George River Solo 2018

Day 36
Start Time: 8/19/2018 12:15 PM
Duration: 5:50
Distance / Total (km): 27.2 / 460

I got up at 9:00, the sun was beating down on the tent and it was baking. It seemed like such a nice day I failed to take proper defensive measures, the first 10 seconds were great but then the attack of the black flies began, I regretted not having the Pod set up. Back in the tent with the fly opened up the temperature had dropped from its peak of 38.9°c to “only” 30°c. I am rethinking what I am going to wear today, because of the rapids later in the day I went with the dry suit but with little underneath as it is projected to be in the upper teens in the afternoon. I heard a faint distant noise, sounded like a motorboat but I did not have a good view of the water and it must have been on the far side more than a kilometre away.

It was just after noon when I paddled away from camp, I realized I had not taken a picture with the tent in place! The sun had long since departed, now 100% cloud cover, there was a light tailwind so I made reasonable speed for the first two hours, almost making it to the Environment Canada Water Gauge. I paused for a quick break and started to hear the sound of a distant motor, the boat that had passed my camp earlier was returning. We met up, it was Pierre, one of the owners of Norpaq, their main lodge is located downstream just after the first series of rapids. They have a few other cabins along the river mostly for day lunch purposes, the other larger camps like High Cliffs were mostly used during the caribou hunt and are now unused. This is a common thing with many of the interior lodges, the ones along the lower George have transitioned almost entirely to the fishing crowd, the next 250km are filled with Salmon (apparently), people are willing to pay the big bucks get a chance at one. We chatted for a bit, he figured I had stayed over at High Cliffs, I wasn’t too sure how he felt about that but in the end he gave me the ok to stay his Falcoz cabin on Slanting Lake. One kind of weird thing, in 2008 my group had camped here where Kamistiuetinast Creek enters, in the morning while we were packing up Pierre had stopped by, now 10 years later I run into him in the exact same spot!

As I paddled around the bend to the west the wind hit me head on, it was quite a slog for the 5km to where the rapids begin, it used up valuable time that I had not accounted for. At last, I reached the end of Indian House Lake and the beginning of the Lower George River, 250km of moving water ahead, now that was something to celebrate! The “low” water was very noticeable here on the initial R2-3, previously I had run this down the right shore, this time it was too shallow but the middle was much less wavy that it was before. This rapid and many of the other R2-3 rapids ahead would turn out to be much less intimidating than I expected, I considered this a good thing. At the end of the rapid there is a small lake like expansion, I saw another freighter canoe here and then another near the top of the outflow rapid. I would later see two more boats returning to the lodge, needing full power to make it up the rapids while the clients huddled under the cold spray.

The next stretch of rapids is about 8km long. Mostly R2 with some swift water breaks plus a couple of parts that rank as R3. Although I refer to the water as low, perhaps “less volume” would be more accurate; there is still plenty of water. Some big waves, I never came close to hitting anything although I could see through the clear water to the boulders of every size and shape that line the riverbed. Just at the very end did the river fan out creating a short rocky decent into Slanting Lake. This section was a fantastic ride, nothing too stressful, 35 minutes of fun fun fun.

It was raining by the time I finished the rapids, dark & dreary and cold. Fortunately, the Norpaq cabin is located here on Slanting Lake, located high up on the bank requiring a steep climb through boulders with my gear. The cabin was very nice and clean, obviously seeing regular use. It also was appropriate for its location as it had a distinct tilt that sent me stumbling slightly as the evening progressed. I made a bag of Spicy Sausage Pasta (Alpine Aire), pretty good for a basic pasta meal. Around 10:00pm, I abruptly felt the need to lie down; good thing I had set up my bedding, probably less than a minute and it was lights out for 6 hours! At 4:00am, I got up to finish my notes and have a smoke then returned to sleep.