Shiribeshi-Toshibetsu Overnight Canoeing

Broadly speaking, the Shiribeshi-Toshibetsu River can be split into three sections

• Pirika Dam to the hydro outlet | 5km, 4.3mpk | This is an absolutely gorgeous, pristine section of river. Amazing fish life. At anything less than 10m³/s outflow from the dam, however, this section would best be walked without a canoe, just to enjoy the scenery. At below 10m³/s from the dam, you’ll be lining and dragging your boat most of the way anyway (as we ended up doing).
• Hydro outlet to Imakane Town | 30km, 2.2mpk | Beyond the hydro outlet, there’s more water in the river, so it’s much more fun in a canoe. There are easy swifts, one Class 1+ rapid, and gorgeous high cliffs. The most kingfishers we’ve ever seen in Hokkaido. Of course, keep vigilant of classic Hokkaido river hazards – namely weirs and downed-tree strainers. Ideally you’d want to run this section in water levels of 25m or more, as measured at the Sumiyoshi Bridge (water levels here). We ran it in 24.85m, and were wishing for at least another 20cm or so. Our canoe bottoms got a beating – gelcoat repairs required. There are two portages required on this section, both with steep take-outs and put-ins.
  • Nakasato Weir (中里頭首工, location): This weir is not always raised – it may be possible to paddle straight through. If it is raised, then a portage is needed, with less-than-ideal access to the river banks. It’s a steep haul of the canoes up to a grassy access area on the left side, about 75m from the weir itself. This area is fenced off with a 1m-high fence, but the fence sections seem to be moveable – we were able to drop one to the ground (not sure if they were designed to do that or not). We camped in this area. To put the canoes back into the river on the other side of the weir, carry them 200m to the end of the fencing. From there it’s again a bush-bashing steep slope down to the river.
  • Sumiyoshi Weir (住吉頭首工, location): This weir is also open sometimes. It wasn’t when we were there, requiring a steep scrambly portage around the left side. The take out is about 20m from the weir itself – just keep edging along the left side till you get to the concrete, and you’ll see a steep concrete ‘ramp’ (here). Put back in just past the weir (here), after clambering down the bank. This is about 100m of portage.
• Imakane Town to river mouth at Setana | 16km, 0.7mpk | With a stiff headwind at times, we managed to knock this section out in about 3.5 hours. This section has the most birdlife, and the river mouth lagoon is stunning. Most of the river banks are man-made, but they’re enveloped in bushy trees. There’s one river-wide weir-like man-made drop (here) that could be run if water levels were high enough – this is used as a river-wide salmon fishing installment later in the year. When the salmon nets are up, you’ll need to portage around the right-hand side.