The Rae River - Chapter 3 ( The Rivers )

( This is just my rough memory of the river at the moment and am sure will get more detailed info from Dave when he has reviewed the map and notes we made on the trip )

Hooper Creek

As I mentioned previously we didn't land quite where we had planned. In order to get to the south branch of the Rae ( thus far unnamed and now known as The LaPlante ) we had to travel approximately 3 miles along a very fine little tributary which my good friend Dave named 'Hooper Creek'. Gene was later to describe this as a 'problematic navigation'.

This involved about 600m of portage (more on portages later...) and then a tricky combination of pushing, pulling and paddling when the width and depth of the creek allowed ! It was a creek of tricks since we would no sooner arrive at a widening and opening of the river then round the next bend it would narrow to an impassibility once again. I must confess it was not a grand or distinguished beginning to our trip but it was certainly fun ! - and that's what happens when you get dropped off by a floatplane in the middle of no-where !

I can say however with a reasonable amount of certainty that Dave & I made the first descent of Hooper Creek ! ( Quite possible the last for some time also...)

The LaPlante

This is a great little river and it was only a shame we didn't get to paddle as much of the upper section as originally planned. We camped at the confluence of The LaPlante and Hooper Creek which was a beautiful campsite.

The whitewater on this river was great. Some fun little grade 1 rapids, several long technical boulder gardens of grade 2's, some with grade 3 drops at the end. Also on this river was the stunning Damiens' Falls ( named after the biologist and friend of Dave & Mark in Yellowknife who is also a huge fan of John Rae and incidentally Winston Churchill too ). Damiens' Falls ( see below ) was probably a grade 5 on river right and grade 4 on river left, both very technical routes. In a kayak, I dare say that they are perfectly runnable and perhaps even to a skilled canoeist. But 100s of miles from anywhere and where a damaged canoe would cost you a $10,000 float plane home, the only line we were talking was the one on the banking !

'Smell a whisky' falls was the only place on the river where unfortunately Mark & Gene took a swim. A long and very technical boulder garden ended with a grade 3 drop with a large boulder at the bottom...oooops... The name is what Dave & I came up with by merging their two surnames - Scmealawitz ( spelling ? ) and Choresteki ( spelling ) and incidentally was the original inspiration for the song I've written about the trip - 'Just the Rae '- more about that later...

I spotted the unfortunate fate of our paddling companions just as we were approaching the aforementioned rock. I have to admit that my concentration was broken for a moment and when my brain finally connected with the 'left ! left ! the other left !' instructions that Dave was frantically yelling to me I eventually made the cross deck draw that was so badly needed and we managed to skirt the right side of the rock to make a successful descent !

It's fair to say that Gene & Mark took a little longer to hit their 'paddling stride' than Dave & I but when they did, they were looking great.

The Rae

Reaching the River Rae was a special moment. This was the actually river named after the great explorer and for Dave one of the big inspirations for this trip. The river widened considerable here and we still had lots more white water in store. Many long stretches ( maybe 1-2km long ) of grade 1 and 2 technical boulder gardens with tricky boulder fans at the end to navigate our way through. No portages were necessary ( except for Un-named Falls where we camped ) on this stretch but we did end up lining some of the more trickier boulder fans.

Hodgkins Canyon ( named after Shaun Hodgkins, guide and owner of Wanapitei Canoe - see links ) was stunning as was the Un-named (see below) Falls further towards the end of the river where we camped for two days.

Hopefully this has given you a little taste of what the rivers were like, once I've hooked up with Dave and got his report too I'll be able to give a more accurate report. Stand by the for the next chapter which includes the GRIZZLY BEAR story !

The Rae River - Chapter 2 ( Pre-trip Planning, Gear & Food )

Pre-trip Planning

As you may know from previous posts, much of the river we paddled was relatively unknown. Much of Dave's interest in this river was about John Rae himself, the Artic explorer [ more about him later ] Whilst not quite bold enough to say we were the first to paddle some of this, we can say that the only account of this area we were able to find was a couple of years ago by the Borealis Team, and they paddled the stretch of the Rae River from Cox lake to the mouth. We paddled approximately 100k ( thats a guess - I have not confirmed this yet...) above this and have not been able to find any reports of this being done previously.

Dave spent a lot of time trying to gain as much information as possible about the unknown area but without much success - other than being able to study the maps ( on which significant falls and some rapids are marked but obviously without grading ) None of the pilots we asked or any of Dave's friends from Yellowknife knew anything about the upper section of the Rae or its south branch ( now named La Plante ). Water levels were unknown and we couldn't be sure even if there would be any ice in this area.
Mark registered our trip with the RCMP in Kugluktuk and Air Tindi were also aware of our trip schedule with emergency contact details for us all.

Dave & Mark were definites on the trip from the start and Dave posted on the MYCCR webpage advertising for other paddlers to join them. Originally he had intended an ideal number of 6 paddlers, in 3 boats, but found that only Gene & I 'applied'.

Gear

Yep, we had a lot of it... two barrels and one (approx 80 litre ) dry bag full of food, a 'wanagan' ( box full of cooking utensils and some food ), a tundra tarp ( communal tent for cooking and getting away from bugs - a life saver ! ), appox 100 litre dry bag each for personal kit and a day bag each + fishing gear, a table, 2 fuel cans & pelican box with emergency gear in.

Canoes

Dave and Mark both own 'Pakboats' ( Canoe in a bag - yep thats an entire canoe in there ! )and were very generous in allowing Gene and I to use these without any 'hire' charge to ourselves. I found that this added to the excitement and after our first night in the 'bog', after a stunning breakfast of eggs Benedict, putting the canoes together was our first job. I believe that a skilled and practiced canoeist should be able to put these together in about 1/2 hour ! We took a little longer, perhaps due to my frequent breaks of running around batting away mosquitoes...

Pak boats loaded and covered with spray skirts, ready to go.

Emergency

In addition to the SPOT device we also had hired a satellite phone and Dave had brought is PLD, along with a plentiful supply of spare batteries for all of them.

SPOT

A spot device is a relatively new device, readily available now for ( when I last looked - $100 plus a yearly registration fee ) It allows you to send GPS co-ordinates along with a standard 'I'm OK' message to pre-determined email addresses or mobile phone numbers. It also has one option for a personal message - ours in this case was ' OK but wind bound ' and finally a SOS message. If you wish it also has a tracking facility which you can activate but this requires the GPS to be on all the time. For more information check out the link i n my 'relevant links' section of the blog.

SAT PHONE

Sat phones are easy to hire and is a standard piece of emergency equipment for such remote northern trips.

PLD ( Personal Locator Device ? )

I'm still not too sure about this and how it differs from SPOT...more research needed.

Bear protection

Here I am, enjoying a 'down day' at the 'Un-named Falls'. Bear protection from left to right - pepper spray, horn ( to alert my camp mates of the presence of a bear ) and loaded bear banger. After the 'curious incident of the sleeping bear on the hike time' - see chapters to follow, I took them everywhere with me. I've got to admit that whilst I enjoyed every minute of the trip, there has been a certain relief in the last 24hours at being able to go to the toilet without first digging a hole, whilst remaining vigilant for bears and being eaten alive by mosquitoes during the whole procedure!

Food

There was a lot of that too !

Now, for any of you who think that camping food is pasta'n'sauce, macaroni cheese and stag chilli - guess again. Thanks to Dave & Marks shopping and preparation this was gourmet at its best ! Dave spent about 3 weeks of his spare time ( and some of his not so spare time ) preparing the meals for our trip.

To give you some idea of the cuisine...muskox steak, seafood chowder, thanksgiving pie ( sheperds pie with turkey ), fresh baked quiche, beef strogonof, eggs Benedict, pancakes and maple syrup, bacon & eggs, strawberry crepes, apple crisp bake, creme caramel, key lime pie and on I could go. Honestly it was all delicious and down to Dave's hard work, so thanks again !

Now, the star of the show has to be freshly caught artic char, cooked on a bed of fresh vegetables ( on day 14 of the trip that was pretty good going ) with a mango sauce on top. It was delicious and I have photos of the three stages of preparation below...

1. Displaying the artic char caught by Mark & Dave ( it's only fair to say that Marks was the bigger one...) [ I did go fishing once and caught a large northern pike - evidence to follow ! ]

2. Having lessons from Mark in how to fillet the fish

3. The master chef at work.

The wonderful quality of the food on this trip added to the whole experience for me and although Gene confessed that he would have preferred the consistency of the key lime pie to be a little thicker ( much to my utter disgruntlement since that was the part I prepared ! ) I think I can speak for Gene, Mark & myself by saying a huge heartfelt thank you to Dave for all of his hard work !

The Rae River - Chapter 1 ( The Team & Getting to the River )

The Team
First of all, let me introduce my paddling companions...

Dave was my paddling partner and right from the start we got along like a house on fire! A vet from NY state and a guitar player in a band in his spare time - ours was the singing canoe ! Dave has many years experience kayaking and canoeing and has also worked as a guide for Wanapitei Canoe. Although this was not a guided trip, Dave did the bulk of the planning for this trip, which included, organising the floatplane, all the food, first aid, repair kits, safety kit etc. ( more on all the kit we took later ) Although we helped out with camp chores it is only fair to say that he did the bulk of the work and organisation and was incredibly generous with his time and experience. Dave - you're a super cool guy, thanks a million for having me along, I certainly couldn't have done it without you !

Mark is also a vet from NY state and has 5 or 6 years of remote northern canoe tripping with Dave. He was also instrumental in helping Dave plan the trip, brought along his canoe and I am very grateful to him also. Mark is a really strong guy, easy going and very fun to be around. Mark was our weather man and wildlife specialist! He gave us weather forecasts every morning and had an ability to 'sense' animals well before we saw them. He was in charge of 'bear patrol' each evening and would give us updates regarding the safety - or otherwise - of our current camp perimeter. Mark - I've really enjoyed your company, you've been super fun, thanks !














Gene is one of the most courteous & charming gentlemen I've ever met. I'm sure he won't mind me telling you that he is 77 years old ! He is a retired urologist, originally from Canada and he now lives in Santa Fe. He has completed somewhere in the region of 15-20 canoe trips in the Canadian North. He has an incredible passion for canoe travel and has a story for just about every river. He is a shining example of how to grow old gracefully and without any loss of enthusiasm. Gene, if I live to your age and have half your energy I'll be a very happy woman. I'm very grateful to have been able to share this journey with you, thanks !

Getting to the River

Now what you have to understand is that my paddling companions, although looking forward to our river journey, were pretty old hands when it came to flying out to rivers and landing in the middle of no-where. I, on the other hand, was like a small child on Christmas Eve, I was so so excited ! I couldn't sit still for a moment in the Air Tindi waiting room, checking on every plane arriving (- is this one ours ? )and bouncing around the place. When our plane finally arrived and Trevor the pilot came into the waiting room I was beside myself.

The controller of Air Tindi pointed out on the map to Trevor where we were heading to which the pilot replied ' that's not on my map ! '- I just about squeeled with excitement, oh my goodness, we're off his map !!!!

On account of it being my first trip in a float plane - I was allowed to sit in the co-pilots seat, yipee !

The flight was incredible. We flew for about 3 hours, above the Artic Circle and saw nothing but thousands of small lakes and rivers. It was unbelievable.

We weren't able to land on the lake we had originally planned, as it was too shallow. We spotted a couple of other possibilities but they were too 'glassy' [ if the water is glassy then it is difficult for the pilot to judge where the top of the water is, apparently they sometimes throw apples out the window to create ripples ]

We finally found a suitable lake and Trevor was able to land safely although it was somewhat of a boggy landing zone !

Then came the moment when the plane flew off and we were left totally on our own. I had been anticipating this moment for months, wondering how I would feel - Scared ? Nervous ? Excited ? Apprehensive ? Lonely ?

Actually I felt none of those things. The truth is that I felt completely at home and totally contented - I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

Safe & Sound in Yellowknife

Hi everyone !

Well we made it and what an adventure its been!

The journey has been everything I had hoped for and more - from the excitement of being dropped off by floatplane in the Artic Circle, the 'problematic navigation' of Hoopers Creek, the fun of paddling down the Reinhardt, Smell a Whiskey & Merganser rapids, to the wildlife displays of eagles, wolves, muskox and caribou (& more), the awe of reaching the Artic sea, learning about the history of John Rae and the explorers of his time and the friendliness of the Kugluktuk Inuits it has been an amazing experience - every second of it.

Dad, thanks so much for updating the blog you've done a great job & Adi well done on making it up the Matterhorn, I'm so proud of you!

Have not even had a shower yet ( the bath in the artic sea this morning doesn't count ) so I had better go and get clean. Will post photos and give you more details of the trip tomorrow,

Love to you all
Sarah xxxxxx

PS - did I mention the grizzly bears ? watch this space...

21st July 2010 - Arrived at Kugluktuk

They finished their journey early afternoon today and are camped up the road from the airport waiting for their flight tomorrow. Its a bit like flying BA during the strikes !!! They are scheduled to leave for Yellowknife at 2-30 pm local time on Thursday 22nd July.

Their final SPOT location is:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=67.82853,-115.11363&ll=67.82853,-115.11363&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Its been fun posting the updates but I am only a hired hand - tomorrow you can expect the real deal and lots of stories and photographs.

take care Y'all, Joe

"If you've done it, it ain't braggin"