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.
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