Summer 2011: Tubing Down Shuswap River

The adventures continued as Teague suggested tubing down a river and those of us interested gathered bathing suits, life jackets, floating toys/boats/rafts, and slathered on sunscreen.  We headed to Enderby and the Shuswap River, a 30 minutes ride away from the cabin.

We arrived at the Enderby Visitor Info Centre and began a conversation about which point we should enter the lake,and where we should jump out.  We laughed hard when we were told the trip we wanted to take was 6 hours long and it was already 3 pm.  On the map it looked like such a short piece of river but 6 hours was a long time to float and our time was limited.  We were told the river was faster and deeper than usual in August, but we were sure we could handle it.

With a chosen piece of river selected and a map as a guide we proceeded to our designated entrance point.  We found our spot, parked a car at each end of the trip, blew up boats and tubes, then jumped in.

Alicia and Teague

We entered where the river was at its fastest, but quickly realized that one person's idea of a fast river is different than another person's.  This section of the Shuswap quickly slowed down as we began to meander between the river banks, lower mountains, small cliffs, and past houses.

Nathan and Cheri, deflating a small useless surf board.

Teague enjoying a slow float in a small tube.

We looked at the vegetation, but none of us were able to identify what we were seeing.  We chatted, we listened to the quiet, and made jokes about the fast moving river that was not fast at all.

Tonia (me) and sister-in-law Cheri

Alicia enjoying her boat.
Teague floating along in the river.

The games began when Nathan decided that he was going to steal Alicia's floating boat.  He snuck up well, tipped it over, she fell out, he climbed in.  Well done!

Success!

Along the trip the river banks changed their geological formations, animals appeared and disappeared, trees and houses lined the banks.  At two points we passed by tall banks with soft dirt cliffs.  In the air up above we saw 30 - 40 birds zip through the air, then head over to the dirt cliff.  Upon closer inspection I realized that the birds homes were small holes dug into the cliffs, and the birds were headed back to their nests after short flights.  I tried to capture them in air entering their homes but my mini waterproof camera did not capture this interesting collection of birds homes or the small animals in flight.

The cliff with the small black spots at the top,
the homes of the birds.

We continued to float, to talk, to splash and move in and out of the water.  A mixture of relaxing and quickly paddling away from suspicious family members.

Alicia in the water

Then we saw incredible wildlife hard to find in such a remote area.  Ok fine, we just passed by a bunch of farmer's cows and joked about the strange and unique wildlife in the area.

Alicia and the strange new animals

I kept playing with my camera taking shots like this one, a reflection of a tree in the water as I slowly meandered past.

A few of the beautiful views we were able to enjoy as we floated down the lovely, calm, cool Shuswap River.

Nathan learned how to tease and tip from his father Teague.  Here is my brother Teague chasing his wife Cheri down the river trying to get close enough to tip her.

She is no fool and quickly paddled away.  After about 30 minutes of trying, giving up, trying again, he finally caught up to her but never did completely tip her.  Sturdy blow-up boat was the key.

Teague eventually gave up and returned to his boat knowing that tube tipping is easier than blown-up boat tipping.  It was fun to watch and hilarious to capture on my camera.

Since the attempted tipping, Alicia crawled in the boat with Cheri.  The slow deflation of the boat and attempts at tipping had filled it with water and shoes were used to bail out the boat with success!

Another beautiful view from the Shuswap River.

In all, another lovely summer adventure in nature, enjoying the beautiful province of British Columbia, a home-away-from-home for many members of my family.