The Trip Begins

We started in Hay River on June 16.  We travelled 8 kilometres that day before pulling in to shore when the winds began to ‘roar’!  The shoreline was a wide stretch of fine sand and by morning our tent was buried!  We encountered more wind and sand as we travelled east towards Fort Resolution and the Slave River Delta.  The Slave River, fed by the snow pack from the Northern Rocky Mountains, is the source of 70% of GSL’s water.  In spring, meltwater moves down the Peace and Athabasca River into the Slave River.  For the last two years, there has been very little snowfall in northern British Columbia and thus little run-off.  The water in GSL is down about 1.5 metres (5 feet) from normal levels. With water levels so low, the sediment carried down the Slave River over many hundreds of years was exposed and the delta was virtually dry.  There were sand bars everywhere and we bottomed out many times in 15 cm (6”) of water.  We were glad to get past the delta and into the Hornby Channel where the first outcrops of the Precambrian Shield (also know as the Canadian Shield) begin. Winding through the channel, we portaged into Basile Bay where we camped high on a granite rock overlooking the blue-green water of this beautiful bay.  

Exiting Hornby Channel, we could see the high cliffs of Etthen Island – some 10 km across the water.  Over the next two days, we followed the shoreline of bays and inlets to the community of Lutsel K’e where we resupplied our food stock...enough for the next thirty days!  From there, we travelled deep into the East Arm via Tochatwi Bay, through a feature known as The Gap, down past the high cliffs of the Kohachella Peninsula and on to Pike’s Portag  The portage trail that has been used by hunters, traders and trapper to access the Barrens, a vast treeless area of tundra for hundreds of years.  This site is the most easterly point of the lake and marked our turn around point. Returning past Fort Reliance, we travelled northwest along the shoreline of Mcleod Bay, an area of gorgeous pink granite, peppered with many granite whaleback islands.

Onward past the Taltheilei Narrows, and into Hearne Channel, we paddled a shoreline of many bays and islands with names like Devil’s Channel, Drybone Rocks and Hump Island.  Reaching civilization in Yellowknife, we resupplied one more time.  Facing headwinds we paddled out of Yellowknife Bay and along the west shore of the North Arm. Thank goodness for GPS as there are hundreds of islands in this area and navigation is challenging!  We crossed the North Arm at Waite Island and began the last stretch of our trip.  Up until this point, we had had fantastic weather and for the most part calm winds, but by this time it was the middle of August and the autumn winds began to blow predominantly from the south and south east – the direction in which we were travelling.  Behind us was the beautiful granite of the Canadian Shield.  Facing us were low-lying stretches of sand, boulder fields, spits that were calm on one side and great breaking waves on the other.  Three out of five days, we were wind bound. 

At Wrigley Point, sitting out yet another fierce day of winds, my partner fell and realized that he couldn’t bend his foot.  Thinking it might have been caused by a stroke and after consulting with health authorities via In Reach, it was advised that he should get medical treatment ASAP.  Helicopter came, picked us up and we flew off to the hospital in Yellowknife, leaving our kayaks and much of our camping equipment behind...no time to even say “good-bye”.  Bob is fine – turns out the peroneal nerve in his leg was damaged as a result, perhaps, of a repetitive position in the kayak.

Total Distance Paddled: 1322.8 km

Number of Days:  68

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