Slave River Playground Video

During my stay up in Fort Smith a film crew came up to take some footage of the Slave to show during the Winter Olympics in Vancouver to promote other parts of Canada as tourist destinations. Here is a nice video of the Playground (also features ''English Channel'') which shows the Slave River is for kayakers of all abilities.

 

The Holy Ganga, Rishikesh and the land of Old Monk....

View outside my room early morning in Rishikesh Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

At the end of October I returned to Australia after spending almost 2 months in Rishikesh, India. What was meant to be 2 months of raft guiding actually turned into 2 months of video boating for Red Chilli Adventure! Fortunately this opportunity was offered to me so I was able to do what I love - kayak everyday, make videos and earn a little bit of money to put towards rent and food!

Loading the jeep for rafting at the Red Chilli store Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Marine Drive put-in on the Ganga Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Relaxing after the major rapids of the day on the Holy Ganga River Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Packing up and getting ready to re-load the jeep Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

This was my second visit to India (my first being in Jan - March 2008). I saw many old kayaking friends there (Flo from Austria, Eamon from the UK, Vipin, Anvesh, Arvind all from Red Chilli Adventure and many more!) and made new ones such as Polly & Paul from the UK. The thing I love about this place is everyone is so enthusiastic about life, being on the river and the outdoors. People not only care about their bodies but also their minds which is why I guess Rishikesh is one of the main hubs for Yoga in the world. 

One of the many monkeys which inhabited my balcony! Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Luxman Jhola bridge - one of the main tourist sights in Rishikesh Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

View from the Red Chilli office of the beautiful Ganga River at sunset Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Yet another monkey with what looks like a stolen apple from an unsuspecting tourist Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

This man sells really nice snack mix at the rafting take-out Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

View of the Ganga outside Den-ascent Expeditions Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

There were a few disappointments in India such as not being able to kayak the mighty Siang River but these disapointments were replaced with being able to paddle with good friends on the Ganga everyday, experience India's main festival Diwali (basically everyone just throws around a bunch of fireworks and a lot of sweets are eaten), take part in a yoga class, and be invited to many birthday parties and dinners hosted by my local friends. 

Paul holding the mother of all fireworks! Photo Jacqui Whitehead

Busy streets during Diwali Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

It was also fantastic to see a few trainees from my first visit to India (who had that stage never even been in a kayak or guided a raft) be trip leading or safety kayaking down the Ganga River. I can't wait to see how they have progressed next time I go back.

Another view of the Ganga and Luxman Jhola bridge Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Celebrating my last trip on the river in India with Balam Photo: Bheem Sing

I will be posting a video with the highlights from India on my blog soon but I really need to thank my dear friends Arvind, Vipin & Anvesh and all the boys at Red Chilli Adventure - you guys truly made me feel part of the family! 

No Dam on the Slave!

With the White Nile being dammed kayakers will be looking for alternative rivers for playboating. The Slave River in the NWT, Canada offers world class play spots, river running, and even creeking with first descents still to be run! This video shows the 4 sets of rapids on the Slave and the features each set of rapids has to offer as well as making people aware that this unique river is at threat of being dammed.

Slave River 2009 from Jacqui Whitehead on Vimeo.

Return to Skooks and High Levels on the Ganga River

Micha going for a blunt with Drew on surfer's right Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Last week of August John and I decided to hit the Skook one more time before I left BC. The levels ranged between 12.0F-12.97F which meant we had hours on Skooks without it greening out on us. The other advantage was there were very few boaters at Skooks this time around which meant on most days the wave out-surfed us! Like always we had a big adventure with our second Skookumchuck trip - beginning with the ferry ride!

John Rathwell on 'the Skook!' Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Micha & Drew competing for the wave behind Skooks Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Micha going for an aerial blunt Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

BC ferries wanted to charge us an extra $30 for being 4cm ''overheight''. John really didn't want to pay this so he forced his creekboat inside the jeep and only minutes after I stated we would probably crack the windscreen....the windscreen cracked! When we left the Sunshine Coast again like always another adventure to be had, this time we made the ferry with only about 2min to spare, being hungry kayakers like most we were so desperate on the ferry to eat anything that we ended up eating re-fried beans out of the can on the hood of John's jeep with wholemeal wraps and cheese.....it tasted so good at the time!

Moments after I told John we would probably crack the windscreen! Photo: John Rathwell

The first week of September I flew out of BC and landed in Delhi, India. The following day I braved a long car journey to Rishikesh where I will be spending the fall guiding/safety kayaking at HRR on the Ganga River with strong possibilities of also doing expeditions on the Saryu, and Kameng Rivers. Another possibility though is the Siang River Festival in November which I am looking forward to (especially after seeing some of the footage in The Last Descent!).

So far I have been out kayaking on the Ganga River which is at it's highest flow for the season. I've seen some ridiculous looking boils so far and opted to borrow my friend's creek boat for the first 3 days of paddling so I wouldn't get completely smashed and gave the Project 52 a go in high water yesterday which was both exciting and fun!

Although I am sad to have left BC I'm looking forward to the next 3 months of big water boating in India. I have met so many great people in Canada this season who were always willing to go out of their way for me and will be people who I will call friends for the rest of my life. Those people know who they are and I can't wait to see everyone again next year season!

Photo: John Rathwell

Epic Tofino & Victoria Road Trip

After spending 4 days paddling at Skooks last August my mate Sonny and I decided to head over to Tofino and Victoria to check it out. Somehow we managed to miss the ferry in Powell River over to Vancouver Island by 5min and had to wait 5 hours for the next one. This meant we drove into Tofino sometime after 11pm and in the dark had a lot of trouble finding the campground. We decided to turn back and as Sonny made the U-Turn we somehow found ourselves in a massive ditch!...no way to get out except with the assistance of a tow truck! We thought all was lost and after an hour a tow truck eventually came and we were able to have some sleep.

The town of Tofino itself was just mainly cafe after cafe, all the real surfing is down back about 20km. We decided to surf with our kayaks at Long Beach. Usually you have to pay for day parking here but the cost was covered with our camping. Unfortunately we didn't take the camera with us surfing but it was pretty fun and a new experience surfing in the ocean.

Before heading back to Vancouver we stopped for one night in Victoria and had some really nice Mexican food and indulged ourselves with ice-cream and bakery goods. A nice reward after a week of kayaking a Skooks and Tofino!

          Main pier in Tofino Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

          Sunset at Long Beach Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

          Sunset at Long Beach Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

           Victoria   Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

   Victoria Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

        Victoria Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Victoria Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Skookumchuck Narrows

Tues 18th August - Friday 21st August a small group of us paddlers who met at the Slave River Paddle Fest went out to Skooks for 4 days. Thursday Skooks was at it's largest level 15.6F with some pretty impressive boils and whirlpools in the wave train behind.

Link to tide-chart and viewing times:

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/skook_narrows/

2nd Annual Slave River Paddle Fest 2009

The August long weekend (31st July-3rd August) saw the 2nd annual Slave River Paddle Festival held in Fort Smith. During the week prior to the festival groups of paddlers arrived from Calgary, Jasper, Canmore, Yellowknife, (also Leif from Colorado, Larry & Shane from Golden, and myself from Australia). During the Sat there were at least 100 spectators on shore at Playground at any one time. During the Sat those of us wanting to compete in the advanced down river race did a training run through the English Channel/The Edge (a channel left of Mailstrom). There was also a kayak rodeo, kayak beach ball race, canoe rescue competition, kayak rolling & hand rolling competitions, swim race through the Playground, and river rafting for whoever wanting to go for a surf in the Playground hole.

Opening ceremony at Playground Photo: Jon Blyth

Rafting in the Playground Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

Sunday saw the Advanced downriver kayak race through English Channel & The Edge which was won by Shane Kroeger and also the intermediate & beginner kayak river races.

By Monday numbers had dwindled slightly but that didn't matter as most of us headed out to look at Pelican & Molly's, which some brave boys ended up running. Although with the water level still at 4200cms a couple of kayakers had their arse handed to them in Molly's with the green tongue that usually forms the 'preferred line' only just forming at this water level.

The Slave River Kayak Festival was a great success and with potential companies such as ATCO and Trans Canada looking into hydro-electrical projects for this river it's important for kayakers to keep utilizing this river. With the dam on the White Nile being near completion kayakers will soon be looking for alternative playboating destinations to go to during summer, and the Slave will definitely make the top of the list (Leif Anderson has listed the Slave as one of his top 5 'must do' rivers). Despite the Slave being 'far away' it is pretty easy to get to by car and once you are there the cost of living is relatively inexpensive (surprisingly supermarket prices were not inflated). There are camping grounds with hot showers and electricity or you can camp for free down at the Mountain River Portage Rapids. Shuttles are pretty easy as only at Cassette and Rapids of the Drowned a shuttle is required and there are usually local boaters wanting to go kayaking so if you come with only one vehicle you will be bound to find someone to share a shuttle with.

For more information about the Slave River or the Slave River Kayak Festival you can visit the Fort Smith Kayak Club website at www.fskayak.webs.com

Slave River Road Trip-Part 2

With only a couple of days left on the Slave before the long drive back to British Columbia I thought I'd use my chance on the 'inter-web' to complete my report about the Slave and try to provide as much information as I can about the sets of rapids on the Slave and the rapids within the sets of rapids!

Rapids of the Drowned

This is the final set of rapids in the 4 sets of rapids. The Rapids of the Drowned were named so as 5 paddlers from a Northwest fur trading company came by these rapids in 1786. The 5 paddlers eddied out above the rapids, 2 of them going downstream to check if they were runnable. The story goes that they were meant to fire one shot if the rapids were good to go, unfortunately the 2 people downstream saw a duck and fired a shot causing the 3 paddlers to come down the wrong channel and resulted in them drowning, hence the name The Rapids of the Drowned.

These are the rapids most tourists can see from town and appear very big and intimidating, once you have seen Pelican, Cassette and The Mountain Portage Rapids they look nothing more than easy wave trains or as some paddlers call them the Garbage Rapids!

We put in on river left above the rapids and walked down a trail leading to a large eddy, we had to run one wave train before eddying out on river right then ferried across to the other side of the river. This was a pretty tough ferry as the water was boily and it was quite a distance, my arms were burning by the time we got to the other side.

We were however rewarded with a nice wave/hole which was unnamed. Shane later named this hole Brown Star. It was a great sticky wave for clean spins, blunts and Leif even did a pistol flip in there. 

Jacqui Whitehead on Brown Star Photos: Jon Blyth

After a couple of hours here we walked over some rocks to get further upstream on river right and found yet another steep wave which only a few people were game to surf. From here we worked back across to river left and went down another channel with 2 waves called Rough Stuff & Tough Stuff. We then ferried out into the main channel into the middle of the river and all tried to hit a large wave called the Monster Shitzer Wave but it was so hard to see once we ferried out that most of us missed it and were trying to avoid the numerous large holes in the main flow. 

Rapids of the Drowned is really like one big circuit as we were able to get back to Brown Star and do the hole run again! 

Mountain Portage Rapids

During the time we spent on the Slave we pretty much experienced a whole season of water levels - starting at a whopping 5400cms dropping to below 3700cms in our last days on the river. We were fortunate to experience the thrills of Sweet Spot and as the water levels dropped other waves such as Hang Over Cure (located on the rapid Chico) came in.

Leif Anderson surfing Sweet Spot Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

We also explored a variation of lines down this set of rapids such as instead of going far left after Avalanche we went slight left down a rapid called Land of The Giants. This rapid definitely lived up to it's name with gigantic waves and very boily eddy lines. It is still possible to make your way over to Chico after finishing this rapid by eddying out on the left and portaging over the island.

Scouting Molly's Photo: Larry Sparks

Other variations instead of going down Avalanche was Sambucca (a nice little shoot with some waves), followed by Flipper (you will approach a horizon line with a play wave on the right and a hole on the left and it all feeds into a wave train here with a few whirlpools at the bottom). Again from here we ferried across Land of the Giants in the next channel on the left and portaged across the island to get back to Chico. 

We also explored another channel called Turn Pike instead of ferrying over to Molly's. This is a class 3 drop which feeds into a couple of breaking waves. The preferred line is to then go right, behind the island to the right of these waves. If you continue down this wave train instead of going right it will feed into another rapid called Maelstrom, this rapid is rarely run as it runs close to some of the protected Pelican islands (which are protected islands which you have to stay 100m from as they are breading grounds for the endangered White Pelican). 

A couple of other alternatives to Molly's and Turn Pike include Rocking the Hard Place (a 4 foot drop located between Pony Monster & Molly's), and the English Channel (located far left) which can then be followed by Pre-Edge & The Edge.

Pre-Edge is similar to Avalanche but the Edge is the one that will make kayakers weaken at the knees. The Edge gets it's name because it is a massive hole and at certain levels a shoulder forms on river right allowing kayakers to surf the edge of it, once in a while playboaters may find themselves in this hole for a beating!

Cassette

Cassette is probably one of the most 'Slave-like' sets of rapids in the sense that some sections of the river could be as far as 3 km wide and there are so many channels on this section of river offering everything from big water boating to river running to creeking (yes there are a couple of waterfalls!). The first 2 days on Cassette we explored the rapids Carborator Cleaner (a steep tongue that feeds into a nice surf wave), TSN (a small wave train which we ferried over to river left of), Can of Beans ( a playhole which is possible to loop, cartwheel etc in). From here you can continue downstream or hike over a few rocks and paddle into the channel on river left, followed by a ferry glide into a large eddy below an island of river left of this alternative channel to get to a wave called Outrageous (below outrageous you can either go river left to Dave's Demise - a hole on the right, or down the right of the island through a set of waves). We explored the right hand line (right of the island) and later downstream came to a channel with a rapid called Rock Em' Sock Em'. This rapid contained a retentive hole on river right (which I was allowed to name Face-Rape after getting recirculated pretty violently in it) at the entry of the rapid, the 2 holes (one river left, one river right - called Rock Em' and Sock Em'), there is a small window in between these two hole. Below this is The Bitch - a large hole in the centre which a few people had the guts to surf (some controlled but most uncontrolled!). The alternative to Rock Em' Sock Em' is to either go down the next channel to the left (Snooze Button) or the next channel over to the left (Alarm Clock). Finally below all of these channels is the prize: Roller Coaster!!! A great wave train with a wave called Roller Coaster which give surfers huge air and possible to do any type of aerial move. You can either sit on the island rocks with out being maimed by mosquitos!!  The only downside from here is the take out is about a 45min paddle out (ferrying to the left) mostly through flat water but the scenery definitely makes the paddle out worth it (and also the rapids!!!). 

Jacqui Whitehead on Rollercoaster Photo: Leif Anderson

Leif Anderson on Rollercoaster Photo: Jacqui Whitehead

For a more exploratory route instead of going down the channel which leads to Carborator Cleaner you can also take the next channel over to the right which leads into a labyrinth of narrower channels which are more river running, creeking rapids. There is a lot of flat, slow water then steeper rapids consisting of a single drop or if you get to 5-Ways there are 5 channels which meet together, most of which are class 4+ boating such as Split Rock, Petrice Falls, & Rumplestiltskin. It is then possible to hike out on the river left bank of Rumplestiltskin to below Carborator Cleaner and either go the normal route through the rest of the rapids or take the channel below TSN - Information Super Highway which will take you to above Rock Em' Sock Em'. There are heaps of channels to explore and we would have spent a good 5-6 hours navigating and exploring through 5-ways and the surrounding rapids.

Shane exploring Rumplestiltskin Photo: Larry Sparks

Pelican

The Pelican rapids are located above the Mountain Portage Rapids and is one of the biggest wave trains I have seen in my life! The wave train is a very huge class 4-4+ wave train with a simple enough line (down the middle!) - the main problem is to get to these waves one needs to do a huge ferry above (starting in the eddy on river left) and fight the whirlpools and boils to avoid a large hole at the entrance of the wave train on river left. If you are unable to run this rapid you can always put in below the entry of the wave train (below a ledge) and try to ferry out lower in the wave train into the smaller waves (although these are still very large).

During our visit to Fort Smith & The Slave River we were fortunate to experience the Slave at super high water (5400cms) and at lower levels (below 3700cms) - and these water levels were only over 2 and a half weeks! We also got to see most of the playspots at varying water levels, many of which those who came up to the Slave River Festival missed out on as they only stayed a maximum of one week on the Slave. Also big thank you to Jon Blyth & Leif Anderson also for showing us around the river as without them we would have been totally lost and would have missed some of the gems this river has to offer.

Slave River Road Trip

The Slave River is a place I had never really thought I'd have the opportunity to venture to, only a river one would dream about when watching kayak flicks like Bigger Than Rodeo or YGP. Having a quiet rafting season in BC made me start thinking about post season kayaking trips and the possibility of going up to The Slave. Very little information about this river is readily available & the fact the Slave is over 1km wide meant more research was required for this trip. I searched Google for a couple of hours before coming across the Fort Smith Kayak Club website and to my surprise there is actually a Slave River Paddle Fest being held from July 31st - Aug 3rd 2009. I realized this was probably one of the only & most convenient opportunities I would have to experience this river as the Paddle Fest would orientate me to the river (as going down a wrong channel would be a disaster).

I contacted the Fort Smith Kayak Club and was given contacts for 2 kayakers from Golden, BC (Shane & Larry) who were also planning on attending the paddle festival (and spending a total of 3 weeks on the Slave). July/Aug being the busy part of the season in BC I was certain my boss would say no to this idea but in fact he welcomed it and was very supportive of the idea.

Shane & Larry as we are about to set off from Golden on our epic drive

So last Sunday (19th July) I made the drive up to Golden to meet Shane & Larry. We left first thing Monday morning to Fort Smith via the Rocky Mountains which is one of the most spectacular drives I have been on. We stopped to check out a few sites on the way, had lunch in Jasper and made a stop in Grand Prairie for supplies as we were expecting the cost of food to be inflated in Fort Smith being such a small and isolated town. 

Panther Falls, Rocky Mountain Ranges

Athabasca Falls, Rocky Mountain Ranges

The food shop was pretty epic as we had literally run out of space in Shane's truck so we had to unload and repack everything in the parking lot at Superstore at 10.30pm! Once this was under control we kept driving until about 3am before 'dirt bag' camping in a farmer's field just outside of Grimshaw for a few hours before setting about on our way again.

Trying to sort out the mess in Superstore carpark

The drive after the Rockies became very flat and once we were in the prairies all the scenery consisted of was green farmer's fields and tall green trees. Further down the track was even less interesting - tall green trees, flat scenery, followed by more trees and flat scenery.

Once in the North West Territories we had about 5-6hrs left of our drive to go so we broke it up with a visit to Alexandra Falls & Louise Falls. What you see of Ed Lucero (who was the kayaker who did a first decent of Alexandra Falls, however the world record title was later claimed by Tyler Bradt in 2007 as Ed Lucero's deck imploded causing him to swim) running this 107 foot waterfall in 'Bigger Than Rodeo' or Tyler Bradt & Rush Sturges in 'Source' doesn't give this waterfall the justice it deserves. Alexandra Falls is without doubt one of the most spectacular & most impressive sights of nature I have ever seen before. The water above the falls is so fast flowing and then gently goes over the falls like a silk sheet. Below the falls is almost completely still & the view down stream is like looking at a picture as everything is so still and calm. It's a sight that needs to be seen in the flesh to appreciate it's beauty.

Although not as high as Alexandra Falls, Louise Falls is just as spectacular and very unique in it's boxed-shaped formation.

Our last stop before reaching Fort Smith was Hay River, home of Slave Lake & also the last town with 3hrs left to drive to Fort Smith. 

Fort Smith is a town of only 2,500 people with the slogan ' easy to get to and hard to leave'. Within the first hour I could see how true this was. We were welcomed with open arms by local paddler Jon Blyth, who is endowed with the most knowledge and river experience regarding the Slave River. We were also warmly welcomed by his housemates Gen & Christina, John (another kayaker on holiday from Ontario) and Leif Anderson (Fluid Kayak Rep also on holiday). 

After the long drive (almost 38hrs traveling time total!), we pitched camp at Queen Elizabeth Campground and were looking forward to paddling with Jon, Leif and Ontario John the following day.

Day 1: Mountain Portage Rapids

Jon, Leif & John showed Shane, Larry & myself around on this section of river as we would have seriously got lost without the help of a local paddler or guide. Due to heavy rain in Alberta (mainly in the prairies) the river had risen to very high flows, 5300 cms! 

Our first mission was the put-in. At the put-in there are heaps of mosquitos, bull & horse flies so all paddlers choose to wear a dry top or long sleeve as well as splash pants & gloves despite the water temperature being around 23 degrees. Leif even walked in wearing a mosquito net over his face as the bugs were that bad. There are many log jams on this river so in order to put-in we had to launch off some floating logs about 5m from the shore. We then ferried across to the other side of the river (~20min) into a large eddy above 'Molly's Nipple'. Here we got out onto the bank then were able to walk across a log jam onto a rock island right beside 'Molly's' to scout the rapid. Unfortunately at this water level Molly's becomes a very large, recirculating, trashy hole whereas at lower levels there is a narrow tongue which leads into a large wave train so we all opted to portage this. However at this level about the 2nd last wave in the wave train forms a very large, crashing surf wave called 'Sweet Spot' which leads into a pillow wave coming off a rock island at the bottom (sort of like the 'Hump' on the White Nile). Jon & Leif were the only ones brave enough to attempt to surf this on this run down the river.

To portage Molly's we walked back to the bank where we caught the large eddy and walked down below the rocks and put-in again. From here we were able to ferry across a couple of small currents so we were right beside Molly's at the bottom of the first drop and watch Jon & Leif surf from the eddy here. 

The next rapid we ran to the right of the large island below 'Molly's' was called 'Traffic Jam' (named so due to a large number of kayakers swimming down this rapid at the same time on their first run down the Mountain Portage Rapids). 'Traffic Jam' consisted of mainly seam lines and boils. We then eddied out below this large island and paddled around the bottom of the island to river left and up the eddy of river left of this large island and were rewarded with a wave called 'The Forgotten Wave' ( a large surf wave, possible to do aerial moves and good eddy access on river right). We stayed a few hours here before running a wave train in the channel below called Avalanche. Avalanche is a nice big wave train which you can either run straight down the centre and carry on to another rapid called 'Land of the Giants' or as we did stick centre left (avoiding the sticky hole at the top on river left) and worked our way left into a large boily eddy. From here we then made our wave down to 'Chico' and making the eddy on river left before ferrying across to the next eddies on the left of another island so we could make out way to the next channel parallel to 'Chico' - 'Playground'

Waiting in line at Forgotten Wave

Leif on The Forgotten Wave

Jon on Forgotten Wave

Shane on Forgotten Wave

Playground is a great spot for beginners and there are many options here. This one channel has about 3 wave trains across the channel (2 great surf wave up top on centre right called 'Number 1' & 'Number 2' respectively). The beginners surf spot being 'Playground' located close to the bank on far river left, with a pretty flat run out and a large eddy on the left to paddle back up in. Directly above 'Playground' in the same channel is 'The English Channel' (named by a group of British paddlers) where the infamous 'Edge' is - basically the Edge is a massive hole and at certain levels kayakers who are game enough will surf the shoulder of this.

So whoever is reading this right now is probably terribly confused about the layout of the river and the Mountain Portage Rapids - that's okay, so were we and I think we still all are! You could spend a month here and still never paddle the same route down this set of rapids and this is only one of the 4 sets (still have Cassette, Pelican & Rapids of the Drowned)!

Day 2: Mountain Portage Rapids

Today we did the same route as Day 1 except Shane, Leif and John spent a fair amount of time surfing Sweet Spot before we all headed down to The Forgotten Wave. I managed to get a beating in the sticky wave behind the Forgotten Wave and was cartwheeled unintentional a few times. After spending some rest time on the rocks in the sun and having some snacks we made our way down Avalanche and this time skipped Chico and made a ferry across the next current so we could get all away across the river to be parallel to the English Channel so we could take a look at The Edge. The Edge was completely insane and even the hole above The Edge (Pre-Edge) was something I wouldn't want to find myself in! 

Leif surfing 'Sweet Spot'

Over the next few weeks I will be updating my blog to get as much information about the Slave out there to other kayakers as this river is up top with the Nile & the Zambezi. Unfortunately the Slave is also at risk of being dammed to supply energy to the oil sands and losing this river would not only be a loss for the paddling community, the locals of Fort Smith but also would wipe out the endangered White American Pelican population as their breading grounds are at the Mountain Portage Rapids. The more people who visit and utilize this river the less likely Trans Canada will get permission to dam this unique and amazing river.

For now some useful travel info:

How to get to Fort Smith: I drove up from Yale, meeting Shane and Larry in Golden so we could car pool for the rest of the journey. From Golden it is an approximate 27 hr drive but we had many stops along the way, slept during the night for a few hours and had a stop for several hours in Grand Prairie to get food supplies. The main airport in the NWT is at Yellowknife but flights can be very expensive so other foreigners choose to fly into Edmonton and hire a car, or hook up with other paddlers and drive the rest of the way up.

Where to Stay: There are many places where you can bush camp i.e. at the Mountain Portage Rapids, however the bugs are terrible at these spots and we have been warned that there are also plenty of bears in these parts. We have chosen to camp at Queen Elizabeth Campground located off the highway just before Forth Smith. Here there are powered or non-powered camping sites, toilets, hot showers, fire pits and a BBQ. I am also sure if is fairly easy to rent a room or a house in town if you are willing to spend the time looking around or are staying in Fort Smith on a longer term basis.

Food: We bought a dry-box and cooler filled with food we purchased at the last major town on the way up in Grand Prairie. Here there is a large Superstore, Costco, Canadian Tire, Walmart, London Drugs and any other store you could imagine. Costco and Superstore were great options for bulk buying drinks, granola bars etc but when we came into Fort Smith we were actually surprised that meat & vegetables were roughly the same cost as other large towns in BC so we could have potentially bought everything in Fort Smith instead without having a costly food bill.

Other concerns: It's important due to the bugs to bring long pants, long sleeve tops and any other clothing which may protect yourself from bites and stings. We all have bought with us those mosquito net jackets with the hoods. Although you may look like a major dork we are all very thankful we have these as sometimes the bugs can be too much to bare - especially if you have wet kayaking clothing on! We also bought a mosquito net shelter for which out kitchen/eating area is set up, without this I don't know how our food would survive without being swarmed by unwanted nasties! 

Be aware that there are bears in the NWT and to always keep food and toiletries away from your sleeping area, not to leave open food lying around, throw away your garbage in the bear bins on site, clean the dishes and empty grey water in the area provided and finally to always tie  the coolers and dry boxes with a cam strap so it is harder for a bear to open.