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A Summer on
Great Slave Lake, NWT

2024

A Little Background

For the last 8 years, Bob and I have done a major paddling trip every summer.  We have paddled the entire length of the Mackenzie River, NWT; the entire length of the South Saskatchewan River; the entire navigable length of the Red Deer River,Alberta; the Grass River in northern Manitoba and many of the wonderful large lakes found in the West Kootenay area of British Columbia where we live.

Two years ago, we did a month-long, unsupported 500 km trip in the southeast region of Great Slave Lake (GSL),  Starting in Fort Resolution and with two other friends, we headed east, skirting along the shore past the mouth of the Slave River, past the mouth of the Taltson River and far into the amazing island network that marks the beginning of the East Arm of GSL.   It was a superb wilderness trip. Here are some of the watercolour sketches I did that summer.

Island in Hornby Chanel, Great Slave Lake
Basile Bay, Great Slave Lake
View in Hornby Chanel

After that trip, we swore that we would go back and do it again, this time, all of it...a complete circumnavigation of Great Slave Lake!  So, for the last two years we have been looking at maps, figuring out distances and logistics and doing lots of dreaming.  We made a proposal to the Royal Canadian Geographic Society to support our trip this summer and they decided to assist us with some of the costs through a very generous "seed" grant.  We spent three months planning and checking off the long list of logistics required to make this expedition happen.​

 

My paints, watercolour pencils, sketch books and camera were tucked away in their own designated dry bag.  I was looking forward to sketching and recording the landscape of this wilderness area.

The Trip Begins


We started in Hay River on June 16.  We travelled 8 kilometres that day before pulling in to shore when the winds began to ‘roar’!  The shoreline was a wide stretch of fine sand and by morning our tent was buried!  We encountered more wind and sand as we travelled east towards Fort Resolution and the Slave River Delta.  The Slave River, fed by the snow pack from the Northern Rocky Mountains, is the source of 70% of GSL’s water.  In spring, meltwater moves down the Peace and Athabasca River into the Slave River.  For the last two years, there has been very little snowfall in northern British Columbia and thus little run-off.  The water in GSL is down about 1.5 metres (5 feet) from normal levels. With water levels so low, the sediment carried down the Slave River over many hundreds of years was exposed and the delta was virtually dry.  There were sand bars everywhere and we bottomed out many times in 15 cm (6”) of water.  We were glad to get past the delta and into the Hornby Channel where the first outcrops of the Precambrian Shield (also know as the Canadian Shield) begin. Winding through the channel, we portaged into Basile Bay where we camped high on a granite rock overlooking the blue-green water of this beautiful bay.  


Exiting Hornby Channel, we could see the high cliffs of Etthen Island – some 10 km across the water.  Over the next two days, we followed the shoreline of bays and inlets to the community of Lutsel K’e where we resupplied our food stock...enough for the next thirty days!  From there, we travelled deep into the East Arm via Tochatwi Bay, through a feature known as The Gap, down past the high cliffs of the Kahochella Peninsula and on to Pike’s Portage.  The portage trail has been used by hunters, traders and trapper to access the Barrens, a vast treeless area of tundra for hundreds of years.  This site is the most easterly point of the lake and marked our turn around point. Returning past Reliance, we travelled northwest along the shoreline of Mcleod Bay, an area of gorgeous pink granite, peppered with many granite whaleback islands.


Onward past the Taltheilei Narrows, and into Hearne Channel, we paddled a shoreline of many bays and islands with names like Devil’s Channel, Drybone Rocks and Hump Island.  Reaching civilization in Yellowknife, we resupplied one more time.  Facing headwinds we paddled out of Yellowknife Bay and along the east shore of the North Arm. Thank goodness for GPS as there are hundreds of islands in this area and navigation is challenging!  We crossed the North Arm at Waite Island and began the last stretch of our trip.  Up until this point, we had had fantastic weather and for the most part calm winds, but by this time it was the middle of August and the autumn winds began to blow predominantly from the south and south east – the direction in which we were travelling.  Behind us was the beautiful granite of the Canadian Shield.  Facing us were low-lying stretches of sand, boulder fields, spits that were calm on one side and great breaking waves on the other.  Three out of five days, we were wind bound. 


At Wrigley Point, sitting out yet another fierce day of winds, my partner fell and realized that he couldn’t bend his foot.  Thinking it might have been caused by a stroke and after consulting with health authorities via In Reach, it was advised that he should get medical treatment ASAP.  Helicopter came, picked us up and we flew off to the hospital in Yellowknife, leaving our kayaks and much of our camping equipment behind...no time to even say “good-bye”.  Bob is fine – turns out the peroneal nerve in his leg was damaged as a result, perhaps, of a repetitive position in the kayak.


Total Distance Paddled: 1322.8 km


Number of Days:  68

 Sitting peacefully on a rock sketching...

 Absolutely absorbed in the landscape.

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