Nahanni Canyons

So, the scenery just gets better and better and then once again it is sensory overload. Time to camp and eat and then it's food overload but then it's desert after the four course meal. Better lie down and sleep because Adam will be yelling "Coffee" in another couple of hours... Sara and I were forced to change our 2pm start time to 10am. Life is tough.

Virginia Falls

From the campsite at Virginia Falls we climbed to the summit of Sunblood Mountain for a few of the endless horizon that is the South Nahanni River. From the summit we could also look directly down on Virginia Falls. It did not look that far up but it took awhile. We could see the float planes landing on the river above the falls and get a bit of sense of how far we had paddled and how far we had to go. Like, it was beyond the horizon in both directions. The river was FLAT above the falls but we were about to enter the fun stuff and put on our canoe spray skirts and try to get the canoe and two weeks of food too fly off the end of the 6 foot waves and plunge the bow paddler waist deep into the next wave. Mmmm. My turn in the back.

Glacier Lake

OK. We liked Glacier Lake so much that we had to return. Somewhere down there is our canoe and the Nahanni River. In a couple of days we are supposed to meet up with Adam and the rest of our Nahanni Party to run the wild rapids.

We had some great company on the beach here and some beer and some fish. Fire. More beer. No more fish. Beaver slapping his tail at 2 in the morning. The rocks on this beach are ALL perfect skipping rocks.

That is the Cirque of the Unclimbables just to the right of the big rock. I think the clouds and mist and rain are the usual weather around here. What an awesome spot!

Cirque of the Unclimbables

So, you can see fancy pictures of the Cirque of the Unclimbables just about anywhere, but here is the picture from near the top of the hike up from Glacier Lake. It is kind of steep and fairly easy to lose the trail. Apparantly this year there were less than a dozen people that did the hike. The climber types mostly fly in by heli with a sackful of gear and beer. We did enjoy the morning down by the lake and set out for the Cirque at our usual time of 2pm. Pitched camp at (hmmm) around 7pm. I think Sara almost had words to me on the hike up as we thrashed through over-the-head slide alder. Everything was OK after the tent was set-up, food was eaten and the 6" air mattress was installed into the tent with the down bags. Nice. The following day we were spoilt by perfect weather - one of the two non-rainy days in a month - according to a pair of climbers who had spent the last 30 days in the neighborhood. Sara took some amazing pictures but even I have not seen them. I think they get catalogued and processed and submitted to win photo competition's first.

Glacier Lake

After two days of paddling it was time to start the hike into the Cirque. Starting at our usual 2pm we left our canoe at Brittnell Creek and made our way through the swamps and moose meadows that is sometimes called a trail. There is an occasional strip of flagging tape and once in awhile the trail becomes obvious. I have the GPS co-ordinates of the trail if anyone wants it. We got to the canoes on the edge of Glacier Lake and paddled across to our campsite below the Cirque. Nice to get to camp before 8pm and prior to a spot of rain. It did seem an awfully long way up to the Cirque. It is one of the reknowned areas known to climbers around the world as location of one of the 50 Classic Climbs of North America - the Lotus Flower Tower. Oh well, if the weather looks promising tomorrow we will check it out. Meanwhile, what an awesome campsite and this is pretty remote. Where are we anyhow? "Up North" is the best answer as it is vague enough for this immense landscape.

Flying into Nahanni River

Sara and I flew in from Fort Simpson NWT to Honeymoon Lake. What an amazing flight with a canoe strapped to the struts of a Cessna 185! After two hours of flying we arrived at our destination. In the absolute middle of nowhere. The pilot flew away and we were over 500 kilometers from our destination just past the the confluence of the Liard River. I think it was around 6pm when the plane landed and in early August dusk fell around midnight. We paddled across the lake and down a barely flowing meter wide outlet for about 300 meters until we emerged on the Nahanni River. A nice little ferry out into the current and a lazy draw downstream and we were on our way down river. The river was flowing at a nice clip and the scenery was changing so fast we had to stop and camp to slow down the absorbtion rate.

Nahanni River

In August I was fortunate enough to join a Nahanni river trip with Nahanni Wild. Adam Burrell was our Guide and we had an awesome time. Sara and I enjoyed one week of solitude prior to the Guided trip and hiked into the Cirque of the Unclimbables. We joined up with Adam, George, and Ed for the two weeks of paddling from Rabbitkettle Lake.