The Clearwater River (based on a trip in July 2000)

Heritage, Canyons & Cataracts

by Bill & Barbara Bowman



We stood looking down at Granite Gorge, trying to convince ourselves that the rapids could be run. It was a long Class III with a canoe-eating rock in the middle of the narrow channel near the bottom. Skirting the rock would put us over a ledge and into a huge hole. If we had had others with us for support, it would have been fun to try and punch through the hole. But we were alone and far from civilization . This was no time to risk wrapping our canoe, or worse. So, with reluctance, we headed back to the top of the portage and began the carry.

We were on the second day of our 8-day mid-July trip on northern Saskatchewan’s Clearwater River. We do most of our paddling in the Ottawa area, where we live. But we decided to use the excuse that our son had moved to Saskatchewan to make a visit and paddle one of Canada’s premier Heritage Rivers.

The Clearwater is a famous fur-trade river, being the link from the Churchill River to the fur-rich
Athabaska country. The first non-native to use the 19-km Methye Portage connecting the two rivers was Peter Pond in 1778. For the next 40 years, voyageurs and explorers carried their enormous loads over this, the longest portage on the entire fur-trade route, creating a well-worn trail still very much in evidence today.

The Methye Portage meets the Clearwater after it has already come off the Canadian Shield onto the Interior Plain. Although this was a bonus for the voyageurs, white water canoeists will prefer to start their trip further upstream where the Shield rocks create many kilometres of exciting rapids. Accordingly, we began our trip with a 45-minute Beaver flight from La Loche to the confluence of the Virgin and Clearwater Rivers.

The Virgin River is a crystal clear beauty (unlike the Clearwater, which is slightly silty). We set up camp and cooked a fresh pike, that we had caught, for supper. It was delicious, but not quite the grayling we had hoped for. A short paddle took us to the Clearwater and our first Class II rapids. It was pretty straight forward, but we were a bit nervous just the same. A good clean run built our confidence for the many runs ahead of us.

Wildlife was abundant. We rounded a corner to confront a young moose, which, I am sure, had never seen humans before. It stood waist deep in the river eyeing us with astonishment. It finally swam across to the other side and took off up the bank. I thought it was gone, but Barbara pointed it out up on a ridge peering out at us from between the jack pines. Descending one of the rapids, I heard a loud squawk and looked up to see a magnificent bald eagle warning us away from his fishing grounds. We saw eagles every day along with sandpipers, kingfishers, hawks, and many diving ducks. We saw one bear in the distance and had another check out our campsite one evening. The walleye and pike fishing was excellent, giving us many delicious meals.




On our first two days on the river, we ran many long Class II rock gardens and only had a couple of short portages. Nevertheless, strong headwinds slowed our progress, and we were obliged to paddle into the early evening to keep to our planned schedule. Of course, it was daylight until after 10 p.m., so there was no real need to hurry to set up camp and cook supper. Campsites were plentiful, and there was no one else on the river to give us competition for the best spots. The river was full of sandbars, and the sandy banks were covered with small jack pines which were coming back after a fire. The forest was very thin, and we could see a long way back from the river. A short hike up to the top of these sandy banks led to immense flat areas where the entire fur brigade could have camped.

On our third day, we tackled Lower Mackie Rapids, which had been in sight from our campsite. It was more difficult than it appeared, and impossible to scout from shore. There are two Class III ledges, the second out of sight around a corner. We ran the first one down the centre and eddied out for a look The river turned to the right as it went over the second ledge. We hopped to the next eddy, craned our necks to get a look at the drop, then peeled out and ran it along with the Class II portion below – our toughest rapids so far! We whooped for joy and pulled in to bail several centimetres of water out of our canoe. We continued on through the endless rock gardens, almost letting our guard down. Then, over on river right, we spotted a wrapped aluminum canoe, a reminder of the power of the river. We wondered what had happened to the owners, and what we would do if it happened to us. Would we be able to pull it of with our Z drag? Fortunately, we never had to find out, but we became keenly aware that a dump in these rock gardens would almost certainly lead to a wrapped canoe. After a long tough day, we came to Gould Rapids, a series of drops in canyon-like conditions, nearly impossible to scout properly from land. One of these drops was rated Class III+, so being rather tired, we opted for the 1280-m portage. We found a beautiful campsite near the end of the portage high up beside the gorge. Looking down over the rapids, we saw a deer come down to the water to feed and drink.



The next day dawned clear and warm. We broke camp and paddled down towards Smoothrock Falls, which consisted of three drops totalling 18 m, followed by a Class IV rapids. We turned on our GPS to be sure not to miss the portage. Even though the falls were close, the sound did not indicate the magnitude of the drop. The 1300-m portage was a tough carry, but the falls were awesome. We took many photos on the way back for our second load. It was hot and buggy on the trail, so we had to wear our bug jackets. An abundance of bear and wolf scat along the trail kept us moving along at a good pace.

Smoothrock Falls had been a highlight, but it was incredible that another large falls was just a short distance down river. This time, even with the GPS, we could not locate the portage. We had come to a small rapid that led directly into the 15-m series of drops through Skull Canyon.





Could the portage start after this rapid, right at the brink of the falls? Yes it could! We back-paddled down the rapid, hugging the shore. It was not difficult, but we were keenly aware of the consequence of a dump here; and finally, there it was. The portage around Skull Canyon was short and we could not wait to drop our packs and race back to see the spectacle. The water had eroded a near-vertical chasm through
the ancient dolomite rock. It was easy to imagine the outline of skulls on the canyon walls. We scrambled all around the cliffs to view and photograph the magnificent falls from all angles.





We thought we had finished portaging for the day, but Simonson Rapids had a different plan in store for us. This is a very long rapids starting with a solid Class III heading south. The river then twisted north-west though continuous rock gardens, and then south again to a Class IV ledge with five different channels spilling through the islands. We were ready to camp, but, for once, there was no suitable location. We scouted each of the channels, but could not find a run we could do. Reluctantly, we went ashore for one more short carry. Still, there was no campsite, so we ran the rest of Simonson Rapids and headed down to Contact Rapids to camp at 8:30 p.m. – our longest, toughest, and most interesting day.






Contact rapids is a very long and difficult set with three Class IV drops. Since we would have to load and unload three times to carry around these drops, we took the sane approach and portaged the entire 1150 m. The trail was very good, we were fresh, and it was our shortest long portage. We also expected it to be our last carry of the trip. Indeed, there were no more rapids for 52 km to our trip’s end at Whitemud Falls in Alberta. We made camp half way along near the Methye Portage, so that we could hike part of the historic route. We had trouble finding the start of the carry, since the meadow at the river’s edge was quite overgrown. Once onto the route itself, though, we found it easy going except for the occasional mud hole and hordes of mosquitoes. It must have been hell for the voyageurs. We hiked as far as a 700-m hill, and confirmed that the trail was wide enough for the horse drawn wagons that were used in later days.
On our last day of river travel, we cruised through the many monotonous loops in the river to finally come to the landmark flowerpot at the head of Whitemud Falls. We had read that there was a small creek-like channel that could be run around the entire falls, avoiding the 405-m portage. We found it in a little bay just before the brink of the falls (déjà vu). Well, it took us three hours and dozens of nasty scratches on our canoe and bodies before we were able to wade through the creek and lift over 6 large beaver dams. When we finally came out on the river, we had to paddle upstream against the strong current for 1.5 km to the campground at the foot of the falls where our plane would pick us up the next morning. That short portage would have been a breeze by comparison. The falls consisted of another 15-m series of drops, not unlike Skull Canyon. There was barely enough daylight left to hike up and photograph the spectacle.


In the morning, our plane arrived, almost on schedule, to whisk us back to La Loche and the end of our most ambitious and interesting canoe trip.

To see our complete Clearwater trip log, visit http://www.ncf.ca/~ed143/Clearwater/clearwater log.htm






TRIP PLANNER

Skill Level: Canoeists should be solid Class II paddlers because of the long rock-filled rapids. July is a good month, as the upper river could get shallow later in the season

Maps/Info: Horizons Unlimited/Churchill River Canoe Outfitters c/o Ric Driediger, Box 1110, La Ronge, SK S0J 1L0 Phone/fax: 306-635-4420 Email: ric.crco@sk.sympatico.ca. For a modest fee, Ric sent us maps and descriptions, and booked our flights.
Canoe Saskatchewan has lots of details plus UTM coordinates for rapids and portages. http://www.lights.com/waterways/index.html

Access Points:
Lloyd Lake or the Virgin River by float plane: Warner Bridge by car (not advised to leave vehicles there).

Exit Points:
Contact Rapids or Whitemud Falls by float plane. Fort MacMurray by vehicle.

Guided Trips
: Horizons Unlimited/Churchill River Canoe Outfitters

Flights:
Mikisew Air, La Loche, SK (306) 822-2022