Day 20 - July 23
Overcast in morning clearing later, 21C

There's a moose across the river from the tents, but it hears us talking and disappears into the tangled willows. As we're packing up to leave the site, another canoe comes down stream. This one is paddled by a couple who started in Yellowknife and are headed to Baker Lake or beyond. They're from Alaska and we have a nice chat. They mention that there's a number of people upstream from them, which no longer surprises us.

As we head downstream we catch up with the Alaskan's as they stop to photograph a moose. We stop to have lunch and rest on a very pleasant beach. There are some pools of water in the sand that the sun has warmed to a very pleasant temperature. We decide to take advantage of the warm water to bathe. The water has been much warmer on this trip than it was on our last outing here. The kids even spend some time swimming.

Brendan is paddling stern today with Kyle in the bow. He's enjoying it and doing a great job.

Near the end of Ursus Island, we see a cow and calf moose and pull in for pictures. As we're getting set up, a bull moose comes out of the bushes and the cow and calf leave. The bull moves out into the shallows to feed and we film him for an hour or more. Just as we're finishing, another canoe comes downstream behind us. This one is paddled by a young couple from Thunder Bay. They mention all the people they've encountered which surprised them. They also mention seeing grizzly tracks, scats and discarded food at Lookout Point. We wonder who among the people that passed us might have been responsible because it wasn't like that a few days before when we were there. Hopefully it doesn't create a bear problem later on.

We camp at the same site we'd stayed at last trip. It's on a sharp bend to the right in the river where the Thelon widens and another small river joins in from the left. There's a beautiful area of flat tundra on the hill above the beach - lots of room for tents. Behind the campsite are lots of chipping stations. We find some obvious signs of recent campers and make the evidence less obvious.

Around the corner from where we stop, I'm surprised to see a canoe on the beach. At first I think it might belong to some campers that we didn't see, but when I examine the canoe with my binoculars, its filled with sand and water and damaged on both ends. It must have been washed downstream a while ago. Hopefully there isn't a sad tale behind it.