Bird of the Day
Boreal Chickadee
Early morning
Barbara kept her camera warm in her sleeping bag overnight and opened the battery area to dry in the sun the next morning - it revived!
Although cloudy, it was not raining. Alex gave us the OK to pack up our gear. It promised to be a sunny day.
Adventures
It took us an hour to reach our second portage - Barbara L. counted 980 paddle strokes.
Then she counted 900 steps to carry our loads - 10 people, 5 canoes, 4 trips each - it would take all morning over spongy lichen to an old narrow Dene (Chippewan) trail parallel to a creek. Alex marked the entrance to our trail with some toilet paper on a small tree. This trail crosses a height of land - the water in the lake we were on flows north, eventually entering the Arctic Ocean at Bathhurst Inlet - the river system we portaged to flows east, eventually entering Hudson Bay at Chesterfield Inlet.
The two Barbaras completed their last trip, salvaging the toilet paper marker.The
group rested and enjoyed lunch at the end of the portage.
We hiked over to check out the creek we had been hiking beside - it entered the river in a lovely splashy flow where Bill spotted an ideal fishing spot. Bill soon returned with a seven lb. lake trout - Alex promised us he would clean and cook it for supper - note that Bill had to bring the fish onto a rocky shore and hand grab it (no nets allowed on trip). Alex provided a plastic bag for the fish and we were soon paddling again to our camp which was nearby.
We arrived at camp about 2:30. We spread out our wet clothes on bushes to dry.
We loved the time we still had to explore the tundra and hike along the huge eskers, recording our experiences with our cameras.
Alex had decided to add the lake trout to our leek soup that evening - we devoured it!
We admired more Dene artifacts.
A magnificent sunset with a red moon completed our day.
Landscape
Wildlife
Highlights
a day
