Search and rescue teams along the Cowichan River are warning the river has changed course in one area, making it very dangerous.
“The difference (is) in the river channel itself,” Trevor Paterson, the president of Cowichan Search and Rescue and a Swiftwater team leader, told Global News.
“So the river channel used to go in a big sort of horseshoe shape and now it’s basically cut that shape off and the new channel goes completely through the forest, through log jams and lots of other debris, which is very dangerous for anyone that goes in there.
“Log jams are large, you’re not even able to climb over some of them, they’re so big.”
Paterson said if someone goes into one of those log jams, there’s a possibility they could get pinned up against the debris, held underwater and drown.
Cowichan Search and Rescue work closely with Ladysmith Search and Rescue. They discovered the change when they were out paddling last weekend.
“This isn’t a section that is normally tubed by too many people, but definitely people do go out and venture on their own,” Paterson.
“And if they get in here and they can get themselves into danger or else they’re a very long ways from any road or exit on that on the river. So it’s going to be very hard to extract themselves out of there.”
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Paterson said the highway is also many kilometres away and would take a long time to reach that section of the river.
“Please just do not go in this area,” he said. “All areas of the river you should know and have experience on before you enter into them or find out information before you go, never go blind.”
Jeff Lewis with Ladysmith Search and Rescue is also a Swiftwater team leader.
He echoed what Paterson said, saying people should stay out of the river.
“Every year we paddle down the Cowichan River in the springtime to try to figure out where the hazards are before the tubers get on there,” Lewis said.
“And this particular hazard is about nine kilometres downstream of Lake Cowichan, about one kilometre downstream of Trestle 72.”
While Lewis agreed that this area with the log jam is not a usual spot for tubers, they have had to rescue people from that part before.
“We actually discourage people from using that because often, people misjudge how long it takes and they have to get rescued because they run out of daylight,” Lewis said.
“In this particular year, the whole river has changed course and it’s flowing through the woods.
“It’s about 200 metres of just logjam after logjam and it is a significant hazard.”
Lewis also said the logjam area is not very visible until someone floats around the corner.
“The biggest concern is just having tubers go down and if they end up in the trees — then it’s a death trap, unfortunately,” he said.
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