How to take a wild, fish-filled float down Vancouver Island’s Campbell River.
“ It ’s rarely we would see a bear , but not impossible , ” Roger McDonell tell me in early September , just a few days before we overgorge ourselves into thick wetsuits , strapped snorkeling masks to our face , and lowered ourselves into the rush , 59 - degree H2O of the Campbell River on British Columbia ’s Vancouver Island . We were there to take ourautumn activitiesto the next level , forgoing the region’sannual fall leaf peepingfor a more active fall interest : a salmon - peeping river snorkel .
“ It ’s more potential just to see harbor seals , ” McDonell added .
fortuitously , he spoke too before long . Less than a hour after get in the water , before I had even identified the sparkling silver blob around me as a kaleidoscope of pinko , coho , and chinook salmon , brownish shapes emerged from the forested river bank no more than 20 feet away . It was n’t just one bear , but four : a mammy with three rare triplet cubs .
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Like my own small radical of snorkelers , the bears were suck up by the siren call of the river ’s migrating Salmon River , clumsily slapping at the body of water in an attempt to beach a Pisces . I felt just as inapt , especially compared to the salmon . They elegantly worm and turn among moss - track boulder and rocks as I struggled to keep my chirpy physical structure from getting extend away with the stream . The whole display was like a choreographed dance set to the music of the river , an annual functioning by the 800,000 or so salmon that migrate upriver each year .
For the next 30 arcminute or so , we bollix through rapids and flew Superman - vogue through the Campbell River , floating past schooling salmon , many longer than my arm . At the surface , you ’re dodge untethered clod of moss and the episodic float fish guts . But look down , and it ’s all Salmon River , all the time . While they ’re pink and colorful on state , underwater , they flutter by in shades of sparkling spicy , silver grey , and white , though their effective disguise makes them nearly unsufferable to discern from the surface . Generally , they ’ll dash by before you make middleman — but not before the occasional curious salmon tries to go eye - to - eye with you , ostensibly pondering why this ungainly intruder is floating between them and their last terminus .
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It makes sense that this risky venture would take position in the metropolis of Campbell River , sometimes dubbed the “ salmon capital of the world , ” and the de facto destination for autumn Salmon River peeping . While some remote Canadian properties likeClayoquot Wilderness Lodge , Bella Coola Eagle Lodge , andBear Claw Lodgeoffer fall salmon snorkel diving as an action for guest , Roger McDonell , proprietor and captain at theOceanFix.ca Dive Centerin Campbell River , read he does n’t know of any other operator propose a standardized experience . He says it pop out in the seventies , when member of area scuba diving clubs decide a river snorkel would be fun ; the huge number of salmon were a happy surprise . Now , it ’s become a bit of local religious rite of passage around these parts of British Columbia , and OceanFix offers guests one of two options : guided adventures or gear rentals , which let in the snorkel and mask , louvre , and 7 - millimetre wetsuit ( the thickest available , both for warmth , and to provide enough buoyancy to ensure you bounce and bob like a consortium raft through the river ’s small rapids ) .
McDonell enunciate most multitude with any kind of snorkel diving experience should be fine give-up the ghost on their own , particularly as the OceanFix bring home the bacon a map and a exhaustive briefing of what to expect . Thoughsalmon are rampantaround British Columbia , not just any river is suitable for snorkeling . It call for to be shallow and tardily - strike , and it also require to have an exit point , which prevail out many river bookended by dense forest or downright rock wall . My routetook no more than 25 minutes to float , and McDonell says enthusiastic visitors will often do it two or three times in an good afternoon .
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At the destruction of my ice-cream float , I asked McDonell about the environmental shock of sending a human wildly flying down a river usually reserved for salmon and seals . In McDonell ’s estimate , it has no more encroachment than the fishermen — or bear — prowling the shores , especially because it ’s not something people do in the hundreds . We were the only I in the river when I floated in early September , with most beholder choosing to view our antic from dry land . “ The Salmon River decidedly head off the snorkelers , probably because we resemble one of their born marauder , harbor seal , ” says McDonell . “ So the shock of our brief encounter should be a abject gene in their overall heavy journey upstream . ”
Photo by Suzie Dundas
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Photo by Suzie Dundas
