Access around this river should be treated with the utmost respect as it is in St'at'imc First Nation land and you are very much going through First Nation Communities. Please respect the speed limit signs on the roads and be courteous where you park.
The bridge across the lake near the start of the run.
This section runs year-round, even in winter it's possible to paddle as low as 25cm/s which is about as low as the river ever gets! It goes as high as 1000cm/s in high water freshets! It can be done as a day-trip or a multi-day adventure. This run is suitable for kayaks and whitewater canoes and would make an excellent rafting trip too!
Good flows start at 50cm/s and late summer flows will be around 250cm/s some rapids will become significantly boiley at high water.
The First Rapid at the exit of the lake - Photo Arturo Tondelli
Getting to this river is easy but be sure to screenshot all this information and collect pin-drops as there is no cell service anywhere along this run. Access is mainly from Highway 99, head to Pemberton, turn right at Mount Currie Gas Station, and turn right onto the In-shuk-ch Road. A 4WD vehicle is recommended for this unpaved road, in winter parts of the road can be steep and slippery especially if you're on the West Lillooet Road (which runs on the west side of the river). Road access from the south from Mission/Harrison area is possible but the road is variable and suggest for only high-clearance 4WD cars. Carry a spare tire, puncture repair kits and pumps! To the take out of the full run is about 73km of FSR driving. Google Maps may try and take you across the bridge and down the west road passed Baptiste but the road is smoother / faster and more frequently graded along the In-shuk-ch instead.
The put-on options for this run are numerous. If you wanted a multi-day canoe trip you could start up in Pemberton, or right at the top of the lake near the start of the In-shuck-ch FSR. This would add an optional 30km+ of flat-water paddling, there are a few rec sites along the way at Strawberry Point, Lizzie Point and Driftwood Point.
If you had a lot of vehicles it may be best to launch at the Bridge as other locations have limited parking, this would add 4km of lake paddling.
There is a route down from the In-shuck-ch FSR at about between 33km and 34km mile markers. It's a steep 20 minute walk down.
The long walk down on the east bank to the put-in! - Photo Arturo Tondelli
To avoid a big walk drive up to the bridge and drive back down the west road and put in at a pull-out just before Baptiste where the road is about 3meters above the lake instead.
There are also multiple take-out options. Before 2020 the main take-out used for the upper run was the Tseq/Tsek Hot Springs Campground (also known as Skookumchuck Hot Springs and St Agnes Well). The hot-springs were closed during Covid-19 and in 2022 it was announced that the campground was going to be closed permanently. The Canadian government purchased the title to this land and the lot is now held in trust for the Skatin Community. Currently the Skatin Chief and Council have made the decision to close the campground permanently and have the land and hot springs only for Cultural use for the eleven communities of the St'at'imc Nation. The road access to the springs has been gated but is currently not blocked. It is not suggested we use the hot springs as the take-out for now. A Skatin run campground will be developed in the future.
Instead you can take out on the west road roughly opposite where Rogers Creek enters, or it is possible to take out on river right a few km after the class III/IV Skookumchuck Rapids. It makes the shuttle more efficient as you'll start and finish on the same side and you don't have to walk down a long slope.
The Upper run is class II/III- with big waves until you reach "Island Drop" about halfway down the run. The river splits around an island and the rejoining of the channels creates quite swirly water. The left channel was nice Class III at low flows!
An Upper run is ~15km and will take 1.5 hours to 2 hours.
The left channel at island Drop at very low winter water levels - Photo Arturo Tondelli
The lower run starts with "Skookumchuck Rapid" (III+, -IV at high water) and a steep river-wide drop which should be scouted. The community of Skatin is just below this rapid but currently it is not recommended to take-out in this area.
Skookumchuck Rapid - Class III /IV - Photo Scott McBride
You'll see a lot of traditional Fishing Gear along the river - Photo Scott McBride
“The community of Skatin (or SkookumChuck) is located on the east side of the Lillooet River, on the 19-Mile Post of the old Harrison-Lillooet wagon road (about 35 kilometres from the head of Harrison Lake). Before the arrival of European settlers, this community was considered to be the largest on the lower Lillooet River, comparable in size to the pre-contact village of present-day Mount Currie (or Lilwat’ul). A moderately sized waterfall on the Lillooet River, about 1 kilometre north of the community, had a significant effect on the size of the community in prehistoric times as well as today. The fall is now commonly known as SkookumChuck Rapids, but the Ucwalmicwts [oo-kwal-MEWK] (Lower Lillooet dialect) word for this fall is qmemps (k-MEMP-sh). This site was and remains to be a very abundant fishery, the most abundant on the Lillooet River. Colonial settlers and ethnographers have noted it in historic documents as early as the late 1850’s.
Typical scenery - Photo Arturo Tondelli
Below Skookumchuck, the river moves fast, but rapids are only minor, the river flows through a long beautiful class II/II+ isolated canyon.
Take out at the bridge before Sloquet Creek.
Take out Bridge for the full run - Photo Scott McBride
It is 42km for full run and it takes about 4-8hours depending on flow and motivation to paddle! The water is very cold, watch out for wood as always, particularly in braided channels around islands!
Other beta, Sloquet Hot Springs are also near the takeout of the main run and is well worth a visit!
The stunning Rogers Creek waterfalls are not far off-route, if the flows are right it's well worth doing!
There are some other runs in the area which have seen limited descents, Tuwasus Creek has some logging which is opening up access to a nice class 3 section, and Snowcap Creek.
