Day 21 - July 24
Sunny, 22C

Spend some time hiking in the hills behind our tents. Find lots of archeological remains - chipping stations and projectile points.

We take a look at the abandoned canoe on the beach. It once belong to Trailhead, but had probably passed through a few hand since then based on the way it was outfitted. The canoe is very damaged and it was filled with sand and water with weeds growing in it. The canoe wasn't there when we passed this way in '94.

We stop again at the water resource cabin. It is still in good shape and appears to be in current use. We'd read elsewhere that it had been abandoned, but that didn't appear to be the case. When we dropped in here back in '94, it was cold and raining - today is sunny and warm. On the earlier trip, we'd only planned to take a peek in the cabin, but we stayed longer because it was so nice to be warm and out of the wind. On that trip, Deb baked some bread sticks in the cabin and we do that again this trip to bring back the fond memories we had from our stop here. While the food is being prepared, we read through some of the journal entries. It was nice to go back over some of the old logs including ours from '94. There weren't too many entries following ours except for this year where quite a few appeared with this year's date. We looked carefully at the entries from the group that preceded us to see what kind of wildlife they'd encountered. Several groups mentioned seeing wolverines (which we didn't see). None mentioned seeing large herds of caribou or musk ox. There were a few groups that saw more wolves and grizzly bears than we did, but overall it looked like we saw a lot more wildlife than most of the folks who came before us.

As we're packing up, two groups of paddlers pull in. The couple from Alaska are there and there are two canoes with four young guys from the Wisconsin area. We chat for a while and our boys get asked lots of questions. We had lots of food and fuel left over that we're not going to need and we'd left it in a pile on the table. Deb labeled it with preparation instructions, the date we left it and a card with our name and address, hoping that would give enough confidence that others would use the food. The new arrivals looked through the food and started to dig in. They appreciated the goodies a lot. Both groups have been traveling longer than we have and started with less space for food than we began with, so the additions are welcome.

As we leave the cabin, two more canoes paddle past us. The folks in the cabin signal them to come back (seems they've met upstream). We can't quite hear the shouted conversation, but it seemed like the extra food we left was the reason. When we reach the bluffs, its quite different than our last trip. The higher water levels have flushed out most of the rapids and nothing is left to present a challenge. The top section was fairly easy last time, but there's nothing to worry about at all this time. The lower section right at the base of the bluffs had some very tall standing waves last trip and there was no avoiding them. This time, the waves are a lot smaller and there's a wide area on river right that has virtually no rapids.

We stopped on river left to check out the tent site we'd used last trip. It's a nice grassy area where we encountered a friendly arctic hare last trip, but this year the same location is too wet to pitch tents. We ferry across the river and easily find a great spot to land the canoes and pitch tents. While Deb and I get tents up and supper underway, the kids catch some Char and Lake Trout. After supper, there's some very nice light on the bluffs and we take photos.