Fort Simpson

We woke after a good night’s sleep to a cool overcast morning, enjoying our last shower for a while. They served us an excellent breakfast at the Mackenzie Rest Inn of bacon, eggs, and toast, clearly not taking into account that we had a weight limit on our upcoming flights!

It was slow getting the word back that the conditions were good for flying but the first plane, a Cessna 185, left with Luke, a canoe and food by 9:30. The second plane, the Beaver, with 4 people, Judy, Mike, Craig and Peter plus 2 canoes and personal bags left by about 10:15.

Edyta, Pierre, Sam and I waited on the river bank for the Beaver to return, being pestered by Trigger the old Alsatian who was bugging us to throw a stick for him. He was pretty persistent! It slowly clouded over and by about 1:30 it started to rain slightly, rather depressing especially as we worried that we wouldn’t be able to fly.

Finally at about 2:15 we headed out in the Beaver, loaded to the gunnels with two canoes (a 16’ inside a 17’ and wrapped in a canvas bag for aerodynamics) tied to the float on the left side, our bags, the toilet seat and four of us (Edyta, Pierre, Sam and I). The flight was about 90 minutes, flying over flat swampy forest (we saw one moose off to the south) to begin with, then passed through a narrow gap of mountains, over a big valley with a couple of meandering rivers then up over the Ram Plateau, comprising soft shaley sediments cut deeply into the plateau. We passed north of the Canada Zinc mine, now mothballed, but grandfathered into the park when the park was extended in 2010. Then down into the Nahanni Valley, with spectacular views of the Virginia Falls.

Virginia Falls is the base for the National Parks so there were several parks people on arrival, all very pleasant. We unloaded the gear, set up the tents, and then Jason and Luke broke out some prosecco and prepared some antipasti which was really good.

Before supper five of us headed downriver to look at the falls. Spectacular!  Over 120 m of drop including the chute.

Dinner was a tasty stir fry followed by butter tarts. We are not going to go hungry!

Luke gave us a serious talk about how to go to the bathroom (when you’re surrounded by bears) the use of the day spa bag (containing toilet paper, hand cleaner and bear mace), and above all the risk of bears and what to do if we encounter them. Apparently the best remedy is to be in groups of 4 or more. Jason’s recommendation of lying face down on the ground with your hands over your neck and your legs spread apart solicited a rather sceptical reaction from the group!

We both had a quick dip in the river, not as cold as we’d feared it might be and very refreshing. We both felt a lot better for it.

A lovely evening and we sat on the boardwalk above the river writing our journals and watching the evening light.