Imagine yourself and a partner marooned on a tundra river, no canoe, so late in the season that no paddlers will pass your way until next year.
Kazan River by Folding Canoe
Imagine yourself and a partner marooned on a tundra river, no canoe, so late in the season that no other paddlers will pass your way until next year. Your family doesn’t expect to hear from you for weeks so rescue is a long way off. At least you have all your gear and the fishing is great, it could be worse.
Actually this scenario was avoided, but just narrowly. Owning a foldable Pakboats™ canoe had made it possible to charter just a small Cessna on floats from Ennadai Lake Lodge to Angikuni Lake further up the Kazan River. We were ready for a three week paddle to Baker Lak
e starting August 1, 2004. Carrying out the foldable canoe as luggage on the scheduled commercial return flight would solve the big problem faced by most who paddle to Baker Lake either on the Kazan, Dubawnt or Thelon rivers. It was fortunate that the pilot from Cawker & Young Outfitters was also interested in the Pakboat, because he was still there when we dumped out the pieces of the canoe on the beach near the outlet of the lake. Missing was the small but crucial end piece which connects the gunwales at the bow. It had fallen out the top of the carry bag which was so full that I had difficulty closing it as tightly as I would have liked. My heart sank at the realization that our trip was to be aborted without ever dipping a paddle in the water. And this after actually being set down on the river and all the expenditures for the charter flight in and commercial return flight already made.
Had the pilot, John Cawker, not wanted to see us prove we could assemble the boat in less than 30 minutes, he would have been long gone by the time we found out. I told him the piece was definitely in the bag when I packed it in my backyard two days before. But we had driven from Minneapolis to Winnipeg, then flown from there to Thompson, MB, changed planes for Ennadai Lake Lodge and camped on the esker there overnight. The piece could have been anywhere along the way. John said, “let me check the cargo area on the Cessna just in case”. AND THERE IT WAS!!! Between the three of us, we assembled the canoe in 20 minutes and John was dipping his wing as he took off over us a few minutes later while we loaded the canoe.
The plane did leave carrying another important piece of our kit though. My partner realized only after the plane disappeared over the horizon that his only mosquito head net was still under the front seat where he had left it. Fortune was smiling though, as unbeknownst to him, I had a backup head net. Before mentioning this fact to him, I contemplated what I could extort in exchange for this now obviously priceless item. But, after a few minutes of witnessing his distress, I passed it on up to the bow without conditions.
Fortune’s smile continued for the rest of the trip. We saw musk oxen nearly every day. In fact, one evening, they even wandered into out esker beach camp while we were cooking up the Lake Trout. Two bulls then proceeded to have a short joust, either for our entertainment or more probably, for rights to the cool sand on which they ended up lying for some time.
Mid-August is the best time, to see the great aggregations of caribou on the northern parts of the Kazan River. We camped at an old caribou crossing point below Forde Lake and witnessed not only a couple dozen musk oxen grazing as they ambled along, but also thousands of caribou. They entered the river within yards of our tent to swim the cold river which seemed hardly an inconvenience to even the six-week-old calves. A wolf made a kill within 100 yards of us while we were there. Gulls cried in ecstasy while feeding on the remains of the carcass. Sandhill cranes flew in to take advantage of the disturbance and serenaded us with their croaking calls through the evening. At first light, we awoke to the sad bleating of separated calves and cows still searching for each other after the previous day’s stampede caused by the wolf. The herds kept arriving and swimming until we pushed off down the river ourselves later in the morning. Truly a scene to rival the African Serengeti!
We were happy with the Pakboat as outfitted, including, kneeling pads, reinforced double layer keel guard, D rings near water line for the painters, and last but not least, the cover which enabled us to tackle bigger rapids and bigger waves on the long and often windy lake crossings. Portaging this light boat was also a wonderful change from previous trips where we have struggled with the heavier standard tripping canoes.
I should mention that we had one other convenient piece of modern technology with us, a $600 satellite phone that would have allowed us to call for rescue ourselves when we got tired of the fishing on our Angikuni beach.
I’m fantasizing where to take this boat next. Maybe I’ll fly the canoe down to the southwest deserts next spring to do some canyon paddling on Lake Powell and the Escalante River. I have heard some of the previously drowned canyons are being exposed for the first time since the Glen Canyon Dam was built (due to the long drought in the area). Or maybe for something completely different I might paddle Europe using the canal systems. So many possibilities now!
Tim Johnson
PHOTO – kazan river.jpg
PHOTO – caribo swimming.jpg
