Day 24 - July 27 Sunny, 25C The time and energy we spent chasing caribou finally catches up to us and all of us linger in bed, postponing getting out of the tents as long as possible. Kyle and Debra stay inside while Brendan and I go for a hike. As we prepare to leave, a lone musk ox bull ambles across the hills in the far distance. Other than the distant black speck, there's no other sign of animals. We do hear a lot of sandhill cranes in this area. Last trip, we got close to a number of them, but this time they're all well back on the tundra. We also saw a large herd of musk ox here last trip, but the lone bull was the only musk ox we see this time. On our last trip we saw a hawk owl here and I was hoping we'd see another as they're very unusual birds - no such luck.

Both the boys paddle and carry loads as though they're grown adults

We find lots of caribou antlers on our hike and what looks like stone trail markers. We guess they might have been used in the winter as they're too far from the river. We find a grouping of musk ox bones and after studying them for a bit, we conclude that it was probably a winter camp where parts of a butchered musk ox were consumed. There were a few pieces of wood that might have come from a dog sled as they showed signs of being shaped with a tool.

After breaking camp, we paddle downstream and stop at the large archeological site on river right, just before the river bends and points towards Hoare Point. This area seems much like it was when we stop here last trip. There are some signs of recent campers, but they've been more careful and their leftovers are not intrusive. Walking along the top edge of the bank, we find a number of projectile points in the area where the bank crumbles through erosion. There are still a few wooden pegs on the ground that were used to stretch animal skins - probably dating back to the 50s or 60s. There is a nice tent site near the end of this area and that's were we'd go if we ever come this way again.

We paddle down the last stretch of the river and into Beverly Lake. This is much different than the last time we were here. It was parka cold and the wind was so strong we were pinned down for most of the day. At dusk, the wind calmed down a bit and we started to paddle. As we rounded the bend at Hoare Point, the wind picked up again and we were very concerned about making it to shore in the rough waves. Our situation was especially scary because it was dark. This time, we had a calm tail wind and bright sunny skies.

As we paddle along the shoreline, we find two abandoned canoes. Both have been there a while and were in reasonably good shape. Hard to know why they're there.

Farther down the shore, we come upon an arctic hare and stop to take photographs. When we round the point, we stop and set up camp. The area still sees use, both by modern canoeists and probably by Inuit coming up from Baker Lake. The sunset is very pretty, but our attention is diverted to a young arctic hare huddled among the rocks behind our tent.