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