Day Eleven, Saturday, August 2nd

 – Escape Rapids and Bloody Falls

 

The camp woke to another windy, cold and drizzly day—perched perhaps 50 feet above the river in a clay stream bed washed out previously in some downpour. It had rained overnight and the door our tent containing Greg, Nick and me now opened onto a small steam.  The situation was a bit worse for the tent of Max, Luke, Karl and Ben.  It made for a rather mucky business of getting in and out of the tents, and for dismantling. 

 

Greg went fishing early and caught six small arctic grayling.  As small and smoky fire was made and a breakfast of pancakes and eggs set the day off to a good start, despite the weather. We wanted to get an earlier start to the day but the logistics associated with a large camp always seemed to mitigate these intentions.  We huddled in the cook tent to eat and talk about where we might be on the river.  Some suggested, I think Nick a main proponent, even an all-nighter if it came to that to make Kugluktuk. 

 

We broke camp by 11:00 and headed out on the river, now flowing almost directly north to the Arctic Ocean.  Throughout the afternoon the river generally ran shallow that made negotiation tricky in spots due to sandbars and boulders.  We saw a very curious grizzly bear on the west side of the river standing on its hind legs to get a better look.  The moment was made that much more indelible as a bald eagle soared directly over the grizzly forming an iconic image of the Canadian north. The bear followed us along the shore as we paddled forth but then fell behind when we encountered deeper water and were able to use the kickers.

 

Around 4:30 p.m. we finally came upon Escape Rapids.  They were unmistakable with the rocky cliffs and roar of white water and standing water of five and six feet.  One section on the east side of the river was especially remarkable with a gushing steam cascading from the top of the cliffs to the rapid below, perhaps as high as 100 feet.  It was a thrilling ride through the white water where at points it seemed the rafts were almost vertical. All made it through quite well though some of the boats were filled with water.  We recovered on a sandy beach on the west side of the river, built a fire and had a snack of nuts, dried fruit and chocolate.  This stop was rather brief as we needed to push on.

 

Now the river offered much variety, from slow, deep flowing channels to wide and shallow areas with swift water and expansive boulder fields where determining any kind of a channel was difficult.  Greg and I took turns piloting out little craft as this gave both of us opportunity to turn our backs to the north wind and warm up a little.