Daily Trip Log Reports

July 21: day 10
Today is a layover day, we're camping in the same location. Yesterday we made a brief exploration of the dunes and saw some of the really large ones off in the distance. After an hour of hard walking in the sand, we still didn't seem to be any closer, so we gave up and turned around. Today, we're going to spend as much of the day as it takes to reach the large dunes.

 

Debra and boys found some sinking sand and had a little fun with it. See More Photos!

Last night, we had a storm roll in. There was quite a bit of thunder and lightning in the distance, but not much came our way. We had about two hours of rain overnight and some brisk winds.

The morning dawn is reasonably cloud free, so we decided to head out for the dunes. The walking is much easier today than yesterday as the rain has firmed up the sand.

As we near the dunes, we take a moment to visit a small pond the kids found yesterday. The groundwater makes the sand near the edge of the pond very soft. Deb and the kids take their shoes off and wade to the edge. All three do a vigorous twisting motion and sink almost to their knees. After waiting for the sand to settle a bit, they all lean in different directions and let the sand support them. It looks extremely comical, defying gravity.

Off in the distance, we see a huge dune rising above the surrounding dunes. It's not on our map, but we call it camel back ridge because it has two distinct humps. It's a massive wall of sand that snakes towards Lake Athatbasca with an undulating knife edge shaped by the wind. Most of the walk so far has been in sunshine, but just as we near the dunes, the clouds roll in. We walk up the dunes to eat our lunch at the top and decide to wait for the sun to come back out.

After about two hours of waiting, we're rewarded with a break in the sky. The dunes look so much higher when the shadows give dimension to them. All this time the kids have been entertaining themselves in the sand. They seem to be enjoying themselves immensely as they let their imaginations run wild.

After getting some nice photos of the dunes, we begin our two hour trek back to camp. The momentary break in the sky seems like it will be short lived - a dark wall of cloud is headed our way and it's obviously carrying rain. Because we can see such long distances, it's hard to tell how far away the clouds are and they seem to take forever to come in our direction. It's going to be a toss up which arrives first, our campsite or the rain.

No more than 10 minutes away from our tents, the rain overtakes us. We scurry to don our rain gear and finish the hike to camp in a mild down pour. To make up for the discomfort, just as we arrive at the tents, the sun breaks through the clouds for a moment and creates a rainbow on the far shore.

July 22: day 11

We break camp and head downstream again, the sun is shining brightly on the dunes to our left. It's a sharp contrast to the dark spruce forest on our right. Many places along this stretch remind us of a trip we did to Big Bend National Park in Texas. It looks very similar to some sections of the Rio Grande.

We must choose our route carefully here as the channels in the river get shallow. Selecting the ones with enough water isn't always easy. It seems like either shore is most likely to be deepest.

Not long after rounding a few corners, we run into more unmarked rapids. Some we run but others we chose to wade. Our canoes are heavily ladden and we don't have spay skirts. These rapids closer to home would be a lot of fun, but here we choose to be prudent and select the safe course. Off in the distance, we can hear a much louder roar - we're approaching the first of the marked rapids and the sound is ominous.

When we reach the area, there's a significant drop to be negotiated and there are no safe channels to run. We notice some possiblities for lining the canoes down the side and that's what we choose.

After getting past the first drop, we must negotiate the most dangerous part. We must get from the left side of the river to the right and there's only a brief stretch of calm water before the river drops again. The paddle to the other side is a bit tense, but both canoes manage.

After getting past the last big drop, we find a nice spot to camp and set up there. It's a leisurely time to catch up on chores and prepare supper. Everybody pitches in and in no time supper is underway and a wash is in progress. I string a clothesline near camp while Deb and the kids do the laundry. We use one of our barrels that we keep food or clothes in. That works great because it's easy to carry the dirty water back into the bush to dump.

Brendan is given the challenge of drying out the barrel after it's been rinsed. To everybody's amazement, he dives in head first then tips it up over his head. In this position, he spins it around and dries the inside. We're all keeled over laughing when he pops back out again.