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Ces fini!...until next year ;) |
August 12 -Day 34 So, we made it.
What a struggle for the last 4 miles. We had
to paddle into a 20 mph wind to make it to Baker Lake Lodge. It seemsed that the wind hadn't quite finished with us.
Lots of paddlers in town. Bob Dannert, whom I met in Stony Rapids last spring just came in off the Kazan and says the water is WAY high. One of his group's canoes swamped but luckily they got out OK. Bob
O'Hara and Lee Sessions - who have been paddling up here forever - are in with a group of six. Afamily of four here at Baker Lake Lodge just did a river north of here as well.
Heard about another US camp group who had trouble on the Back River. Like the idiots they seem to be, they set of an EPIRB which is illegal and is only supposed to be used on a large ship.What they should have had is a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB). They had the Armed Forces Hercules - at 10 grand an hour - all the way up here from Winnipeg and then got rescued by a mining company helicopter. And all courtesy of the ever generous but bankrupt Canadian Governament. As we heard, it they could have self-
rescued without setting off the EPIRB.
Another group south of here had a kid get bitten by a grizzly bear. Of course he needed an evac. And lastly, our friend George Drought had a stove blow up on him and got badly burned. He and his wife, Barbara, and their group had to phone to get flown out early.
Seems like a bad year. The Mounties, who were run off their feet organising the dumb rescues, aren't
at all happy with poorly thought out canoe adventures like the EPIRB story. The difference between them and George is that he had a plan
and did a self-evac ... and on his own nickel with no Hercules airplane.
I haven't had any word about the Borealis Paddling Expedition women so I assume they are OK on the Back River. Also our pals John and Charlie
are still out on the Kazan somewhere. I hope they're OK as Bob Dannert - who has been around the block - said it was "awful!"
The last neat thing for this trip happened an hour out of Baker. We have doen 10 trips up here and never seen a grizzly bear. I was really hoping to see one on the Hanbury as everyone seems to see them
there. Not us, though. So get this. We are eight miles out of Baker and we see a sow and two young right on the shore of the river as we drift past.
Cool or what!
Well, that's it, kids. It was a great trip and we'll be out here again next year somewhere. 'Till then "Happy Trails."
From the Hanbury -Thelon Rivers. Bill Layman and Lynda Holland |
