{"id":17941,"date":"2018-11-12T12:00:18","date_gmt":"2018-11-12T20:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.nrs.com\/?p=17941"},"modified":"2018-11-12T09:26:56","modified_gmt":"2018-11-12T17:26:56","slug":"the-great-gamsby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2018\/11\/12\/the-great-gamsby\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great Gamsby"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Stikine<\/a> is an incredibly powerful river that hordes of kayakers flock to every season. It has become the pinnacle of expedition kayaking and big water. But this story isn\u2019t about the Stikine. In fact, this year, my crew figured it was time for something completely different: The Gamsby.<\/p>\n

Located deep in the British Columbian bush lays the largest continuous tract of coastal temperate rainforest in the world, the Kitlope Heritage Conservancy. That\u2019s where our expedition began. With 795,700 acres, it\u2019s the largest conservancy of its type. That\u2019s nearly one million freakin\u2019 protected acres in just one little slice of BC!<\/p>\n

A large industrial extractive resource company owned the Kitlope region until environmentalists lobbied for and designated it as a provincial park in 1996. While the designation allowed smaller industries such as ecotourism to thrive for some years, it prohibited larger, more aggressive industries. Now, the only fuel allowed in the park is the blood and sweat of human power. But to be sure, you\u2019re also going to need a high tolerance for mosquitos, a convincing moose call and bear spray.<\/p>\n

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The density of timber in British Columbia is startling when you find yourself driving north to south through the province. Even more startling is the energy it takes to drag 90 pounds of kayak through it. The forests are thick and black bear and moose sightings along the roadside are common, indicative of the thriving wildlife populations within.<\/p>\n