The Rae River - Chapter 7 "Just The Rae"

I'm going to finish my stories of the Rae with a song that I wrote ( honestly ! ) during the trip. Dave is hopefully going to put it to music for me, but in the meantime you can make up your own tune ! The song was inspired by Gene following the unfortunate swim on Smell a Whisky Falls. Gene was wearing 'normal' clothes in the canoe and was obviously pretty cold quite quickly. Later on that evening we were chatting about the day and questioning Gene about his choice of apparel. ( Sorry Gene for picking on you here but its such a good quote ) Gene replied 'well I didn't bring my front line clothes because I thought - it's just the Rae"...anyways...here it is...

An English girl got a Churchill Grant, signed up for a river with David Plante
She was looking for a wild adventure
Flew up to Yellowknife one day, then on they went to the River Rae
Little did she know what held in store

Chorus
Just the Rae, Just the Rae, Just the Rae, Just the Rae
You know it's just the little ole River Rae
Artic Circle here we come, un-chartered rivers to be run
But what the hell, it's only the River Rae

Now Dave he is the coolest guy, with a beaming smile & a twinkle in his eye
He's a gourmet cook and a crackin' paddler too
Mark - he is the king of faff, but he's really strong and he's a darn good laugh
And Gene is such a charming sweet old guy

Chorus

Hooper Creek was push and pull, down The LaPlante, it was real good fun
We portaged Damiens' Falls along the way
At Merganser rapids we got some luck, then were put to shame by a paddling duck
With Dave & Sarah singing all the way

Chorus

Now the Polish boat didn't think it was risky, until they swam the Smell a Whisky
And Gene didn't have his front line clothes today
The Anglo- French team nailed it, but with some small confusion
And what does left or right mean anyway ?

Chorus

Dave, Mark & Sarah took a hike - Gene stayed at camp, they went out of sight
Pepper spray and bangers in their bags
Big old grizzly was taking a nap, Dave saw him first said 'guys get back'
'Get your bear bangers out lets chase this fella away !

Chorus

Fresh artic char and muskox steak, creme caramel and apple crisp bake
And Gene said he was here to lose some weight
Eggs Benedict and strawberry crepes, pancakes too, now don't be late
For the finest keylime pie in the Artic North

Chorus

Kugluktuk came into sight, it was here we'd spend our final night
Looking over the Coronation Gulf
The sea was calm, the sky was blue, our dreams of the River Rae came true
And now we say farewell to the midnight sun

Chorus

Posting Comments on BLOG

Apparently a few folk have had difficulties posting comments - my Dad has sent the following information...
To post comments on the blog you must first set up a profile. To do this go to the block named "Followers"

Click on "Follow "

this will open up a new window. in that window

click on " create a new google account"

fill in all of the requested details i.e. email address; password; age etc then

Complete the "word verification" then accept the google terms to create an account.

This will open up another window which allows you to either sign in and become a follower with a picture (or just a profile) or sign in private (this just means that you do not post your name in the Followers list. But when you leave a post it will automatically register your email name)

To leave a Comment

Click on "Comments" This will open up the window in which you can write the comment.

When complete select the "Google account " in the "Comment as" drop down window then follow the prompts to sign in.

Click "Post Comment" then complete the "word verification" and that should be it.


To leave future comments you only need to carry out the instructions from where I have written To leave a Comment



PS.
I forgot to mention - to post a comment you must first sign in in the Followers window. Your name will then appear where the word FOLLOWER was.

Also it is sometimes necessary to click on Post Comment twice in order to get the Verification box. Don't for get to sign out (by clicking the drop down arrow next to your name).

The Rae River - Chapter 6 ( John Rae, The Coronation Gulf & Kugluktuk )

John Rae

If you visit Westminster Abbey you will find a a marble bust of Sir John Franklin on which is inscribed "the discoverer of the North West Passage", and not far away at Waterloo Place you will find a statue which proclaims the same. Also inscribed on the bust is the addition that " here also is commemorated Admiral Sir Leopold McClintock (discoverer of the fate of Franklin in 1859 "

I have learnt a lot in the past few weeks about the quest for the North West passage, the search for Franklin and the Artic journeys that took place in the early- mid 19th century, both from my paddling companions and also the book 'Fatal Passage' by Ken McGoogan - a gripping read. Incidentally, Sir John Barrow ( the Hoad in Ulverston is a monument to him ) was a leading figure in the 1840's who were obsessive in pushing the drive for the NW Passage.

The book is definitely worth a read but the short version is that John Rae, born in the rugged Orkney Islands of northern Scotland, in 1854, actually discovered both. He is considered by many to be the greatest Artic explorer of them all. He was the first to afford the local Inuit and Native Americans the respect which they deserved and in contrast to ( I think I can say ) every other explorer before him ( and many that went after ) adopted their ways of living in order to adapt to the harsh conditions in which they lived. When he returned to England after discovering what had happened to Franklin (and the missing link in the NWP) he told the truth. His investigations ( later proved correct by science ) led him to report that the last remaining survivors had resorted to Cannibalism in order to survive. However, Franklin's wife, one of the most influential people in this era was not about to have her husbands name tainted and with the help of Charles Dickins set about a campaign of denial and vilification against John Rae.

The book tells the story much better than I can and definitely worth a read.

The Coronation Gulf





















You may recognise the above figure - an 'Inukshuk' - since it was the symbol of the Olympic Games in Vancouver. The original Inukshuk are figures of stone erected by Inuit and are unique to the Canadian Artic. In some places the traditional meaning was to act as compass or guide for safe passage. Today they have been adopted as symbols for such things as leadership, friendship, safety & nourishment, trust & reassurance.
The Inukshuk historically guided people over frozen tundra and gave them hope in barren places to handle the difficulties they encountered.
"May the Inukshuk be your guide for a safe journey throughout life's travels
May it always guide you home"

Kugluktuk

Kugluktuk is the small Inuit hamlet on the Coronation Gulf and where we finished our trip. Formerly known as Coppermine, it was renamed Kugluktuk when the area of the North West Territories - now Nunuvat - was handed back to the Inuit people. Kugluktuk means 'place of the falls' - after Bloody Falls on the Coppermine River.
















Now Kugluktuk has got its fair share of problems, but what it can't be faulted for is the incredible friendliness of the locals who live there. Everyone who passed our campsite came to say hello - word of our arrival had gotten around because canoeists don't generally come in from the West. [ The Coppermine River east of Kugluktuk is a very popular river though ] The two older boys on the left were avid fishermen and were out hoping to catch Artic Char. There was a local fishing Derby coming up at the weekend with a prize of $1500 - when Dave asked what they would spend the money on they replied without hesitation 'fishing hooks !'
The three cheeky looking chaps on the right - Tyson, Danzel & Kevin - came down to the beach to investigate our campsite. After answering a few hundred of their questions we skimmed stones for a while ( kyak, kyak ) and I taught them to play giants, wizards an dwarfs - they loved this game and we tried to come up with a Inuit version involving Grizzly bears, Caribou , Muskox etc. but since the Grizzly clearly wasn't defeated by anything we gave up.

The Rae River - Chapter 5 ( Portages & Flowers )

Portages -

Portages spoil a good canoe journey. There is no fun to be had in lugging heaving gear in the rain or heat with mosquitoes bugging you along the way. No sooner have you begun to enjoy the river then you had to unload everything again and carry your stuff for 100s ( sometimes 1000s) of meters across rocky boggy ground. They are a pain in the proverbial and not to be planned into any canoe trip or encouraged in any way.

OR

Portages are an exciting part of a journey across a land full of lakes and rivers. They make exploring remote areas possible. They are an opportunity to stretch your legs and work some different muscles. They open your eyes to the beautiful wildflowers which cover the barren lands. They are sometimes hard & challenging but when it's over you look back and feel good.

Like most things, your attitude determines which it is...I hope you enjoy a few of the flowers I saw along the way...

























































At some point I'll get around to looking all of these up and finding out what they are called

The Rae River - Chapter 4 ( The Wildlife )

The Wildlife

The wildlife we saw was incredible and at times I felt as though I was at home watching a wildlife documentary. There are a few reasons why we may have been so lucky - traveling in a small group meant that we could stop and investigate where we wanted without having to push on to a schedule, it may have been the remoteness of the area and lack of people who travel this way meant that we saw the things we did, or we could have just been lucky. Whatever the reason, it was wonderful... ( Daves' wildlife photos are far better than mine but these will have to do for now ! )
Little mountain squirrels ( or siksiks ) are cute little creatures that pop up out of their holes to
watch us paddle by. They are also known as 'bear snacks' and we found lots of evidence of grizzlies having dug up their colonies.












We saw lots of birds - bald eagles ( above )and gyr falcons ( above ) as well as golden eagles and peregrine falcons. One day we saw nature in action, straight out of national geographic - we were so mesmorised that we don't have photos unfortunately. We were watching a golden eagle soaring and circling high above and stopped paddling, quite close to shore to see what happened next. Before long the eagle made a vertical dive down towards a family of geese with several goslings. Much flapping of wings and squawks of distress ensued and we were left with the eagle landed on the banking - looking quite pleased with himself and a ( seemingly ) dead gosling which had not quite made it to the river. Within seconds a raven came from no-where, almost dive bombed the eagle and led him high up into the clouds. We watched these two for 5 or 10 minutes while the raven tormented the eagle in a display that the snowbirds would have been proud of. Meanwhile, the little gosling ( who we now realised had only been playing dead ) toddled off to catch up with the rest of his family. We were totally stunned. Was the raven a buddy of the geese? Was the raven angry with the eagle for a previous mis-demeanour ? Or did he go after the eagle just because he could ? Perhaps we'll never know...























The ptarmigans allowed us to get really close, I was only a few feet away from the one on the left (above )















We saw dozens of caribou on our trip and when we started meeting local Inuits it was one of the first things they asked us about. The caribou in our area is know as the Bluenose East herd. They have been the subject of much research and controversy lately as the numbers have dropped dramatically in the north and in some areas a hunting ban has been put in place. There are many theories as to why the numbers have dropped but feeling I got from folk I chatted to was that at the moment no-one is really sure as to the reason ( or reasons ) why and more research is needed.




















We saw several wolves but only one pair and a small herd of muskoxen. We were able to stop and watch the creatures for as long as we wanted. They were as curious of us as we were of them - after all they had probably not seen people before !

And now let me introduce, Mr G R Izzly...


































OK, so we saw a great looking grizzly early on in the trip whilst we were paddling. It was really cool, I got an OK photo and with a bit of exageration I could have made a good story, it was at a safe distance and I was happy.
Then we had a day off and decided to go for a hike. Gene stayed at camp and despite his protests of 'I don't think there will be any bother with bears today' we insisted he kept one of the pepper sprays. We had the other one ( which I slept with ) and bangers in our bags. Not more than 500m from camp we sat on the top of a rock outcrop and chatted away, looking through our binoculars and enjoying the sunshine. After 10 minutes or so we continued on our walk and after no more than a minutes walking Dave said ' guys back up there's a bear'. There was no doubt in my mind from his tone that he wasn't joking. 'Where ? where ? I said as backing up 'I can't see it' - 'you nearly frickin stood on him' was his reply. [ I should point out that this does not need any amount of exageration to make a good story ] Oh my goodness, then I saw him - asleep on the rocks ! We spied our escape route, loaded our bangers, all in hushed tones and then I have no shame in telling you that I retreated to a distance which put two good meals ( see photo above ) between me and the bear. At this point I assumed that we would be leaving the 'sleeping bear to lie' and retreating without waking him but his proximity to our camp ( 500m ) and the fact we were staying their that night meant that Dave & Marks theory ( they are vets ) was to scare him away. So Dave set off a 'screamer' - sounds like a firework. That only succeeded in waking him up - Oh my goodness, I am thinking, now we have a grumpy bear ! There followed a short discussion between my two companions ( something about throwing a rock versus setting another banger off ) before Dave set off another banger - which sounded like a gunshot and scared the bear away.
But it wasn't over yet !
As we watched the bear run away we notice two other animals - and one of them was Gene ! A wolf was running away from Gene { who had set off for a hike by himself ! ) and the bear was running towards him ! Thankfully Gene came to some large boulders and decided to turn back whilst the bear ran round the back of the boulders - phew !
When we eventually made it back to camp Gene was blissfully unaware of his near miss and was feeling clean and refreshed after having just enjoyed a rather nice bath in the river !

Remember - Take bears seriously and always have protection at hand !

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"

Progress for Tuesday 20th July

They are on the move again, paddling from the Rae River into Coronation Bay. Distance travelled today was about 9 miles leaving them about 5 more miles to reach their destination.
Their SPOT location is

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=67.86773,-115.2257&ll=67.86773,-115.2257&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

I am sure they are looking forward to their flight back to Yellowknife on Thursday.

Joe

Never ask a man if he's from Texas. If he is, he'll tell you on his own. If he ain't, well, there's no need to embarass him.

Have a good day y'all.

Progress for Monday 19th July

They have remained at Sunday night's campsite for a second night. The SPOT location is again

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=67.89354,-115.46154&ll=67.89354,-115.46154&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

I am looking forward to hearing Sarah's tales and seeing the photographs when she eventually gets back online. I am also looking forward to seeing Adrian's photographs from Sunday. Great effort Adrian - congratulations.

Joe