North Prom water

[Drew]

I'm planning on walking the North Prom on the Labour Day weekend and just wondering if anyone here can report on recent conditions, particularly water availability and swamp conditions.

When the idea crossed my mind a month ago my concern was that the swamp might be very deep, but now that it's been dry for a while I'm more concerned about lack of water! Spring was extremely wet down there, Dec and Jan fairly average, and Feb has been very dry.

From experience, calling Tidal River for info is not useful - they never have any idea about North Prom conditions.

Cheers.

[indented]

Joris posted in the North Prom thread in the trip reports area a week or two ago. Sounds like water availability was OK and the swamp was on the low side.

[Drew]

Joris posted in the North Prom thread in the trip reports area a week or two ago. Sounds like water availability was OK and the swamp was on the low side.

Ah thanks - should have checked there first! Thigh deep mud sounds, err, fun? First time I did the circuit was towards autumn 2008 and it was dry as a chip. Second time a few years ago only a short calf-deep section of muddy water in the swamp. Hopefully the swamp will be slightly drier in a couple of weeks but there's still some creek water flowing.

[JamesMc]

No need to worry about thigh-deep mud. It's water, not mud.

[Drew]

No need to worry about thigh-deep mud. It's water, not mud.

That definitely sounds much better James! Joris' trip report does say "Mid-thigh deep mud" for the crossing SW of Chinaman's Knob though. He also says "cross at your own peril" - not sure if that's implying that one could avoid crossing it somehow?

[Baeng72]

see this at 6:22
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feXKCT_FeX0
It's a small, but deceptively deep bog past the 3 swamp creek crossings near Chinaman's Knob.
I took a step in up to the thigh in mostly mud, backed out and there's a path on one side that people seem to take after they realize what they've stepped into.

[Drew]

I took a step in up to the thigh in mostly mud

I took a step in on what looked like firm ground and sunk up to my calf, then decided to plow through. That was a mistake, but gave us all a good laugh at least! My friends went around and stayed dry.

My muddy legs were the least of my concerns though. Compared to my last walk of the Northern Circuit a few years ago the scrub was pretty brutal. A couple of sections in particular slowed us down a lot, with lots of time wasted due to flagging tape disappearing just where it was needed most (sometimes it really is best to just push right through instead of looking everywhere for the nonexistent "right" route). We also had a run-in with a seriously angry feral bee hive which wasn't much fun...

[indented]

Sounds like a fun trip, if you have a chance would be good to read a trip report over in the other thread!

[bernieq]

Water update for Nth Prom - May 2022

In general, plenty of good water throughout the North Prom circuit, including :

On 5 Mile Rd : at Chinaman's Creek & at Miranda Creek.
Small creek/spring on the nth side of Miranda Creek.
Johnny Souey camp south creek (didn't check nth creek but assume it's good too).
TIn Mine Cove - collectable from the beach (good flow & clean tasting).
Lower Barry Creek camp

Chinamans Creek crossing is again thigh-deep, Olympic pool long & quite cold.

A general observation is that vegetation has grown a lot since my last trip in 2019 - quite a bit taller & thicker. As per usual, we lost the footpad quite a few times but a bit of pink tape is generally not far away.

[bernieq]

... and there was a pretty good sunset at Tin Mine Cove.

sunset over Corner Inlet

[Baeng72]

Thanks for the update bernieq. Love the photo.
The vegetation sounds like it hasn't improved from April '21. The horror!