The Sayward Forest Canoe Route is a nearly 50km canoe circuit on northern Vancouver Island. We ventured out with our puppy Jasper in some incredibly rainy weather. We dealt with a broken canoe cart, bushwhacking through streams, navigating beaver dams and all the fun that comes with a Vancouver Island backcountry trip! It was a beautiful experience and one I would recommend. Enjoy our video trip report to get a taste of what the route and campsites look like.
Fast facts
- Distance: Approximately 39km of paddling, 8km of portage. (Remember if you can’t carry your canoe and camping stuff in one trip, you will walk each portage three times so it’s like 24km!)
- Time: 3-5 days
- Nearest town: Campbell River
- Launch destination: Morton Lake Park
- Parking at the trailhead: Free and plentiful
- Reservations required: None
- Camping fees: None
- Best campsites: Look for marine-only campsites, as anything accessible by road will likely be taken in the summer even during the week. We stayed at Bedrock City on Goose Lake, Sterling Beach on Amor Lake, Fry Narrows on Fry Lake and Mohun Island on Mohun Lake. Mr. Canoe Head also looked large and inviting.
- Map: PDF
Paddling with a puppy
Jasper looks pretty calm in this video. This is because we cannot film her when she’s being a little monster. (Our hands are full!)
But honestly, most of the time she is very good in the boat. With everything dog-related, it’s taken a lot of work to get there!
We immediately took Jasper out in our canoe when we got her as a three-month-old puppy. And we kept doing short trips with her over and over again — making it a positive experience as best we could, with lots of treats and rest breaks on land to play.
Her training did not go perfectly. She dumped Lee in the middle of a cold alpine lake once and they had to swim to shore. Everyone was wearing life jackets, most importantly Jasper! And whenever Jasper gets into the boat after a long time away from it, she tries to lean out of the boat and bite the water and just wiggles all around.
To deal with this, we just lower our expectations of how fast we are getting anywhere. One of us usually has to distract her and watch her for a while, making sure she stays in the boat. Then eventually she gets it, calms down and just chills. She also gets quite a lot of exercise in general (several hours per day, every day) so she is a calm dog who is used to settling down when it’s not go time.
Sayward Forest Canoe Route vs Bowron Lake Canoe Circuit
Bowron is a very popular canoe circuit near Prince George in northern BC. It’s over twice the distance of the Sayward Route and requires reservations far in advance. There is also a lot more structure and support. With Bowron you must attend an information session taught by park rangers. They weigh your gear to see if you’re portaging too much. There are cabins and covered picnic structures everywhere to help you shelter from bad weather. There are also emergency phones so you can call rangers if you get into trouble. There are outhouses and bear caches everywhere.
Sayward is a true backcountry experience in that you have no support, sometimes no outhouses and definitely no food caches. It doesn’t always feel very remote though, as you are paddling by people in their RVs who drove to campsites from nearby Campbell River!
Overall, I prefer Bowron over Sayward because of the truly remote feeling. But the logistics for Bowron are not simple and the trip itself takes twice as long. So Sayward will do the trick if you need a shorter, easier canoe fix!
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