Nahanni: The Canyons

THE CANYONS JOURNAL ENTRIES

Thursday July 15, 2004

Up at 715. Breakfast is oatmeal, which is a bit too sweet but does fill the gizzard. Pack up camp. Ferry canoes down-river a few hundred meters. K and I carry the canoes – ok but some serious sweating here. There is one furniture cart, which is very useful in hauling gear. By noon all gear is below the falls, and we’re getting ready to load the canoes and raft. Putting spray decks on takes a while. Leave at about 1315. Cool below falls but a fair bit of smoke and it is a very hot day. First stretch is Canyon 4 – some water with waves, but nothing serious. We have nearly full spray decks on, although M and K both leave sections open at the rear of the craft. I am swaddled in the front of my Explorer with spray deck cloth.

Later on we go through Figure 8 Rapids, where the main river channel goes straight into a wall. A sharp left turn is a desirable thing for those wishing not to hit the wall. There is a whirlpool to the left (clockwise) and a counter-clockwise eddy on the right, which leads to nowhere in particular. M is very proud of our negotiation of this rapid. We come off the wall at the left, into the standing waves on their left side, then a heavy-duty back-paddle to get out of the standing waves, and we slide through the whirlpool with no trouble. J runs first in the raft and rides the standing waves for a bit, then rows out of them into the left eddy. K goes next and we’re no far behind. M says we did it perfectly; no water in the canoe. We find out later that the Germans in the catamaran inflatable canoes hit the wall at this rapid, but unfortunately were not drowned. Later on there is another whirlpool that pulls us left but there are no problems. A very hot afternoon.

There is smoke from the hillside to the river’s right at Figure 8 rapids, but no flames. There is smoke throughout the day but visibility is still several miles. We pull over at about 1700 on a gravel bar island on river left, a little upstream of where the Flat River flows into the South Nahanni. This is Camp 11, 20.7 km below Virginia Falls, at GPS 61 33 35 and 125 24 18. Falls are at 61 3 35 and 125 45 25.

It’s a hot evening; everyone has a bath in the river and washes some clothes. All members of the party are a bit stiff from the portaging, especially M, who lumbers about on two wooden legs. Supper is freeze-dried lasagne and dried fruit (apricots and cranberries). We burn some garbage on J’s garbage can lid. Everyone retires a bit early, but it was a good day. The river is showing us its many faces. K spots a grizzly bear at about 2100 at the north end of the island we’re on, which is about 1 km long. But it wanders off, crosses a river channel, and we have no further sightings of the beast. In hindsight, this turns out to be the only bear we see on the whole trip. This is not a bad thing, although it would have been nice to see some other bears. Bears are best viewed at some distance…. Seems like our days of having the river to ourselves are ended; we will be leap-frogging other river parties the rest of the way.

Friday July 16, 2004

Cool morning but blue skies. Sun does not show over mountains until about 900. It will be another hot day. Fair bit of smoke down river but no more than in previous few days. M makes pancakes and sausages for breakfast and again does a fine job of it. Perhaps out aging muscles need a bit of protein to replace the stuff abused by portaging. A leisurely morning; we’re packing at 930 and underway at 1030.

Reach Hell’s Gate and the Pulpit, part of 3rd Canyon, part of about 17 km of canyons with mostly sheer rock walls on either side. At Hell’s Gate we pull over beside a group from Nahanni River Adventures – 3 big grey rafts, an inflatable Zodiac canoe, plus a big (17 or 18 ft) red canoe. At least 10 people in the group. 1330-1530 – hike up to rock overhanging Pulpit – quite a view! The mega-group also hikes up to the same vantage point, and there is a well-used trail. Apparently we are not the first humans on this river.

Float through more of the canyon later in the afternoon. With the volume of the river and the rock walls, we might expect to be roaring through one rapid after another, but most of it is quite tame, and there is plenty of time to stare up at the cathedral spires along the way. There is some current, though, as we are often clocking 10km/hour or more, based on M’s GPS, and up to 16km/hour.

We pull over on an island not too far down river, at about 1630. It’s hot but a rinse in the river and wet clothes make it tolerable. The big group we ran into at Hell’s Gate passes us on the water, and later (1800 or so) the Germans pass us in their two inflatable canoes strapped together by poles and rope. The Germans do not believe in life-jackets, apparently, and seem to have a general aversion to clothing excluding Speedo swimsuits.

Camp 12 is at GPS location 61 23 33 and 124 57 26. A look at the map tells us that we have covered many miles since the first day where the river was still in its diapers. M says we are now 295 km in a straight line from Moose Ponds and 115 km from Blackstone, where our vehicle waits silently. If we’re 295 km from Moose Ponds by raven’s flight (crows are scarce in these parts), then we’ve surely covered much more with the river’s bends and twists. It is a unique way to know this landscape… I’ve seen much of it from above, by small plan and helicopter, but seeing it all from the water’s surface, with few sounds other than paddle splashes and the unique groaning of Morack’s gerbil oar motion is special.

Supper at 1845 is freeze-dried pasta primavera, and not bad. Wind picks up in the evening, so we need to make sure our tents are tied down well. M and J retire early… Lots of rowing on a hot day for J and M’s intestines are apparently moving things along more quickly than desirable. Have a nice evening sitting on a flat-topped table rock, periodic entertainment is provided by a couple of horse flies with a fondness for my legs. Eventually they go up to the great beyond, little mourned by us. A nice chilled bottle of wine would have enriched the evening, of course, and some sweet young things with good hands would have put us all in heaven.

Saturday July 17, 2004

Up at 715 or so. Slow morning. Two pots of coffee. A two-cup morning, except for those peculiar souls who don’t drink coffee. Cool, breezy. Packing up at about 930. Off on the water at 1010.

Lots of canyon scenery today. We’re traveling through 3rd canyon. A bit downstream from our camp, we pass the big Nahanni River Adventures crew (3 rafts, 2 canoes), then the Germans dressed by Speedo and catamaran.

Lunch 1300-1350, underway, served by Captain Gerbil. Stiff headwind and hot; much work for the gerbil. Paddle on through afternoon to Prairie Creek, which has many small channels into the main river. A crew with 5 red canoes is camped there; we paddle on to Dry Canyon Creek and camp on a sand/gravel bar on the river left side. Pull over at about 1630. It’s very windy so all the tents have to be tied down with large rocks.

Starts to rain at about 1900 and we get a thunder-lightning display for some time, along with the rain. Camp 13 is at 61 15 5 and 124 24 41(that’s all in degrees, minutes, seconds). 49.5 km covered on river today. We have about 4 days of paddling left to Blackstone, and the next target for stopping is Kraus Hot Springs, which is about 30 km down river. Possible plan for tomorrow is a hike up Dry Canyon Creek tomorrow.

Hide in tent at about 2015. Rain coming down heavy. One lightning strike at about 2030, as the thunderclap would have roused a dead man. Rains stops by about 2100. Get a visit at about 2130 from Henry (somebody) – a guide with the 10-man, 5-canoe group camped at Prairie Creek, just up-river from us. He’s scouting a hike up Dry Canyon Creek, and borrows my canoe with a partner to cross water just down-stream of our camp. Poor sleep, for some unknown reason.

Sunday July 18, 2004

Up at 730. Slow morning, with 2 pots of coffee again. Careful analysis has revealed that we have enough coffee to have 2 pots every morning now.

J, K and I hike up Dry Canyon Creek from about 1110 to 1630. Maybe 10-12 km uphill. Not much water in this creek, although it’s clear that at times there is some serious water moving through this dry creek-bed. The guide-book that M has (which he says is never wrong) mentions that there is a hazard of flash flooding in the creek. But not today. There is some sheep sign along the creek-bed – fecals and occasional tracks – but otherwise not much wildlife sign. Lots of interesting rocks along the way. None of us knows much geology, unfortunately. Great views of rock-faces along the way. Near our point of turning around, we run into a few of the 5-canoe tour group camped at Prairie Creek. Back to camp at about 1700.

The Germans come over to visit for a bit in the evening. They are retired and spend much of their time traveling. Must be wealthy as they have a Mercedes equivalent of the Hummer, but bigger. As the Hummer sells for something like $80,000, these folks are clearly not worried about the monthly utility bills. They have canoed lots of North American rivers, including the Hess, and several that J and K have done. The two men flew in to Moose Ponds from Whitehorse, and the leader’s wife joined them at Moore’s Hot Springs. These folks are looking for a ride from Ft. Simpson to Whitehorse. For us it would be nearly impossible to accommodate these 3 and their gear… as it turns out later, our German friends are a bit cheap and will approach us a few more times about a ride back to Whitehorse. The 5-canoe group leaves from near our camp at about 1740, and the 3 raft, 2 canoe group goes by at about 1755. The Germans are camped just up-river from us. A little of the wilderness atmosphere has been lost, downstream of the Falls.

Evening – supper is macaroni and tuna, not bad. Fills ya up, as they say. K’s hernia bothering him some. Clouds gather 2000-2030, and rain starts at 2100. Rains pretty hard for about an hour. More rain in the middle of the night, and cools things down a bit. Bed at 2100 to get out of the rain. This is camp 14, same location as Camp 13. My tent has one small leak, on the seam of a plastic window in the fly… and in a heavy rain, this drips at a slow, steady rate. Fortunately it does not drip enough to disturb my slumbers.