View topic - Canadian Odyssey - Summer 2009

This summer, we were 4 french guys in NWT and Nunavut for a 1800km trip from Fort Reliance on the GSL to Kugaaruk (Pelly Bay)
53 days, 2 Prospector 18 Novacraft, 6 premium Mitchell paddles
You can find some information on http://OdysseeCanadienne.free.fr
Everything is in french but I will be happy to translate if you have any question
13-18 june Pike s Portage
19-24 june Artillery Lake_Hanbury Portage
25-30 june Sifton Lake-Moraine Lake
1-4 july Baillie River
5-19 july Back River
20-23 july Hayes River
24-30 july No Name Rivers- Darby Lake
31july-4august No Name River- Arrowsmith River
5 August Kugaaruk

The No Names Rivers have a name now
Marie Françoise River
Upper Marie Françoise River
Cold River

It s a quick overview of the trip but if you want more details let me know

See you soon on the water !

Loïc

An exciting plan. Be ready for everything including ice.

Happy planning.

_________________
Brian
http://www.lssd.ca/~bjohnston/FOV1-00033C7A/

 

Sounds like you had a great adventure, loics.

From your photos, it looks like you ran into a lot of ice - I know breakup was late last spring. How much "sledding" did you have to do?

Regards,

jmc

Paddle Power : It was last summer
Jmc : Thank you, it was really fun and icy !
We were supposed to start from Yellowknife but with the ice we flew to Fort Reliance with Air Tindy.
We were in a dog sled style for 254km
All the Pike s portage lakes, Artillery, Ptarmigan, Sifton, Colden, Garry and Lower garry lake. We had trouble to move on Moraine Lake, Franklin and even Darby Lake on the 31st July !

Enjoy the pictures on http://OdysseeCanadienne.free.fr
Click on "LE recit" on the left
At the bottom of the page you have a link "photos"

loïcs,

Can you tell me about the sails?
And about the fishing?

_________________
Each hour should be lived as though it were an express creation in precious material wrested from death and oblivion.

Formidable, beau, magnifique, merci de l'histoire.

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Solo canoes and single blades, with a sail for those windy days...

...........O
......(___|/____)
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Wonderful shots. Lots of ice.
Four people, great head photos over time.

And nice tents, those are great for tundra conditions. I'm surprised to see four of them. Was everyone going solo?

_________________
Brian
http://www.lssd.ca/~bjohnston/FOV1-00033C7A/

 

How was the connection from the Back/Hayes area to the Arrowsmith?

_________________
Brian
http://www.lssd.ca/~bjohnston/FOV1-00033C7A/

 

Kingfisher :
The fishing : During all our trip we had trouble with the ice and I think it s one of the reason why the fishing was not that good. But we catch some nice pieces. We saw a lot of Artic char on the Back River. We ate marvellous Lake trout at Chantrey Inlet Lodge ...
The second point is that we had enough food for our trip without counting on the fishing results. Sometimes we were just too tired to spend time on fishing and preparing everything. On top of that with the lenght of the trip we didn t have the time to wait for hours fishing. After 10 minutes without luck we went back to our freeze dried meals
It really depends on the time you can spend on that activity. But if I were you I would not count on fishing to eat every day !
The sail : We had one sail per canoe with a V shape. the sail was fixed at the front of the boat with two karabiners. there was to carbon fiber pole at each branch of the V. We fixed one side at the extra paddles (fixed in the front) and the other side was control by a small rope. We had two little devices to block the rope in the good position. we didn t have a drift so with a strong wind it was really tough to keep the canoe on line. But we were able to take advantage of wind coming in our back and on the side too ! We even surfed a nice swell on the Back river !
Send me a private message with your e mail if you want some pictures of the system.
It was really helpfull and it allows us to move froward even during really windy day when paddling would have been impossible

Jjoven : Thank you !

Paddle Power :
The tents are Nammatj GT2 from Hilleberg, the tent maker ! We took 4 in case of a bear or a storm or anything else would have destroy one. And on top of that, when you spend 54days together, even with good friends, it s nice to be alone in your tent at the end of the day and to have space to dry the clothes.
But don t worry, we worked as a team and we were not going solo at all
For the connection from the Hayes to Darby Lake, it was easier than expected. Because of the late ice breakup, the water levels in all the rivers were really high for the season. We were able to paddle a big part of the route and for the other parts (rapids) we walked in the water. We didn t portage a lot except at the end to pass over the water line. We didn t find anything about this route so we create our own with the help of the 1:50 000 maps.

Route : We went up on the Hayes River until this point (N67 22 52.8 W93 37 28.7)we paddled most of the river and we walked in the water, pulling the canoe for the rapids, no portage. First no name river We were able to paddle and walked. On the second no name river, We did a portage here (N67 32 06.0 W 93 25 06.4) and keep walking in the water and paddling until (N67 39 15.1 W93 10 03.8 ) After that, We did 5 protages total to arrive in the lake 245 ( N 67 43 46.6 W93 07 17.9) . When we start going down, it was a lot more difficult. We portage almost all the way from the end of the Lake 245 to Darby Lake, 2.5 days for 12.5kilometers ... It was tough, foggy, cold, rainy, in a rock field.The first ten kilometers from Darby Lake are not easy neither. A lot of walking in the river, really wide and without water.
4 days on the Hayes, 1.5 days on the first no name river, 2.5 days on the second one, 2.5 days to Darby lake, 0.5 day on Darby, 2 days on the no name river from Darby to Arrowsmith.

Keep in mind that the water levels were really high for the season. 3inches less and we would have done a lot more of portages ...

SYSOTW

Loïc

Just did a little edit here:


This system takes an 8 immediately followed by a ) to be the coding for the "sunglasses smiley"....

I put a space after the 8, to turn it back into a number followed by a bracket.

Hope that's correct.



Barbara

_________________
I'm out of bed and I made it to the keyboard....what more do you want?

Very cool!

Thanks for the awesome tour!

Canoeheadted.

Awesome trip, great photos

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-Jim-

"Paddle faster, I hear banjos!"

Thanks for the additional information. Good think for the late spring and high water.

[url]We didn't find anything about this route so we create[d] our own[/url]
That's the great thing about canoeing Canada's north--limitless possibilities.

Your trip photos maybe breathtaking, but the route was formidable and awe-inspiring at the same time--extremely impressive yet daunting.

_________________
Brian
http://www.lssd.ca/~bjohnston/FOV1-00033C7A/

 

Hello !

I'm Gilles, one of the french guys with loïcs...

First, I hope that I will take time to put more photos on our website... We are still at the chapter #9 ! Sorry...


And I'd like to know if someone knows Rob Perkins.
We've found a bag for him on Mission Island, on the Back river.
We'd like to understand what he envisaged to do, and what happened to him...
Or maybe he is sometimes connected to this forum ?

Gilles

Robert Perkins:
http://www.gotrob.com/solo.html

rob (AT) gotrob.com

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If it's not worth doing to excess, it's not worth doing at all. (AJ)