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94-07-01: Friday: Day 1: fly in, 32k paddled, Portages 1,2 We were up at 6 am, waking to a cloudy day. We drove to Athabasca Airways. While Keith and I loaded up the plane, Sandy and Judy did the car shuttle to Nemeiben.
Loading everything, including canoes into the Twin Otter We finally took off at about 7:45, and had a 45 minute flight. Keith and I spent the whole trip with our faces plastered to the windows, trying to locate ourselves, and to pre-scout the rapids as much as possible. We landed at southern most part of the Foster lakes. En route we had some discussions about making the trip shorter (because of Sandy's work commitment in 10 days), but Warren and Keith were desperate to paddle the whole thing so nothing was changed. The plane landed, and backed up to a small open area on one bank. The water level was quite high, with most of the bushes along the edges in a foot of water.
The isolation sinks in when the plane leaves you all alone. We loaded up canoes, paddled out from the shore and drifted downstream while eating a snack for breakfast. It became more obvious that the whole river was in flood. Later we heard that it hadn't been bigger in last 5-10 years. We approached Fraser rapids, and discovered that the portage trail was very near top of rapids. As we paddled into the portage, we discovered that we actually paddled 25 feet up the portage trail. The river was is actually flowing through the trees at the beginning of the portage, pushing the canoes up against the small trees along the downstream side of the trail. We had a moment of exitement when it looked like Keith and Judy had missed the portage trail. I tossed a throw rope to them, but it wasn't needed: Keith grabbed onto a bush, and wrestled the canoe back up to the entrance to the portage trail. After scouting the rapid, I ran it solo, with the canoe loaded only with the watertight bags (floatation!). It seemed pretty easy, so Kieth and I ran the other canoe (empty) down as well. We had no problems. We continued downstream and paddled past a small stream tumbling down 30 feet of falls/rapids. Lewis rapids turned out to be easy and shallow. Somehow, we all got confused in the meanders and Keith decided that we were 3 km farther downstream than we really were.thought we were much farther down river. The big pool at bottom of Lewis rapids was pretty identifiable, and our location was once again known to all.
A moose in the swampy meanders. Jones rapids was also easy, fast and shallow. A fun chute before Mackenzie rapids turned out to be a big "S" bend, easy class 3, no real chute at all. So we paddled down top part of Mackenzie rapids and examined from on the water.
Sandy checks out a deserted trapper's cabin. Sandy and I were in the lead, eddy hoping and scouting out the rapid, when we saw moose a mere 30 ft from our canoes. With all the noise from the rapid, it was unable to hear our approach. At this point we were too occupied with clinging on to the branches in an eddy to be able to get the camera out in time. Oh well.. And we were unable to yell back to Keith and Judy to be quiet. Continuing to scout out the rapid from inside the canoes, we decided to run it. It turned out to be a pretty easy class 3 (not 4 as in the guide book. It was made easier at this water level). We continued to paddle down through fastish water to our campsite, just above Portage 3 We set up camp at 6:45 in a nice open area, which was actaully a little close to some swampy stuff, but the perfect campsite is rarely found at the right time of day.
An idyllic campsite. Rarely are they as good as this! Judy did dinner, a marvelous meal with chicken and lime and coriander. It being the first meal of the trip, the chicken was fresh, not dehydrated. We finally went to bed at 11pm. 94-07-02: Saturday: Day 2: 24km paddled, Portages 3,4,5,6,7,8 Keith was the first one up and started the fire. Judy did breakfast (eggs + bacon + toast + coffee). We were paddling by 10:30. I ran the first rapid, about a class 4, solo. We all ran the next one, a class 3. Now we came to a good class 4 with 2 big holes in it. I talked Keith into running it with me. So, with me in the back and Keith in the front, we tried to sneak down river-left. Halfway down, Keith misunderstood my comment, "Okay, down the middle", which was meant to mean straight down the middle of the mini-tongue we were on. Instead, he took it to mean right down the middle of the big rolling waves, holes etc. We ended up charging down really fast (REALLY FAST), accelerating all the way, and taking on a some water. At the bottom, Keith was unable to decide which side of the last small rock (almost hidden in small haystacks) to go on. My quick "Pick a side" comment didn't help, and we slammed into it, breaking off a large part of my "invulnerable" kevlar skid plate. Oh well, consider what would have happened without it. We must have been going 15 km/hour. And it was a very sudden stop. We sheepishly paddled back to the end of the portage trail and went back up to run down with the other canoe. This time, I was in front, Keith in the back, and once again, we tried to sneak down river-left. We started out really well, but I pulled too hard to keep the front end over to river-left and Keith was unable to swing the back in. The current made it worse, and soon we were broadside, going down the river sideways, with a large upstream lean... to my side of the canoe! I held the canoe just barely upright with a strong sculling brace for about 2 seconds... this is a long time when you are screaming down a rapid sideways, still heading for the really big stuff. Then something happened. Either my paddle hit a rock and I lost my grip on it, or both of the packs slid down to the low side of the canoe. We tip. I was looking around, treading water when my shins were rought scraped across a sharp rock in shallow water. At this point I realized that the rapid was very shallow and we were both moving towards hidden rocks quite quickly. A jolt of adrenalin enabled my to swim quickly to the overturned canoe and pull my torso up onto it. That way only my feet dragged over the rocks (the water/rocks did manage to rip open the velco fastners of my Nike sandals). Keith was in the deeper water to my right. As we headed towards the first hole, I pointed to Keith to get away from the canoe, and then pushed it into the hole ahead of me. It spun around once as it popped out the other side. Once again, I climbed up onto it. Keith also grabbed on and we rode it down the rapid. As we approached the bottom of the rapid, as Murphy's Law would have it, the canoe was headed for the only big rock in the middle of the current. As we got close, both Keith and I gave the canoe a big push to make sure it made it past the rock, and then we floated around the other side of the rock. A few more bumps and we came out through the bottom. Floating in the calm water below the rapid, I grabbed the canoe, flipped it up and climbed in. Kieth came in after me and we paddled for the shore. Lady (Keith and Judy's dog) swam out to greet us. Keith changed into warm clothes but Sandy was very anxious to get away from the bugs on the portage trail, so we paddled out into the water and waited for Keith and Judy there. While I was still in soaking wet clothes, my surface fleece was already almost dry. I continued to marvel at this for the next few hours. We ate lunch on the rocks beside a class 6 waterfall. An impressive diagonal ledge with a 10 foot drop, then a 5 foot drop and then lots of other stuff, all in a 20 foot wide canyon.
Looking back at the falls in the canyon. We paddled onto the next rapid, a class 4 which I ran solo. Then the last rapid (a class 2) before 10km of "no campgrounds". This translated to miles of meanders thru semi-swampy land. We found our campsite 1k before Portage 9. Once again, a nice site, once again a little too close to a swampy area. Being close to a swampy area usually means more mosquitos. Sandy did the evening meal, Beef bourgignon. |
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Would love to hear from you: warren.long@shaw.ca Warren & Sandy's home page |
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