The wind picked up overnight and was blowing quite strongly by morning. Getting the fire started proved to be a very difficult task, but Scott and I were able to get it started. We had Ralston for breakfast, or should I say we had brown sugar with Ralston! We had a long day of whitewater ahead of us, and we were going to need all the energy we could get.

I paddled with John today. As we were probably the two strongest paddlers besides our leaders Dave and Stew, John and I would be paddling the safety boat (last boat) while Dave and Stew would paddle the lead boat.

Not far from Mountain Lake, we got our glimpse of the huge, currently non-operational gold mine. If you look closely in the first picture, you can just make out the buildings of the mine on the horizon. Even as far away as we were, you could easily discern that it was a gigantic facility. Standing out on the vast horizon, it seemed so out of place. On shore, we found some old gold mine claims, including one dated 8-25-1982 and stamped 11:00am.

Today we were constantly paddling some sort of whitewater. We just could not afford to get out and scout everything as doing so would be far too time consuming. We just had to rely on our paddling skills and ability to read the water and make quick on-the-water decisions.

Most of the whitewater was straight forward in a technical sense, but even if it was a mere rifle, we could not relax. Considering where we were, so far removed from civilization and help, every paddle stroke required care and attention. The consequences of a mistake here, so far from help, in water so cold, would be severe.

We had covered several miles of river, and were nearing a lake and an end to this particular stretch of whitewater, when Dave and Stew in the lead boat, put up a frantic “river left” sign. What they had found, and run directly into, was a very large back-rolling hydraulic. This back-roller was over 30 feet across and mean! Dave and Stew hit it straight on, and only the spray skirt saved them. The second boat also hit the backroller, but not in the heart, and got through without much trouble. The last two boats were able to avoid the rapid.

After getting by this obstacle, we all pulled over to the shore for TL. Could this possible be the rapid that claimed that trip those years ago? It didn’t seem like it, but we knew the rapid to be on this section. We could see the next lake, maybe a half mile away as the immediate area was devoid of any trees. We could see the entire river, all the way to the lake and could not see anything that approached the size of this particular rapid. The previous trip hit this river with very high water levels, so perhaps the low water levels has tamed this particular rapid.

It had been a long, and stressful morning, so we decided to have TL here beside the big rapid. We relaxed on the rocks and enjoyed the weather, and the morning’s overcast skies had somewhat cleared.

Not far from where I was sitting, a big raven landed on the next big boulder over. He was eying me up, or perhaps eying up the remnants of my lunch, which I was not about to donate! But he remained, so I quietly got up, and started easing my way towards him. The raven just sat there, watching me, cocking his head back and forth in that manner birds do, all the while I slowly moved over to him. His boulder was probably four feet across and stood maybe three high at the center. I eventually sat down on that boulder with the raven. He never squawked or became overly fidgety, just sat there and watched me, until he figured out that I had nothing for him and flew away.

During this time, Dave took a little walk down the river towards the lake. He came back, about 20 minutes later and the first thing he said was that this rapid right next to us is definitely not the rapid that doomed the previous trip.

“How do you know?” we asked.

“Because the big rapid is right there. See it?” he asked.

“No.” we replied.

“It’s huge, it’s right there…” …a pause… “you can’t see it can you?”

“No.”

“And you won’t see it until you are right on top of it.”

He was right too. The rapid was maybe 200 yards away, and as it turned out, you would not see it until you were right on top of it. Even in the low water conditions Dave was clearly awed by the rapid and we walked our canoes down to the rapid just to make sure there was no chance of us getting caught in it.

It was really amazing how we were unable to see the rapid until we were almost upon it. The rapid was essentially a ledge that spanned the entire width of the river except for a five-foot portion directly next to the shore. The ledge somehow managed to avoid providing a horizon line that is the telltale give away of an altitude change.

A horizon line is basically a spatial distortion that is created by one object in the foreground being higher than an object in the background. Where the perspective takes your eye from the top of the foreground object to the background object a distortion is evident because your brain can tell that there is distance between the two. With ledge-type rapids, this type of distortion can be quite pronounced as the water smoothly flows over the ledge and the turbulent water below is far enough below so as to not splash high enough to cross the horizon line.

I don’t know why, perhaps it was the uniform nature of the rapid, or the river being so straight, or the nature of the treeless surroundings that caused the lack of a horizon line, but whatever the reason, there was none. And this rapid, spanning the entire length of the river, even at these water levels would just eat canoes for dinner. In high water conditions, it is easy to see how this rapid wiped out the previous trip down this river.

We slowly lined our canoes by the rapid. We paused to admire the rapid, its size, strength, and its stealth. Then we hopped back in our canoes and made our way on to Sucker Lake.

The wind was blowing pretty hard by this time. We tried sailing, but the wind direction was again not quite right. We paddled most of the lake then started looking for campsites. We checked a couple, but they were really buggy, so we paddled over to the other side of the lake and started looking there. We passed up a better-looking site for one around a point. The bugs were still bad but we set up camp as we spied a rainstorm coming our way so we ducked into the tents.

After the storm we emerged and made a “huge” dinner of 7 pieces of cheese, a piece of sausage, some prunes and some peanuts! Yehaw!

After our quick dinner, we were back to the tents as another rainstorm could be seen headed our way. Does it always rain this much in the tundra? This storm is a slow mover, and looks to have lots of electricity. I can see several spectacular bolts.

As I was writing the previous paragraph, I heard a hiss sound coming from outside. I could not figure out what it was, as it was clearly not coming from our camp, when I realized it was the rain moving across lake and the hiss was the sound of all the raindrops hitting the surface of the water. A few seconds later, the rain hit our camp.

I was again in charge of the trip log, and for today’s report, I made as detailed a description of where the canoe-eating rapid is located. I noted both surrounding landmarks (big sandy esker, smaller hydraulic first, etc) and also approximately where the rapid is located on the maps.

We paddled 19 miles today and dropped 155 vertical feet. The river cuts a small valley through the landscape, and this slightly lower terrain, has allowed the trees to regain a bit of a foothold. The surrounding area is mostly barren, but quite a bit of the land along the river is forested. The trees are still stunted, but they do stand taller than 3 or 4 feet here!

Today was the eleventh day we have not seen anyone.

Day 27

Woke this morning feeling fairly tired. The storm last night was very powerful with lots of spectacular lightning. But the violent weather seems to have moved on to the southwest of us.

We had granola for breakfast and the plan today was to paddle hard this morning, put in some miles, and stop for a long TL and cook up a dinner for lunch.

We got underway this morning with winds out of the east, a direction we have not seen before. It was cloudy, with another low bank of gray clouds. Could these clouds have been blown in off Hudson Bay?

We were still paddling the river today, but no whitewater to speak of. It seemed like a network of small lakes connected by the river. We passed lots of rocky shoreline, not boulder-ridden shorelines, but big shield rock.

We covered 12 miles into an east wind before breaking for TL. The guys wanted to have lentil chili with noodles and cheese. I don’t like chili, and I hate lentils, so I said I’d go catch my own lunch and went and rigged up my fishing rod!

Our TL location looked like it had potential to be good for fishing, and on my very first cast, I nearly had my lunch, but he got away! Two casts later I caught about a 1-1/2pound lake trout, but that was too small. Then on the next cast I lost another laker that would have done very nicely for my lunch! The fourth fish that I tied into I landed, a nice lake trout, about 5 pounds or so.

I cleaned him up using my Thompson fish skinner that I brought along on the trip. The guys were all very impressed with the look of my fillets. There was room for me to cook up my fish next to the big pot of chili, and when the fish was done, I gave a taste to everyone. The group decided to make up some cheese bannock to go with the chili, and it went very well with the fish too!

We decided to take a long break after lunch. Dave took out his kite and I went back to fishing. Cool idea to bring a kite to the tundra! I landed 7 more lake trout, all between 4 and 6 pounds I figure. I also got one small grayling, my first ever.

In the afternoon I paddled in the bow with Dave. Sometimes I really enjoy paddling in the bow because one can just let their mind wander to whatever it wants as you body loses itself in the rhythm of the paddle stroke. Mindless paddling with no responsibilities to steer the boat.

Today I thought a bit about the north Georgia Mountains and the great rivers that flow through them. I thought how nice it would be to take some solo trips down some of those rivers. Now that my family has moved back to Wisconsin, I often find myself missing those Georgia Mountains.

After lunch, the wind picked up and switched to the northeast. The switch really happened during lunch, and during that time, it actually had been quite nice out with blue sky showing and the temperature rising a bit. Now, however, the clouds have moved back in, lowered, and the temperature has fallen. And we were headed northeast at the moment, so the headwind wasn’t helping our travel.

This afternoon was mostly flat water, but we did have a couple of small rapids. We ended the day after 18 miles on a sandy, dune-like point. It was still quite windy, which meant no bugs for a change, and that was great. Tents were set up, and anchored down with huge rocks.

While preparing the fire, a cold rain started which put the end to our fire efforts and we dug out the stoves. It was really cold, and I was really cold. Probably about the coldest I’d been the entire trip. I was wet, cold and tired. The fish at lunch was great, but it lacked the calories the lentil chili did, and I was hungry, really hungry.

I went for a little walk along the beach in an effort to get warm. I saw some recent wolf tracks in the sand and flushed up 7 ptarmigans.

We cooked up big trail pizzas for dinner. They were huge. Three of the guys were unable to finish theirs, but I was able to eat every bit of mine filling in the hole left by the lean fish lunch! Then we had hot cocoa and then to the tents to get warm.

I had a good day today, the relaxing TL and fishing helped. Today was the twelfth day we have not seen anyone.

Day 28

Woke late this morning to strong northerly winds with a “driving drizzle” and bone-numbing cold. It seems easily the coldest morning yet with the combination of the wet, wind and temperature. The miserable conditions did not enhance our motivation to get out of our tents this morning.

To combat the conditions, we made a double batch of oatmeal with lots of brown sugar, raisins and lots and lots of butter. With the nature of this trip, being so long and difficult, coupled with the weather, high calorie meals with plenty of fat are a must. Four weeks into the trip as we are today, our bodies are just craving fat. If we let our bodies utilize all of our fat reserves, it will be tough to build them back up while still out on the trail.

We started paddling this morning with the strong winds coming from our rear left quarter. This wind direction made boat control pretty difficult. We tried to stay as close to the left shore as much as possible in order to minimize the winds effects. But the winds continued to intensify and the temperature seemed to drop further, probably to around 40 degrees.

We portaged one set of rapids that we most likely would have run on a warm day. Due to the surrounding terrain, we had to portage on the right side of the rapids, which meant getting back to the left side of the river afterwards was a real chore. The winds were easily sustained at 20-30mph with gusts topping 40mph. These winds are coming down off the artic ocean, with no trees to hinder their strength. Even on a river, we could not paddle. We are wind-bound on a river!

Where we were stopped was not suitable to set camp, but we could not wait here, as people were rapidly getting very cold. We were not far from a little lake so we decided to make for the river mouth there. It was not far to paddle, but it was hard. When we reached the river mouth we set up camp, which was very difficult in the high winds. We had to be very careful with the tents, as the wind constantly tried to carry them away, and almost succeeded once. We gathered a bunch of very large rocks to anchor the tents, several hundred pounds worth for each tent. In the picture, you can see the rocks we used. The blue stuff sack is for one of the canoe spray skirts, to give you a sense of the size of the rocks we needed! Hopefully the tents will hold up against the wind. Several of the group members do not have faith in these dome tents to survive this wind.

After camp was set up, we got TL out. Everyone was huddled behind whatever rock they could find to provide shelter from the wind. I was really getting cold, and my feet were freezing, I was actually starting to worry about them they were so cold.

Heavy winds make all of our tasks harder to accomplish. On portages, two people are needed to get a canoe across, one person with the canoe on their shoulders while the second person is needed to lead by holding the bow so that the wind does not blow the canoe and its portager over!

Cold also makes our tasks more difficult. If you are very cold, you cannot do anything quickly with your hands and it just makes you feel weaker in general. I felt that way today, just weak, and cold. Today certainly fits the description one might envision of a canoe trip across the rugged tundra of northern Canada. Or, a “character building” experience! I actually like days like this as I get a feeling of strength and perseverance. It’s one of those days that I’ll look back and say “wow, I did that.”

There are often a few dangers associated with a day like this, but hypothermia is easily the greatest danger, and most likely. I was developing the early stages of hypothermia. The obvious clue was my feet getting cold. My body was focusing its efforts on keeping my core temperature up and neglecting my extremities.

Hypothermia is a very serious threat on a trip such as this. For example, what if we had run those rapids we had portaged earlier in the day? The water was frigid, the wind was howling, and if a canoe dumped, sending its occupants into the cold water, we would have been in serious trouble. Fortunately, we made the prudent decision, and portaged.

We paddled only eight miles today on account of the wind. The wind is truly amazing! Here in camp, we’ve tied the canoes off to big boulders anchored in the ground to protect against the wind blowing our canoes away!

We spent the afternoons in the tents in our sleeping bags, trying to get warm. We did emerge to cook dinner using the canoes as a wind break for not just the cook fire, but also for us as we waited on dinner! At least firewood is easy to find with all the trees that grow along parts of the river. Dinner was mashed potatoes, which are a group favorite. “Mashed toes” are easy, quick, hot, filling, and oh so good with a little spicing and butter.

While I was huddled behind a canoe eating my dinner, a baby duckling waddled by me. The little thing must have been separated from its mother in the winds. It was sad, as even though the duckling looked healthy, it was not going to last long out here without its mother.

The winds continued right through the evening, and the temperature dropped as the sun went down. The clouds did break slightly at sunset providing a spectacular sunset of wonderfully vivid colors. If the clouds continue to clear out, it could get really cold tonight. Am I ever glad I have this new sleeping bag for this trip, it is a seamless bag made by Wiggy’s. What I mean by seamless is that the insulating stuff is not held in place by various seams running in the bag. Instead, the stuffing is fused to the shell, which means less insulation is required for a specific temperature rating for the bag. My bag is rated for 20º Fahrenheit, but tonight, I’m also wearing a wool hat and socks as well as a full set of long underwear. All this of course in a closed up 4-season dome tent. Yeah, it’s cold out there! Hopefully the breaking clouds mean an end to this wind and we will be able to paddle tomorrow. This section of the river is largely devoid of any rapids, yet retains good current. Looking at the map, we have about 17 miles to the Tha-Anne River with no marked sets of rapids. With the 8 miles we completed today, that brings our trip total to about 410 covered so far. Though this wind now puts us about 2 days behind schedule. It is going to be interesting to see where we make up our lost time. Ever since Nueltin Lake, the conditions have not been favorable for making good time.

Today was a good day, despite the rough conditions. I’ve been able to rest my muscles, which was needed.

Today was the thirteenth day we have not seen anyone.

Day 29

Woke this morning to a day even colder than yesterday, and the wind, if anything, has gained in intensity. The clouds have broken a bit, and the sun does shine through at times though. My feet are actually still cold from yesterday, despite spending the last half of the day and all night in dry wool socks! The night was windy and cold but the clouds actually moved back in with a few scattered rain showers. I’d guess that the temperature dropped into the mid 30s. There is still a little rain in this morning’s clouds, but it looked like there might have been a little snow up there too, though it never actually snowed on us.

We did not move today, there was no way, the wind was just way too strong. Instead, we mostly hung out in the tents reading, or playing cards.

I figure the temperature stayed in the 40s today. During breakfast, which was probably around midday, it was still really cold.

After lunch, Dave and I tried to go fishing. We didn’t catch anything though; it was just near impossible to fish in these conditions.

After the failed fishing excursion, I went back to the tent to read and write with the wind continually lashing at us. This wind puts us another day behind schedule, but for some reason, I just don’t seem to care. The group seems to have taken on “We’ll get there when we get there” attitude.

The wind and a few rain squalls continued all day long. One other aspect of the cold that I’ve noticed recently is that the group is eating a whole lot more than we were during the earlier part of the trip to the south, in the warmer weather. Just in the last few days, the amount of food we’ve eaten has been pretty staggering, and no left-over to big spoon the next morning either! All of our recent meals have been 50-100% more than originally allotted. We are not, however, in any danger of running out of food, due in part to not eating as much earlier in the trip, and in part to bringing more food than we thought we’d need.

The winds finally have mellowed a bit this evening. I think we will likely try to paddle tomorrow regardless of the wind.

For the first time today, I started thinking about the end of the trip. We have about 15 days to complete the remaining 250-300 miles and have now used all of our scheduled duff days. We do of course still have the few buffer days built in to the end of the trip. But when we get to the Henik Lakes in a few days and are unable to paddle due to weather, we may decide to re-route down the Tha-Anne River. At that point we would be only 4 or 5 days from Hudson Bay, but would be 30 miles or so south of Eskimo Point. I really hope we are able to keep on our planned route, which would bring us down the Magoose River as I really would like to paddle the Magoose.

It is unfortunate that we’ve had some of the circumstances we’ve had, including the weather, but also with re-supply as well as Jim’s situation. But, they can’t be helped. On the bright side, the good thing about this wind is that we have not seen a bug in days!

Today was the fourteenth day we have not seen anyone.

Day 30

We were up very early this morning. The sun was still very low over the northeast horizon when we got out of the tents. This has to be about the earliest we have been up the entire trip. The skies were crystal clear this morning, and the wind was still fairly strong, but had shifted to be more out of the west-northwest. I helped Dave cook up some bulgar for breakfast and we were away from camp early.

The river’s current was swift and favorable and with a strong wind at our backs, we were making extremely good time. We only ran into problems when we had to turn into the wind a bit on account of a river bend. This was very hard as the wind was still strong enough to push us to the shore.

Columbus was navigating again and at the first widening of the river, he had a choice of two directions he could send us, and chose the wrong one, sending us down a dead-end little bay. As a result, we got to paddle straight back into the wind. Needless to say, the group wasas not very happy about that.

Once the directional error was corrected we got back into the main channel, along with its current and the favorable winds. We shot some easy rapids but did scout a couple of them first. With the weather and water being so cold, we did not want to risk an early dump, which would cause a premature end to the day.

Paddling this morning was really fast. We covered 20 miles before stopping for TL. We stopped for TL on the point between where the Tha-Anne and the Kognak merge together.

This section of the Tha-Anne was the only upstream paddling we would face during the entire trip. Fortunately, we did not have a lot of upstream miles to cover to get to Roseblade Lake and then to the Henik Lakes.

The current coming down the Tha-Anne was also fairly swift, so our rapid speed of the morning was at an end. This short section of the Tha-Anne did have some small rapids as well that required us to line the canoes most of the way. The water was soooo cold and I was thankful I had my neoprene booties.

The upstream work on the Tha-Anne was slow and tiring as it required considerable effort just to put one foot in front of the other, not to mention pulling the canoe against the current as well. Your boots fill with water and become heavier and harder to move… and I’ve already mentioned how being really cold seems to take the strength out of your body!

We eventually made it into Roseblade Lake and started paddling across the lake. We noticed some cumulus clouds building, but it was rather strange: The wind was from the west-northwest while the clouds were moving from south to north. The clouds built further, then dumped some rain on us. But after the rain stopped, the clouds changed directions, now moving from the north-northwest to the south-southeast!

After crossing Roseblade Lake we paddled part of the channel to Henik Lake. We chose a campsite on an esker on the west side of the channel. The wind was still blowing nicely so that for yet another evening we were not forced to wear our head nets.

We had stir fry for dinner. We made quite a bit, but had no problem finishing it all! The wind started to die down after dinner and the mosquitoes were beginning to appear so we retreated to the tents.

I spent quite a bit of time wondering what Henik Lake will bring us. We’ve moved back into completely barren lands, and with Henik Lake being fairly large, what weather we find could be interesting. Will we have favorable winds? Will we be forced to re-route down the Tha-Anne? We’ll know in the next few days!

We made very good time today, covering about 28 miles. With the distance we covered today, we’ve clawed back to about day and a half behind schedule. If everything goes well, with no more holdups, we should be back on schedule by day 38, our last scheduled duff day on Maguse Lake.

We’ve traveled about 440 miles now for the trip and our current elevation is 604 feet above sea level. Today was the fifteenth day we have not seen anyone.