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Day 8 Time: 7 hrs 10 min Distance: 19.8 km (91.6) Woke up to rain and bugs swarming the hut. Simply didn't want to emerge from the safety of my bivy. Some time in the night Steve had let the rain flaps down in the hut and had spent much of the morning hunting bugs. We are camped on deep moss, while it makes a comfy bed it was impossible to seal the bugs out. We had our tea/coffee and packed our things, the rain had stopped for the most part, the clouds remained, as did a steady breeze.
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We set off at 12:20 to finish the remaining river section before Chipewyan Lake, we had a sprinkle or rain while heavier showers passed by at a considerable distance. We quickly entered the lake and faced a moderate wind from the northeast, I'd prefer a direct headwind to one that was coming at just enough of an angle to push the boat sideways regardless of how hard one paddled, this was to be the pattern for much of the time in the next days. The first and longest open section required some effort, we stopped at the first point for a snack, there is a small but well used campsite here, likely a shore lunch spot for the outpost camp that is supposed to be on this lake.
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We continued along the east shore to avoid the wind, the next hop was fairly easy, at the second point there is a tiny emergency spot, between the two points there were two areas along the shore that would likely be reasonable for camping. Following the points the long thin strip looked to have an excellent beach campsite. Next was another open section of about 2km, then through the islands and into the mouth of the river accompanied by one last blast of the side wind. Steve spotted what looked like a small campsite on river left but it was too early to stop. We paddled on a little until the current balanced out the effect of the wind and took a break for a floating lunch. We agreed to paddle for another half hour and then start to look for a campsite. The river here did not look good at all but we made good time so I started to scan the shore for potential spots. Naturally the rain returned, moderately heavy for a short time. The shoreline is thick with alders in many places 20 - 30 feet before anything resembling solid ground and even that did not look very enticing. I had a serious look at a spot where the river widened and the alders thinned but the ground was a total sponge, a tiny island was nothing more than a pile of rocks and bushes. A bay on river right looked like it might offer something, upon closer inspection didn't seem to be anything more than an emergency spot. About 500 meters downstream on river left there was an area of larger than average trees at the base of a peninsula which blocks the alternate route from Chipewyan Lake.
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There was a small spot where only one layer of alder bushes blocked the shore, we easily crashed through. Walking inland 50 feet brings us to numerous good tents spots, firm ground and flat. Except for the bad water access it's quite a nice site. We set up the hut and sealed it as well as possible. The light rain continued, we made some Chili and didn't stay up too late. A real mixed bag of a day but mostly filled with rain, bugs, wind and flat water.
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