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Day 22 Time: 2 hrs 40 min Distance: 17.3 km (407.9) I woke early but then went back to sleep, Steve left the tent for his morning routine, he also spent some time tinkering with the spray shield of his boat. It was sunny and out on the rocks the bugs were tolerable. Eventually I got up and made my way out for tea. Over the next while I moved my gear out to the rocks, the bugs were still present back in the trees although not as bad as they had been last night. We had a modest minimum goal for today with an option to go further if conditions were right. It was around 2:00 when we were ready to go. The first rapid, a CIII/IV was just below the "campsite", we ferried over to the left shore to get a look around the bend from the rock point, the river is wide here with strong current, the ferry requires effort and a good line. From the rocks it's clear that center-left is the way to go, there is some nasty stuff on the right about a third of the way down. I have a great run with just one serious side splash. That done we head immediately into the CI - long CIII, we start this section center drifting to the right as we go, lots of fun picking your way through the waves and avoiding the obvious locations of what must be large submerged boulders. At the bottom of this rapid along the right shore was a considerable amount of dirty ice still many feet thick, this was quite a surprise for this late in July.
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We now drifted through the islands, past the large peat island, the land changes here to a mix of sub-arctic tundra with some small patches of the "little sticks". We see exposed boulders mid-river here, the first of the trip, only a few but most of them have seals perched atop! As we finish the islands the wind begins to pick up a bit, still we fly through 2km of CII with volume and some actual solid objects to avoid. This is a fun stretch, bobbing along; steering when needed to avoid the bigger waves and going slow enough that little water ever hit the deck. The first marked campsite is about 2km further, we talked about stopping here if we were wet and/or cold, neither was really the case, Steve had taken minimal water even in the initial III/IV and was feeling good. I could see a brown smudge on the far right shore, probably the site, we needed to at least have a look as the next one was a considerable distance and the prospects of an improvised site slim from my recollections. The wind increased dramatically as we made the turn, there is only modest current here and it was a tough sideways paddle just to get over to the right shore, a distance of over a kilometer, when we passed the small point and saw the site it did not look great, basically a low sandy bank, a beach no doubt in lower water, above that a small sandy knoll with some patchy grass. We found a reasonably flat spot with some thin vegetation for the hut. Although it was early we were declared "semi-officially" wind bound, this time with no type of windbreak whatsoever.
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We put up the hut with extra support ropes, even with the strong winds we were swarmed by black flies, once inside the hut we lit some coils, went on a kill and settled in for some snacking followed by a cheese/mushroom omelet (Harvest Foodworks / ok) plus cheese & crackers, jerky & cookies. It has gotten much cooler, there has been some rain but at least we are sheltered from the wind inside with all the flaps down on the hut. Time for some extra clothing! We nibbled through a few hours, I ventured out once, it was grey wet & ugly, I was thankful we were not out there looking for a campsite.
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The hut seems to be holding up well there should be no trouble if the wind speeds don't increase. We made a bag of Jamaican BBQ Rice w/ Chicken (Backpackers Pantry), cleaned up a bit of the mess and prepared for sleep around Midnight. We have a long day of calm water ahead; if the wind remains from the NE we will have a painful day. Steve has returned from outside, reports that conditions are unchanged…. suggests we have some chocolate!
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