Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Nahanni and Broken Skull Rivers, July - August

In July and August we paddled Broken Skull and Nahanni Rivers in the Northwest Territories. We were on the water for 21 days and paddled 500 km. The landscape is protected as a Canadian National Park and is also a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. For Peter and me this was the first river trip in canoes, up to now we have only used kayaks or rafts. But our friends had lots of canoe experience.

It took 2.5 hours to fly from Fort Simpson to the put-in at Divide Lake. Amazing untouched landscape of endless mountain ranges and big river valleys of the Mackenzie Mountains under our little bush planes (a Beaver and a Cesna).

From Divide Lake we paddled on the crystal-clear Broken Skull River through alpine landscapes past moose, bears and wolves.

Highlights along the Nahanni River were the Cirque of the Unclimbables with its sky high granite towers, thundering Virginia Falls (around which we had to portage our canoes and equipment) and the canyons of Nahanni.

On the river we saw only 5 other paddlers. This was a surprise as the Nahanni is a very popular canoe destination.

The three weeks on the river were our longest ‘expedition’ so far, requiring special preparation for the food, as the weight for the plane was limited and we had no refrigeration on the river. That's why we dried and dehydrated everything from vegetables over yogurt to tomato sauce and salsa. It worked out well and was tasty, even Jiri's spam dinner!

The North is famous for its mosquitoes but except for the last few days they didn't bother us too much. But as soon as we reached the end of the canyons the pesky insects came out en masse, so bad that we skipped the last hot springs - nobody wanted to take off the paddling jackets and expose any skin.

Canoes on board
Mackenzie Mountains and no sign of humans for hours!
At Divide lake
Broken Skull below Swallow Falls
Whitewater action
Good hiking here
Hot springs
Northern river views
One of our camps on the Broken Skull
Cirque of the Unclimbables
Virginia Falls
After the portage
Porcupine
Pulpit and gate in the third canyon
Deadman Valley (fortunately no dead man found)
First Canyon
Bison crossing!
Nahanni-Liard confluence