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Northwest Territories Canoe Trip -- July 2013

Last year I spent one month backpacking in Australia and New Zealand. That wasn't nearly long enough to do either country justice, but I did meet lots of interesting people in the short time I was there. The most common thing I heard was how beautiful Canada was and how jealous people were that I got to live in such a place.

Clearly none of these people had spent much time in southwestern Ontario. Although I have come to appreciate the quiet, gentle beauty of the rolling hills, endless corn fields and tiny forests of my childhood, none of those places compare to the astounding feats of nature I saw every single day in Australia and New Zealand. Those people, pining for Canada, were probably thinking about one of the coasts or perhaps the Rocky Mountains.

At the time, the furthest west (and north) I'd been in Canada was Thunder Bay, and the furthest east was Montréal (and only there for work without time to explore the city). I'd been around the world and had visited a variety of countries, but not seen much of my own. I decided to rectify the situation, but did not make any specific plans at the time.

A few months after returning I stumbled across Canoe Arctic and quickly signed up for a trip. This was exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. Something different; something challenging; something with lots of nature. My reason for not having seen much of Canada was a combination of ease and price. When it costs as much to fly to Vancouver as it does to fly to Europe, why would I stay in Canada? Why not go somewhere "more exotic?" Plus, the owner and guide Alex Hall is the foremost authorithy on the Thelon River and surrounding area. He has been paddling Arctic rivers since the early 1970s (when he visited as part of doing his graduate degree at the University of Toronto) and has been leading guided trips in the area for thirty years. He's over 70 now but that hasn't slowed him down; he's easily the strongest, most impressive man I've ever met. Just a brief read of his history convinced me the trip would be amazing.

The Canadian tundra west of Hudson's Bay is huge (twice the size of Texas) and essentially unpopulated. Native people used to live off the land there, following the caribou, but modern society has drawn them all off to live at the edges. The tundra is completely undeveloped and isolated. It is the largest piece of untouched, pure wilderness left in North America. And it is under threat from the combination of global warming and mining interests. It is a magical and unique place that may not exist as it does now for much longer.

The trip I chose was 210km of paddling on the upper Thelon River, finishing on the edge of the Thelon Wildlife Sanctuary. Alex guided myself and seven others from around North America on this trip over eleven days and ten nights. He arranged gear and food and other logistics, we just had to get ourselves and our personal gear to Fort Smith on the border of Alberta and the Northwest Territories. From there we flew an additional 450km northeast into the wilderness on chartered float planes to begin our trip.

Fort Smith

This morning I was up before 4:00am in order to catch my flight to Edmonton. Toronto is so peaceful and quiet at that time of day. The flight to Edmonton on WestJet was uneventful, but I had to wait almost four hours once arriving for my connection to Fort Smith. The only airline that flies to Fort Smith is Northwestern Air Lease and their check-in desk didn't even open until an hour before the flight.

But with the acquisition of a smart phone, waiting around is no longer a chore. I simply found a place to sit and burned through a couple hours floating about on the Internet. Yay modern society!

The flight to Fort Smith was awesome. The plane only had seven rows of three seats each, and there was no door between the cockpit and cabin. About halfway through the two hour flight, the co-pilot came back and handed out bottled water and lunchables he retrieved from a cooler under a seat. There were only five passengers in total on that flight and it was a much more intimate flying experience than I've ever had before. The flight was smooth and we arrived in Fort Smith right on time.

The actual canoe trip does not start until July 11. I've come early to explore the area around Fort Smith and to relax before jumping off into the wild unknown. Only one other person from the group came today. He was on the flight to Fort Smith with me, but I didn't find that out until our guide Alex picked us up at the airport on arrival. Don is an older guy from Winnipeg and seems very nice.

The two of us piled into Alex's truck and he drove us around Fort Smith, giving a brief tour before dropping us at the Whooping Crane Guesthouse, a B&B which we're both staying at. Alex is gruff but friendly and we won't really see him again until the night before the trip when the whole group will get together for a pre-trip dinner. He has a lot of prep work still to do. Before dropping us off, he gave us each a pack to use on the trip along with two heavy duty plastic liners for keeping our gear dry inside. We also picked out our paddles from his collection of over one hundred.

The B&B is amazing. It's bright and clean, and my room is actually a full suite with a kitchen and separate living and dining room. I think it's bigger than my apartment in Toronto! It has free WiFi and we're also allowed to use the common areas in the part of the house where the owners live. When we arrived the owners were still at their day jobs so Don and I went for a walk into town to get some dinner and buy beer and a few groceries to have back at the B&B. We ate at the only real restaurant in town, the one attached to the Pelican Inn, the only real hotel in town. The restaurant is Chinese, but also serves standard burgers and steak and things. I had a burger which was nothing special but did the job.

Fort Smith (population 2500) is very small. The main industry is government work. Alex says he's the only person actively working in the tourism industry despite the fact that the town is trying to promote itself as a destination. There's not much here, but it seems nice enough. There were huge ravens in the parking lot of the grocery store which was pretty cool and the liquor store had delicious Big Rock beer from Calgary.

When we returned to the B&B we met our hosts (Christine and Donald) and chatted with them for a while before retiring to the living room in my suite. Don and I then proceeded to drink beers and talk for a couple hours about all sorts of things. Of particular note is the fact that just eight hours after I left Toronto an epic rainstorm dropped over 100mm of rain on the city in just two hours. If I had not left today I may not have been able to get out in time for the canoe trip. I'm feeling very lucky!

Tomorrow Don and I are going to explore the rapids at the edge of Fort Smith. So far everything here has been very relaxed and low-key and I'm enjoying it intensely.

Out the windows of the plane on the way to Fort Smith
Out the windows of the plane on the way to Fort Smith
Landed safely in Fort Smith
Landed safely in Fort Smith
Fort Smith

This morning Don and I met for breakfast in the dining room of the B&B around 7:45am. A full table was laid out with juice, coffee, granola, yogurt and fruit. When we arrived Christine pulled homemade stuffed crêpes out of the oven and served them up. They were absolutely fantastic! Homemade raisin toast was also served with butter and jam. The breakfast was huge and every part delicious. This B&B is possibly the best I've stayed in anywhere!

After breakfast Don and I gathered up a few supplies and walked out to the Slave River for a hike to visit the rapids. Fort Smith was originally founded because it was a point of major portage when travelling along the Slave River. "The Rapids of the Drowned" can be accessed from Fort Smith by walking along a well-maintained trail through some forested area.

The walk was nice, but we were quickly glad we listened to Donald's advice at the B&B to bring our bug shirts. The mosquitoes were huge and everywhere. I've never seen so many all at once. The shirts worked great though so the bugs did not affect our mood.

At the rapids there are rocks allowing you to walk out into the river a bit. Out of the trees the wind kept the mosquitoes away so we sat down on the rocks for a few hours to chat and watch the White Pelicans fishing in the rapids. Fort Smith is home to the most northerly nesting colony of these birds and they were fantastic to see.

Around lunch time we walked back into town and stopped at the pizza/shawarma place for lunch. The pizza was pretty good, but I ate way too much. After lunch we stopped in to the "Northern Life Museum" which chronicles the history of life in the area, focusing on natives, animals and the early European trappers. The museum was free and a student gave us a full guided tour.

For dinner, our host Christine insisted that we visit "Anna's Place" instead of returning to the "horrible" restaurant at the Pelican Inn. Anna's Place is a smaller restaurant that we didn't even know existed. Apparently it is more for takeout but they also have a few tables for dining in. They specialize in real, home-cooked food using organic ingredients. It was more expensive than the other place, but the food was amazing. I had local white-fish done on the grill with grilled veggies, baked potato and a mango smoothie. There was also a fantastic salad with poppy seed dressing. The staff were very friendly and we chatted with one about books for a while as she cleaned up.

When we got back to the B&B after supper we met Judy, another member of our party who had just arrived. Judy is from the rural area outside Ottawa and is in her 70s. The three of us spent a little while getting acquainted in the living room and while we were there our hosts served us some nice white wine! Again, best B&B ever! Judy is super nice and has led a very interesting life including spending time running a hospital on Baffin Island. She's also been on four previous trips with Alex and can't get enough of the tundra. I can't wait to get out there myself!

Walking to the rapids
Walking to the rapids
The rapids
The rapids
Sitting rocks at the rapids
Sitting rocks at the rapids
Pelicans!
Pelicans!
Pelicans!
Pelicans!
Pelicans!
Pelicans!
Pelicans!
Pelicans!
Pelicans!
Pelicans!
Pelicans!
Pelicans!
Pelican!
Pelican!
Pelicans!
Don sunning himself while I take pictures
Don sunning himself while I take pictures
Fort Smith

Judy, Don and I shared another wonderful B&B breakfast this morning. It was the same as yesterday but with different filling for the crêpes. Then Donald drove us over to the park offices for Wood Buffalo National Park where he works. There we met Donna (from St. Mary's) and Alec (from Calgary), two more members of our group who arrived yesterday and joined the three of us today on our trip into the park.

Wood Buffalo National Park is the largest national park in North America and the second largest in the world. Fort Smith is on the northeastern border. The park was established in 1922 to protect the world's last remaining wild herd of Wood Bison and it had the accidental accomplishment of also preserving the Whooping Crane. They almost went extinct but then a nesting ground was discovered in the northern part of the park. Now there are estimated to be 437 birds in the wild.

For a small fee, staff at the park office will drive groups from Fort Smith into the park and give a brief tour down on the salt flats. So we all piled into a truck with a young summer student and headed over. At the park, we hiked down a steep hill to come out onto a huge open plain. The plain is normally white from the salt, but it had just rained last night so it was only white in a few spots. The guide led us on a short walk explaining stuff about the area and wildlife. There were tons of animal tracks everywhere including bison, cranes and wolves. There was one huge patch of salt which the guide explained was incredibly pure from a chemical point-of-view. Pure NaCl. Animals come from all around to eat it and there were tracks all over.

While walking we saw six or seven Sandhill Cranes (a brownish crane), including a breeding pair which flew all about calling back and forth to each other. Also, far in the distance, we spotted three Whooping Cranes which was amazing. With so few it is quite rare to see them. After tasting some of the salt we hiked back up the hill to the lookout point where the truck was parked. As we looked out over the plains, a large herd of bison came out of some trees. They were very very far away but even from a distance the animals were huge. It would have been nice to see some closer, but in a park that is bigger than Switzerland with only five thousand resident bison I think we were lucky to see what we did.

The guide dropped us all off at Anna's Place for lunch and then we walked back to the park office to see some movies about the area. There was some really good footage of wolves taking down a bison in the park.

For supper we all met Alex at the hotel restaurant. The final members of our group had arrived. Two of them were supposed to arrive yesterday but got caught by the flooding in Toronto. Mike and his fifteen year old son Curtis are from Oshawa and Eldon is from Orange County in California. Everyone seems really nice and I think it will be a good group.

Over dinner Alex explained a few logistics for tomorrow. He's picking us all up at our various accommodations early in the morning and taking us to the airport. There we'll load up the three float planes that will take us and all of our gear far north of the treeline. The packs he's given us to use are canvas packs made by Duluth and he's used them for decades. They're in amazing condition and can hold a surprising amount of stuff. Their shape fits really well into the canoes which is key. Although we are allowed to use our own packs if we insist, Alex strongly discourages it as it makes loading the canoes harder. He's also given us two thick plastic liners with strong elastics to close them. These will keep our stuff very dry in the event a canoe dumps or if we get rained on while paddling.

I'm back at the B&B now and I just finished packing. I'm very excited!

Looking out over the Salt Flats at Wood Buffalo National Park
Looking out over the Salt Flats at Wood Buffalo National Park
Looking out over the Salt Flats at Wood Buffalo National Park
Looking out over the Salt Flats at Wood Buffalo National Park
On the Salt Flats
On the Salt Flats
Crane tracks
Crane tracks
Bison tracks
Bison tracks
On the Salt Flats
On the Salt Flats
Lots of bison tracks
Lots of bison tracks
Yummy salt lick
Yummy salt lick
Sandhill Crane
Sandhill Crane
Dragonfly
Dragonfly
Sandhill Cranes in flight (the white blurs far in the distance, in the grass, are Whooping Cranes)
Sandhill Cranes in flight (the white blurs far in the distance, in the grass, are Whooping Cranes)
On the Salt Flats
On the Salt Flats
Wood Bison!
Wood Bison!
Day 1

This morning after another amazing crêpe breakfast Judy, Don and I were picked up at our B&B and driven over to the airport. There was not much in the way of security. We simply drove onto the tarmack and up to our planes. We all immediately went to work loading gear.

We required three float planes to get all of us plus the gear to the start point of the trip. The primary plane was a de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter, and into its cabin we stuffed the majority of the gear and five passengers (including myself). Alex rode in the cockpit with the pilot. The other two planes were small Cessnas, one of which took more gear and the other took the remaining three members of our group. The pilots were all really friendly and fun, but they got serious when it came time to do the safety briefing. Apparently flying is always the same no matter the size of the plane.

As we loaded we saw a bunch of water bombers taking off and landing. There are always forest fires in the summer here and there is one fairly close to Fort Smith at the moment. A large team of fire fighters are working to keep it away from town. The smoke in the air was pretty harsh this morning.

Once we were loaded we took off and started our journey. The Otter is super loud so we had to wear earplugs and couldn't really talk during the flight. The scenery was incredible though. There are so many lakes and rivers everywhere! The climate is like a desert because it never rains (they get about ten inches per year), but there is a ton of moisture trapped in the permafrost and lakes so there is always lots of life.

The starting point of our trip is far enough from Fort Smith that we had to stop halfway to refuel. But today we stopped earlier than expected after taking a short detour. A bunch of clouds had appeared on the horizon and the pilots were worried about the low ceiling. The land is mostly flat, but there are some taller hills. In order to land, the pilots need to be able to drop down quite low to scout for appropriate lakes. So if a plane gets low on fuel when there are too many clouds the pilot would be forced to drop blindly where there may or may not be obscured hills which is not good.

We stopped at an abandoned fishing resort and refuelled from some cached fuel barrels. We helped roll the barrels down to the planes and then helped pump the fuel out of the barrels by hand. It was pretty cool. Once refuelled we sat around for a couple hours watching the clouds and hoping they'd break up. Eventually the pilots agreed to send the one cargo Cessna ahead to scout the way. Thirty minutes later he radioed back and told us it was safe to follow. So we jumped back in the planes and were on our way. Takeoff and landing on water was surprisingly smooth. The pilot lowers the plane into the water very slowly and you barely even feel it. Crossing the treeline on the second half of our flight was also very cool. Suddenly we were in the tundra!

At our destination we landed under high clouds and unloaded all our gear onto a small island. The canoes were there waiting for us as Alex always drops the canoes at the start point for each trip while on the way back from the preceding trip. Once we were unloaded the pilots joked about the poor weather (10C, windy and overcast) before getting in their planes and taking off. It really was a shocking change since it was over 20C and sunny in Fort Smith this morning.

Alex generally runs the same six trips each year, but this year he modified the trip we're on. Normally it starts another thirty kilometres upstream, but he found that the groups rarely made it to the intended end point due to the four large portages at the beginning. So he moved the start point past the first three portages. As a result he's never started where we did this morning. Normally he has the planes drop the group at a good place to camp and no paddling is done on the first day. In our case we had to paddle across a small lake to get to a suitable place to camp. So our first day was a bit unusual and also a bit rushed because of the delay on the flight out. With the weather looking threatening we quickly ate lunch on the island and then packed the canoes and paddled twenty minutes across the lake.

Despite the rush, Judy, Donna and I had a chance to explore the little island a bit before leaving. Judy is quite familiar with the tundra so she explained a bunch of stuff to us as we walked. We saw lots of cool plants, in particular cranberries and Labrador Tea. The Labrador Tea is a ground-cover type conifer and is the best smelling thing ever. As you walk through it, the scent is thrown all over. And the cranberries! I can't describe them, but they are like the Platonic ideal of cranberries. I feel like I've never actually tasted a cranberry before now. They grow everywhere, but it takes a year and a half before they become edible. Over the winter the cold changes the berries from hard and bitter to soft and sweet (well, sweet as far as cranberries go). I can tell I'll be eating a lot more of these over the course of the trip. Other than those plants there is a lot of soft moss and other short shrubs. It's really nice to walk on. Along the shore there are some taller bushes that Judy informed me were actually trees: birch and willow! If you transplanted them south they'd grow big but up here they stay close to the ground. We also found some caribou bones which was pretty neat.

I paddled today in the stern position with Judy in the bow of my canoe. The wind continued to pick up as we went and we had quite a bit of trouble coming into shore. I was steering as best I could but it was very ineffective. Alex told us later that the distribution of weight in our canoe was unbalanced and so we were front heavy. With the nose driving down into the water it was no wonder I had trouble steering. Next time we go out we'll shift some heavier gear towards the back to compensate.

At camp we unloaded all the canoes and dragged them up off the beach to keep them clean and safe from blowing away in the wind. Although we are north of the treeline the river supports small spruce trees which can provide a small amount of shelter from the wind. It was in such a grove that Alex set up his kitchen while the rest of us put up our tents on a mossy plain nearby. The landscape is truly amazing out here. There are trees down near the water, but if you walk fifty metres inland they disappear and an endless flat expanse opens before you.

Once everything was set up Alex served dinner. Tonight we had fresh bannock bread which Alex slid straight from the hot pan onto a clean patch of tundra. We all dove in and devoured this delicious treat. Then there was a veggie soup followed by shrimp and chicken pasta with raspberries for dessert. It was all pretty good!

After dinner we chatted for a bit and Alex smoked a cigar. Soon though the ever increasing wind and cold convinced us to turn in early for the night. It is truly amazing out here. It makes me feel very small and also very lucky to be both alive and able to experience this.

Water bombers
Water bombers
Our group in front of the Otter (Curtis, Mike, me, Donna, Judy, Eldon, Alec, Alex the guide, and Don)
Our group in front of the Otter (Curtis, Mike, me, Donna, Judy, Eldon, Alec, Alex the guide, and Don)
Flying over the Slave River just out of Fort Smith
Flying over the Slave River just out of Fort Smith
Lakes and rivers
Lakes and rivers
Landing at the refuel spot
One of the Cessna planes at the refuelling spot
One of the Cessna planes at the refuelling spot
Refuelling the Otter
Refuelling the Otter
The tundra!
The tundra!
The tundra!
The tundra!
Landed at the canoe drop site
Landed at the canoe drop site
The landscape on the island
The landscape on the island
Our gear
Our gear
Loading the extra canoe on the plane (he had five on his previous trip but only needed four for our trip)
Loading the extra canoe on the plane (he had five on his previous trip but only needed four for our trip)
The planes leaving us
The planes leaving us
The planes leaving us
Cranberries
Cranberries
Judy with caribou antlers
Judy with caribou antlers
My tent at the campsite
My tent at the campsite
View from the top of a hill near our site
View from the top of a hill near our site
Our campsite
Our campsite
Labrador Tea
Labrador Tea
Logistics

At this point I'm going to break from the day-to-day account of the trip in order to describe the details of how the trip was run. Many parts of each day were the same, so rather than repeat myself I'm going to describe the average day here. I'll also provide details about gear and procedures that I found interesting. Some parts of this section may be boring if you don't care about camping and canoeing so feel free to skip ahead to the next day.

On Alex's trips the first day and last day generally involve no paddling (our trip being a rare exception). Weather permitting, every other day of the trip is a paddling day and enough time is allocated to make it fairly easy to reach the targetted end point with consistent effort from the group. On the first day of the trip most of the time is allocated to the flight in, unloading gear and a ninety minute lecture from Alex on how the trip is run. On the last day time is spent packing, disassembling the canoes for transport and travelling back to Fort Smith.

Paddling days all have the same basic format. Breakfast is at 8:05am and is either porridge or granola with milk (the milk is reconstituted from powder). There is juice, coffee and tea. Judy warned in advance that she found breakfast was not big enough to hold her until lunch so I brought a bag of mixed nuts and chocolate which I would snack on throughout the morning. We also often picked cranberries or blueberries to put in the porridge or granola.

After breakfast we'd pack up the camp with the goal of getting on the water by 9:15am. Then we would paddle for a little over an hour before taking a short bathroom break at some convenient location. Then more paddling until lunch which was normally at noon (often exactly at noon).

Lunch was always the same. Unlimited wasa crackers (large rye crackers) with a selection of toppings. Peanut butter, honey, many different jams. Various canned fish like salmon, tuna, sardines and oysters. Also canned ham and turkey. For dessert there would always be mixed nuts, dried fruit and chocolate. We'd also have some sort of juice made from juice crystals. To eat lunch we'd stop somewhere and just pull the lunch stuff out of the canoes. The only dishes we'd use were cups for the juice, a pot to mix the juice in, and knives for spreading the various toppings on crackers. It was a very efficient meal, and also very satisfying. The jams had their own custom made storage box in order to protect the glass containers (the only glass we brought on the trip). The juice flavour was different every day. Besides the standard expected flavours there were fun ones like cranberry, banana-orange-pineapple, passion fruit and peach. When lunch was done someone would quickly clean the dishes in the river and then we'd be back on the water. Often lunch was finished in less than forty-five minutes.

In the afternoon we'd paddle with the goal of reaching our next camping spot by 4pm including another short bathroom break at some point. Alex knows the river and surrounding area extremely well and over the years he's figured out where all the best spots to camp are. He'd often give us choices about how far we wanted to go when there was no safety difference between the options. For example, we'd take our afternoon break and he'd tell us we could either stay at the break spot or paddle another hour and a half to reach a better camp site further down the river. We always took the further option.

After reaching our camp site for the night the first order of business was to unload the canoes and drag them up out of the water. The winds can be strong on the tundra and it is important to secure the canoes as they can actually blow away. Alex has five canoes, giving a maximum trip size of nine guests plus himself. On our trip we only had eight guests plus Alex so we had an odd number of people. The canoe Alex paddles is a big 21' monster and so when there are an odd number of people he takes two guests in his canoe. Riding in the middle of a canoe is uncomfortable so we'd rotate paddling positions to give everyone a chance to take the crappy spot. In addition to the 21' canoe we had two 18' canoes and a 17' canoe. I spent most of the trip in the stern of the 17' canoe with a variety of partners, but I also took my turn in Alex's canoe. At camp, Alex used the 17' canoe balanced on its side as a windbreak for the stove and he used the 21' canoe as a shelter to keep stuff he was using dry.

Each canoe had a spare paddle lashed to the inside just below the thwarts. This was awesome as it meant that the spare paddles were always secure and never bouncing around or getting in the way. We never used them so it would have been annoying to have to keep moving them about on their own. At the bow and stern of the canoe was a long rope for tying up the canoe. The rope was kept neat with a strap of velcro. This worked really well because you could easily jump out of the canoe in fast water while simultaneously grabbing the rope. The velcro was strong enough to keep the rope tidy but weak enough that it would let go as you grabbed it. Whenever we stopped we tied up the canoes at both bow and stern. With the fast moving water you don't want to take chances. Each canoe also had a bailing bucket and sponge. At the end of each day Alex insisted that we use the sponge to wash out the inside of the canoe. This helps prolong the life of what must be one of the most expensive bits of equipment he maintains.

Almost all of the common gear and food was packed in Duluth bags just like our personal effects. Each bag was labelled with its contents and also colour-coded to match a particular canoe. This made it easy to repack the canoes each day without having to carefully figure out weight distributions every time. The bottoms of the bags would get wet in the canoe, so when we unloaded Alex was quite strict. We were absolutely forbidden to put the packs down on sand and when we got them up to the kitchen area we were to put them upside down so that the bottoms could dry. Of course each pack was lined with plastic to keep the contents dry.

Once unloaded, Alex would set up the kitchen and pitch his tent nearby. Meanwhile we'd set up our tents a little further off. One thing I found surprising was that we didn't do a whole lot to protect our food from animals. Alex would just leave all the food packs together near the garbage bag. The food packs would be sealed, but he'd leave the garbage only loosely tied. Then he'd attach a homemade alarm to the garbage bag (an airhorn with a string on the trigger). If anything disturbed the garbage it would set off the airhorn, waking Alex who'd then come out to scare off whatever was there. In general, most animals in the area have never seen people and so they don't associate camps with food. At no point was our food ever disturbed, the alarm never sounded.

Dinner each night was at 7:00pm. Most days everyone napped a bit beforehand. The meal always started with hot, delicious bannock bread and was followed by soup (different every day like the juice at lunch) and then some sort of main course. The main courses were always one pot meals, like pasta with meat and sauce or stew. Dessert alternated each day between pudding and freeze dried fruit (again, a different fruit/pudding every day). After dinner there was coffee, tea and hot chocolate and Alex would have his daily cigar.

Each night after dinner Alex would wash the dishes with soap and hot water. He also did all of the cooking. We often tried to offer our help but he always refused other than to let us occasionally fetch the water. There were never many dishes though as Alex has optimized the meals to be minimal. Everything could be eaten from a bowl with a spoon so there were no other types of dishes other than mugs for drinking. The only cooking utensils were pots, two special pans for the bannock (which he flipped with a flick of the wrist rather than a flipper) and a stirring stick (which he whittled himself some ten years previous). There were also knives for spreading the lunch food.

All of the dishes and cooking stuff was stored in a custom wood box. He had a specific place for everything and any attempts by us to help put stuff away resulted in Alex coming and redoing it all. The cooking box had the word "NO" written on the top of it to distinguish it from the other box on which was written "YES." We were allowed to go into the YES box but not the NO box. The YES box contained toilet paper, bug hats and the stuff for hot drinks like coffee. It was pretty funny how strict and organized it all was, but it only took a day to realize how much sense it made. His system produced ultra efficiencies in the practical matters meaning we had more time to explore and seek out fantastic scenery and animals.

All cooking was done on a double burner propane stove. We brought three, eleven pound propane cylinders (same height as a standard BBQ cylinder, but about half the diameter). We also brought a second stove, but that was just a backup in case something happend to the first. Alex used to cook on fire, but eventually switched to stoves for convenience (at the expense of extra weight). We were allowed to have recreational campfires in the evenings if we wanted, but it was up to us to create and care for them. Alex also required that if we did have a fire, we make it below the high water line so that the remains would be swept away over the winter. He loves the purity of the land and does not want to see evidence of previous visits the next time he comes through.

All water for drinking and cooking came straight out of the river with no purification or boiling. The water was very clean and tasted wonderful. I've never had better water in my life and I suspect I never will again. While paddling you could just bring your mug in the canoe and dip it over the edge whenever you got thirsty. It was amazing!

For bathroom stuff this was definitely a dig-a-hole-and-bury-it situation. Except that digging a hole in that terrain was tricky and often you had to walk quite far from camp to get some privacy (due to the wide open flat nature of the landscape). The easiest way to dig a hole was to find a big rock and pry it up out of the ground. This was much easier than it sounds because the freeze/thaw cycle is pretty harsh on the tundra. No rocks are ever stable for long so it was pretty simple to pull large, deeply buried rocks up out of the ground. Pulling up a rock gets you a perfect hole and then you just put the rock back to cover it. Toilet paper takes about two years to break down so we were instructed to be sure to cover it well.

Alex provided the tents for everyone, and a surprise luxury was that everyone was given their own tent. I guess this helps prevent problems if there are personality issues since everyone has their own private space to retreat to. The tents were quite nice and like everything Alex had a pretty complex system for them. The poles were kept separate from the tents but each was labelled so you'd always get the same set. The pegs were kept in the tent bag, but always on the outside so that Alex could double check everyone had packed their pegs as he packed the tents up in the morning. The separation of tents from poles was to maximize packing efficiency of the tents in the Duluth packs. Each tent was from Sierra Designs and was symmetrical front-to-back. So there were two doors which Alex had labelled "front" and "back." He requested that we always pitch the tent such that the door we'd primarily use would always be the "front" door. On his next trip he'll request that his clients make the primary door the "back" door. This way the zippers on the tent doors get even wear which helps prolong their life. Most of the tents were 3-person tents, although there were also three 5-person tents one of which was shared by Mike and his son. Even the small ones were nice and spacious for just one person.

Alex runs all of his trips with a very absolute set of guidelines. The first priority is safety. Nothing else can override that. After safety comes respect for the land (i.e. no trace camping). Last is fun and enjoyment. He wants all his clients to have a good time, but never at the expense of the first two priorities. The trips all take place very far from help. Furthermore, the float planes cannot land just anywhere and cannot land at all in bad weather. If something happens it could be more than a day before help arrives and the group may have to move to a better spot miles away to get help at all. Alex had a satellite phone for communicating with Fort Smith and also a two-way radio for communicating with passing long distance aircraft. These items are only used in emergencies (with the exception of the phone which is also used on the last day to coordinate pickup).

On the topic of safety Alex made a point of mentioning the three things most likely to kill a person on the trip (not that he's ever lost anyone before). Number one is hypothermia. Number two is a bear attack, although he did say that was exceedingly unlikely. Most grizzly bears are terrified of people and will stay far away if they smell you. Even if they do charge, it is normally just to intimidate and so they'll stop before attacking. In the event of an attack, Alex said to curl up and play dead, but that it would probably do no good and you'd be for real dead soon. Black bears have also moved north with the warming climate, but if they attack the best bet is to fight back. The third thing that can kill a person here is wolf droppings. The wolves and the caribou share a parasitic worm that does not harm them, but in a person will often move into the brain and kill the host. Wolf droppings are full of the parasite and if you touch them it is very easy to accidentally ingest the worms as it is hard to adequately wash your hands. Alex advised not to touch wolf poo.

Alex was a super-badass paddler. He independently taught himself the Canadian Stroke which is difficult to master, but extremely efficient and powerful. He is also just as happy paddling from a standing position as sitting or kneeling. Alex would regularly just stand straight up in his canoe to check out the river ahead and plan his path. This was useful for the many rapids we ran over the course of the trip. Most were small, but Alex always stopped before them to get all the canoes close together. Then we'd follow him safely through. I soon learned that, rapids or not, it was always best to follow Alex closely as he always seemed to know the best way down the river. He was always catching the current just right and as a result making excellent speed with minimal effort.

Before the trip I already owned a fair amount of camping gear, but I definitely upgraded some of my supplies in preparation. I'd like to call out several items that paid for themselves a million times over. First, I bought new hiking boots for the trip. They were expensive, but they are sturdy and made with GoreTex so they're basically waterproof. Alex recommended we all bring two pairs of boots, one tall pair for getting in and out of the canoe with and another "dry" pair for use around camp. I couldn't justify buying two pairs of boots and so I went with my normal neoprene water shoes for in the canoe. In retrospect I wish I'd found a cheap pair of tall boots for the canoe because the weather was colder than expected and my feet were pretty chilly some days.

Fortunately for my feet, wool is awesome even when wet. I bought five pairs of nice wool socks for the trip and quickly decided to sacrifice one pair to be my "wet" pair for wearing inside my water shoes. Even soaked these did a great job keeping my feet warm. Also in wool, I had two sets of merino wool base layers plus a merino wool sweater. On the colder days these things were fantastic and they were also great while paddling because merino keeps you warm even if you sweat into it and it takes a really long time to get smelly. Despite wearing the same base-layer every day it was not overly rank when I returned to Fort Smith. For sleeping I used my other set of base layer items and added a merino wool balaclava. It's always a good idea to have something to cover your head for sleeping outside, but a balaclava works best because it doesn't accidentally slip off in the middle of the night. The final nice thing about all this wool stuff, particularly the merino, is that it is super light and packs up really small.

For my outer layer, I got a new PacLite GoreTex shell from Marmot. I found it cheap at the Europe Bound outlet store and it was amazing. Rain never got through and it made an effective windbreaker while still being quite breathable. I picked up (non-GoreTex) Marmot rainpants as well and they worked great too.

Another thing I was very happy to have was a pair of paddling gloves. These were made of neoprene with rubber grips and they kept my hands warm on the colder days while also protecting from blisters. I can't believe how much I appreciated them by the end of the trip.

Finally, my bug shirt was amazing. We didn't have bugs until the last couple days, but when they came they came with a vengeance. I think I would have literally gone insane without the protection from the bug shirt.

On the failure side of personal gear was my sleeping bag. It was only a summer bag, but it should have been fine for the expected weather. Unfortunately I ignored Alex's statement that the weather can be unpredictable. It got really cold a couple nights (almost to 0C) and I had to keep adding more clothes inside my sleeping bag to keep warm. I should have sprung for a warmer sleeping bag but I didn't want to buy a new sleeping bag when I so rarely camp in colder weather. Fortunately I did buy a sleeping bag liner which helped a little.

Wow, that was a long aside. Hopefully not too boring though. Now back to the day-to-day journal.

Day 2

I had a good sleep last night, although it was a little bit chilly and the winds came up really strong. The sound of the wind on the tent was like thunder and kept waking me up. Even overcast I was able to notice how bright it is here in the summer. As far as I can tell sunset is around 12:30am and sunrise is at 2:30am. In the two hours between it does not get very dark. At no point in the night was it dark enough that I would have needed a flashlight to find things in my bag. I'm glad a brought an eye mask for sleeping!

When I got out of my tent this morning it was quickly obvious we weren't going to be paddling today. Alex estimated the wind speed at 80km/h and the waves on the river were huge. Plus it was raining and cold. From both a safety and personal comfort point-of-view it would have been an awful day to be paddling. So we hunkered down and made the best of the bad weather.

After breakfast Alex gave his intro lecture, with modifications and amendments since circumstances prevented him from giving it yesterday like he normally would. Everything he told us made a lot of sense and it's clear that he knows exactly what he's talking about. I went for a bit of a walk after the lecture, but the wind and the rain quickly drove everyone into their tents. It was perfectly miserable out. In my tent I read my book and napped a little.

At lunch everyone came back out and we found the most sheltered spot in our camp to eat. Even with the spruce trees the wind was very strong. Everyone kept up good spirits though and we chatted for a while. Then people gave up and returned to their tents. Don and I agreed that tents are boring and so we went for a walk to explore the tundra near our camp. It was neat walking out over the tundra but there was absolutely no shelter from the wind and rain. My boots, jacket and rainpants really held up well and I remained dry, but we soon returned to our tents as it was just not nice to be outside at all. I got a lot of reading done today!

As the day wore on the tents started leaking. I think everyone got some amount of water. Tents are pretty good at keeping out rain, but even the best cannot stand up to sustained high winds and rain. The fly needs to remain separated from the tent and the wind was preventing that from happening. I only got a little water in my tent along the one edge. I was able to keep it under control by regularly mopping it out with a cloth. But Donna's tent was totally flooded. She had to move in with Judy. Despite all this people remained positive and we were given a respite from the rain over supper.

Supper was bannock plus soup and some pretty decent chili with pudding for dessert. We all chatted for a while and enjoyed the fact that it wasn't raining (although it was still quite overcast and windy). Eventually we all returned to our tents for the night.

Alex mentioned several times today how unique the weather was. The tundra gets so little rain and the weather is generally sunny and warm at this time of year. He figures there are well over 300 days of sun in this area each year. On his last trip, which ended just four days before ours began, it was sunny and 30C every single day. I don't think it's gone above 14C yet on our trip and we haven't seen the sun since leaving Fort Smith. Oh well, my gear seems to be holding up to the conditions and I'm sure the weather can't stay bad for the whole trip.

Day 3

It was really cold last night and I woke up several times needing to add extra layers of clothing in my sleeping bag. I wish I had brought a warmer one. On the bright side though there was no rain and no wind in the morning so we quickly had breakfast, packed up and got out on the water. The sun even peaked out a couple times while we ate.

With no wind and a better weight distribution in my canoe paddling was easy today. We made great time and it seemed like we reached our first break spot just minutes after leaving our camp site. Although it was cold the sun would regularly come in and out of the clouds and paddling was more than enough to stay warm.

For lunch we stopped on a beautiful sandy beach just a little bit past the spot Alex was hoping to camp tonight. I've never done any river paddling before, and I'm amazed how much speed the current can add when you don't have to fight the wind. We really flew all morning.

It rained a bit during lunch but as we were packing up we noticed some very very fresh muskox tracks. Then we looked up and on the other side of the river were two cows and a calf staring right at us! We quickly and quietly pushed the canoes into the water and paddled across to see them. They let us get really close before slowly wandering away from the river and into the tundra. Muskox are very cool animals. They are one of the very few species of megafauna that survived the last major extinction event and are still alive today (other, extinct examples include sabre-toothed cats, woolly mammoths, giant beavers, and dire wolves). Muskox are super big goats from the last ice age!

Because we made it so far by noon Alex decided we'd push on ahead and do the only portage of the trip before making camp for the night. But before we got there we had to run several sets of rapids. This was another new experience for me and after the initial stress wore off it was a lot of fun! Alex would wait at the head of the rapids for everyone to catch up and then we'd follow him through. None of the rapids were huge but in some spots Alex estimated the canoes were moving at about 25km/h. The rocks in the water just rushed past and it was clear that the canoes could suffer serious damage if we ever hit anything. In one set of rapids we passed the nest of a peregrine falcon which screeched at us until we were far enough away. Very cool, but I was not able to get a picture as I was busy piloting the canoe.

At the second last set of rapids before the portage we passed a whole herd of muskox right on the shore (about thirty animals). They were amazing and although we went past pretty quickly we were very very close to them. As soon as it was safe Alex led us to shore where we tied up the canoes and then we hiked back upstream to check out the herd. They let us get pretty close, but always formed a defensive perimeter around the young.

The portage was just over a kilometre long with a very steep downhill section at the end. It was a ton of work and required three and a half trips to move all the gear and the canoes because the terrain made it very difficult to walk. Two people were required to move each canoe. Everyone worked hard though and soon it was done. Fortunately it didn't rain while we did it and we got to spend a bit of time looking at a really nice waterfall (the reason for the portage).

After the portage we did another 5km of paddling, running several more sets of rapids, before reaching our camp site for the night. We arrived rather late (5:30pm), but it was worth it to make up for the time we lost on the day we were wind blown at the first camp site. Also, it's nice knowing there will be no more portages!

The final set of rapids before camp was a bit special. It was faster, narrower and with larger obstacles than any other set today. So at the head we stopped and got out of the canoes to scout a safe path from shore before returning to the water to run them. Last year Alex mentioned that one of the canoes on this trip dumped in this set of rapids so he wanted to be extra careful. Fortunately we all made it through with only a couple minor bumps along the way.

Our camp site is big and beautiful with a huge beach. The weather is a bit warmer this evening but it continued to rain on and off. Everyone is in much better spirits, especially because we are no longer being pummelled with near-gale force winds. This does mean a few mosquitoes have started to make appearances, but nothing too bad yet.

Supper was a carbonara type pasta with chicken noodle soup, bannock bread and mixed canned fruit for dessert. Before eating I headed out to the beach and washed my face a little. It's way too cold to swim but the face wash was most refreshing. After supper a few of us went for a walk to explore the beach some more and check out a cool cairn at the top of a nearby hill. It was put there by an explorer in the late 1800s named J.B. Tyrrell and the views from it's location were stunning in the evening sun.

Walking back to camp along the beach we discovered a surprising phenomenon. Quicksand! All of us at one point stepped in a bad place and quickly sunk down to almost knee deep. No one lost any footwear but it was a bit unnerving after a while because you were never sure if your next step was safe.

Despite the quicksand, the cold, the wind, the rain and the bugs everyone agrees that this place is truly spectacular and amazing. We're all so glad to be here!

Landed at the beach for lunch
Landed at the beach for lunch
The lunch beach
The lunch beach
Fresh muskox tracks
Fresh muskox tracks
Muskox!
Muskox!
Muskox!
Muskox!
At the portage
At the portage
Reason for the portage
Reason for the portage
Reason for the portage
Reason for the portage
Reason for the portage
Reason for the portage
Reason for the portage 1
Reason for the portage 2
Muskox!
Muskox!
Muskox!
Muskox!
Muskox!
Muskox!
The Thelon River
The Thelon River
The beach as seen from our camp site
The beach as seen from our camp site
Canoes stowed for the night
Canoes stowed for the night
The beach near our campsite
The beach near our campsite
The hill above our site with the cairn on top
The hill above our site with the cairn on top
Looking down on the beach and our camp site
Looking down on the beach and our camp site
Cairn at the top of the hill
Cairn at the top of the hill
Me with the cairn
Me with the cairn
Pink granite cracked from the constant freeze-thaw cycles
Pink granite cracked from the constant freeze-thaw cycles
The beach near our campsite
The beach near our campsite
Day 4

It was not as cold last night as the night before, but still pretty chilly and in the morning there was a steady drizzle that seemed poised to last all day. Although people are still in good spirits the constant wet weather is starting to wear on us all.

Paddling was much harder today. The river widened out becoming more like a lake so we lost the aid of the current and there was a bit of a headwind as well. We worked really hard though and so we made good progress. Judy switched out of my canoe at lunch to start taking her turn in Alex's canoe and so I paddled with Eldon instead. He's a strong paddler and that definitely helped with the winds. We saw a lone bull muskox on the edge of the river, but I was unable to get my camera in time to take a photo. He was quite majestic though. At the morning break spot Alex showed us an arrowhead he had cached under a rock. It is illegal to remove them from the land so Alex hides those he finds in order to be able to show them to future clients.

It was nice and sunny when we arrived at our camp site this afternoon so we were able to dry out a bit while we set up our tents. Although it did not rain constantly all day it did rain quite a bit. Our camp is up a steep, rocky bank so it was a fair bit of work hauling up all the gear and the canoes but it's a great site with a really nice view of the river.

Just after we finished setting up camp the rain rolled in again and really poured for about an hour so we all took naps before supper. Alex again mentioned how unusual this weather is and how he's surprised how long it is persisting. Normally it should have passed over by now and gone back to being hot and dry. There is some speculation among my fellow travellers that the system is just circling over our heads.

Supper tonight was a chili-like stew, along with cream of asparagus soup, bannock bread and pistachio pudding. The weather remained mostly clear all evening so we had a nice walk after supper. Up out of the river valley the tundra becomes very flat and expansive here. It was staggering how just five minutes walk from camp the world opens up into seemingly endless flat nothingness. We found delicious ripe blueberries on our walk and tons of yummy cranberries too. We also saw a robin which is very unusual this far north.

Back at camp after the walk we all watched the "sunset" for a bit. The extended daylight produces crazy sunsets that last for hours. They start around 9:30pm but don't finish until 12:30pm. No one stayed up late to see it finish though. Today was a hard day of paddling and we are all pretty tired.

Arrowhead
Arrowhead
Ridge where Alex found the arrowhead. This is a caribou crossing point where natives used to funnel them through one spot for easy hunting.
Ridge where Alex found the arrowhead. This is a caribou crossing point where natives used to funnel them through one spot for easy hunting.
Flower
Flower
Camp
Camp
Looking down on the river from camp
Looking down on the river from camp
Shadows in the sand at the beginning of our walk
Shadows in the sand at the beginning of our walk
Robin
Robin
Rocks split from the constant freeze-thaw cycle
Rocks split from the constant freeze-thaw cycle
Blueberries!
Blueberries!
Walking, notice how nobody is trusting the good weather enough to remove their rain gear
Walking, notice how nobody is trusting the good weather enough to remove their rain gear
Endless tundra
Endless tundra
Day 5

I had a great sleep last night and although we woke to rain again in the morning it didn't last very long. We ate and quickly packed up but we only paddled for a few minutes before our first stop: the longest esker in the barren lands.

Eskers are long winding ridges of sand and gravel formed by rivers running through tunnels underneath glaciers. The north is full of them and the Thelon Esker runs for over 800km crossing from the Northwest Territories into Nunavut. It is cut in many places by lakes and rivers, but from the air you can see how it is one continuous feature snaking across the landscape.

We pulled our canoes up on a huge sandy beach and then hiked up to the top of the esker to get a good view of the land. There were lots of decently sized spruce trees and we found one that was recently clawed up by a grizzly marking its territory. There were even a few bits of fur in the claw marks! From the top of the esker the views were amazing and we were able to watch a moose wander about below us. Moose used to be unusual this far north but they have apparently moved up in large numbers over the last fifty years. Alex also took us to a wolf den he knew about from previous visits but it was inactive this year. No wolves but lots of bones and scat leftover from the previous occupants. While hiking back down we spotted a merlin (pigeon hawk) nesting in an unusually tall spruce tree. The esker ecosystem seemed very complex compared to the tundra of last night!

Before leaving Mike and Curtis spent a few minutes fishing from the beach and almost landed a large lake trout. It escaped at the last minute unfortunately. If they'd caught it, Alex would have added it to dinner this evening but I guess it wasn't meant to be. It's much easier to catch pike out here, but Alex won't bother with them for dinner as they're too much work with all the bones.

Back in the canoes we paddled for another twenty minutes before stopping again. Across the lake from the esker is an old trapper's cabin that was in use from the 1970s to the late 1990s. The guy is still alive and Alex used to know him reasonably well. In fact, he helped move a bunch of the man's possesions to the cabin by canoe back in the day. The cabin is in serious disrepair now, and the scattered garbage and evidence of humanity was a bit unsettling. There were tons of empty fuel barrels everywhere. The man was a wolf hunter and lived in the cabin from September to April each year (winter is when wolf pelts are thickest). At first he lived in a temporary, half-tent cabin but then he married and had a baby and so he built a full cabin for the comfort of his family. The remains of the old cabin are still visible behind the new one. Also on the site are the remains of a log cabin from the 1950s which was used by an old trapper. A bunch of his traps are still there. While exploring the area we came across fresh grizzly droppings, but did not see the maker.

We had lunch on the beach and then paddled on for ten minutes before making another stop. This time it was to see a very large cache of arrowheads and spearpoints, some of which were more than 1000 years old. A rough age can be given to the artifacts by looking at the style. Newer points have notches to make it easier to attach them to shafts, but that technique only started to be used about 1000 years ago. Any without notches are usually older than that.

The cache was located on a lovely camp site overlooking a beautiful section of the Thelon Esker. The sand was so white it looked like snow. Alex gave us the option to remain on the camp site for the night, but we had done so little canoeing by that point that we all agreed to push on ahead for a few hours and camp further downstream. Our new camp site is fine, but it's very rocky so we can't peg down our tents. Instead we've tied them to rocks to prevent them from blowing away. There is still intermittent rain, but also more sun than ever so everyone is in a great mood. The poor weather has really given us perspective and made us very appreciative of weather that is simply not terrible.

One thing that's still missing on this trip is the chance to swim and get clean. It's been far too cold and so no one has been in the water. Hopefully it warms up soon or else it's going to be a very smelly plane ride home.

Just before dinner a caribou appeared on the other side of the river! It had huge antlers and stuck around for about an hour just grazing on the opposite shore. It was great to see and we all felt lucky given the story Alex had told us about the caribou earlier in the trip. The area around the Thelon River is known to be the home of the Beverley Caribou Herd, a large herd of more than 100,000 animals. It has been migrating north and south through this land for literally thousands of years. However, it is Alex's opinion that the herd is now gone. He collects data on all of his trips and he also occasionally does scouting from planes. Just fifteen years ago it would not be strange to run into thousands of caribou on his trips but that no longer happens. He doesn't know why the caribou are gone, but he is convinced enough to be publishing a paper on it next year. The only thing he knows is that over time they seemed to have stopped reproducing as he kept seeing fewer and fewer young. And now they're gone.

Dinner tonight was bannock bread, french onion soup and pasta with rehydrated strawberries for dessert. After supper we went for a walk and then spent time watching a gorgeous sunset while four people fished for fun. It was pleasant and warm all evening, but of course there was still intermittent rain (and comments from Alex about how unusual the weather was).

Landed on the beach at the Thelon Esker
Landed on the beach at the Thelon Esker
On the beach looking at part of the esker
On the beach looking at part of the esker
Big trees, walking up the esker
Big trees, walking up the esker
On top of the esker
On top of the esker
On top of the esker
On top of the esker
On top of the esker
On top of the esker
On top of the esker
On top of the esker
On top of the esker. The trails are old caribou migration paths. They walked on the eskers to be in the wind in order to get relief from the bugs.
On top of the esker. The trails are old caribou migration paths. They walked on the eskers to be in the wind in order to get relief from the bugs.
On top of the esker
On top of the esker
View on top of the esker
A majestic moose
A majestic moose
On top of the esker
On top of the esker
On top of the esker
On top of the esker
Moose tracks
Moose tracks
Entrance to a wolf den
Entrance to a wolf den
Wolf droppings (with bones!)
Wolf droppings (with bones!)
On the esker
On the esker
Walking up to the cabin
Walking up to the cabin
Huge caribou antlers we found on the beach at the cabin
Huge caribou antlers we found on the beach at the cabin
Inside the cabin
Inside the cabin
Boards with nails to keep bears away
Boards with nails to keep bears away
The old half-tent cabin
The old half-tent cabin
New cabin from behind
New cabin from behind
Grizzly bear droppings
Grizzly bear droppings
The 1950s trapper cabin
The 1950s trapper cabin
Inside the 1950s trapper cabin
Inside the 1950s trapper cabin
Inside the 1950s trapper cabin
Inside the 1950s trapper cabin
Inside the 1950s trapper cabin
Inside the 1950s trapper cabin
Old traps
Old traps
Fallen over outhouse at the new cabin
Fallen over outhouse at the new cabin
Empty fuel barrels
Empty fuel barrels
Esker
Esker
Artifacts
Artifacts
My tent at camp
My tent at camp
Caribou!!
Caribou!!
Caribou!
Canoes
Canoes
Large antler on our camp site
Large antler on our camp site
Camp site from above
Camp site from above
Sunset
Sunset
Day 6

It was another cold night last night. We could see our breath when we went to bed. Then in the morning there was more rain to wake us up. But Judy and Donna picked a bunch of cranberries for everyone to add to their breakfasts which was awesome!

Today I took my turn in Alex's canoe and it was very relaxing to not have to worry about steering. When I'm just paddling I find I can get into a nice rhythm and become really present in the moment. Also it was nice to be with Alex because it meant that we were always at the front of the pack and he would tell stories of past trips as we paddled. He's a really cool guy. Plus, with full confidence in Alex's paddling abilities I knew it was safe for me to occasionally stop paddling in order to take photos.

As we left camp this morning we came across our caribou friend from last night slightly downriver. We were able to get quite close before it took off. After lunch I switched back to my regular canoe and although it was a really hard paddle in the afternoon we saw one lone bull muskox right at the edge of the river and then an hour later we came across a very big herd (almost forty animals). We stopped to follow the herd on foot for a while before returning to paddling into the wind.

As we were getting close to camp the wind became quite strong. While I was focused on paddling an Arctic Tern started squawking at me and mock-dive-bombing me from behind! I didn't notice at first because the paddling was so hard and the wind made it hard to hear. Eventually I looked behind me and the bird was just a foot away. I tried to scare it away with my paddle but I think it only left to attack a seagull instead. It probably had a nest on shore somewhere and we got too close.

We pulled into camp at exactly 4:00pm this afternoon and the skies were almost clear! We all took advantage of the sun and the strong wind to dry out and air out our stuff.

For dinner we had an Asian-style stew of some sort with chow-mien noodles, tomato-vegetable soup, bannock bread and butterscotch pudding. We all retired to our tents pretty soon after supper with fatigue from a hard day of paddling. I think my muscles are getting used to daily paddling after four days but it's still exhausting.

Caribou!
Caribou!
Caribou!
Caribou!
Caribou!
Caribou!
Stopping to go chase muskox
Stopping to go chase muskox
Muskox!
Muskox!
A big bull muskox. While the rest of them ran from us, he slowly lumbered along at the rear.
A big bull muskox. While the rest of them ran from us, he slowly lumbered along at the rear.
Running muskox
Running muskox
Curious muskox
Curious muskox
Muskox video with roaring wind soundtrack
The Thelon
The Thelon
Returning to our canoes after chasing muskox
Returning to our canoes after chasing muskox
Drying stuff on my tent at camp
Drying stuff on my tent at camp
Day 7

It was warm overnight so I had a very comfortable sleep, but once again we woke to overcast skies and lots of wind and rain. As a result the paddling was hard, but I took another turn with Alex so that part was a bit easier. Another advantage of being in the lead canoe is that you set the pace. If you paddle slower, everyone else has to as well.

The spot we stopped for lunch today turned out to be a really good place to camp so Alex marked it on his map for future reference. Although he has seen more of this area than anyone else he still regularly finds new things. After lunch we only had to paddle a couple hours before arriving at our camp site for the night and by 3pm we were all busy setting up our tents. It was nice to have a short paddling day.

Tonight's camp site is gorgeous. It has a huge beach and a well sheltered area for tents. It also backs on to some eskers and is a short walk from an interesting historical site. In the 1930s two trappers (Jean Olsen and Emile Bode) were murdered on the Thelon River, allegedly by an Inuit man. It took the RCMP over two years to get out to their cabin and investigate by which time the Inuit man had disappeared (speculation has it that he was murdered by another trapper upon hearing of the crime). The RCMP used logs from the cabin to build a grave and transferred the remains of the trappers there. The location of the grave was lost for a long time but Alex rediscovered it fifteen or twenty years ago with the help of some pilots he knew.

After setting up camp Alex led us out across the tundra to see the grave. The bones of the men were clearly visible inside and we were able to reconstruct the name plate from some broken up bits of wood we found. Then we wandered up the esker to look at some wolf dens, but they turned out to be inactive. The esker is beautiful though, supporting the largest spruce trees we've seen so far. One in particular even impressed Alex.

Back at camp the weather was still sunny and warmish, but the winds remained high. Alex once again commented on how unusual it all is. Dinner was bannock, beef stroganoff, cream of wild rice soup and rehydrated raspberries for dessert. After eating we had a small fire on the beach before retiring to our tents for the night.

Camp site
Camp site
Camp site
Camp site
Walking to the grave site
Walking to the grave site
The grave site
The grave site
The name plate (top half is upside down)
The name plate (top half is upside down)
On the esker
On the esker
On the esker
On the esker
On the esker
On the esker
On the esker
On the esker
Big spruce tree, hundreds of years old
Big spruce tree, hundreds of years old
Wolf den
Wolf den
Arctic Tern
Arctic Tern
Alex on the beach
Alex on the beach
Day 8

Last night was clear and very cold. In the morning a huge system swept in bringing rain and extremely strong wind. Like our first day we are wind-bound. Fortunately we have a really good camp site to protect the tents. First thing in the morning we had to rush out and help Alex move the kitchen. The wind was coming from an unexpected direction and our original spot was completely unsheltered. Breakfast then proceeded as usual and we chatted for a bit before retreating to the tents to get dry and warm. Alec and Curtis actually chose to skip breakfast and just stayed in their tents until lunch.

It rained all morning so I just read in my tent. At lunch it was still very windy, but the rain was starting to lessen. While we were in our tents Alex was messing about with gear and he saw a wolverine run through the camp! It was too bad that none of us saw it but Alex explained that normally it is the other way around; his clients see amazing wildlife and he misses out. He told us a story of a trip a few years back where he went for a swim while his clients chatted back at camp. A wolf chased two juvenile caribou into camp and killed them both right in front of the group! Alex missed it all.

After lunch the sun came out and we went for a walk to see a cairn Alex built a few years ago to hold the ashes of a pilot who used to fly for Alex's trips. He was flying in BC and lost control of his plane. His one wish was to have his remains placed in this area of the Thelon. The walk took us around a bend downstream on the river and it became immediately apparent why we did not paddle today. Out of our campsite the wind became even stronger and it was definitely a direct headwind given the change in direction of the river. It would have been impossible to paddle against.

On the way back to camp we found some ripe cloudberries! The plant is small and each produces only a single fruit. The fruit looks like a raspberry or blackberry, but is orange when ripe. The taste was amazing, sort of like apple pie! Seriously. I've never had anything like it.

After the walk I took a bit of a nap in my tent. I didn't plan on sleeping but the sun had warmed the inside nicely and I just drifted off. Later I took advantage of the sun and wind to air out some of my stuff while lying down on the hill above the beach and enjoying the view. Dinner tonight was bannock, beef stew, cream of broccoli soup and custard for dessert.

The wind died completely after supper so we had another fire on the beach. Unfortunately the calm conditions soon produced hordes of mosquitoes. I can see how they would become tiresome if we had to deal with them every day.

We're all hoping the good weather holds. If we cannot move on tomorrow then we will be stuck in this camp site until the end of the trip because there will not be enough time to reach the next safe spot for the planes to land. This is a lovely camp site but we'd all like to make it to the end of the route.

Still waters
Still waters
Sunset
Sunset
Scotch and a fire
Scotch and a fire
Day 9

This morning we woke to clear skies, a warmer temperature and almost zero wind and so we quickly set off. In the morning we made excellent progress running many sets of rapids including one that lasted for over half an hour. It was lots of fun and at one point we saw a peregrine falcon that screeched at us for getting too close to its nest. Unfortunately I could not take a picture as the rapids consumed almost all of my attention.

After lunch the rapids stopped and the river widened out into the Eyeberry Lake delta. Eyeberry Lake is the largest lake on our route and is not possible to cross in even moderate wind. Before we got to the lake we had to navigate the delta which is dense with channels and rivers and lakes. The wind died completely and the water became flat like glass. With no current we slowed down quite a bit but we still made reasonable progress. As we moved through the delta a flock of juvenile Canada Geese moved forward ahead of us. They were the most skittish Canada Geese I've ever seen. As soon as we got within 300m they'd all take off squawking and fly way downstream.

After a stop to check out another wolf den (inactive), we soon reached the entrance to the lake itself. We took a break and discussed our next move. We could either camp where we were or do the crossing of the lake and camp on the other side. Alex told us that both camp sites were poor and it was already 3:45pm when we were making this decision. We decided to do the four mile crossing anyway because the wind was still low and the lake was perfectly flat. We couldn't ask for better conditions for the crossing.

It took over two hours to paddle across the lake and it was hot and monotonous work. The landscape was so flat around the lake that we couldn't even really see anything. We all got a little bit sunburned. Still we're all super happy to have the lake behind us. It means that we will for sure make it to the end of the route and Alex mentioned that some of the best scenery of the trip is ahead. If we had stayed at the entrance to the lake and the weather turned bad then not only would we have been stuck there until the end but we would have had to paddle a few miles back upstream to meet the planes on the last day. It was definitely worth the long day of paddling to get this obstacle behind us.

As promised, our camp on the far side of the lake is not very good. It's wide open and in another delta-like area so there is lots of still water which produces many bugs. The wind remained calm all evening so we were literally swarmed with mosquitoes and black flies. I've never in my life seen so many bugs. The bug shirt is absolutely necessary to remain sane. In the tents the sound of the bugs hitting the walls from the outside is like rain. It is totally unreal. And although it seems like a bad thing, I count it as another part of the experience and another lesson in the power of this place.

The only neat part about the camp site is that as we approached we saw a white wolf moving about in it. He quickly ran off though when he noticed us.

Despite the bugs and frigid water I went for my first swim of the trip after setting up my tent. The paddling today was very hot and sweaty (we covered almost 50km!!!) and I really wanted to get clean. My swim was really just a quick dunk, followed by a quick lather with camp suds and then another dunk to rinse. It was, however, possibly the best swim ever. I feel extremely refreshed.

Dinner tonight was bannock, cream of mushroom soup, pasta alfredo with shrimp and rehydrated peaches for dessert. We ate on the beach where a slight breeze reduced the severity of the bugs from totally unbearable to merely extreme. We ate quickly and then retreated to the tents.

Tomorrow will be our last paddling day and will also be pretty short. We are nearly at the end of the trip. Despite losing two days of paddling we worked very hard and still made it to the finish line! It feels good.

Canoes at lunch
Canoes at lunch
Flowers at lunch
Flowers at lunch
Flat water in the delta
Flat water in the delta
Wolf den
Wolf den
Camp site
Camp site
Bugs
Bugs
Day 10

This morning was bright and sunny once again with no wind (and so there were still lots of bugs). The improved weather has definitely lifted our spirits. We were off our camp site quicker than ever and soon paddling out of the delta and back on to proper river.

There were many rapids today, including some sections with large rock walls which were an interesting contrast to the mostly flat landscape. We saw another peregrine falcon (unphotographable again). One set of rapids required us to stop and scout them, and while scouting we came across a patch of black flowers swarming with honey bees. I didn't realize honey bees came this far north but Alex mentioned that the black flower we saw (don't know the name) seems to always have many bees around it. Today was probably the nicest paddling of the whole trip and so I'm very glad we made it this far.

After lunch we paddled across a small lake to go look at some more wolf dens. This time we were lucky! I spotted a wolf almost right away and quickly pointed it out to Alex. We followed it up the esker and when it didn't run away Alex told us that meant it had an active den nearby. The wolf circled us at a safe distance as we searched for the den, howling the whole time as if to say: "Please leave, I'd rather you not be here right now, but I'm also not super worked up about it."

Wolves on the tundra don't attack people except in the most extreme circumstances. They are occasionally curious and will explore camp sites but for the most part they keep their distance. They certainly are not afraid of people in the way of grizzly bears. Also unlike grizzly bears, the wolves are not very protective parents. If you find an active den with pups, you can go right into it and pull them out and play with them. They're just like puppies. Apparently children from the Aboriginal groups that used to live in the area would regularly go play with wolf pups for fun. The adult wolves will return to the den once you leave and carry on raising the pups just like nothing happened.

Unfortunately we did not find the den. Alex took us to three he knew of in the area and none were active. The wolf circled us the whole time though so we got lots of pictures and opportunities to observe this beautiful creature.

After the wolf, it was a short paddle to the camp site for tonight. Before landing we spend some time sitting in one spot while Alex paddled around to check out landing spots for the planes. He did most of his paddling there standing up so he could better gauge the water depth. Thus he looked like a total badass the whole time!

I went for another swim after setting up my tent and although the water was even colder today it was still wonderful to wash off the grime.

Alex called Fort Smith on the satellite phone to confirm our pick up time tomorrow. Apparently they also had terrible weather over the past ten days, possibly even worse than us.

Dinner tonight was pasta with meat sauce, bannock, soup and chocolate pudding for dessert (best dessert was saved for last). There were lots of bugs this evening due to low wind, but it was not as bad as last night. We had another fire after dinner and spent a long time chatting about the trip before going to bed. We have such a great group and it's hard to believe it's almost over.

Canoe at esker where we stopped and saw the wolf
Canoe at esker where we stopped and saw the wolf
Cool sand
Cool sand
First sighting of the wolf!
First sighting of the wolf!
Wolf!
Wolf!
Wolf!
Wolf!
Wolf!
Wolf!
Wolf!
Wolf!
Wolf!
Wolf!
Wolf!
Wolf!
Video of the wolf, if you turn up your speakers and listen close you can hear the howling near the end of the video.
Cool fluffy flowers
Cool fluffy flowers
Wolf tracks
Wolf tracks
Canoes
Canoes
On the water
On the water
On the water (with Alex doing his badass standup paddling)
On the water (with Alex doing his badass standup paddling)
Alex standup paddling
On the water
On the water
On the water
On the water
On the water
On the water
Blueberries just outside my tent
Blueberries just outside my tent
My tent
My tent
View from my tent
View from my tent
Honey bee
Honey bee
Day 11

This morning I had a surprise waiting for me when I opened my tent. On the inside of the fly in the vestibule there were literally hundreds of mosquitoes. As soon as I saw them I quickly closed it back up. The back door was better so I went out there.

I picked a mug-full of blueberries for everyone to share with breakfast and then we packed up camp and moved all the bags and canoes down to the loading spot on the beach. The planes arrived quite early. We were expecting them anytime after 10:00am but they landed at 9:15am while we were still carting stuff down. Although we needed three planes to get out here we only need two (the Otter and one Cessna) to get back. We ate enough food on the trip to take our total weight down by three hundred pounds.

We disassembled the canoes, loaded the planes and then strapped the canoes to the outside on the pontoons. The process of loading the canoes onto the planes was exactly like that of putting a canoe on top of a car. The straps were very similar and there was the stereotypical back-and-forth of tightening the straps and then wiggling the canoe trying to determine if it was well-attached. At some point the pilot was happy with the state of things and we took off. As we flew you could see him checking out the window to confirm that the canoes were still there.

We stopped to refuel at the starting point for Alex's next trip. At this spot we also unloaded the canoes so they'd be ready and waiting for the next group. I helped pump fuel into the Cessna which was lots of fun. Before taking off again Alex handed out snacks for us to eat for lunch.

On the way in I rode in the Otter but today I rode on the much smaller Cessna (only four seats total, including the pilot) just to get a different experience. Unfortunately the weather was a bit rough on the second half of the flight and I soon started to feel ill. I held on as long as I could but fifteen minutes out of Fort Smith I surrendered by breakfast and lunch into a handy air-sickness bag. I felt awful and after landing I just sat on the tarmac for a while watching everyone else unload the planes.

Alex's wife Robyn met us at the airport and helped drive us all back to our accommodations. She took Judy and I to the B&B while Alex and Eldon (in his rental car) drove the others to the Pelican Inn. Back at the B&B Don and Christine were still at work but they had moved my bag out of storage and into my room. I spent at least an hour in the bathroom showering and just enjoying the comforts of modern living.

After getting clean I headed upstairs and spent a while chatting with Judy, Don and Christine about the trip. They supplied us with free beer and it was so nice to relax in their lovely home. I really can't recommend the Whooping Crane B&B enough. Eventually Judy and I headed over to the Pelican Inn to meet everyone else for dinner. We all had a good chat over burgers, fries and beer before retiring for the night. Alex's wife joined us as well and it was lovely to talk to her and amusing to see how she caused Alex to soften his gruff demeanor.

We all agreed the trip was fantastic but that we were also very happy to be back to civilization. We compared bug bites and stories of how dirty we made the bathroom getting cleaned up. In summary we travelled 210km on the upper Thelon River over only seven (instead of nine) days of paddling. According to the air charter company the flight out was 450km and the flight back was just shy of 600km. We saw 68 muskox, two wolves, the same caribou twice, three peregrine falcons, a moose, a merlin, a robin and countless geese, Arctic Terns and other birds. We ran over twenty sets of rapids and completed a gruelling one kilometre portage. We survived cold temperatures, endless rain, 80km/h winds and millions of bugs. We saw several historic sites and ancient artifacts as well as a waterfall and many of the largest eskers in the North. It was a fantastic trip!

The Otter ready to be loaded
The Otter ready to be loaded
The Cessna landing
The Cessna landing
Last shot of the tundra from above
Last shot of the tundra from above
Map of the trip
Map of the trip. Approximately 210km of paddling, all on the Thelon River.
Safe back in Fort Smith with 11 days of beard growth
Safe back in Fort Smith with 11 days of beard growth
Home

This morning I enjoyed one more amazing B&B breakfast with Judy before Alex picked us up to go to the airport for our 10:00am flight to Edmonton. Everyone from our group except Eldon was on the flight today so we had a good time chatting at the airport while settling our bills with Alex.

There was no security at the airport so we simply checked in and then got on the plane. It was amusing how we could have brought anything we wanted in our carry-on (I brought a whole bottle of water! Gasp!). The co-pilot on our flight was the same guy (Mike) who flew the Cessna that made me ill yesterday. He smiled at me, but retained a professional disposition very unlike his earlier manner. I guess today's flight was considered fancy. He was in a full uniform with hat and everything while yesterday he flew in a t-shirt, bermuda shorts and crocs.

In Edmonton I ate lunch with Donna and Alec before parting ways for our respective flights. Back in Toronto, my superawesome friend Sue picked me up at the airport and drove me home. It's great to be back!

There are a couple questions that I can imagine people asking about the trip that I'm not sure if I can answer. First, would I do it again? I'd love to go on another trip with Alex. Some of his other routes sound even more amazing as they are on tributaries of the Thelon that are totally unexplored by anyone but him. On those trips he swears the participants to secrecy in order to keep the areas pristine. But at the age of 70 I'm not sure how many more years he'll still be guiding. Judy, who's been on five trips with Alex now, says she's noticed that he is slower than he was on her first trip. I still think he was pretty awesome but I can't blame him for taking it easy after so many years. All of the flights made the trip rather expensive so I don't think I'd consider going again for at least three years. Will he still be guiding then? And more importantly, there is so much of the world to see. For the money I spent on this trip I could probably get almost anywhere on earth (Antarctica might be a stretch). So I don't know. Maybe a few years from now I'll get a hankering for the tundra and just have to go back.

The other question is would I recommend this trip to others? The answer to that I think would depend on who was asking. I think it takes a certain attitude and willingness to endure a bit of hardship with a smile on your face. We had a fantastic group which helped a lot, but I wouldn't blame a person for being totally miserable in the conditions we had. It was frequently very unpleasant outside and there was no way to escape. You had to be able to embrace the conditions to enjoy the trip. I would certainly not recommend it as a first camping or canoeing experience. I think I'd only recommend it to someone who could tell me a story about a time they were camping when things got pretty bad and yet they still had a good time and have good memories from the trip.

Regardless of the answers to the above questions I am 100% happy with my choice to go on this adventure. It's something I enjoyed thoroughly and will remember forever. It also showed me that the limits of my endurance and tolerance for physical discomfort are a bit bigger than I thought.

If you're interested in learning more about the Thelon and surrounding area there are a couple of excellent books to check out. First is "Thelon: A River Sanctuary" by David Pelly which provides an excellent history of the area. He has travelled with Alex in the past and the two are close friends. The other book is written by Alex himself: "Discovering Eden: A Lifetime of Paddling Arctic Rivers" by Alex M. Hall. It's out of print, but if you contact him directly through the Canoe Arctic website he'll send you a copy for $30. It is also available at many public libraries. I picked up a signed copy from him in which he included a lovely little note about our trip. It's the perfect souvenir as it exactly captures what it was like being on the tundra with him.

The tundra west of Hudson's Bay is the largest piece of untouched, pure wilderness left in North America and I'm eternally grateful that I was able to experience it in such an immersive manner.