Woke early this morning to bluebird skies! Went back to sleep… Woke later to overcast skies! But it looked to be clearing to the southwest. Another good wind was blowing from the north. We cooked bulgur for breakfast and set off paddling with the wind at our backs. The wind was not as strong as yesterday, but much better for paddling. We were able to go just as fast, or even a little faster than yesterday as the waves were smaller and canoes took a little less effort to control in the slightly diminished wind. At the lower, or southern end of Maguse Lake we found a lot of small, one-roomed shacks. We stopped at the first one and found a lot of caribou bones. It seems this is an area that the caribou regularly migrate through and the Inuit have set up a hunting camp here, as it is likely relatively easily accessible from Eskimo Point. We did see one caribou on an island today, running around!

We stopped for TL at the narrows where the Maguse River empties out. The clouds broke up and the wind mellowed a little, but was still plenty strong to keep the mosquitoes away! TL was so relaxing, everyone thoroughly enjoyed it! As we left our TL spot, I looked down into the water saw lots of fish. So many, we almost decided to take some time to catch fresh fish for dinner, almost…

We paddled on toward the mouth of the river stopping a couple of times to gather firewood, but only managed to find a little. It is really, really barren here, only small pockets of scrubby little bushes. We reached the mouth of the river after navigating a maze of little islands. We stopped on one point to look for a campsite but the place was a pit, lots of garbage, from used diapers to caribou skeletons. Yuck. We moved on.

We finally made camp on the southern shore; it was an okay site, but not great. At least there was no garbage and we had just enough of a breeze to keep the bugs away, at least at first. As the evening wore on the wind died and bugs came out in force! They stayed way long enough so some of us could go for a swim. In a word, that water was COLD!!!

Later I went fishing, but for some reason I could not buy a bite. All I could manage was one follow, and even that fish was small.

We cooked up lasagna for dinner and baked a chocolate cake for desert. The wind completely died after dinner, and the mosquitoes were absolutely horrid!

We have about 30 miles to the Bay. Judging by the map, I bet we would do it all tomorrow with the current we are likely to have, but what would be the point? I would like to take two days to paddle the distance as another night to fish would be nice and I also don’t want to get too bored waiting around in Eskimo Point.

We are already planning to cook for TL tomorrow, so that is probably a pretty good indication that we will not paddle all the way to the Bay. I think it would be nice to paddle at least 15 miles before TL then just set up camp at the TL site.

The trip is really getting close to the end now. Not too soon for some on the trip as the conditions have taken their toll. I myself feel a lot better today and my body is acting as though it is getting better. But for some of the other guys, conditions are deteriorating and they are pretty uncomfortable. They will make it another 3 days though.

Today was the 26th day we have not seen any other people.

Day 42

Woke to a bright, crystal clear day. The only clouds in the sky were to the east and were either dissipating or moving further to the east. It was still early, but the nice conditions made it easy, or at least easier to get out of the sleeping bags. The weather was so nice that I packed my raingear right from the start of the day!

We had river paddling today so we put the whitewater skirts on the canoes. With a big meal planned for TL we just had granola with a little dried fruit and milk powder for breakfast. Oh boy, that combination gave me some serious gas today! Ha-Ha!!

The river this morning was mostly fast current with a few sections of fairly easy rapids that did not even require scouting prior to being run. We did scout one rapid that looked to be a little more technical but we did run it. When we came to a large rapid formed by large outcroppings of rock constricting the water we decided to make camp. It was a great location. The big rapid was consisted of a huge slick of water flowing over a large, sloping, flat layer of rock. The water was so smooth and clear you could see the big flat rock under the surface. The water gained a lot of speed sliding down this “rock slide” and then formed a bunch of big surface hydraulics as the speeding water got going to fast for itself. If the water had been warm, it would have been easily runable as the there was no danger in the rapid itself. No rocks sticking up, no dangerous hydraulics. If you dumped, there was nothing to hold you. But dumping your canoe in this frigid water provided its own danger.

The other real attraction to this location was the great flat rock along side the rapid. It was level, with great spots to set up a cooking fire and just to lounge about and watch the river roar by. There were even “steps” in the rock down to the water’s edge which made for gathering water to cook and clean a snap! Down below the rapid there was even a great swimming hole, but the water was far too cold to really enjoy being in it even on this gloriously sunny day. But we did take a quick dunk in the water and the bright sun heated the rock up nicely so once you emerged from you frigid swim you could sprawl out on the warm rock.

We cooked a big batch of potato pancakes for TL. We filled the big pot of batter and filled the second largest pot with batter to between the 2/3 and 3/4 mark! It was all you could eat and more! We were cooking and eating pancakes all afternoon!

During the afternoon I did a little fishing, catching a couple of grayling and one 4lb lake trout. It was reported that the fishing was great on this river, but that is sure not what we’ve found as compared to the rest of the trip. But then again, the trip logs said we were not going to be facing any portaging on the Maguse River either! Overall, the fishing has been a bit of a let down for me. I just did not get the opportunities to fish that I thought I would. But on a trip like this, I guess I can’t be surprised at that. I will say this though, if I were ever to come back, I’d have to bring a fly rod with me too!

For the majority of the day, the group just lounged about on the huge flat rocks next to the water. It was a lazy and fantastic afternoon with a warm sun and just enough breeze to keep the bugs away. Even after the obscene number of pancakes eaten this afternoon, we were still hungry for dinner. Dinner started with the lake trout I caught earlier as an appetizer and seasoned it with dill, ground mustard and lemon. It tasted really good, the first fresh food we’ve had in a while. Then we cooked up a big batch of brown rice. Greg and I added some green beans, chicken chunks, bacon bits and butter to ours. It was really good. Well, it is trail food after all! Then for desert Chris made a no-bake cheesecake that turned out well and was also really good! We ate like kings!

Tomorrow we should reach Hudson Bay. Dave thinks it is only about 15 miles away. We are all thinking about the Bay and how close we are to the end of our trip. We have been out here for 6 weeks, traveled nearly 700 miles and dropped more than 1200 vertical feet in elevation. We have 30 miles left to Eskimo Point and 100 vertical feet.

I am ready to get off the trail, but I already know I will miss being out here a lot. I’m so glad I was given the opportunity to take this trip. I have seen and experienced things I probably will never do so again.

We saw an Inukshuk today and also a whole bunch of ground squirrels were running around on the rock where we camped as we approached. But they made themselves pretty scarce once we set up camp! We also saw some snow geese today.

Today was the 27th day in total, 18th day in a row that we have not seen any other people.

Day 43

Woke early feeling pretty tired. A little too much fun in the sun maybe?! We spent our last bit of time on this great rock by the rapids cooking up hash browns for breakfast. Then it was back in the canoes and on to Hudson Bay. We had a nice current helping us along and we shot some nice easy rapids too.

There was one lake between us and the Bay and it did not take long to reach it this morning. We must have been a little closer to the Bay than we thought as we know it is not far to the Bay after this last lake. As we paddled across the lake we were speculating on how big the rapids would be as we figured we were still well above sea level. As it turned out, the rapids were small than those we shot this morning.

Immediately after the rapids, two boats went by upstream. The first people we’ve seen in a long time. Does this mean the Bay is currently at high tide? We paddled a little further then stopped for TL. We were right on the edge of the Bay, we could see it, and we sensed that maybe the tide was in fact going out. But we decided to keep going after TL anyway. As we pulled away from our TL spot, one of the boats that passed us going the other direction came back downstream and stopped. It was an Inuit man with his wife and child. He had a pretty nice boat with a water-jet engine. He told us Eskimo Point was 9 miles away as the crow flies, about 15 miles by water. We talked with him a bit longer and then we continued on our way.

As we continued down the river into the bay, we had paddled about another two, or three miles when we decided to stop as we were not getting any closer to open water! The tide was definitely going out! So we pulled off to the side and let the water drain out from under the canoes. We were high and dry on the rocks in moments.

It was a nice day on the Bay: sunny, a light breeze, comfortable temperatures. We had reached the Bay and the group was happy and relaxed. We just hung out in the canoes on the rocks, all four boats relatively close, so that conversation was easy. This was actually the first time the entire group had just sat talked for any length of time since the start of the trip. I think every possible conversation topic came up. And we made a pretty good raid on the food packs too. Well, at least on the deserts! There was cake batter, brownie batter, and of course various puddings. We had filled up all of our water bottles and even a couple of water bladders with fresh water before paddling out onto the Bay so we had plenty of water. We had also gathered up a bunch of firewood too.

It was a great afternoon, one of the best of the entire trip I think. We were beached on the rocks in the vast boulder-field for about 4 hours when we noticed that the water level seemed to be rising again. Within 30 minutes the water had risen enough that the canoes floated off the rocks and a dry boulder-field had become easily paddleable water. In these next two pictures, the time lapse between them is about 5 minutes.

As we prepared to get underway, the boat with the family of three that stopped by earlier was coming down the river and stopped by once again to talk with us. He directed us to where there was fresh water between the river and Eskimo Point. He also said if we needed help or information when we get to the Point to call him and gave us his number: 2906. He also offered to us his shower in his home! You cannot measure such hospitality to offer the shower in your home to 8 grungy guys who’ve been out in the wilds of northern Canada for over 6 weeks without bathing! We sincerely offered our thanks for his help and hospitality, knowing full well that we would not impose upon him despite his sincere, and most generous offer.

We paddled a little further on the Bay but the day was growing long with the afternoon paddling hours having been consumed waiting for the tide to come in. We stopped at the abandoned settlement of Maguse River that, you guessed it, is not far at all from the mouth of the Maguse River itself! Maguse River is even smaller than what Paddlei was and neither of the structures left here are even remotely inhabitable. The salt air has clearly taken its toll on the metal barrels and other items here. There is also an old wooden fishing boat that is beached on the rocky shore, clearly having not been seaworthy for a long, long time. The old boat was big, probably 40 feet in length with a large front deck with a hatch to the vast hold where the day’s catch would be loaded.

The tide was still rising as we put to shore at Maguse River. The salty air on the Bay is quite a shock to the nose after 6 weeks breathing the pristine air inland. It’ll take a little bit of getting used to I’m sure! Tomorrow morning we will try to be ready to paddle early in order to take advantage of as much water as possible during the high tide. We are planning to be in Eskimo Point before TL. From our campsite here at Maguse River, we can see the lights of Eskimo Point in the distance to the south. It seems so close. There it is, on the horizon, the beacon of the end of our trip.

This is our last true night on the trail. I am lulled to sleep by the sound of the waves from the Bay and the call of common and red-throated loons.