The Splits

The bugs were still biting in the morning!  And it was still dusty when the wind blew. Sam had to use the toilet and was attacked viciously by mossies…!

We had Burchell’s muesli and coffee for breakfast, packed up, and headed on soon after nine.

We paddled slowly enjoying the big skies and the opportunity to chat.

We came up to one bison and this time we were ready to take photos

A bit further on we came across two more bison. What massive beasts they are!

The river meandered down the big wide valley while Nahanni Butte, which towered ahead of us, never seemed to get any closer. It was lovely paddling along however, we were in no hurry and the reflection of the sky in the river was very attractive. Then the river turned south and we hit a head wind which blew more and more strongly until we were paddling through a foot high chop. It was hard work!  Fortunately Luke’s short cut took us out of the wind after about twenty minutes of hard paddling and our progress became easier.

Gradually Nahanni Butte grew closer. We passed two more massive bison on the edge of the river, one browsing the bushes, the other lying on its belly calmly chewing the cud, both totally unfazed by our passing. Now with Nahanni Butte towering above us on our left, we turned the last corner to the rights, and there we were at the village of Nahanni Butte. There were several bison on the beach, they seemed to be pretty tame. It was bittersweet as we pulled up our canoes for the last time, we were now off the river and back to relative civilization.

Jean-Paul the boatman arrived very promptly and we loaded Craig, Peter, Judy, Sam and I with Luke and our stuff on to his Lund outboard (50 hp Honda) and headed down what remained of the Nahanni and then up the Liard to the winter road crossing. Dave Hibbard was waiting for us with the van so we unloaded our stuff, had a lunch of cheese, salami, bread and pickle, very tasty and welcome and waited for the next boatload. An hour or so later Jean-Paul returned with the second load of two canoes strapped across the boat, Edyta, Pierre, Mike and Luke. They were covered in dust and quite a sight, apparently the wind had blown very strongly after we left, picking up and swirling the dust from the beaches. Luke drove us all to the Blackstone Territorial Park which is on the banks of the Liard River.

We put up our tents, picked up our travel bags that we had left behind and repacked from the wet bags we had been using on the trip. Unfortunately the promised hot showers in the magnificent new wash facility were not working so we all piled into the van with Luke and went over to Sue Lindberg’s. She came from Ontario I think in the seventies as a nurse at Fort Simpson and nursed Eric Lindberg when he fell ill and then married him. They homesteaded on their property on the banks of the Liard River and gradually added cabins and finally a fine house. He died in 2014 but she stayed on to run the camp and cabin ground and provide meals and apparently is very popular with the locals who will come over and help for chores etc. She has a magnificent potato field and vegetable garden (surrounded by an electric fence to keep out the bison which she considers to be a pest).

She is a character,  bright and sparky with a lovely girlish giggle, and yet is very direct.  Her friend John was staying for about 6 weeks to help with the chores, apparently he used to trap in the area, but now lives in Kamloops, and drives up every year in his little Honda Civic.

We took turns to have a shower. Though not actually hot, it was  much warmer than the river we had been washing in, so was very welcome and refreshing and we felt really clean for the first time in 10 days.

We stayed for dinner, meatloaf with delicious fresh salad from the garden and potatoes with a Kokanee beer and some wine, as good a meal as Luke’s! 

It started to pour with rain while we were having supper so we were rather wet going to bed for the last time in our tent.  We agreed we would not miss sleeping in the tent, it is such an effort crawling in and out, compounded by trying to keep the very plentiful mosquitoes out as we were going in.