Access
See the details of the main Bridge River here for information on how to get permission to kayak the Bridge River.
Getting there
From Lillooet head north towards Gold Bridge, cross over the Bridge River and drive until just passed the Horseshoe Bend Canyon, when the road drops down you're at Yalakom River which is the optional Take-Out for this run. Continue driving up and just before the dam there is a rec site on the left.
Length:
15km for the upper section.
Lower section is an additional 25km!
Description
If there is flow of at least 10cm/s from the dam it is possible to paddle the Bridge River from the Terzaghi/Mission Dam, traditionally this is done when the river is flowing at ~50-90cm/s from a dam release (which is very very rare right now) and it's read and run sporty Class IV+. For several years there was 0 flow coming out of this dam but now there appears to be a small flow for Salmon peaking in June/July and then falling off to September. This should match the flow peaking of the Yalakom so if there's enough water in the upper section there will be enough in the lower section too.
We did it at low flows (online gauge was 11cm/s) and despite a few rocks (and one cracked boat), we enjoyed some nice scenic road-side Class III with a couple of fun Class IV rapids towards the end before getting to the Yalakom confluence. There was a bunch of fish habitat equipment spanning the river about 3km before the confluence, easy to spot from above and to pass on the river left side, but at (rare) high flows this could potentially form a hazard or a portage.
Below is the estimated target monthly flow releases from TRZ Dam. Please keep in mind that this is a very preliminary estimate for planning purposes, and actual flows may vary depending on their operational needs.
See the details of the main Bridge River here for information on how to get permission to kayak the Bridge River.
Getting there
From Lillooet head north towards Gold Bridge, cross over the Bridge River and drive until just passed the Horseshoe Bend Canyon, when the road drops down you're at Yalakom River which is the optional Take-Out for this run. Continue driving up and just before the dam there is a rec site on the left.
Length:
15km for the upper section.
Lower section is an additional 25km!
Description
If there is flow of at least 10cm/s from the dam it is possible to paddle the Bridge River from the Terzaghi/Mission Dam, traditionally this is done when the river is flowing at ~50-90cm/s from a dam release (which is very very rare right now) and it's read and run sporty Class IV+. For several years there was 0 flow coming out of this dam but now there appears to be a small flow for Salmon peaking in June/July and then falling off to September. This should match the flow peaking of the Yalakom so if there's enough water in the upper section there will be enough in the lower section too.
We did it at low flows (online gauge was 11cm/s) and despite a few rocks (and one cracked boat), we enjoyed some nice scenic road-side Class III with a couple of fun Class IV rapids towards the end before getting to the Yalakom confluence. There was a bunch of fish habitat equipment spanning the river about 3km before the confluence, easy to spot from above and to pass on the river left side, but at (rare) high flows this could potentially form a hazard or a portage.
Below is the estimated target monthly flow releases from TRZ Dam. Please keep in mind that this is a very preliminary estimate for planning purposes, and actual flows may vary depending on their operational needs.
Date 2025 | Target monthly flow (cubic meters per second) January | 1.5 February | 2 March | 3 April | 5 May | 10 June | 15 July | 15 August | 12 September | 3 October | 1.5 November | 1.5 December | 1.5
You can inspect most of the upper section of this run from the roadside and decide if you fancy inspecting that many rocks! The scenery was fantastic and it felt well worth doing to add on to the lower section, but it does make for a 40km day if doing it all. Next time I would also consider only doing the last 5km of this run if there is somewhere safe to park along the road to make the day a lot shorter and still hit the best rapids of the run.