PADDLING THE NAHANNI
by Rich Henke

BACKGROUND

One of the premier canoe trips in the world is found in Nahanni National Park in the Northwest Territory of Canada. A World Heritage Site, the South Nahanni River region contains some of the world's best undeveloped mountain scenery including 300-foot high Virginia Falls. Just upstream from the park is a world class climbing area, the Cirque of the Unclimbables. The area is home to many legends including some of unlucky prospectors who turned up headless, and deadly Indian tribes. It is a vast wilderness inhabited by Dall's sheep, bears, wolves, and moose and is accessible only by air or water.

In August 2004, Craig Miller and I traveled to Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon Territory in Canada. From there we chartered a floatplane to fly us to the headwaters of the South Nahanni River. We took with us my SOAR inflatable canoe, food, and equipment sufficient for an 18 day, 290-mile paddle down this wilderness river. Our private trip was done independently without using outfitters. This report describes the trip and includes the basic information needed to plan a similar excursion.

THE PADDLE

Day 0 30 July 2004
We arrive in Whitehouse in late afternoon. We buy fuel, bear spray, maps, and last-minute groceries. Whitehorse is an historic city containing an interesting mix of the old and the new. We wish we had an extra day to spend here.

Day 1
We had previously arranged for Alpine Aviation to fly us from Whitehorse to Island Lake near the headwaters of the South Nahanni River.Our Cessna 206 floatplane lifts off from Schwatka Lake at 9 a.m. This lake was formed by a dam across the Yukon River, just upstream from Whitehorse. We fly east, sometimes high and sometimes low, as our pilot tries to find a path through the valleys and clouds. He points out many rivers and lakes which look inviting for future trips. Two hours later we land on Island Lake, and then have a ¾ mile portage to the Nahanni River. It takes 3 carries to portage everything to the river, but soon we are paddling down the Nahanni. We spot a porcupine, our first wildlife sighting. Our breezy camp on a sandbar is mosquito-free.

Day 2
30 miles today on the slow moving water of the upper Nahanni.

Day 3
During the night, a rainstorm occurs which will last for several days. But the weather is excellent for the majority of our trip. We arrive early at a campsite at the mouth of Brintnell Creek. The afternoon is spent sorting gear and loading our backpacks for a 3-day side trip to the Cirque of the Unclimbables.

Day 4

It is still raining with poor visibility. We decide to backpack to the Cirque anyway since we don't have extra days to wait out the rain. We hope that we can get there today and perhaps the weather will change tomorrow. The trail is vaguely marked and we lose it many times. After 6 miles, we reach Glacier Lake and use the stashed canoe at the lake to cross its 6-mile length. Several miles later, we climb a 2000-foot talus field, which is the hardest part of the approach. It takes us 14.5 hours to reach Fairy Meadows in the heart of the Cirque and find a campsite. But what a campsite! A huge overhang shelters our tent and climbers have hung ropes from the ceiling for drying our wet clothes. Now, how about some good weather?

Day 5
When we awake in the morning, 2000-foot vertical walls surround us. We are in luck! The skies are clearing. And no one else is here! The name, the "Cirque of the Unclimbables," was coined by Arnold Wexler in 1955. But when word of his discovery reached the climbing community, the race was on to scale many of the unclimbable walls. One of the most beautiful spots on earth, the Cirque is an area about ½ the size of Yosemite Valley, and just as spectacular. We hike to the base of Lotus Flower Tower, a steep rock pillar that is a top attraction for climbers around the world. By lunchtime, I am re-counting my film supply. By dinnertime, the skies are clear and blue as we prepare to spend our second night in the Cirque.

Day 6
Another long day of carrying our packs is needed to retrace our path back to the South Nahanni River. But it is much more enjoyable without rain and with good visibility. The Glacier Lake canoe ride is beautiful as clouds reflect on the mirror surface. We reduce our time to less than 12 hours on the descent back to our campsite at the mouth of Brintnell Creek. Our number one goal for the Nahanni trip, to visit and see the Cirque of the Unclimbables, has been accomplished.

Day 7
We paddle to Rabbitkettle Lake to join a ranger led hike to Rabbitkettle Hot Springs. We visit a 70-foot high tufa mound, formed by calcium carbonate deposited by the spring waters emitted at the top of the mound. The name comes from a legend about ravens and eagles dropping rabbits into the hot waters of the spring. And sure enough, at the top we find several rabbit bones next to the spring. We climb the mound in bare feet so as not to damage the delicate formations. As our group returns to the river, we find fresh bear tracks and scat on the same trail we walked on only 2 hours earlier.

Day 8
We paddle all day on slow water. Our SOAR canoe performs better with a fast current so we have to work hard to make progress. Wildlife includes our first moose, 6 Dall's sheep and 2 trumpeter swans.

Day 9
After another long, slow paddling day, we arrive at Virginia Falls, the jewel of Nahanni National Park. Twice the height of Niagara Falls, it quickly makes the list of one of the top waterfalls I have ever seen. A trail on the south side provides a series of viewpoints. The huge river tumbling over these falls is awesome. The falls begin with a series of river wide cascades that drop down more than 60 feet before the final plunge of about 300 feet. In the center of the falls, a huge pillar called Mason's Rock (named after a famous Canadian canoeist) splits the drop into 2 parts. The developed facilities in this area are in contrast to the rest of Nahanni National Park, which is almost all pure wilderness. Planes land on the river bringing in tourists for 3-hour visits to the falls. I learn from Jonathan, the warden stationed at the falls that about 1000 people per year fly in for these visits. Another 600 see the falls as part of a canoe or raft trip such as we are doing. The campground near the falls has designated sites with a 2-day limit. The wardens give an evening talk about the history of the area.

Day 10
During a rest day, Craig climbs Sunblood Mountain while I spend most of the day hiking to and photographing the falls.

Day 11
The falls mark the transition from a U-shaped glacial-formed valley above the falls, to a V-shaped valley formed by a river below. The canyons below have walls as high as 3000 feet. Since our canoe will not handle a 300-foot drop, a 7/10 of a mile portage around the falls is required! Three carries later, we are paddling down Fourth Canyon - at first an apparent misnomer. Fourth Canyon is the first of 4 canyons that we paddle through as we go downstream. However, miners who came upstream named the canyons and this was the fourth canyon that they encountered, justifying the name. After our first Class 2 rapids, we find an early campsite along the river with a beautiful sunset view. I have never been on a river where good campsites are so easily found.

Day 12
The South Nahanni has only one serious rapid called Figure 8 Rapid. It can be Class 3+ at high water, but in the middle of August, it is Class 2+. We scout it and then whoop and holler after we successfully run it. No overturned canoe on this trip! We camp at "The Gate", where a 700-foot scramble gives us a birds-eye view of the river as it passes through a narrow rock channel.

Day 13
We camp at Painted Rock Canyon after a short day. We search for fossils with limited success but do see tracks of wolves, moose, and bears. The find of the day is several bushes of ripe, juicy raspberries.

Day 14
After a half-hearted attempt at a hike with too much heavy brush, we leave Second Canyon and enter Deadman Valley, a huge area just after Headless Creek. The problems that the early gold miners had here have left a legacy of interesting place names! It is 85 degrees F and while we are happy not to be paddling in rain, cooler weather would be nice. We select a campsite just below Prairie Canyon where big shade trees protect us from the sun. Late that night I see the Northern Lights. It was not the spectacular lightshow I have seen in photographs but I could see streaks of color all over the sky.

Day 15
In the morning, we paddle through First Canyon, which is one of the most spectacular canyons in Canada. The walls rise 3500 feet above us as we float down the swift current. Craig spots our first (and only) black bear on shore and we stop to observe as it walks upstream. Camp is at Lafferty's Creek, where a hike up through a narrow rocky canyon with pools of water to navigate is reminiscent of canyons in Southern Utah. Although the temperature was above 90 degrees when we begin the hike, we still bypass the route requiring us to swim a pool. Neither of us likes cold water! That evening, we socialize with Marcus and Tanya, the young couple we have leap frogged with for the past 10 days and whom we saw while on the trail to the Cirque of the Unclimbables.

Day 16
Just downstream from camp is Kraus Hot Springs, which provide a pleasant soak and a much needed bath. The deep canyons end and we paddle through a maze of wandering channels called "The Splits." Routefinding is not difficult and we make good time. We camp close to Nahanni Butte, a Dene Nations Village just outside the park.

Day 17
Monday, 16 August 2004 Although our plan was to spend another night on the river, we keep thinking about the Lindberg Bed and Breakfast Inn at the end of the paddle. We had read and heard wonderful reports of their hospitality. After a quick visit to Nahanni Butte, we continue paddling. The South Nahanni River soon empties into the huge Liard River, which we follow for the remainder of the day. We spend a 10-hour day paddling 44 miles of river with little current, just to get to Lindberg Landing! There we shower and have a wonderful dinner, most of which comes directly from Sue Lindberg's huge garden. It was sure worth the extra paddling.

RETURN TO WHITEHORSE

Our plan of using public transportation to return to Whitehorse is put to the test. On Tuesday afternoon, the twice a week roundtrip shuttle from Fort Liard to Fort Simpson deposits us in Fort Liard. After camping on a grassy spot overlooking the Liard River, we take the morning shuttle to Fort Nelson in British Columbia in time to catch the daily Greyhound bus that runs northwest along the Alaska Highway to Whitehorse. It leaves Fort Nelson at 3 p.m. Wednesday and arrives in Whitehorse at 4:30 a.m. on Thursday morning. We see 4 black bears, more than 50 bison, a caribou, and a Stone Mountain Sheep while riding the bus. For wildlife, go Greyhound! For people who can sleep on buses, it is a good way to go. And we are still not finished with transport. Our return air flight leaves from Juneau, Alaska so we still have another bus ride to Skagway, a ferry to Haines, and a ferry to Juneau before we fly home. Amazingly, all connections connected!

LOGISTICS

(1) Schedule, Permits, and Fees
The first step is to obtain information about the Park. The "Nahanni River Guide" by Peter Jowett and Neil Hartling is an excellent reference. In addition to maps of the entire river, the book discusses planning, equipment, weather, and just about everything you need to know. Nahanni National Park also has an excellent website ( www.pc.gc.ca ). You can e-mail them at nahanni.info@pc.gc.ca or call them at 867-695-3151. A permit is required and not difficult to obtain. There is a fee of $100 Canadian per person. You are required to reserve the exact dates you plan to spend at Virginia Falls, but there is no restriction on how many days you spend on the river.

(2) Transportation into and out of the Park
A typical river trip will begin by flying to the upper part of the river in a floatplane. Most people start in Fort Simpson, which is located in the NWT east of the park, but it is possible to fly from various places. The flight from Whitehorse ( alpine@polarcom.com ) was more expensive but it would have been even more costly for us to fly to Fort Simpson first. A Cessna 185 or 206 can usually carry 2 people plus their necessary gear. Usually, people end the trip at Blackstone Territorial Park, which is connected via road to other parts of Canada. This is close to Lindberg Landing where we stayed at the B&B. We used public transportation to get back to Whitehorse but the arrangements you make depend upon where you started from and which direction "home" is.

(3) Transportation Down the River
Unless you live nearby, the least expensive method of paddling the river is to bring an inflatable canoe from home. My 62-pound SOAR ( www.soar1.com ) incurred only a $25 excess weight charge each way when I took it to Alaska on commercial air. You can also rent inflatable or hard-shell canoes locally but transporting a hard-shell canoe with a floatplane will incur extra cost. Kanoe People( www.kanoepeople.com ) in Whitehorse rents canoes and other equipment that is needed to run the river.

(4) Food and Water
We each brought our own food and shared a MSR Whisperlite stove. This was done to simplify coordination before the trip because of time constraints. We averaged about 1.5 ounces of fuel per day per person. We drank our water directly from the river as most of the locals do. My thoughts about Giardia are summarized at( www.adventureplus.org ) under "controversial topics."

EXPERIENCE NEEDED

Figure 8 Rapid is generally the most difficult but it can be portaged. At the higher water levels of June or July, the difficulty increases over what we experienced in August. But the South Nahanni is still a river suitable for canoes, although canoe covers should be used with hardshells. Wilderness camping and survival skills are necessary since you are on your own for most of the trip. The most important skill required is risk assessment, which comes from experience and is rarely learned from books and classes. Nahanni National Park is black and grizzly bear habitat and you should be familiar with the procedures required for camping in that environment.

THE CIRQUE OF THE UNCLIMBABLES

Backpacking to the Cirque is a rigorous side trip. To use the canoes stashed at Glacier Lake, you must make arrangements ahead of time as discussed in the "Nahanni River Guide." A faster way to visit the Cirque is by flying in to Glacier Lake, but a strenuous hike to Ferry Meadows is still required. George Bell has written some informative articles about the Cirque (www.geocities.com/gibell.geo/cirque/ ).

TOTAL COSTS

Our total cost for the South Nahanni River excursion starting and ending in Juneau Alaska was $2700 (US dollars) or $1350 per person. The largest cost component was the floatplane from Whitehorse to Island Lake, which cost about $1500, more than half of our total cost. The above includes fees, ground transportation, hotels, and supplies such as bear spray and maps. It does not include food. Using public transportation from the end of the canoe trip back to Juneau worked out very well and cost us only $150 each.