Bloodvein River Solo 2015

Tuesday Aug 18 – Day 23 Time: 5 hours 8 minutes Distance: 19.7 km I woke a few times in the early morning finally getting up a bit after 9:00am. It was completely clear and would remain so for the entire morning. I was in no hurry; I figured that as long as I left before 2:00pm I would make it to Bloodvein Village well before dark. I expected the Kaladore crowd to arrive and they did a bit before noon. I went to watch the show; all six boats ran the first drop and eddied out into the lagoon on RL. After a brief pause they started to eddy in, turn downstream and run the bottom portion of the rapid, boat one…check, boat two…check, boat three…whoops! Well an opportunity to demonstrate a canoe over canoe rescue! The final three ran without issue joining the others before floating off around the corner.

I moved my gear down to the end of the portage and then returned to the top to run the empty canoe. Amazing the difference paddling an empty boat, something I haven’t done on this trip and probably not since the early Spring. Had a nice smooth run, stopped to load up the gear and proceeded downstream. It’s about 6km to the one remaining rapid, #87 is a nice CII easily run.

It was not long before the bridge came into sight. I passed a couple of locals in a fishing boat, stopped to take a quick look at the small pictograph site and it’s modern and less creative edition found nearby. Definitely back in the “real” world! At about 5:00pm I caught up with the Kaladore group, they were camped for their last night by the last swift, camped on the opposite shore were some fisher types with lawn chairs!

I made the final 8km push reaching Bloodvein Village just before 7:00pm. I located my vehicle at the nursing station and loaded up, went for a quick drive around “town” before heading for the highway. Passed the dump on the way, a couple of cars parked here to watch the bears. Turned south on the new all-weather road as darkness descended.

 

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