Wow --- I'm glad the only damage was to the canoes.
Where exactly is Meager Creek? Do you have Lat/Long coords? Or can you say just roughly how far downstream from the lake it is? That is, from the second lake downstream from the larger lake 9 miles east of Pemberton?
I'm not even sure of the names of these lakes, but the bigger (more northern) one has it's north end roughly nine miles east of Pemberton, then there's a narrows, and another smaller lake, then the river to northern Harrison Lake starts at the south end of the smaller, more southern lake.
Is the Meager Creek bridge where the river starts at the south end of the smaller, second lake?
Many years ago I heard a highly experienced whitewater guy say that you simply CANNOT just blithely go ahead and canoe down a river you're not familiar with, you absolutely HAVE TO scout it out ahead of time, even if that means hours of nasty bushwacking through nightmarishly thick undergrowth. At the time, being young and invincible, I dismissed this as overly cautious, old-guy bullshit. However, after hearing about whitewater death after whitewater death in which the common denominator was that unexpected hazards were seen too late to avoid them --- usually strainers, log-jams, etc, but sometimes just plain old waterfalls and very steep drops, I'm beginning to think maybe the old-guy was right.
I wanted to do this stretch of river from the second, smaller lake ( south of the lake that's 9 miles east of Pemberton) to northern Harrison Lake, but haven't been able to get accurate info, and what little info I HAVE been able to get leads me to believe that only highly experienced whitewater kayakers need apply. Your post confirms this. Perhaps when at lower flow rates in late summer the river might be more navigable.
Thanks for posting.
I'm glad the pooches were ok ...
Will you guys be taking another run at it? If you do, please keep us informed.
By the way, do you have any pictures? I for one would sure be interested in seeing them, and I bet a lot of the other members of myccr.com would be, too.
Regards,
Tom