-turn that sits almost directly in the middle of town. It's marked with a sign stating "Reo Rafting Resort", and your best bet to continue up-river unimpeded is to follow these signs.
c) Following the signs, in short order you'll find yourself crossing over the Fraser and once over it you begin to climb, by first crossing the CPRail tracks, then curving to the right and upwards to the Nahatlatch.
You will be driving NW along the Fraser River for around ten to fifteen minutes(I'm guessing from my memory) on pavement until the asphalt ends and the dirt takes over. Be careful, just because its a dirt road doesn't mean there aren't trucks, buses, and at times a high-amount of car traffic, especially on Friday and Sunday afternoons.
NOTE: On my trip we had just beat an RCMP roadblock situated alongside the road. New to me, I found out from others members of our traveling party that they had been stopped and searched. Apparently this is an attempt by the RCMP to limit the amount of alcohol, drugs, and firearms that many individuals seem to bring out into the woods but don't bring home.
After about a half-hour approximately we reached our initial destination, the Reo Rafting Whitewater Resort. It's situated directly off of the Nahatlatch River, and like most mtn. resorts it has many options to consider in terms of accommodations.
We chose(actually my boss did) to stay in one of their spartan-inspired cabin tents, which happen to be named after the local rapids. Aptly named, like Twisted Sister, etc., these cabin tents do their job of securing you a bed; but the rapids located immediately outside and below the tents by only a distance of forty meters allow little actual sleep. I had fallen into my sleep cycle by nine pm, but by eleven-thirty my brain was filled with the constant roaring of rushing water, and it only ceased when we finally left at 9 am the next day to go mtn. biking.
The food at Friday nights dinner was less than appealing. With their almost-Western style theme dinner, I quickly found my taste-buds in a serious revolt over the poor fare offered. Both types of pasta had been cooked awry, at best. Their pasta sauce looked just as uninspiring.
Fortunately we had brought our own food, and in short order I found myself happily placated by my girlfriends excellent cooking and we enjoyed the scrumptuous turkey and sprout sandwiches, accompanying it were the only items at their dinner I could eat, pears and oranges. So the moral is, if you have any type of special dietary needs, its highly advised to bring your own cuisine. The resort's food menu would best be viewed as a supplement to your own particular diet; in that vein you may be able to plan accordingly.
Clearly, the resort is there to offer rafting/outdoor trips showcasing the local area. From canoeing the likes of Frances Lake located a half-hour west, to dropping down the Nahatlatch via their rafts, your options are considerable.
We chose to avoid any of the planned activities that the resort had and instead packed up the car and bid adieu to the my fellow colleagues. The main goal was to mountain bike the area.
Our destination was to be Log Creek Rd. Located just around twenty-five minutes up river from the resort, and only two kilometers below Frances Lake, this old logging road climbs north up into the alpine area that encompass both Pyramid Peak and Kwoiek Needle.
We parked about 300 meters up Log Creek Rd on the side of the road, though it may be just as advisable to park your vehicle at the bottom just across from the campground.
Climbing up Log Creek Rd. is a fairly straight-forward endeavor if on a mountain bike. Rarely ridden by mtn. bikers, it serves more of an errant back-ways route to access Kwoiek Needle for the serious rock-climbers and hikers.
The road condition is quite remarkable considering that it's no longer maintained. We rode for an hour uphill, finally capitulating near the right-turn of where Log Creek Rd. meets North Log Creek Rd.
There happens to be ALOT of bear scat on the road, and as well as plenty of deer, so be on the lookout for these!
Riding back down was simple-enough. The loose rocky strewn road is a great way to rekindle the fire of downhilling, and in most cases if you ride off the road a friendly green bush will more than likely break your fall.
