First Canyon.

Sunday August 12

First Canyon.

Got up at 1:30 am to go to the bathroom. There was a bit of light over the cliff edge but definitely not the Northern Lights. Disappointed!

It was very chilly when we got up at dawn. We could see the sunlight edging its way down the cliffs but it was painfully slow and never arrived before we left at 11:30.

Judy, who had been planning on getting up to see the Northern Lights, claimed that she slept through her alarm. We assured her that she had missed nothing.

A bear was seen on the other side of the river, going into the water and then out again in the same side, obviously wanting to stay away from the people.

Breakfast was eggs Benedict and bacon. Everyone had at least two each. Once again delicious... Then packed up.

The next leg was through more canyons which were spectacular. Some mild rapids which were fun. Sam was in the front and feeling rather lazy so I worked hard (insert eye roll here from Sam)!  The canoe seemed to be front heavy which didn’t help as it kept veering away from the side I was paddling on. There was one anxious moment when we pulled out into the current and nearly tipped as the current caught us.

We stopped for lunch before the end of First Canyon at Lafferty’s Creek. Pad Thai for lunch. Tasty!

After lunch we went for a walk up the Lafferty Creek, there were lots of boulders but it was fairly level. Gradually the valley narrowed until it became a narrow slit with puddles of water in the bottom.  Luke was guiding and had expected to find water flowing out of the canyon so we had wet suits and neoprene socks. However there were only a few pools of varying depth, the summer had been too dry and the stream was not flowing.  A solitary grayling was swimming in one of the pools, trapped. We waded as far as we could and for the last and deepest pool Sam had to strip down to his skivvies to get through. He said that it opened up beyond into a larger canyon again so was not worth continuing so we headed back.

We got back to the camp by about 6 pm so I had a wash, then broke out the Glen Morangie which disappeared fast. The sun went behind the canyon wall around 7:30 and it cooled off quite quickly thereafter.

Dinner started with smoked salmon on crackers followed by Jason’s lasagna which was very tasty and rounded off nicely with Irish coffee.