Research and rescue teams along the Cowichan river warn that the river has changed the course in an area, which makes it very dangerous.
“The difference (east) in the river channel itself,” Global News Trevor Paterson, president of Cowichan Search and Rescue and a Swiftwater team, told Global Newson Paterson.
“The river canal were therefore going in a large kind of horseshoe shape and now it is essentially cut this shape and the new channel goes completely through the forest, through log jams and many other debris, which is very dangerous for all those who go there.
“The log jams are large, you are not even able to climb on some of them, they are so large.”
Paterson said that if someone went to one of these log jams, they may be pinned against debris, held underwater and drown.
Cowichan research and rescue work in close collaboration with the research and rescue of Ladysmith. They discovered the change when they paddled last weekend.
“It is not a section that is normally tube too many people, but certainly people go out and venture alone,” said Paterson.
“And if they enter here and they can put themselves in danger, otherwise they are very long from any road or out on the river. It will therefore be very difficult to express themselves from there.”
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Paterson said the highway is also several kilometers away and would take a long time to reach this section of the river.
“Please don’t go in this area,” he said. “All areas of the river that you should know and have experience before entering or finding information before leaving, never becoming blind.”
Jeff Lewis with Ladysmith Search and Rescue is also a Swiftwater team leader.
He echoes what Paterson said, saying that people should stay outside the river.
“Each year, we warden the Cowichan river in the spring to try to understand where the dangers are before the tubers are in the end,” said Lewis.
“And this particular danger is about nine kilometers downstream from Lake Cowichan, about a kilometer downstream from Trestle 72.”
While Lewis agreed that this area with Jack Jam is not a usual place for tubers, they had to save people from this part before.
“We actually discourage people from using it because people often judge how long it takes and they have to be saved because they lack daylight,” said Lewis.
“During this special year, the whole river changed course and it flows through the woods.
“It’s about 200 meters from Just Logjam after Logjam and it is a significant danger.”
Lewis also said that the Logjam area was not very visible until someone floated around the corner.
“The biggest concern is to lower the tubers and if they find themselves in the trees-then it is a death trap, unfortunately,” he said.
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