One Warm Line:
Coppermine River by Raft, from Rocknest Lake to the Arctic Ocean,
July 23rd to August 3rd, 2014
Fifteen intrepid souls embarked on an adventure to raft the wild Coppermine River through Canada's Northwest Territories and Nunavut to the Arctic Ocean. Here is our story set in historical context...
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Day Three: Friday, July 25th
Most of the camp was up by 7:30, greeted by another very warm and smoky day. We thought there could be a good chance Tindi would not land on Rocknest due to the low visibility. We made breakfast then about 10:00 Tindi arrived with the final charter of the trip. We welcomed Carina Majaesic, Julie Majaesic, Max Majaesic, Linda Goltz and Dwight Goltz, bringing our total to 15 intrepid rafters.
We quickly broke camp, packed the six rafts, got all the outboard motors (kickers) running, though not without some difficulty, and started down Rocknest Lake at 12:30 p.m. heading for the channel of the Coppermine River. We first went to the southeast a few miles then headed north and west to the river proper. Along the shore of the lake we stopped briefly to chat with a group of kayakers from Minnesota who had been traveling from Fort Rae, N.W.T. (Behchoko), having been on the water for 29 days. We never did see this party again, though we did pass two groups of canoeist later on. Greg and I were paddling partners in the smallest of the six rafts and were fortunate to have the most reliable kicker of the group, a 9.9 Nissan.
Soon the shores of the lake narrowed and the river took shape providing some current and lovely views of a rather broad river valley. Within an hour of entering the river we encountered some white water that quickly proved to be rather challenging. With the water low, there were numerous exposed rocks and boulders and some vertical drops of up to three feet or so. Greg and I were pinned against boulders on two occasions at least; it was very tricky to break free. This required getting into the rushing water on very slippery rocks and maneuvering the raft to catch free-flowing current.
Dwight, Linda and Evann had a much more difficult time and ran into some very serious situations. Part of the problem was the large size of the raft and the weight of the gear on board. Evann was thrown from the raft twice and once surfaced under the boat! All this happened very quickly in cold rushing water. The raft was tipped and much gear was tossed into the current. As Greg and I already had made it to the bottom of the rapid, we knew there was trouble when we saw various items floating through the rapids above us. Luke and Michelle hit many rocks and boulders as well that resulted in a major tear along the transom and in two other spots on the bottom of the zodiac. Their raft filled with water and needed some repair.
Following this rather harrowing experience, we regrouped at the bottom of the rapid, everyone thoroughly soaked and a little taken aback. We were not expecting such a challenging rapid within hours of beginning the river trip—and from rapids that were not even marked on our maps. Overall, this white water spanned about two miles. We wondered if these unmarked rapids that one way or another put us all in the river would be mild compared to could be in store for us at the map-marked and named rapids.
Shaken a little, soaked and chilled, we went only a short distance further and made camp on the west side of the river, choosing a rather poor location of low, rocky and buggy area. At this point we were not especially picky. It worked. Dinner was a fine feed of Swedish meatballs and pasta. We were all tried; some went to bed as early as 9:30. Five tents were pitched for: 1) Carina and Doug; 2) Dwight and Linda; 3) Evann, Michelle, Emily and Julia; 4) Luke, Ben, Max, Karl; 4) Karl, Greg, Ivan. I suspect we covered little more than five miles this day.
The last Tindi charter arrives Friday morning. Okay guys, after this we are on our own...
A
B
C
A. Ben and Dwight check over the rafts.
B. Honorary member of "Cartographers without Borders," Linda Goltz does a final check of the maps, then laminates.
C. Loading the rafts, about to push-off.
The "One Warm Line" Team: (l-r) Max, Ben, Nick, Karl, Evann, Luke, Emily, Julia, Michelle, Dwight, Linda, Carina, Doug, Greg; Ivan (inset, actually behind the camera).
All six rafts head out on Raocknest Lake, the last large northern lake in the Coppermine River system. A warm, calm day makes for a lovely start to the trip that soon brought some challenging experiences....
John Richardson writes:
Monday July 2d 1821 Coppermine River
Strong breezes and clear weather. Sun very powerful.
Embarked and descended a number of rapids. We were several times in danger of breaking the canoes from the want of the long poles which lie along their bottoms, and equalize the pressure of their cargoes, & the first canoe was almost filled with water, by a sudden plunge in one of the rapids. Every precaution, however, was taken by an equal distribution of the ammunition and instruments betwixt the two canoes, to guard so far as possible against an accident to either of the canoes, proving fatal to the progress of the expedition.
The banks of the river, here, are rocky and the scenery beautiful, consisting of gentle elevations, and dales wooded to the edge of the stream, flanked on both sides at the distance of three or four miles, by a range of round-backed barren hills, upwards of 600 feet high. At the foot of the rapids, which were two miles long, the high lands receded to a greater distance and the river flowed with a more gentle current, in a wider channel, through a level and open country, consisting of alluvial sand. In one place the passage was blocked up with ice, still covered to some depth with snow. A channel for the canoes was made for some way with poles and hatchets, but at length it became necessary to carry them over a piece, more compact than the rest, an operation which proved extremely hazardous from the number of perforations, which had been made in the ice, by the action of the water underneath, but which were concealed by the snow. Some of the men slipt through, but none of the baggage was lost nor did any serious accident occur. P. 61
This part of the river being very wide was mistaken for a lake, of which the Guide had spoken as the last we should meet within our voyage to the sea and we accordingly encamped after passing through it, for the purpose of gumming the canoes, cutting poles and making other preparations for the voyage under the supposition that we should have no more ice to cross. The Guide, however, who had walked along shore, arrived in the evening and informed us, that the lake he meant was further on. This damped the satisfaction we felt on having passed the ice. But two men being sent to reconnoiter the lake renewed our joy by the intelligence of there being an open channel through it. Pp. 61-2
The four photos above show a little of the aftermath of our first encounter with white water and significant rapids. We needed to pull up on shore to check the boats, especially Luke and Evan's because of the ripped hull, and to gather the supplies that floated down the river. I was unable to get any photos of the rapids themselves as every effort was made to simply control the raft. Taking a camera out of a dry bag was too risky under these circumstances.
As recorded by Richardson in 1821 (right), it seems like the Franklin expedition experienced these rapids in a similar way as did we.
Camping this first night came early. The area was poor for pitching tents--rocky and boogy--with hordes of tenacious flies and mosquitoes.