Glory Drops in Gold River

by Ryan Bayes

Located about an hour west of Campbell River on Vancouver Island, Gold River is rapidly becoming one of my favorite paddling destinations. Ive made two trips there in the last couple weeks and had an awesome time each trip. The Gold River area is a gold mine full of ripe juicy creeks. You cant drive in any direction for more than five minutes without crossing another creek or river.The runs in the area Ive done so far are the Upper Gold, Quatchka Creek, Heber Creek, and Ucona. Ucona, Quatchka and Pamela creek all share the same take out on the Ucona Run. The third creek in the group is Pamela Creek and I’m told has as many as eight waterfalls on it in the 30 foot and under range. The last two falls on the Pamela run are actually on Ucona after the confluence. The Upper Gold was a fun class 3 river run with an amazing coliseum room you paddle into like nothing Ive ever seen before. Heber creek is typical bigger volume 3+/4 boulder garden creek run. Its road side access for put in and take out make for a good warm up run. The other creeks in the area don’t seem to have as easy access.

Ucona Creek Pics:

The second falls on Ucona, someone going deep.

Manky slide drop on Ucona Creek

Quatchka Creek Pics:

Shane and Cynthia about to go for a dip.

Dave doing a little hydrology research.

Curtis going for the melt down on Quatchka.

Me doing a little one handed rail grab boof move.

Ryan Bayes dropping the waterfall

Post By: Ryan Bayes