ANOTHER TUQUE

      This is the photo I wanted when I posted the last photo. There's the tuque and the heavy fur trimmed mitts. 

     This is late September when we were on the Mackenzie river moving to the shores of the Beaufort sea. We had a fast open boat and water was splashing over the windshield. I don't look very happy as it was miserable and we were tenting over night.

    We went back the next day and the river was low so we couldn't find a deep enough channel to get through. It got dark so we slept on the boat. The next morning (Monday) with daylight we easily found a channel and got home around noon. The vice principal was with us so we didn't get into any trouble for being away. 

MACKENZIE RIVER TRIP PT 2

           My last post took me half way up the Mackenzie river. I covered the water and risks. There are 11 settlements on the whole length of the river. I visited all of them. I started at Tuktoyaktuk then Reindeer station,  Inuvik, Arctic Red River, Fort Good Hope,  Norman Wells, Fort Norman , Fort Wrigley, Fort Simpson, Fort Providence, Liard and Hay River. All of them were established a long time ago as trading posts except Inuvik and Norman Wells. 

       After going through the San Sault rapids we arrived at Norman Wells. As we slept on the boat that night a huge storm hit us. The canvas top on the boat gave way and we were flooded. Were were able to stay in a Govt. house. We dried out but the major storm lasted three days. The river had risen and the current was strong. After sitting for three days were were ready to go. As we were loading the boat one of the locals said , "Are you leaving in this?" We said "Sure." Were we wrong. The river was high and dangerous. We quickly decided to quit and found a safe inlet and stayed there for the day. The next day we travelled and went through Fort Norman. We had a long quiet stretch and reached Fort Wrigley. Then it was on to Fort Simpson. No problems through this stretch. 

    Before we reached Fort Providence we noticed and airplane circling. When we went to check in with the RCMP, we found out that a boat had capsized and two people were missing. 

    Crossing the end of Great Slave lake was going to be a challenge as you had to cross at the end of the lake and if there was wind, and there usually was, it could be risky. We got up very early just before sun up. There were waves but not bad. We moved slowly for many hours until we got to the mouth of the Hay River and then we were almost at the end of our journey.

    We had to pack up the motors and boat and put them on a barge back to Inuvik where my friend had bought the equipment. 

    One thing the Micro Manager wouldn't go for is doing your business in the woods. So she bought a pot and had me make a seat. So what to do with the seat when the journey was over. She decided to just pitch it in the river and let it go. The crew on a nearby tugboat had a good laugh when they saw the toilet seat go sailing by. 

    I had told my mother that I would phone her when the trip ended so that was done. 

    Most of your comments had summarized the venture accurately. It was risky but a great adventure. One challenge was that we were going up the river so against the current. It would have been much easier to go down river with the current. 

     An interesting comment was that this would be very scenic. It's not. Most of what you see is river bank. In the odd place you had a view like the Camsel Range. 

                    Crossing the end of Great Slave Lake

Cleaning up at the end of the trip

The end of the journey

Camsell Range

TRIP ON MACKENZIE

      As you know I taught in Inuvik for three years from 1963 to 1966. I was very active outdoors. I boated and fished. In the winter I snowshoed and ice fished. 

      Every once in a while I'd hear someone say, "Wouldn't it be nice to go up the Mackenzie river." These were people without a boat or experience. You soon didn't hear much more of this idea. I thought it would be interesting but you had to have the right equipment and crew. I didn't have the right boat and I wasn't about to campaign for a crew. 

     So I met the Micro Manager and she was gung ho about going up the river. So I began thinking about a trip. We planned and organized until it looked like it was doable. 

    We had a good river boat that was flat bottomed and 6 ft wide and 16 feet long. I had two 35 horse outboards for power. We had a canvas to cover the boat and slept on the boat. So with a stove , lots of food and life jackets we set off in Aug of 1966. 

    Now there was an awful lot that the two of us didn't know. The Micro Manager didn't know anything about boating. There were parts of the river that were dangerous. But off we went. We had a chart that showed where to travel on the river channels. A young RCMP  had got this chart and wanted it back but he wouldn't tell how he got it. We notified all the RCMP posts that we were coming and to watch for us. We knew most of the RCMP. 

   The navigation was fairly simple. There were large white square signs that you had to line up. Stay in the line between the two signs. The signs were about 20 by 20. Sometimes it was about 10 miles between signs. The chart we had was full of information so  we followed it very carefully. Most of the current was quiet and the river very wide. There were a few challenging places and they were worrisome.

    The first challenging part was called the Ramparts. It was an area that cut through some very hard rock so the channel was narrow and the current strong. We were told to slow down and take it easy. This worked well but took time.

                                    Leaving Inuvik

East  branch of Mackenzie delta

                                    The Ramparts
                                             

    The next  very scary part was called the San Sault Rapids. We'd heard much about it and that there had been may deaths in the San Sault. However, many everyday people travelled through this area. It was worse than we thought and was pretty scary in some spots. It was about ten miles long and charted. If you stayed in the channel you would be alright. Again , slow down and take it  easy. It was a place where we wondered about the wisdom of doing this trip. In places there was a 4 to 5 ft. wave. When you went down some of them you wondered if you were coming back up. 

                A very poor photo of Point Separation

San Sault Rapids

San Sault Rapids

San Sault Rapids.

   

MORE GEOGRAPHY: THE MACKENZIE RIVER

      So I've been thinking about Canadian rivers lately. The huge Mackenzie river runs into the Arctic ocean.

     The Mackenzie river is 1025 miles (1650 km) long. It leaves Great Slave lake which is a huge body of water.

     There are several very large rivers which join the Mackenzie. The Peace river which runs across northern Alberta is 1925 km long. It empties into Athabaska lake. The Bear River takes this water to Great Slave Lake. Another large river (The Peace) runs across northern Alberta and does the same as the Athabaska. It empties into lake Athabaska and then the Bear River takes it to Great Slave lake. 

   There are many smaller rivers in the system such as the Liard River and the Hay River. 

    So there's an enormous amount of water in the Mackenzie River running to the Arctic ocean. The Mackenzie river varies along it's path Sometimes it's very wide. At Point Separation where the Mackenzie delta starts the river is 10 miles wide. At this point the current slows down. The Mackenzie delta is vast and some of the islands very large as is Richards island.     

   This is a navigable river as northern freight is carried on huge barges. Just think about how much fuel is needed . Huge storage barrels are filled each summer. Today a road has been built to the Arctic coast but it is no way large enough for trucks to haul all the fuel needed.   

    Being a navigable river means that it is charted and dredging is done each season to be sure that there is a channel for tugs and barges.   

    Since the Mackenzie runs from south to north it has a crazy spring break up. Ice melts in the south and water begins to push north. So the water explosively breaks the ice and the river is full of ice. Lots of the ice is pushed up on shore. People try to be there when this happens but you have to be lucky to time it right.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

RISKY ADVENTURE

        I had many adventures  when I lived in the north. You had to be adventurous to see and learn about things. You had to take some precautions to be safe because there was some risk.

         However, there was one adventure that I took that was much  too risky. Looking back I see that it  was a high risk adventure and that at the time I didn't fully appreciate it. 

          My adventure was to go up the Mackenzie River...all 1010 miles of it.  Not only was it a long river but a large river. At Point separation it is 10 miles wide. As you move up the river there are some rapids and some fast water. So for most of the river there's little  danger.

         Many northern people would dream of boating up the Mackenzie but few ever do it. The micro Manager wanted this adventure and so did I so we made plans. We had a good boat and two motors. We had camping equipment and used the RCMP to keep track of us. Always the next detachment of police were watching for us and if we didn't appear they would have to search for us. 

      The upper Ramparts where the river narrows

There is a tremendous amount of barge traffic on the river as most northern freight comes in on the Mackenzie. So I managed to snag a navigational chart of the river. The policeman I got it from wanted it back and he wouldn't tell me how he got it.  So navigation worked this way .  You would line up between two very large diamond signs that you could see from 5 to 20 miles away. Stay between those signs and you were okay. They sounded and dredged the channel 

       Weather was another thing out of our control . The first five days were

warm calm and beautiful summer weather. One night we happened to be stopped in a settlement. That night a storm hit. Our canvas over the boat leaked like it wasn't there. The next morning someone found us and took us to an empty government house. It stormed for three days. The river rose and was swollen. We were in a hurry so we started out when the storm was over. We thought we would travel along the bank. Within 5 miles we hit a rock. Luckily the boat suffered no damage One of the props had minor damage so we escaped with little damage. We decided to go back to following markers but when we were out further in the river the current was so swift were were going to get swamped.  Luckily we found a small inlet on a sand bar that we entered before the boat swamped. 

     The San Sault is a famous set of rapids but we navigated them without problems. Just take your time. We had misjudged our gas supply but got very lucky when we found an oil exploratory camp. 

                      The Lower Ramparts

     After  those problems we had nice sailing for about 400 miles. We had to cross a corner of Great Slave lake for a bout 15 miles. We were in an open area the was exposed to 250 miles of water. We started out right after dawn to try and miss any rough water. The waves did roll in and we could not run into them but had the go slowly and take each wave one at a time. 

                     The end and we're still alive

       So we made it and my mother gave a great sigh of relief as I had promised to phone her when we were finished.

       It was an adventure and trip of a life time. 

      However , when I look back at it I realize how incredibly dangerous it was. A series of small errors could have led to catastrophic ending. 

                     Looking out over Great Slave Lake 

                     There was some great scenery as the Camsel Mountains. Most of it was through flat country.