Day 9

Weather: Sunny, warm, light tail wind
Distance: 37 km and one portage.
Location: Latitude:63.75782, Longitude:-104.75458 at 07/21/2014 15:21:57 PDT
Map link: Click here

Today was fabulous. We had warm sunny weather, a light tailwind, and current helping us nearly all day. We were able to average 8 km per hour. The scenery was spectacular, with vast expanses of white sand, and huge sandy eskers for much of the day. We stopped for lunch at a particularly spectacular spot here. After lunch we walked a bit and followed fresh wolf tracks across the sand.

The water was crystal clear and it ran over a broad sandy bottom for many km. In places the river bed was broad and quite shallow, and soon after we passed a section that reminded us of the white cliffs of Dover ... although this was not chalk.

Around 2pm we arrived at the beach above MacDonald Falls. With the large sandy eskers upstream and dramatic waterfalls downstream, this area was just awesome. We decided to portage the canoe today, and then portage our gear half way so we could camp by the falls and then complete the portage in the morning. Our camp spot was magnificent.

We explored the falls again in the evening light and then hiked out across the tundra for a few km. Once the bewitching hour arrived the bugs got pretty thick, but even that didn't spoil this evening. What a place!

Day 8

Weather: Sunny and warm with a light breeze
Distance: 37 km, one portage and one lined rapid
Location: Latitude:63.65733, Longitude:-105.15179 at 07/20/2014 17:14:11 PDT
Map link: Click here

We started out with an unmarked portage at the exit from the lake we camped on last night. It was a major rapid, with two ledge drops, but luckily the portage was short at under 400 m.

The day was sunny and warm with a light breeze, and our route took us past many beautiful, large, white sandy eskers. We stopped for lunch on one of them and hiked for a while.

Later, we had to line a short but intense rapid that might be runnable at a higher flow, but looked pretty dangerous at the flow we had. The lining was fairly straightforward along a channel close to shore. This rapid was actually a couple of km later than where it was marked on the map we had. It was at the entrance to a large lake (Reminder: update the map!). The remainder of the day consisted of some lakes interspersed with sections of moving water and some small class 1-2 rapids and riffles.

We saw many geese and a peregrine falcon. We passed what appeared to be a hydrological monitoring station and some kind of scientific research station. Both were unmanned, but had various pieces of scientific equipment and antennae. The river changed in character from sandy eskers to rocky shores and small cliffs.

Day 7

Weather: 3 degrees C in the morning, but calm and sunny all day
Distance: 15 km paddling, plus 1 km portage (5 km walking)
Location: Latitude:63.55765, Longitude:-105.53441 at 07/19/2014 18:13:11 PDT
Map link: Click here

It was a cold night, with the temperature dropping to just 3 degrees C. The weather was calm and sunny all day though, and warm, but not too hot. We got a late start and weren't on the water until 10 am. It took us an hour to cross Hanbury Lake. Shortly after that we encountered the first part of Caribou Rapids.

We stopped to scout the first 1 km or so, but were able to run most of it and line the last part on river left. Then, after a wide pool, the main drop began and this was a definite portage on river right. This is a beautiful area with spectacular rapids and a relatively easy portage under 1 km. The portage required about 3 hours of hard labor to complete.

After the main drop there are a couple of km of easier rapids and boulder gardens that demand a certain amount of technical rock dodging, but were clearly runnable for us. Here the river is wide and very shallow, with a rocky bottom. We guessed that the caribou could probably walk across the river here.

Below the rapids there were a few km of gentle current. Later, we camped at a beautiful esker beside a lake and enjoyed a lovely late evening hike along the top of the esker. The light was gorgeous, and as usual, darkness never came.

Day 6

Weather: gale force westerly winds
Distance: 24 km paddling, plus 15 km walking
Location: Latitude:63.57511, Longitude:-105.72670 at 07/19/2014 08:09:11 PDT
Map link: Click here

Today we did really well to make progress in conditions that should normally have restricted us to land. The wind was fierce, around 30 knots out of the west. This was a tailwind, but it was so strong that it would be unsafe to be on open water in a canoe. However, we managed to figure out a circuitous route, made up of narrow channels, lake shores along which we could handrail and shelter from the wind, and very short crossings in which the wind was directly behind us and in which we could literally surf on breaking but manageable following seas. In this way, we were able to paddle to the first portage of our trip, here and complete it in cool, windy, bug-free conditions.

The portage was under 1 km in length, and enabled us to negotiate an unrunnable, but very scenic waterfall. There was no trail, but the conditions under foot were reasonably friendly and there was relatively little elevation gain or loss involved. All of our training and preparation for portaging paid off, and the portage went smoothly. It was, however, too windy to carry the canoe in the normal way. The windage of the canoe was such that in these gale force winds you would quite litterally be blown over if the canoe turned sideways to the wind. Trailing a line from the stern (it was a tail wind), so a second person could keep the end of the canoe pointing into the wind like a weather vein, allowed us to get the canoe to the other end, but we need more practice at this.

With the first portage complete, were were then able to continue our careful strategy of using terrain to keep out of the wind where possible, and surfing when we were crossing with the wind behind us, in order to reach Grove Rapids, the second portage of our journey. This second portage is about 2 km long with much more elevation change (gain and loss). It starts out following the top of an esker, which makes conditions underfoot very nice and smooth. The esker does not, however, follow the river. So it is an interesting overland journey through scenic terrain of small lakes and craggy hills. Eventually you climb to a ridge from which you have an extensive view down to Hanbury Lake. The descent goes across rocking ridges, small crags and through some boggy areas before arriving at a very steep lake shore with small cliffs. We found a sheltered place to camp with beautiful views over the lake, and left the task of lowering the canoe and gear to the water until the morning.

Portaging the bags was a fairly straightforward, albeit tiring, process. In practice, 2 km feels much longer than it sounds in theory. This is especially true when you are lugging a 70 lb bag on your back, but we had trained well enough to be able to do each pass without stopping to rest. Portaging the canoe was challenging though. The gale force winds on the esker were so fierce that they made shouldering the canoe impossible. This was partly due to the strength of the wind and partly due to the direction (a cross wind in places). So we were forced to do a two person carry using the handles at each end of the canoe. The portage was broken into many short sprints, before putting the canoe down, changing hands, and sprinting again. From the top of the ridge I then dragged the canoe downhill over the tundra and boggy areas. This was actually easier than carrying it. All in all, this portage took us about 4 hours and involved 10 km of walking (three journeys with load and two returns).

We were very happy to have been able to make such progress on such a fierce windy day, while minimizing our exposure to danger. Due to our wind evading strategies, we probably paddled at least 5km further than necessary, but that is what made the journey possible on a day like this.

The area around Hanbury lake is beautiful, as is Grove rapids, and the esker we portage along. There are a few groves of very small spruce trees which is quite unexpected after the last few days of spartan tundra scenary. We are now laying in the tent on a thick bed of soft, spongey, moss, maybe a foot or two thick. It is like sleeping on a giant water bed, and is oh so comfortable after two strenuous portages and 24km of paddling in gale force winds.

Day 5

Weather: Sunny, very windy
Distance: 2km
Location: Latitude:63.65110, Longitude:-105.96355 at 07/17/2014 18:34:09 PDT
Map link: Click here

Although the weather was clear and sunny, the wind was still blasting and the lake surrounding the island we were on was covered in whitecaps. It was too rough to paddle, and the fierce wind would have been a headwind anyway, strong enough to prevent any progress by canoe. So, this was a day for hiking! Unfortunately, we were on a small island with no way off. After 30 minutes we had hiked the whole thing. That was bad planning. So we hung around and waited for the wind to drop. It was pleasant and relaxing, at least, with no bugs.

We had breakfast, then hiked around a bit. Then lounged around, then had lunch. Then we watched a ptarmigan for a while and hiked around some more. Eventually, by late afternoon the wind subsided slightly, so we quickly packed up and paddled away from the island to a slightly better (more protected) location on a larger island about a mile away. By the time we got there the weather had deteriorated again and we found ourselves setting up the tent again in a hurry and preparing for another onslaught of wind and rain.

Another thunderstorm came through with fierce wind and torrential rain. It was the full fire-hose treatment again, but this time were were in a slightly more sheltered position so it was easy to weather it out. Then it calmed down for a while, then we had another thunderstorm. The storms came one after another all evening. There was nothing to do other than wait in the tent with everything locked down. We caught up on our study of the history of the Thelon river, which Kirti read out loud from our kindle.

Day 4

Weather: Poor visibility, rain, moderate wind, then intense storm, thunder, lightning, storm-force winds
Distance: 30 km
Location: Latitude:63.63982, Longitude:-105.96906 at 07/16/2014 17:51:00 PDT
Map link: Click here

We set off today just after 8 am. It had rained overnight, but was not raining when we started, however it soon started to rain and we wore our bibs and rain jackets to paddle. We paddled through many small channels, some of which had current in spots, and one even had a small rapid. After lunch we saw storm clounds gathering and we heard thunder. We decided to get off the water, and it was a good job we did. The sky turned black and a huge storm errupted.

We were not in a very good location for shelter, but it had to do. Because there were few suitable spots for a tent, we put up the flysheet of the kitchen shelter for initial shelter from the wind and rain, in the hope that the storm would pass and we'd be able to find a more suitable camp later. However, the storm became very intense with the wind swinging around from the North to the Northwest and gusting up to at least 100 km/hour. Despite piles of large rocks on the tent anchors, and additionally guy lines deployed, we still found ourselves inside the tent having to lean against the windy side of the tent just to hold it up, while a veritable fire-hose of rain created a deafening roar. This lasted for several hours. Enduring the full brunt of a storm, fully exposed on the relatively featureless tundra, is something we expected and had planned for, but it was still more than a little unnerving, since we were not well located for this.

By 10 pm the rain had stopped, the storm had subsided, and the wind had dropped to mere gale force. We hiked around and found a half-decent spot for our sleeping tent, pitched it (which was a bit tricky in the strong winds) and snuggled inside. It was very comfortable, and for once, there was no sign whatsoever of any bugs. The temperature dropped rapidly.