Woke early this morning. There was a strong wind out of the southwest and we were heading to the northeast! I cooked breakfast this morning of hash browns and sliced potatoes with dried egg. We were underway early and the strong tailwind really helped. We were moving quickly. I was in the stern and steering was difficult as the wind was not from directly behind, but at an angle.

Saw a pair of river otters this morning.

After about 16 miles, we met a pair of Germans that started out on their trip on May 22nd. They’ve been out for 7 weeks already and have another 4 before they head home. They gave us news that Neultin Lake still has ice on it in the northern section. That would be a bad thing! The ice has about 10 days to go out before we get there!

The two Germans mentioned that fishing had been very good, and due to the length of their trip limited capacity for provisions, that they had been relying heavily on fish, eating some everyday. They also mentioned they saw a three foot lake trout in the rapids at the end of Kasmere Lake! That got me drooling!

The two also gave us information about where the portage is for the upcoming rapids. They said we will need to paddle through a small outlet from the river into a little bay. We are lucky they described it to us or we may never have found the portage! The outlet very small, and even knew where it was and to be looking for it, we still almost missed it!

It was quite warm, and I was in only shorts and a t-shirt so fortunately the wind was strong enough to keep the mosquitoes at bay. Otherwise, I would have been really miserable! I took a food pack through my first trip and helped Scott with a canoe the second time through. The portage was pretty tiring because it was so hot.

We stopped for TL at the end of the portage at the base of the rapids. Everyone went for a swim in the refreshing water. I even tried a few casts to the rapids but the water was too shallow.

After our siesta, we paddled about ½ mile and came upon a nice runable set of rapids. We shot the tongue and kept river right to stay out of the rocks.

The wind was still very favorable so we made the last five miles to Kasmere Lake in practically no time. The wind was so strong at our backs that we decided to set up a quick sail. It was not sophisticated rigging by any means! Two bowmen from two canoes rigged a tarp between them tied to paddles. Our canoe was carrying the spare aluminum Mohawk paddles so that what John and Scott used. The two of us in the sterns then used our paddles as rudders and tried to keep the boats 3-4 feet apart amidships.

We absolutely sped down the lake! I figure we were moving at close to 10 miles per hour! We were going so fast at times that the two canoes almost seemed to get up on plane with a huge wake forming in between the two boats.

At one point, we decided we’d have a little race between the two pairs of canoes. It was a crude catamaran race! With probably the two strongest guys in the front of my catamaran, we won! Did John and Scott ever have to work! The force on the tarp was so strong that the two aluminum paddles they were using were slightly bent by the time we reached the end of the lake!

We camped on a small island at the end of Kasmere Lake. Even with the long portage, we easily covered over 30 miles today. But with the distance, time on the water, and heat people are very tired.

The water in Kasmere Lake is very cold. And what is so amazing is that the water is only going to get COLDER as we progress on this trip!

Tonight was a big dinner of Spanish rice with dehydrated chicken, onions, carrots and tomato sauce. For dessert we had brownies, yum.

Day 12

Dave was up early this morning and woke everyone else up. This I think was the earliest we have been up this trip. We made a batch of pancakes this morning. Everyone got 4 pancakes, but I got five because I won the throw of fingers to clean the big pot, which meant I got to make a pancake out of any batter I could scrape out!

We were underway shortly after finishing eating. Our nemesis today was not the mosquitoes, but the horseflies! Dave and I were paddling together and there must have been 50 dead horseflies in the bottom of our canoe before we had even started paddling!

When we reached the rapids at the end of Kasmere Lake we were greeted by jumping lake trout! The fish were at the head of the rapids eating anything that happened close to the surface of the water! We stopped for about 20minutes so Jim and I could do a little fishing. Jim caught three lake trout and I caught two lake trout and one northern pike. These fish really fought hard in the quick current. I could have stayed all day, but of course, we had a ways to go yet!

It was a bluebird sky again today and the wind gained in intensity as paddled. It was also another really hot day. This region clearly seems to have made its way into its summer weather pattern. Good thing as it is July already and summers don’t last long this far north!

We were back on the Thlewiaza River again. There was a marked set of rapids on this section that, when we came upon them, were actually on the river where they were marked on the map! What a shock!

The rapids were fairly long, and in two parts. We scouted the top section, with the plan to run it, eddy out, and then scout the second section.

The four boats ran the top section with no problem and all easily eddied out. Once in the eddy however, Stew said, “let’s just go ahead and run it!” So Dave and I let Stew’s boat lead and then we followed.

We bounced down the first modest standing waves with no problem, but then I looked up and saw Stew’s boat bouncing all over the place and then go high in the air and splash back down in the water! I said to Dave, “let’s eddy out!”

We started to ferry our way across to the eddy when I looked downstream again and saw that Stew’s boat had made it through the rapids. Dave turned around from the bow of the canoe and asked if I still wanted to eddy out. We were just about to the eddy, but I just said, “Forget it, let’s run it.”

We passed the eddy, our last chance to bail out, and quickly floated towards the big standing waves at the bottom of the rapids. Up and down we rode those big waves like it was a roller coaster! There were no hidden rocks in the waves so it was a smooth ride. A bit on the wet side, but we didn’t take on too much water! We headed over to shore to bail out the boat as was Stew’s boat and the two boats behind us. As we got to shore, Stew said, “maybe we should have scouted that first!”

It was a pretty area here below the rapids so the group decided it would be a nice place to stop for TL and hang out for a while. I dug out my fishing rod while a few of the others went to play in the rapids. I hooked and lost about a 3lb grayling. I almost, almost had him landed! It would have been my first grayling. We hung out for a while, had TL, and then packed up the canoes to get going again. I paddled with Dave again this afternoon, but we switched positions, him taking the stern and me moving to the bow.

Shortly after lunch, we came to a pretty large set of rapids. Probably a class III. We stopped and scouted the rapid and Dave and I said we’d go first. We secured all the packs and gear in the boats so that if we dump, everything would stay in the boat. We moved the Wanagon (large wooden box fitted with backpack straps that contains all the cooking equipment) to the front of the boat, in front of the bow seat. I then kneeled in the section behind the bow seat. This rearrangement would allow the bow of the canoe to float higher over the big standing wave and reduce some of the water we take over the bow plate.

We peeled out at the top of the rapid and headed for the swift glassy tongue that marks the beginning of the first section. We were a little too far right and a few of the waves broke over the side of the boat. We corrected our alignment and hit the big standing waves head on. We bounced and splashed in a wet and wild ride. We eddied out below the standers and bailed out the canoe. The rest of this rapid was a series of small back rollers that we just plowed right through.

A little ways beyond this rapid we came to another big set, probably another class III. We scouted the set and this time, Dave and I were going to be the third boat down. We started down the tongue just river-right of center to avoid the big hydraulic river-left. We slid down the smooth tongue into some big standing waves. One of the big waves crashed over the bow and hit me square with such force that it knocked me back off my knees and took my paddle from one of my hands. This was enough to cause us to loose control of the boat even though I was knocked down for only a second and quickly regaining my position and paddling again. The boat had turned sideways in the big waves and started taking water. We started back paddling trying to regain control, but we became a bit indecisive as to what we wanted to do. We hit a backroller and shipped a lot of water. The boat was getting lower and lower in the water and increasingly unstable. We headed for some rocks on the right. Again, some indecision as we bumped past the first rock. But when we hit the second rock, everything stopped! We were stuck with a rock directly under the center of the canoe and were pinned on the upstream side of the rock. Dave and I immediately leaned down stream to try and keep the upstream gunwale above water as much as possible. If the gunwale slipped down and water poured into the canoe, it was likely to wrap around that rock.

We managed to have to canoes position stabilized, we were not in immediate danger of wrapping, but if we were not very careful, that would change. Moving about just a little bit, changing the balance front to back, allowed the current to catch the bow of the boat and swung us free. We paddled the nearly swamped boat to shore and discussed what went wrong as we bailed the water back to the Thlewiaza! Lesson here: make sure you watch more than just one rock or wave ahead, like three or four ahead! We got so caught up with that huge hydraulic wave at the beginning, we forgot about the rest of the rapid. Once we’d taken water, rather than try and bail out to the side of the river and hit the back rolling hydraulics, we should have ferried back out to the center of the river and rode out the remaining standing waves. Ah well, no harm done.

After completing the rapids, we paddled the rest of the way down to Sucker Lake. A thunderhead was really developing behind us, as we were tired, so we began looking for a suitable campsite. The winds were intensifying significantly out of the southwest, so we looked for a campsite on the northeast shore of the lake so the wind would blow right in on us and keep the mosquitoes at bay. The northeast side of the lake had been a victim of a wildfire, maybe last season sometime, but we found a nice location with a good beach for swimming and relaxing and surround by huge eskers. The fire looks to have been moderately severe as all the ground cover is gone, but it looks like there might be a little of the top soil left.

I hiked up to the top of one of the eskers. The area seems so desolate. Everything is black, with the exception of a few stark white birch trees. This area probably burned in 1989, which was a very, very bad year for wildfires in northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Sucker Lake itself is beautiful. It is a fairly large lake and surround by big eskers. On the far side on the eskers the woods escaped the wildfire. Here in the ash on top of this esker I found some moose tracks that I measured as 8 inches long! That’s a big beast!

I sat for a while at the top of the esker and looked out over the lake and surround area. The wind was blowing with such force out of the southwest that there were no bugs flying! But as I continued to sit, I soon noticed a mosquito, and then another. Pretty soon there were quite a few as well as the smell of smoke. As I had been daydreaming, the wind has switched to the northwest.

So I got up and headed up to the top of a higher esker to the northwest to see if I could see the fire. Sure enough, once I got up there, I saw a large fire burning a long way to the northwest.

As I watched the smoke rise in the distance, the wind continued its shift to the northeast. It would seem that the thunderstorm passed to our north, the shifting winds marking its passage. The new wind direction might cool things off a bit tonight, but it should be sunny and warm again tomorrow.

I headed back down to camp were we cooked up lentil chili for dinner. I truly despise lentils so I ate about half as much as the others. But afterwards I cooked up some mashed potatoes for myself and whoever else might want some. Then we broke out some M&Ms, which gave us all a big sugar rush, which was pretty funny to watch!

After dinner went for a nice swim off the beach and baked up some cornbreads for tomorrow’s breakfast.

Day 13

Was awake fairly early this morning due to the mosquitoes that had somehow snuck into the tent during the night. Not sure how they managed that, but probably as a result of the call of nature for someone! See, it is a ritual every night, that once everybody is in the tent, you have to hunt down any and all mosquitoes that may have entered with you. You can let the blackflies be, but you have to kill the mosquitoes because they will bite you in the night. Blackflies on the other hand, are more interested in trying to get out of the tent than look for a meal. It really is amazing to me that the blackfly actually realizes it is trapped in a tent and tries to escape. As a result, the population of blackflies that reside at the top of the tent continues to grow! Every morning they are wrapped up and packed in the tent, and every evening unrolled with the tent! It is actually quite humorous I think!

Anyway, I got out of the tent and went for an early morning swim. The bugs that were not out last night due to the wind were out in full force this morning!

We broke camp, ate our cornbread, and set off for another day’s travel. Today there is a light breeze out of the northwest. It has been a few days since we have had a wind out of that direction.

Matt is duffing today as he cut his thumb on a rock yesterday. The cut is fairly deep and he is unable to paddle. The river was lazy first thing this morning with gentle current that widened into a small lake occasionally. These small lakes tended to have shallow rock bars however that tended to appear out of nowhere and tear up your paddle a bit.

After many miles, we came up our first set of rapids, and it was a significant set. We immediately decided to portage and took all the packs through. Then a debate ensued about running the rapids with the empty boats. This was a much more significant rapid than anything we had run yet, but if we were going to run something this big, it had to be before we got too far north and the water becomes too cold. Dumping a boat in this water just mean a refreshing swim. Dumping in the cold rivers we’ll be paddling later on would have serious consequences.

So, we decided to break out the canoe skirts and run the empty boats down the rapids. Our Tripper canoes had been fitted with spray skirts, kind of like those that go over the cockpit of a kayak. The skirts serve to keep water from splashing into the boat, weighing it down and making the boat unstable. With the skirt on, the open canoes are much better suited for whitewater.

I was immediately unsure if I wanted to run this rapid. I guess I was still a bit shell-shocked from our gaff in the big rapid the day before. Basically, the rapid was a huge tongue over the first drop that ended in a non-symmetrical, v-shaped hydraulic with another hydraulic immediately following the first. This combination of two, differently shaped hydraulics was the main challenge of this rapid, though after the two hydraulics you were not out of the woods completely with a few more as the rapid continued its drop. This was a significant rapid, especially considering our remote location.

Dave and Stew were the first to shoot the rapid. They came down the very fast tongue and plunged into the backrolling hydraulic. The hydraulic stopped them dead in their path and the canoe bobbed up on the boiling water, losing its stability and they almost dumped it. But after a second the water carried them off down through the rest of the rapid.

Next to run were Greg and John. They came down the slick tongue just to the right of center of the v-shaped hydraulic and proceeded to just skip through the hydraulics and down through the rest of the rapid. Cake.

Then John went back and shot it with Scott. They came down the tongue but this time, the hydraulic got them the canoe went over quickly. The guys were smart though, they held on to their paddles and grabbed the painter lines of the canoe. But what John didn’t tell us was that when the boat went over; he hit his shoulder pretty hard on a submerged rock. It actually must have hurt quite a bit, but he didn’t let on.

Chris and Jim then shot the rapids and also avoided being hung up in the hydraulic.

Lastly I managed to convince myself to shoot the rapid and Greg agreed to go along with me. We ferried the boat out to the center of the river and went into the tongue. The water picked up speed very quickly. We kept right of center where he had run it with John the first time. We paddled hard passed through the big hydraulic with no problem. Then we just kept paddling and blew through the rest of the various waves and other hydraulics. The water gushed over the bow and rode the skirt all the way to the back of the boat where is would crash into me. The skirts did their job however and the water stayed out of the boat.

We rode out the last waves and headed back over to shore where we took off the skirts and loaded the packs back into the boats.

For the days travel I was paddling with Chris. We shot some other, small rapids, portaged one bigger set, and lined another set. In the heat of the day a thunderstorm was brewing and the wind really picked up. We heard some thunder, and eventually had to get off the river at one point due to lightning.

We eventually made it to Sandy Lake and the wind was really howling. We had some real difficulty getting the tents set up in the wind. The wind was so strong that some of the parachute cord used to secure the rain fly broke! But we got the tents secured and went about setting up the rest of the camp for the night. We cooked up a good stew with noodles.

The rain eventually came in, but it didn’t last, and the wind shifted to the northeast. After the brief shower we made up some hot cocoa. Tasted so good. We relaxed around the fire, smoking the pipes. It didn’t last as the wind died down and the mosquitoes came out with a vengeance! We made for the tents and shortly after, it started to rain again. But this time it wasn’t a brief shower and may last for a few hours.

Looking at the maps tonight we appear to be between 20 and 25 miles from Nueltin Lake. I imagine we will probably reach Nueltin in the morning of the day after tomorrow.

Day 14

The rain stopped overnight and we woke to blue bird skies once more. The only problem was the wind had left with the rain and the mosquitoes were horrible! Things were pretty wet so we wimped out and did not even try to light a fire. Instead breakfast was granola with dried fruit, which is pretty good stuff anyway!

We started out on Sandy Lake this morning, and true to its name, the lake bottom was entirely sand. The winds were still this morning which let the mosquitoes follow us out on the lake in our canoes. It was also very hot, which added to the misery of the mosquitoes. I’m actually surprised it was as hot as it was considering the front that went through last night and the wind shift.

I felt really good paddling this morning. My body seems to be fully in the groove of long days on the water. We shot two nice, straight-forwards sets of rapids. One was simply threading in between a pair of good-sized hydraulics, while the second was to ride out some big standing waves. Easy and fun.

We paddled about 13 miles before we broke for TL in a meadow up above the river on a hill. The “meadow” was a really just a big flat area covered in lichen with maybe an odd, stunted tree or two. After lunch we threw the Frisbee around for a while. It wasn’t as enjoyable as it could have been as the blackflies were pretty trying!

After lunch we were back on the water heading to Nahili Lake, our planned destination for the day. We shot several sets of small rapids, but it seemed like my canoe was on a mission to hit every rock in the river! Ah, thank the heavens for a Royalex canoe!

When we reached Nahili Lake we were not able to find a decent campsite so the group decided to paddle on. We paddled into another area hit by a wildfire and found a very mediocre campsite that the group voted down 5-4!

We were pretty close to Nueltin Lake by this point so we decided to just head there and look for a campsite. We portaged around a set of rapids to get into Nueltin Lake. The mosquitoes and blackflies were so bad. My arm was just covered in the little pests. Ugh.

The Thlewiaza River enters Nueltin Lake about 3 miles from the fishing lodge where we had arranged for our re-supply food to be delivered. With the hot weather, we’ve really only just recently gotten our trail appetites so we still have quite a bit of food left. One we get our re-supply, our boats are gong to be really weighed down! The food packs are going to be really, really heavy, all SEVEN of them!

We picked a campsite on a nice sandy point within sight of the bay where the fishing lodge is located. Thunderstorms have been brewing all day long. One seemed to build right over our campsite. Shortly after it had moved beyond our point, it spawned quite a bit of lightning and just started pouring out rain. But as it moved away, we were treated to a bright rainbow!

We had mac and cheese for dinner along with some mashed potatoes and chocolate pudding for dessert. While fixing dinner, a plane from the lodge took off from the lake and pilot buzzed us!

When I climbed into the tent tonight the wind picked up, it started raining again and the temperature has really started to drop. At least the wind was keeping the bugs away.

We are nearing treeline on our trip. In fact, part of Nueltin Lake is above treeline. We will soon be entering the “barren lands.”

In 14 days of paddling we have covered about 230 miles.

Of note, Jim seems to be developing some sort of rash on the side of his stomach. It’s pretty small, and not really bothering him, but we’ll have to watch it.

Day 15

Woke to a cold, windy and overcast day. The clouds were low and drizzling slightly. Once again, the men’s Expo was sleeping in because of the weather! Dave, Stew and I were starting to stir when three little Indian children arrived at the campsite. Dave talked with them for a bit.

Once we were up and about, Dave and Stew decided to go check the re-supply while I cooked breakfast. While cooking, I talked with the native children and found out that they live at the lodge and also that the ice is out on the north end of the lake. They said the ice went out last week, the first week of July.

The rest of the group began to emerge from the tents and breakfast was ready just as Dave and Stew returned from the lodge… …without any food!!! Our re-supply food is still sitting in the hanger at Thompson Lake, having not yet been flown up for some reason. Upon learning this, the lodge then told Dave that the pilot does not fly on Sundays and Thursdays, at which point Dave asked what day it was, and was informed Sunday. The lodge told Dave they would call the pilot to see if he will fly the food up tomorrow, if not, we will make arrangements somehow for somebody else who will. For the meantime, we will just duff out on our sandy little point on Nueltin Lake. The point is nice because there are no bugs, the wind is just strong enough to keep the bugs back in the trees. But not strong enough to keep me and Dave from throwing the Frisbee around!

For lunch we had bannock pies. A bannock pie is two pieces of bannock with some sort of filling in the middle. Today we put cinnamon, brown sugar and peanut butter. They were huge and so good!

Jim’s rash doesn’t seem to be doing so well. It is starting to spread over his side and is becoming painful.

That evening, a man walked over to visit. He was a Norwegian who is traveling solo, also from Wollaston Lake to Eskimo Point. In fact, it turns out that he is taking the exact same route as the women’s trip. However, instead of paddling solo across Nueltin Lake he is being flown across. He told us of all the wildlife he has seen on his trip: 3 bear, several moose and a wolf. He said the wolf he saw was chasing a moose! That made me realize just how loud our group is! We’re scattering the wildlife before us!

After talking with the Norwegian for a while, Dave and I went fishing back at the base of the little falls we portaged around getting into Lake Neultin. He caught two small northern pike and got one good one, probably about 8lbs. After fishing we came back and retired to the tents.