Day 8 - July 11
Sunny, 20C

As we load our canoes after breakfast, two twin otters fly low past us. An Air Tindi otter on floats lands just a bit downstream from us, either dropping someone off or picking them up. The other plane is an otter on wheels and its obviously looking for someone. It flies a low circle past us to check us out, then follows the river down and later comes back up following the river.

We paddle across the river and spend some time exploring the hills at the Gap. Earlier trip reports mention rich traces of archeological remains at this site, but we find little evidence left. After a while, we find a few broken arrow heads and one intact spear point. Nothing seems to remain of the artifacts mentioned in the past.

Paddling down the stretch past Grassy Island is shallow and very sandy. The river divides into channels often. The main channel is usually very easy to find. I decide to try some of the smaller channels on this trip because the water levels are higher and its nice to see areas of the river we didn't see last trip. Taking the smaller channels is risky as they often fan out and become quite shallow downstream. In lower water it could be a problem. We see a number of tundra swans feeding along the shore. It begins to rain again, but only light precipitation falls.

On this section, we ran short of time on our last trip and had to settle for a mediocre campsite. This time, I know there's a better site a little farther downstream and there's lots of time to get there. The 1:250,000 map shows a rapid along this section. On our last trip, the rapid was obvious when we got there, but it was no problem to paddle it. This time, the river was so high, the rapids were all but washed out. Not much was visible in the river proper, but the eddy lines had very prominent and powerful whirlpools. We stopped in a few places to fish. Caught some lake trout, but the fishing wasn't great - probably a reflection of the high water levels.

We stopped at a site long used by aboriginals on river left. High on the bank, there's a nice stretch of flat tundra with nice breezes to keep the bugs at bay. Deb and the kids set up the kitchen near shore while I haul the tents etc up the hill. I take a short walk around to look for the best locations and see a wolf in the distance. After getting everything organized, we take some walks to explore the site. There's lots of evidence of aboriginal campsites, but some of the modern visitors don't show the respect for the ancient remains that they should. Many of the stones from the tent rings have been disturbed and appear to have been used to secure modern tents or used to make fire pits. There's lots of remnants of stone chips littering various areas around the site - leftovers from the process of creating stone projectile points. We found a number of spear tips and arrowheads at this site the last time we were here (some broken, some intact), but found little evidence of them this time. Most of the site is rock-strewn or covered in tundra, but there are some sandy sections. A grizzly left large, fresh tracks deep in the sand along one ridge, but the bear seems intent on heading downstream and seems to be following a faint trail some distance back from where the tents will be set up. We're not worried that he'll come back.

Another thunderstorm rolls in at dusk, but our luck seems to be holding out. A little rain falls on the tents but the bulk of the storm passes us by.