Day 12 - July 15
Sunny, 20C

Because of the late night, we stay in the tents as long as possible. When the tents become too hot to sleep any longer, we roust ourselves. The wolf from last night is spotted on the far shore again, but she gives us a wide berth and disappears quickly to hunt.

Our dining tent is pitched between two dens of a sik sik (arctic ground squirrel). As we eat breakfast, the mother decides she'd like to move her young. We see her carry her fairly large offspring who roll into a ball as she picks them up with her mouth. She can't carry them all the way, so she drops them and encourages them to follow her. Several times, the mother and young come right up to us out of curiosity.

Before heading out, we go for a hike in the tundra behind our tents. Away from the river and out of the wind, it gets uncomfortably hot. We don't seem much except some nesting golden plovers. On the way back, we follow the shore and hike on the flat rocks at the top of the cliff. There's a large snow bank near the tents and the kids can't resist the temptation to have a snowball fight.

All along the river, we've seen many more flowers than on our last visit. Often the flowers have been quite profuse, no doubt because of the wet season. Our campsite tonight is surrounded by flowers of various shades and hues. Most prominent are lupins and arctic fireweed.

Arctic Terns often nest on the gravel bars in this area. There's never any doubt when you're near a nest as they dive bomb.

Its late afternoon before we leave the campsite. Because of the long hours of daylight, its possible to travel anytime, so we're not worried.

We start to come into a section of the river with steep banks again and decide to stop at a gravel bar that has a nice, flat sandy area on top. As we get closer, we notice a canoe with two paddlers on the opposite shore. They seem to be studying the river banks. This section of the river is quite appealing with the canyon-like walls showing various colours through the layers. The two paddlers across the river get back into their canoe and head downstream, stopping a few more times to explore the bank.