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Danes across the barrens
Story and photos By CARL TRAEHOLT
We set out from the southern end of Ivanhoe Lake and followed the upper Dubawnt River for a few days. It is a nice area with lots of good campsites and many birds. We caught a lot of pike during our time on Dubawnt, and managed to get a good deal of grayling where there were rapids.
At Smalltree Lake the river narrows and there are a 10 km stretch with few sets of rapids in class II & III+. They can all be run with scouting from the boats although there are some big waves in some of them. After this section, we followed the Dubawnt for another three miles and put up in a little bay on the northern shore. We soon left the Dubawnt and portaged across an esker. This was the beginning of a series of portages that took us up to Veira Lake, then onto Jost Lake and Firedrake Lake. The first week we were bothered by strong northern winds and already spent a day windbound.
However, on Firedrake we were blessed with brilliant weather and made good progress, caught some nice 6-8 lb. lake trout and found the most wonderful campsites. On one of these we found the inscriptions with small stones from 1975 (I wonder who made it but later on we met a party on the Thelon River which included retired archeologist, Frank Metcalf who had been in the area during the 1970s where a lot of work was done in the Firedrake area. It is highly likely some of the people from that time made it). We seemed to be following an old route probably used by the areas many trappers, as we kept on finding 40 to 60 year old campsites.
At the northern end of Firedrake Lake we ran into a very old trapper's cabin. It was situated at a beautiful spot overlooking the northern bay of Firedrake. A little stream emptied into the lake and I caught a 12 pound pike. A relatively easy portage took us over a ridge and into another little lake. However, the next portage was thick bush literally a stream of basketball size rocks, which made walking with 110 pounds on our backs pretty risky. Instead, we cut across to a forest ridge and followed this to another small lake. We still seemed to be following old trapper routes since a couple of portages were in fact made easier by following small streams. On several of these, logs had been put out as if someone else had dragged boats across shallow parts of the riverbed many years ago. These logs were still there and saved our canoes from a lot of scratches from dragging.
Our final portage for many days took us into Jarvis Lake. The weather was cold and rainy. Sleet came over us and a strong northern wind kept us windbound for a while on an island in the southeastern end of Jarvis Lake. Although the wind did not drop much, we made a move in late afternoon and decided to paddle the whole night in order to put Damant Lake behind us. We had to make about 27 miles per day and were delayed somewhat because of the many portages and days of bad weather. However, Damant Lake was like a mirror the whole night and after a marathon paddle of 33 miles we pulled into camp at the northern end of Damant Lake. At this point we had already entered the Elk River system and we knew that we would have a chance to clock some extra mileage on this river as well as on the Thelon.
Elk River was for most of the way, one of the most scenic and idyllic rivers I have seen. It meanders through the landscape. There are lots of eskers, a few exciting rapids and a pleasant combination of barren land and scattered forest. We saw our first caribou at the end of Damant Lake and trout and grayling became more abundant than pike.
Elk River was a pleasant mix of small lakes and river sections with rapids. We had relatively good weather and came to Granite Falls just above the confluence with the Thelon River. Granite Falls was not really a waterfall but a very steep major rapid which left us with no other choice but to portage. It was a 2 km long portage on the southern bank but fairly easy since the terrain was flat and on solid ground. We chose to spend an extra day at the falls since the area was very scenic and the place was full of berries.
After almost 3 weeks on the "road" we finally we made it onto the Thelon River. Here we had our longest spell of good weather on the whole trip - that is, the following three days were bright and sunny with little or no wind disturbing us. After Jim Lake, the Thelon turns north and picks up speed and except for a eight mile stretch through esker terrain the river was amazingly fast flowing, yet with no rapids at all. We put on a lot of mileage as we paddled 50 miles a day.
However, at Eyeberry Lake the bad weather hit us again and we had to pull into the western shore and sit it out for half a day before we continued in the evening. We had a great experience with a moose cow and a calf crossing the river right in front of us.
Just above the Clarke River confluence the river enters into Thelon Canyon with some considerable rapids. We met the first other canoeists on our trip. They had canoed the Thelon 20 years ago and came back to do it again. Last time they ran the rapids but this time around they claimed the water level was extremely low and some of the ledges suddenly became a sharp drop instead of a standing wave. They had decided to portage the whole stretch until the corner of the canyon. We ran most of it. In fact we could run it in the middle and jam onto the flat rocks in the middle of the river and then drag it over the ledges. We portaged a small section where we couldn't judge whether or not some of the waves were too big for us to go through.
We continued down the Thelon and encountered a small herd of caribou at Grove's Point and met another group of canoeists at the end of the Gap. Among this group was Frank Metcalf, who told us a lot of interesting archeological stories from the area. We met up with this party a few more times since we were trying to contact our pilot regarding our food drop. At Grassy Island we encountered the first of many muskoxen. It was a large bull that was quite undisturbed by our presence, so much so that we could approach to within 10 meters without the bull making any signs of taking notice of us. As we were about to enter Thelon Oasis we were windbound again and lay up for the rest of the day. We saw a white wolf and another moose while waiting for the weather to improve.
In late afternoon we continued and came just in time to experience the magnificent wonder of 2000 caribou crossing the river. We were caught among the animals, their grunts, sound of hoofs against the rocky river bank, the smell of wet fur, the sight, the piles and piles of hair floating downstream and settling in on the river bank as a nice white layer was simply fantastic. In the evening, the wind subsided and we continued and arrived at Hornby's Cabin just as David Thompson and his group were about to leave.
Hornby's cabin was really not a cabin anymore. But the history lives on, and it is strange to imagine that three people shared this little place through feast and famine and perished there. There are three new crosses placed on the ground in front of the old graves. We left a bit of coffee and salt for Metcalf's group on the doorway since they were running short of it and we had plenty. We caught a few pike the same night and a muskox came down on a grassy riverbank 200 yards from the cabin. The irony wasn't lost on us, we were literally feasting next to a place where three people died of starvation.
The weather changed a bit to the better again for two days and we exploited this by putting distance behind us and the others. We did meet up with David Thompson again for a short while and tried to get his satellite phone to work, since one of our group members happened to work for the company that produced them. But unfortunately, he could only inform David that the coverage of his phone was not yet complete. The satellite should start transmission on the 1st of August. We were in the middle of July!
The Thelon has certainly become a highway in more than one aspect. We overtook three other groups of canoeists on the remaining part of the Thelon - an Austrian couple went down with kayaks and we passed Alex Hall with 13 other canoeists. An American group of 6 paddlers asked us if we had any success with angling on the Thelon. They were frustrated since they had only caught one pike during their 2 week trip. I thought it was a joke since we had been blessed with all the pike and grayling we could eat and occasionally a good sized trout. When I saw their equipment consisted of something that reminded me of my own big game tackle back home in Malaysia, I realized why they only had little success!
We pulled out at a straight section of the river a few miles above Beverly Lake. This was were we had agreed to meet our pilot with the food drop. The following afternoon he touched down on the river, took our canoes and me for a pleasant air trip to an unnamed lake in the Arkilinik Hills 12 miles north of Beverly Lake. Here we dropped our boats and continued onwards to the lake at the beginning of the Morse River where we put our food drop.
Upon my return we packed the remaining part of our stuff and started our walk across the hills. We camped at Arkilinik River and crossed it the following morning. In the afternoon we arrived to the lake where our boats were dropped off and camped for the night. The following day we continued our journey in canoes and several short and relatively easy portages took us into the lake were the Morse River began. We camped at a flat spot in the southern end of the lake where our food drop was.
After spending most of the day re-packing our boats with the new supplies we set out in late afternoon and soon came to the cairn built by the Hide-Away Canoe Club during their epic 1985 journey when they named this river after Eric Morse. We had expected to find a note there from the second time the HACC passed by this place in 1995 but it was empty. We left a small note with a packet of coffee and a few suckers for paddlers who happen to pass by in the future.
Morse River turned out to be very shallow right from the beginning. We had to drag our boats for long stretches, at certain places we even had to portage. We had a short spell of nice weather, sunny and without wind. Little did we know that this should be the last such days for the remaining part of our journey. We had a great encounter with a white wolf that came into camp and sat 80 feet away staring at us. There were plenty of muskox, a few caribous and lots of geese and cranes.
At the end of the Morse River we saw a small herd of seven muskox and caught as many large graylings as we wanted. It was biting cold and the wind turned from bad into worse. When we left the sheltered hills of Morse River and faced the southern arm of Garry Lake, the wind blew undisturbed. We got caught for three consecutive days on the western shore of Garry Lake.
One thing that had attracted our attention more than anything else on the Morse River was the abundance of old Inuit settlements. We passed by several old campsites with nicely laid stone circles, with a fireplace and sometimes even an entrance. While we lay windbound at Garry Lake, we went for hikes in the surrounding terrain. It was sandy and windswept, but apparently a large number of Inuit have used the place for caribou hunting. There is a clear crossing point and along the ridge of the esker there was dozens of stone rings just above the main caribou trails.
While windbound and exploring our campsite, we found a lot of old rifle shells and also an old "Campers" oven. In fact, it was the same type of oven that Hornby used in his cabin. Although it was most probably a common thing among old trappers, we couldn't help but wonder if this oven could have been Hornby's. If his cabin had been looted by passers-by, who knows? At least it gave us a funny story since we could compare it with the picture taken by the RCMP upon arrival in Hornby's cabin so long ago. The oven became our friend for the next week. Somehow, we had either miscalculated our fuel consumption or about eight litres had gone missing since we left Fort Smith. We were in dire need of fuel for cooking but the oven made it possible for us to cook with scrubs and dried moss and the few sticks of little driftwood we could find. That kept us going for another week without having to tap into our fuel reserves.
Finally, Garry Lake let us go. We had a day with pleasant mild winds and decided to paddle throughout the night. We made almost 40 miles from south to north of Garry Lake and started on our last set of portages across to the Armark River. At the northern end of Garry Lake, a little river joins from the north. We went upstream and it turned out to be incredibly scenic and abundant with fish and wildlife. Although small we caught a couple of big trout and saw a lot of caribou. The further upstream we went, the smaller and more shallow the river became.
However, at the location where we expected to start our four mile portage we were truly blessed with a little wonder. The terrain was like a large grassy meadow and the river suddenly became relatively deep and without any significant current. We were able to follow this river another three miles upstream and hence cut short our long portage to just over a mile.
This morning, I almost peed on a barren ground grizzly. I got up to relieve myself about 7 am and while standing in my own thoughts trying to get things working, there was a grizzly galloping towards me no more than 130 feet away. I hardly managed to zip my pants up again before I ran over to the guys who had the rifle and the firecrackers. They had to be woken up and finally came out to see the bear about 80 feet away. Somehow I think it had seen me as something else, because when it realized the others it turned on a dime and fled without even looking back.
The bad weather came over us again. We made seven portages en route to Armark Lake. It took us the full day and almost made us windbound again. On a lake no more than 200 yards wide (but 800 long) we could hardly paddle across and had to portage after a few unsuccessful attempts to paddle across.
Armark Lake threatened to make us windbound again for a couple of days. The following day we explored the very interesting surroundings where hundreds and hundreds of inukshuks covered the mountain ridge mile after mile. We found several flint speartips, old rounds of ammunition, empty shells, old skin knives and heaps of caribou bones scattered everywhere. We even found a lonely grave and through the rock pile we thought the remains were those of an Inuk woman.
As soon as the wind subsided towards the evening, we set out on another night of marathon paddling. We were blessed again with wildlife encounter. This time a grizzly bear was on its way across the lake at a point where this is six miles wide! It is amazing how they can do it. But since we were faster in our canoes, we could approach it to within 50 feet. The bear was obviously frightened and sometimes turned around growling at us. My bow paddler and I had a camera and since it was almost dark and we needed to get closer in order to take a pic with flash we went into about 25 feet away.
That was too close! The bear turned around and in a flurry of water and loud growls it started to chase us. I didn't have to tell my bow-paddler to drop the camera and get his paddle going! It all happened totally automatically and we didn't stop paddling until we had put at least 100 feet between us. The others had a good laugh since they claimed the bear chased us for about 60 feet, but we kept on paddling for 300!
Once out of Armark Lake we came to the best angling site of the whole trip. Just when the lake turns into river there were loads of very large lake trout. It was shallow and we could see many 12-20 lb. fish buzzing around the canoes. We had a go and in 17 throws we hooked 17 fish and landed 13. We kept only two 10 pounders and left the others to grow bigger in case we should come back in a few years time.
TRIP MEMBERS:
Joakim Groth; is an "ol' fox" in the game (like myself). He has made many trips to the NWT His first was on the Taltson in 1987, and since then he has paddled the Churchill, Mountain, Anderson, Hood and Horton (3 times). He is actually a M.Sc in zoology like myself but is working as the editor of an Adventure Magazine in Denmark.
Henrik Lamber; only took up this sport a few years ago when he went along with Joakim on a trip the latter he guided in the NWT. He then went on to do a few trips in Sweden and took one year leave from his job to follow a course in outdoor recreation on the university of Copenhagen. It was his first "major" trip.
Anders Kjoller; started paddling 8-10 years ago when he too, went on a guided trip with Joakim. They went to Mountain River which was a shorter but more intensive whitewater trip. Anders is more a whitewater kayaker and came to Malaysia to work for me as a ww rafting and kayaking guide in 1996. Anders has got his own computer software company that mainly develops software for the music industry. The trip was also Anders' first "real" expedition.
Mikkel Jungersen; was our group's youngest participant. He is studying at Copenhagen University to become a biologist. He is particularly interested in fish biology. He made a trip to Anderson river with a friend three years ago, but the Nunavut Expedition was also his first true expedition.
Claus Kjaerby; is an ol' fox too. He has canoed the Churchill and Horton in Canada, and we have done several expeditions together in Venezuela (3 months), Malaysia and Irian Jaya (Indonesia). He has sailed around the world and visited a lot of countries, and made his first canoe trip in 1987 in Venezuela and Brazil. He founded Seven C's Adventure group in the beginning of the 90's and basically managed to start making canoe trips to Canada's NWT with Danish guides.
Carl Traeholt; a Ph.D in behavioral Ecology, worked as a scientist for 6 years with Copenhagen University but with wildlife projects here in Malaysia. I started canoeing in 1982 and have done a lot of the northern Sweden/Norway rivers. The first trip to the NWT was a two month trip in 1985, then I did a bit in BC in 1992-93 when I stayed for 3 months in Vancouver. I have been living in Malaysia since 1991 and have started my own company in 1996 - ww rafting, kayaking, climbing, mountain biking - a kind of Malaysian "Nanthahala". We are the first here in the country that offers these facilities.
THE FILM: Well...what can I say. our proposed film didn't work out since our digital video recorder "died" on us while on the Thelon. When we took it back for service, they said it was full with thousands of blackflies and they wouldn't repair it under warranty! So much for that. It was pretty sad, since we had a lot of great encounters with wildlife, bad weather etc. It could have been a nice little 15-20 minute feature.
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The Armark is relatively shallow and of little interest for most of the way. The water turns murky because of silt, and most of the river is shallow with hardly any current. A few places it is fast flowing with small rapids, but many times they were too shallow to descend and we had to get out and drag or portage again. Once on the Armark we ran into our longest stretch of real bad weather.
For nine days it kept drizzling, either rain or sleet and we had to battle the ever present northern wind. Every day we chose to paddle at night as long as this was possible. We got up at 2 am and made camp around 11 am when the wind became too strong again. The worst thing about this schedule was not getting up early but the cold. It was freezing at that time of the day. Ice covered our tents and we did not have enough fuel for a hot cup of soup or chocolate during the day. Out of an old tin of powdered milk we made a little oilstove with cooking oil as fuel. We managed to heat a good deal of water this way for a nice warm cup of chocolate while in the tents.
At a major unnamed and unmarked waterfall we caught a few big Arctic char (10-12 pounds). The meat was not as tasty and nice as the lake trout, perhaps because the char had already seen their best times and were either going to die or to return to the sea. But despite a very desolate landscape the place was crawling with bird life. Peregrine falcons were abundant, and we even spotted several couples of bald eagles. We also encountered the trips largest herd of muskox, 24 animals were grazing in a southern slope.
All along the Armark we could see Inuit settlements, stone rings, inukshuks, etc. The last day on Armark river was a breeze. We had to line down two unmarked rapids, and portaged another one, and strangely enough the strong wind turned into a southern wind. The last six miles of the river was like a lake and we went for sail all the way. When we came down to the delta of the Armark, we had a choice of following the main stream and going east around McTavish Point in the Arctic Ocean or try to make a short cut west of it along a little strip of water. The western route would cut short the route by 10 miles and more importantly, put us into a better position to cross the big Ogden Bay.
We took the chance and went west and was blessed with plenty of water and easy paddling. It was a trip through bird sanctuary and it was like the whole land area was made up of piles and piles of bird feces. A mile before the Arctic Ocean we went up on some rocky cliffs to have a view of the area. To our big surprise there were numerous old, possibly Inuit, stone house relics. They were beautifully made, some of them with decent floor made out of flat pieces of rocks. I don't know about the age of these houses, but they looked pretty ancient.
From the top of these relics we got our first view of the sea. Ice blocked the delta although not enough to prevent a canoe to go through. We went onto the sea happy that we cut short McTavish Point. We camped at a point on the eastern granite shores of Ogden Bay ready to make a move across when the wind permitted it. Seals came and visited us, and even a muskox came close to camp. I wonder what on earth they eat in these places. We had lots of dried fish and gathered plenty of driftwood and had a feast of considerable dimensions.
The following afternoon, the wind resided again and we set off across Ogden Bay. We paddled until it started to get dark and we could hardly differentiate between the islands anymore. At the same time fog surrounded us and rain started to come down on us. We found a little rugged windswept campsite and spent the following day windbound. Then luck smiled upon us and at 3 am the wind had changed and we set off for the final stretch under a clear blue sky. We headed towards Pelly River and the Canadian wildlife Service cabin. In early afternoon we went upstream on the Pelly and arrived at the cabin which was sealed up for the season. The place looked messy, there were caribou carcasses everywhere and geese and fish lay scattered around to rot in the sun. Later, in Cambridge Bay, we were informed that the elders of the Inuit society in Nunavut had met there with all their Indian counterparts and had a very big potlatch just three days before we arrived. Had we known about that before hand, we would certainly have sped up our paddling in order to have joined such a unique feast.
But in the end, we were more than happy about our trip. We had spent 55 days paddling 1800 km and made 45 portages. We had so many splendid encounters with wildlife, there were lots of fish and I can think of no better way to spend my summer holiday. And it didn't really matter that the people in Cambridge Bay informed us that, the summer never arrived in the north this year.
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