Shuttle Distance: 220km 

Hike Distance/Elevation:`13km/500m  

River Distance: 25km (can be extended for longer trips)

River Difficulty: I-II

Flows/Gauge: There is no gauge on the Howse River, but you can get eyes on it at the take out bridge near Saskatchewan River Crossing. The river will be highest at peak snowmelt and normally runnable throughout the summer and fall. Be extra cautious on the first 2km of the river at higher flows.  

Trip Overview: Hidden in the Canadian Rockies, Howse Pass is a centuries old Indigenous travel route between what is now BC and Alberta. The first place that David Thompson crossed the Continental Divide, and once slated for a proposed highway, the pass is now home to what is probably Canada’s most remote and hard to access historical site. Packrafting the Howse River is a great introduction to backcountry packrafting down one of the scenic river drainages in the Rocky Mountains.

There are a number of ways to do this trip. It can be bikerafted from Golden, BC with a stout hike-a-bike section and long pavement ride, you can find a full bikerafting guide for this route here. It has also been tackled hiking up from the Icefields Parkway, but that route follows a largely unmaintained trail and involves some heinous bushwhacks that can limit access to the upper valley. The best weekend trip on this river though is done with a vehicle shuttle, using the maintained BC section of the Continental Divide Trail from Cairne Creek Rec Site to the Howse Pass Historical Marker. With an early start, you can both set a shuttle and complete the 13km hike to the river in a day.

The river starts as a narrow 2km stretch of fast moving Class II water. This section can hold wood and a few small waves. If you’re nervous about this stretch, just follow the unmaintained trail for a couple kilometers until the valley opens up.

Below this, the river flattens as the valley widens into beautiful Class I-II braided gravel channels.Try to keep your boat in deeper water to avoid having to get out and portage shallow sections. In a few spots, the river narrows and waves and boils can form, but no major rapids occur. There are plenty of options for stunning campsites during this stretch.

The first possible take out for this run is at the obvious bridge where the Icefields Parkway crosses the Howse River near Saskatchewan River Crossing. Here, the river picks up a bit of speed and becomes more Class II wave trains as it approaches the confluence with the North Saskatchewan River. Trips could continue beyond this point into the North Saskatchewan River to Abraham Lake and beyond. Mark Lund’s awesome Guide for Alberta Paddlers has great information about trips further down the North Saskatchewan.