Over the last couple of weeks, the group has developed a sort of “loose” policy “if you wake up, and the sun is up, wake everyone else up.” Well, when I woke this morning, the sun was just barely over the horizon, but I just could not bring myself to get up, so I went back to sleep!

When the group did finally get underway later this morning, it was into a moderate headwind. We paddled north into South Henik Lake and stopped for a pudding break after having to wade one narrow section of the river-like channel leading into the lake. After the break we continued for a few more mile before stopping for TL. We had covered 14 miles this morning. Pretty good progress despite the headwind and heading against some current. However, the wind was intensifying, so the decision was made to hangout for the afternoon and do another night paddle tonight.

The group pretty much just lounged around and ate all afternoon! We were stopped on a very pretty spot, a nice wide point with no trees in sight. We were able to scrounge up enough firewood from the scrub and proceeded to dive into the food packs! First, we made a huge batch of apple-potato pancakes (a group favorite), followed by a big batch of mashed potatoes with noodles and cheese! Lots of carbs!

We also used the afternoon to consolidate our food packs. Our repacking allowed us to eliminate two of our food packs, which will be a big help on portages. But despite our increased appetites of late, we still have quite a bit of food! Of course, on a trip like this where help is a long way away, it is far better to have too much food than too little.

A few of us went for a quick swim in the frigid water of South Henik Lake this afternoon. Brrrr! The water is frigid! When you step into the water, it is so cold that your feet go instantly numb!

The decision to do a night paddle turned out to be a good one as the winds this afternoon became very strong and to paddle on the big water in wind and waves that big would have been dangerous.

We started our night paddle as the sun was getting close to the horizon. The wind was dying quickly, so the bugs were able to emerge and wish us well on our paddle!

When we got out on the water, the large, white-capped waves of the day were now just big swells, about 15 feet from crest to crest. But with the wind now calm, the swells proved relatively simple, and frankly quite enjoyable to paddle. Without the wind and resulting steep whitecaps on top, the canoes just glided over the tops of the waves rather than us bashing through them.

As we paddled the sun finally dipped below the horizon after its tantalizingly shallow decent. And as the sun fell, so did the temperatures. Or should I say plummet! When we started our paddle, a few mosquitoes would find us during our rest breaks. But as the night wore on and the temperature fell, the number of mosquitoes venturing out for a meal dwindled until there were no mosquitoes at all.

It was a very pleasant night to paddle, and the rhythmic work of moving a canoe insulated me a bit against the falling temperature so that I didn’t really recognize how far the temperature had fallen. It was dark now, and as I paddled, my thigh was getting cold, likely from some of the frigid lake waters splashing up from my paddle stroke. It wasn’t until we had stopped that I took a moment to wipe any water off my leg and I realized my leg was dry! It had gotten cold enough that the air temperature had chilled the nylon shell of my rain pants to the point where they felt covered by cold lake water!

It was so quite and peaceful out on the lake tonight. The group did not talk much tonight other than to make sure we were headed in the right direction. And that was pretty easy to do, just head toward the glow on the horizon. For the most part, when we would stop for a rest break, we would be quiet and lie back on the stern plate or a pack and stare into the starry night sky hoping to catch a streaking meteor or perhaps the aurora.

It was so quiet that it seemed my ears strained so hard to hear something that they made their own background noise. Or perhaps that background noise was a left-over ringing from being continually battered by strong winds all afternoon. Either way, it was as quiet as it could be. Not even the water made a sound as the Royalex canoes floated over the diminishing swells.

We finished our paddle across a large expanse of Henik Lake making camp on a nice point and seemingly on target. We covered about 12 additional miles with our night paddle bringing our daily total to about 24 miles and our two-day total to a little over 50 miles. We figure we are now only about a day behind schedule.

As we set up camp tonight, the temperature had dropped well below freezing and I was getting pretty cold. My feet of course, were freezing! After setting up the tents we fixed a little snack of GORP. While we were eating, the Northern Lights emerged and began a spectacular display, much more so than those we saw on Day 3. Not only did this display cover more of the sky, but there was a fair amount of red in the display.

Today was the 16th day we did not see anyone.

Day 32

Woke several times during the morning, my internal clock telling me to get up, my fatigued body convincing me to go back to sleep! I didn’t really have any desire to crawl out of my sleeping bag as my feet were still cold from the night before!

The group finally emerged from the tents sometime around mid-day most likely. We cooked up a big batch of Rice and Raisins with a date bar mix added in for a little extra umpf. People were pretty tired from the night paddle so there was not a whole lot of conversation around the campfire this morning.

There was hardly any breeze this morning, but the hard freeze of the night before had apparently knock down the mosquitoes so they were quite tolerable this morning.

After breakfast we set off with slight wisp of a breeze out of the southeast. We had paddled fro a few miles when I looked over to the shore and noticed up on the top of a ridge was a rock, with legs! A caribou!

The group paddled over to the shore and started to make our way up to the first hill. There were what appeared to be two adults and one calf probably about 300 yards away. We sat and watched for a while. Stew took out his binoculars that afforded a nice view of the animals. The caribou looked pretty rugged though! After a while, one of the adults and the calf moved off while the remaining adult moved toward us. The animal was upwind so I figured it just wanted to get our scent. The caribou came within about 100 yards of us and then began to circle around us. As soon as it got downwind of us, it must of got our scent as it then moved away from us. The Inuit word for caribou is Tuktu.

We stopped for TL on a big rock pile at the tip of a point. One of the rocks was very interesting because the surface was like that of a waffle iron. Not sure what would have left that kind of impression? It was not the typical striations that one would see on a flat rock that had been exposed to the bottom of a glacier.

In the north side of the rock pile and point we found a large patch of leftover snow and ice! The first of August today and we find left over ice from the winter! Egad! Anyway, we dug out the grape juice powder and made snow-cones!

After TL we continued our northward paddle up South Henik Lake. We made camp in the very northeast corner of the lake in a small bay. There was a caribou there as we approached and throughout the rest of the evening we saw 22 additional caribou. Most were cows with young, but we did see one young buck with antlers. The female caribou with and without young are the first to initiate annual migration movements.

The caribou seemed quite curious animals. Most seemed to take at least some interest in us and even made efforts to come check us out. None came very close though!

The north end of this lake is almost totally devoid of any trees. The only woody growth to be found is a little “buck brush” or dwarf trees right on the shore. But we essentially no people ever coming through this area, we were able to scrounge up enough wood for the campfire and were thereby able to avoid using our stoves. Tonight’s dinner was a big pot of spaghetti.

After dinner it started to rain. It hasn’t rained on us in a little while but this was an odd rain in that the rain clouds seemed to be at a much higher altitude than what we normally would associate with rain clouds. A downside to the rain (other than the obvious) and clouds is that it will likely prevent the temperature from falling very low tonight. If we were to get another really good freeze or two in the next few nights the mosquito population could really be knocked back.

Tonight’s campsite marks the end of our traverse of South Henik Lake. It took us only two days. We were very fortunate with the weather considering it took the last trip 6 days to get across South Henik! We’ve made very good time in the last three days covering almost 70 miles.

Tomorrow we start our next watershed crossing. The next portion of our route is through a region that has never before been traveled by a group from Camp Manito-Wish so it represents an unknown to us. But it is because of this unknown that we were hoping to not have to re-route down the Tha-Ann. This region represents an opportunity for our group to travel where we know nothing about what to expect. We do not know how much water we will find in the lakes or if there will be enough water for us to paddle at all. It’ll be these discoveries of the unknown that will add yet one more element to our grand adventure!

The last 24 hours have been very enjoyable with the Pleiades meteor shower, the Northern Lights, a hard freeze, caribou, and ice! Our trip mileage is up to 481 and today was the 17th day we have not seen anyone.

Day 33

Woke several times during the night to a cold rainstorm. The wind was out of the east and quite strong. I rolled over and went back to sleep and when I woke again later to heed the call of nature, the heavy rain had turned into a fine mist. The wind was still out of the east and very strong. These are not paddleable conditions. Maybe I should not have been so quick to assume we would be able to get off South Henik Lake in only two days! Of course, we could continue if we wanted as we do not have any more distance to paddle on Henik. But the problem is we are portaging to an east-west oriented Ameto Lake. So, once we got over the portage we’d be forced stop, set up tents and wait out the weather anyway.

Of course, being wind-bound for another days puts us two days behind as opposed to one day. We are scheduled to arrive in Eskimo Point on Day 43 with our plane to Churchill departing Eskimo Point on Day 48. So we have extra days planned to accommodate bad weather, but we don’t want to be forced to use them if we do not have to, and who knows how long this weather will last? We were wind-bound on the Kognak River for two days and were barely able to paddle the third day.

There was a fair amount of discussion about what to do if the wind does not calm during the night. We pretty much decided that we will paddle tomorrow, one way or another. But what if the wind actually intensifies? All would be fine if we could assume we would be able to paddle from the Maguse River delta to Eskimo Point in one day. But we are not really concerned yet as to arrive at the Maguse River delta a day or two late will be no big deal. But if we are not able to paddle tomorrow, I’m sure a sense of urgency will surface! The attitude of “we’ll get there when we get there” will surely fall by the wayside! I bet our carefree attitudes will change just a bit as we near the end of our trip.

The cold weather continued all day. It really was very cold. The high temperatures probably reached the mid 40s with the drizzle continuing on and off all day while intensifying just a bit after dinner. We hung out in the tents, Stew Matt and I playing a few games of Dirty Clubs, then a game of Hearts. Later Dave joined us for another game of Hearts.

The wind abated just a bit by late afternoon but it was so cold, wet and uncomfortable that we did not move. This may sound a little wimpy, but one has to remember that staying warm and dry is very important. If we had decided to paddle, we would have fought a brisk headwind with drizzle and very cold temperatures. We would have been moving pretty slowly, much slower than would be desired. We might be able to cover 4 or 5 miles before being forced to set up camp again and that is not enough distance to warrant the energy expenditure required. We would rather get up early tomorrow and get a fresh start than slog around tonight and not be fresh and rested tomorrow.

I was a little anxious to move today but I think the decision not to was a good one. And anyway, it was a fun day hanging out in the tents.

We saw only three caribou today, but one was a buck in his prime with huge, velvet-covered antlers.

The cold rain that developed after dinner continued into the night. Logs of past trips did not mention conditions so cold, for so long. Other trips have had maybe a period of a couple days where it was this cold, but not as long as we have faced. I don’t mind the cold weather actually, but the cold rain like we have tonight, I could do without.

We will probably reach Eskimo Point in eleven days. I am now beginning to look forward to the comforts of home, yet am still very much enjoying what we are seeing, doing and experiencing here. Despite the conditions, I had a very good day today, the 18th day we have not seen anyone.

Day 34

I woke pretty early this morning, I think… I am not sure exactly how early it was because of the overcast, drizzly, windy and cold, very cold conditions. The temperature felt as though it was in the high 30s or low 40s. We cooked a double meal of hot cereal to fill us up for what we expected to be a long, cold, wet day ahead.

We will be starting our watershed crossing today and during this watershed crossing we will be losing a fair amount of altitude. South Henik Lake has an altitude of 604 feet above sea level while the lake at the end of the watershed crossing is at 290 feet above sea level.

The first portage to Ameto Lake was about ¼ mile from our campsite. The portage was not terribly long and pretty straight forward: up over one little ridge and down through some wet boggy tundra. I’ve found that the boggy looking areas here in the Barrens are not bad portaging because the ground is still frozen a little ways under the surface so while the top few inches may be mucky, the ground seems solid.

Conditions turned out to be pretty decent for paddling early on, we were not too hot or too cold. But after only about an hour on Ameto Lake the rain started again and we began to get wet and cold.

While paddling on Ameto Lake we saw one caribou and were dive-bombed by one disturbed seagull!

From Ameto Lake we headed to an unnamed lake that joins Ameto by a small creek. The map shows the creek as being wider than a pencil line, but when we arrived at the creek we still found it un-paddleable as though it was wide, it was very shallow. We were forced to drag the canoes and standing in the water, despite the hard work, made people even colder. I made my situation far worse by falling and getting wet from the waist down. Fortunately this mishap was not as bad as it could have been as the hi-tech synthetic fibers I was wearing still managed to keep me warm enough to keep moving.

After the drag we stopped for a short time to try and warm up. I however became even colder and wanted to keep paddling to the portage out of this lake.

The next portage was a good example of why the maps have an attached statement saying that if one finds an error in the map, please report it to the geological survey! According to the map we were to be able to paddle into a bay to portage to the next lake. What we found was this bay was in fact not attached to the lake! We would have to make an extra portage first to indicated bay, then from the bay to the next lake!

It took a while to figure out the map error, and during that idle time I continued to get colder. I became so cold that I no longer wanted to move or do anything. But I forced my self to get moving again and after the portage, started feeling better. The morale of the group was pretty low at this point though. So far our travels today had been more difficult than anticipated and the weather conditions were not lending any further joy to the situation either. We all began to wonder just how much walking we might be doing over the next few days.

We decided to stop for TL at the middle of the third portage, the portage out of the “bay” which was in fact a separate lake. By this point was pretty warm. The rain had turned back into drizzle and the temperature had climbed into the low 50s it seemed. The overcast sky even showed signs of breaking up.

At the end of the portage after TL we found the skeleton of a large male caribou. The kill is probably this season as the vertebrae are still connected and membranes connected the leg bones. The animal was probably killed by wolves as all four legs were detached from the main body which itself was split in two and the two halves were 100 yards apart.

As we paddled the next unnamed lake the rain stopped, the sun broke through the clouds and a rainbow appeared. People began to dry out a bit and we decided to camp at the end of this lake.

The wind died down which let the bugs come out, but a breeze picked up during dinner which allowed us to eat without our head nets on, which was nice. We camped on a hill were we found a ring of stones. The circle of rocks was about 10-15 feet in diameter. In the ring we found an old tent stake. The stones themselves had clearly been there for a while because the moss had grown up around the stones leaving them fairly well embed. On the side of the hill we found an old wooden box with the hinged top broken off and one of its sides missing. We also found an old teapot, bowl, spoon and part of a mirror. We each used the mirror to see what we looked like, pretty funny!

The junk was old, the metal rusty and the wood rotten. I don’t think this site has been used in a very long time. But, finding this stuff here gives me hope that our chosen route has been a traveled route in the past and will be largely paddleable for us. If we are lucky, the river will be paddleable from here to Kinga Lake, the first lake after the “concerning” section. I say concerning because the section appears to be little lakes joined by narrow sections of river. Who knows if we will be able to paddle those sections? But that is why we are here: to find out! To trail blaze so to speak for other Manito-Wish groups.

Dinner tonight was rice pilaf. I got to cook it tonight, the first dinner I have got to cook since Neultin Lake. I usually cook the breakfasts, so this was a nice change. For dessert we had ¾ cup of M&Ms and no-bake cheesecake that was great!

If we are able to paddle most of the way tomorrow, we will try to make it to Kings Lake, which would be great, but I would not be surprised if we did not make it.

The clouds have cleared off tonight, which allowed folks to dry out. Despite the moisture today, the arctic air dries quickly. The clear night portends a cold night tonight. Hopefully the weather will be nice tomorrow because we could be spending a fair amount of time in the water dragging the canoes.

Today ended up great, but this morning was the worse weather I have ever paddled in. We saw four caribou from our campsite tonight and found a high-powered riffle shell nearby.

Today was the 19th day we have not seen anyone. With the 20 miles we covered today, our trip total is up to 501 miles.

Day 35

Woke this morning to beautiful blue skies and a heavy dew on the ground. It was cold too! We made a quick breakfast of granola and were on the water quickly this morning! We paddled to the end of the lake where we realized what this day was to hold for us. Every narrow section of water was too shallow to paddle and we were forced to drag the canoes across. On the bright side, the weather was great, clear blue skies and warmer temperatures so that even though the going was hard, the weather kept everyone’s spirits up. If the weather had not been so nice, we would have most likely portaged many of these shallow water stretches. The extra portaging would have slowed us down quite a bit too. In the end, we were only forced to portage twice all day.

Dragging the canoes may seem, well, may be unseemly, but frankly, equipped as we are, dragging is both easier and faster. If we could manage the portages in just one trip per person, we would portage more. But with all of our gear and only 8 guys, that is just not possible. Besides, the Royalex Old Town Tripper canoes are built to take this kind of abuse.

The scenery was outstanding today as well. We were surrounded by big hills with craggy granite rock outcroppings. The area was quite stunning. I only wish the traveling would have been a little less labor intensive with all of the dragging so that we could have enjoyed our surroundings a bit more today.

We traveled, not paddled, a total of about 9 miles before TL. We had a big TL today to make sure we were well fueled for what we anticipated would be a difficult afternoon. We had more narrow sections that would require us to drag the canoes, a long section of marked rapids and then “pencil line” to the next lake, Kinga Lake.

We did have one nice wide section this afternoon to paddle. It was just a beautiful area with hills rising steeply on all sides. The mossy green of the tundra was in stark contrast to the deep blue of the water and the brilliant blue of the sky.

What we found when we arrived at the “pencil line” section of the river was narrow, fast, and relatively deep water. The river was flowing through what was almost a canyon in the section with very steep hillsides on each bank. This was difficult paddling in that while there was deeper water, the current was swift and the rock obstacles were many. We started out lining the canoes but this proved to be a quite slow process due to the treacherous footing in the swift water. But we could not really paddle this section either as the clearly paddleable water came in short, quick bursts. So, we took to what we called “cowboy riding!”

Because the sections of easily paddleable water were short, we had to adopt some sort of method that would allow quick exit from the canoes. So, rather than sit in the canoes, each paddler would sit on either the bow or stern plate (the flat “cap” that forms a small deck where the two sides of the canoe come together at the bow and stern). We called this cowboy riding! It was not terribly stable, as sitting that high elevated the center of gravity significantly, but we would quickly hop off the canoe when necessary and quickly hop back on to take advantage of a stretch of paddleable water, no matter how short! It really fun! If the weather had been cold, we might not have done this as we were in and out of the water, cold water, quite a bit.

Late in the afternoon, Scott and I had just finished lining one section when Greg (who was in the stern) and Chris decided they would try to run it. But as soon as they got underway, Greg’s paddle broke. Without any paddle, Greg was unable to control the canoe as the current swept their boat downstream. The canoe hit a rock and water began to flood in. The bow of the canoe was completely underwater and Chris then lost his paddle, as well as his camera bag and a water bottle.

The canoe was not in danger of wrapping however, so the two of them unloaded the gear from the canoe while we spotted the camera bag and water bottle a little ways downstream and went and retrieved them.

With gear recovered, canoe righted and reloaded, we were back underway. But we didn’t make it much further before deciding to stop. It was getting late and people were getting cold after having spent the majority of the day in the frigid water.

We hauled our stuff to the top of the steep side of the near-canyon just two miles from Kinga Lake. The moon was low, just over the top of the ridge on the other side of the river. But I did notice what appeared to be a front moving in from the northeast. I have a feeling it is going to be another cold, windy and rainy day tomorrow. If so, I might be in the mood for a bit more portaging rather than spend another day in the cold water.

After a quick dinner of crackers and jelly, we went straight to the tents to sleep after a long, but fun day. Today was the 20th day we have not seen any other people.