Hi Norsk -
Here are some thoughts that may help you along.
Going west from Whitefish to the Eileen. I'm not sure exactly what route you may have in mind. Do you mean the portage route from the long SW bay of Whitefish? I reached the Eileen from Whitefish by going through Lynx, Timberhill, and various ponds to Sled Lake, then down Sled Creek. There is a trip report on this route in the NWT section if you are interested.
The area is quite remote. The late Alex Hall ("Canoe Arctic") ran one trip a year in the Sled Creek / Upper Eileen area. Now Jack Pine Paddle, out of Yellowknife, offers that trip. It is generally a late August - September date: you could check their website for 2022 dates. You may have a better idea of why it is infrequently traveled after you check air charter quotes.
Air charter out of Yellowknife - I would suggest contacting Ahmic Air. They have a Beaver which would easily handle your load. The most recent quote on their site (2018) for a flight to Whitefish Lake was about $4200. Given you have a folding canoe, they also have a Cessna 185 which might be suitable and less expensive - it would depend on your load.
I flew out of Yellowknife for years to canoe with Air Tindi: but now the smallest plane they have on floats is a Cessna Caravan, which would be overkill for you.
Whitefish Lake is almost equidistant from Yellowknife and Fort Smith. NWAL in Ft. Smith have a Cessna 185 which might suit you. They also have a turbine Otter but it would be considerably more expensive than Ahmic's Beaver.
Another approach might be to continue your scheduled flights past Yellowknife. You could fly from Yellowknife to Lutsel'ke on the Air Tindi scheduled flight, then have Dave Oleson ("Hoarfrost River Huskies') pick you up there and fly you to Whitefish. This would significantly reduce your charter flying miles and costs. Exiting via Lutsel'ke could also be an option depending where you end up.
You can certainly obtain bear spray and bangers at a number of locations in Yellowknife, as well as ammunition. For any questions about bringing firearms or ammunition into Canada, check the Government of Canada web site.
You can buy NWT fishing licenses on line, just google it.
The NWT hunting/trapping information is here:
https://www.enr.gov.nt.ca/sites/enr/fil ... en-web.pdfThe small game information is near the back. Note upland game birds season doesn't open until September and migratory birds (ducks, geese) are subject to federal regulation and also not open in the summer. Unless you like squirrels and porcupine, I really wouldn't bother.
All Canadian topographic maps are available on line for free.
https://ftp.maps.canada.ca/pub/nrcan_rn ... pographic/Once you figure out which ones you need, you can either cut out the sections you need and print at home on 8x11 paper (what I usually do) or take the files to someone with a large format printer and have the maps printed out full size.
Well , that's a start. Look through this and get back to me if you have more questions.
-jmc