In 1995, Carey and Janice invited Kathleen and me to join them on their Coppermine River trip from Winter Lake to the arctic community of Kugluktuk (formerly Coppermine). Total distance was 650 km (400 miles) over 28 days.
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Winter Lake to Point Lake - Northwest Territories
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In 1995, Carey and Janice invited Kathleen and me to join them on their Coppermine River trip from Winter Lake to the arctic community of Kugluktuk (formerly Coppermine). Total distance was 650 km (400 miles) over 28 days.
Carey was intrigued with the history of Sir John Franklin, who went down the Coppermine River in 1821, having overwintered at Fort Enterprise on Winter Lake in 1820. That meant that we also started our trip on Winter Lake. That meant that we had to go overland 110 km (70 miles) to reach Point Lake on the Coppermine River system. On the topo map you will see that our route, as did that of Franklin, generally went from Winter Lake to Little Marten Lake to Big Lake to Starvation Lake to Point Lake.
Here is Janice, on the dock of Air Tindi, in Yellowknife, waiting for our gear to be loaded onto the Twin Otter.
We are approaching the west end of Winter Lake. Fort Enterprise was located on the north shore, below the first obvious rapid below the outlet of Winter Lake.
We could not land at the outlet of Winter Lake, as it was too rocky. So we landed 6 km (3.5 miles) east of the outlet.
The next morning, we paddled west to the outlet, and saw these caribou swimming across the river. Look closely. You will see them!
Carey had information about where Fort Enterprise would have been located.
We searched for a couple of hours without finding any sign of Fort Enterprise. Kathleen enjoys a hot soup of Top Ramen Noodles. We usually boil water to put into a thermos, and then hydrate the noodles into a an insulated mug for lunch.
This is me, Michael, when I was much younger. We had finally found the cairn marking the site of old Fort Enterprise, which no longer exists. Carey said that the trip objectives had been achieved. It was time to get to Coppermine. After that, other than days confined to camp because of inclement weather, we had only one rest day.
View of the Winter River flowing into Winter Lake. Tomorrow we begin our overland journey.
The next morning we began our ascent to Lastfire Lake. Although we expected to portage occasionally, we believed we could travel the 110 km to Point Lake, with only a few portages. We had planned six days to reach Point Lake.
Immediately, however, we faced the reality of tracking and dragging up the 12 marked rapids spread over the 1 km to Lastfire Lake. That is Carey in the foreground. Me in the background.
One boat at a time required over four hours to reach Lastfire Lake, and our hopes of reaching Point Lake in only six days already seemed overly optimistic. This dragging up river was just as hard as portaging, although it did mean that Kathleen and Janice were able to conserve their energy.
Janice and Kathleen climbed to the top of a windy knoll to try to escape from the mosquitoes, and gained a view of Lastfire Lake and Dog Rib Rock (in the far background), a prominent landmark for native peoples, and a feature that the Franklin party used to find Fort Enterprise on their return from the Arctic Ocean in 1821.
Carey and Janice cooking supper over a fire at Lastfire Lake, which was named by Franklin. This was one of the last nights that we could count on firewood until near the outlet of Point Lake, nearly 200 km (120 miles) away. On this trip, each couple was responsible for their own breakfast, lunch and snacks. Each couple was responsible for the group supper on alternate nights. Note the wire grate, with collapsable legs. Easy to pack, and easy to position on uneven ground.
Sorry about my omission! The 110 km from Winter Lake to Point Lake was about 68 miles. The 1 km to Lastfire Lake was about 0.6 miles.
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Me too Franklin wise. I have read dang near everything I could get my hands on about the Franklin Expeditions, and about Arctic & Antarctic explorations in general.
Seeing Kathleen with a good thick book in previous photographs gladdened my tripper/reader heart. I kinda wondered what she had brought along as a trip read.
If you or Kathleen are interested in the Franklin stuff, or polar explorations in general, two of my favorites.
Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition (Paul Watson, 2017)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35167721-ice-ghosts
And my favorite compendium of Arctic explorations, The Arctic Grail: The Quest for the Northwest Passage and the North Pole, 1818-1909 (Pierre Berton, 2000)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...e_Arctic_Grail
Both are thick, enthralling, weeks to read (and reread) books, available in used paperback.
Have you guys read "In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Expedition of the USS Jeannette"? An excellent read!
Thanks for the book recommendations, guys. Yes, I have read Berton's book. I actually got a new, hardcopy of the book on sale for only $5.00. You gotta like that! On our Coppermine River trip, Kathleen took along Tundra, written by Farley Mowat. It had a chapter describing the Franklin trip down the Coppermine, based on what Franklin claimed was his diary. In reality, it was the diary of John Richardson, as Franklin lost his, if I remember correctly, in Obstruction Rapids, on the return trip to Fort Enterprise from the arctic coast. It also had a chapter on the overland journey of Samuel Hearne, from Fort Prince of Wales, on Hudson Bay. Hearne was the first European to reach the Coppermine River, near Bloody Falls, in 1771. Both chapters made our trip substantially more interesting.
So we had progressed only 1 km (0.6 miles) on the first day. A gentler current the next morning allowed us to make faster progress toward Little Marten Lake. Each boat could be tracked by a single person.
Soon, though, the rocky shore forced Carey and I into the stream. As I dragged up river past Dog Rib Rock, every once in a while I would stop, to look upstream, only to see the rocky current disappearing around the bend. The drag seemed like it would never end. Kathleen said she told Janice that she felt so bad watching me struggle so hard, as she walked along the shoreline. Carey and I were dragging so Janice and Kathleen would not have to portage. But Kathleen said she felt guilty. Apparently Janice said, do not worry about it. They are guys. They love it. And Janice was right. I was having a good time.
We stop for the day, to set up camp, and to make supper. Both couples dehydrated all their suppers, and we enjoyed a variety of meals, including including turkey cabbage soup, cashew chicken, black bean and chick pea chili, and the pie that belongs to a shepherd. (Take that, you evil apostrophe!)
In the tent that evening, Kathleen read about the exposed, wet, miserable conditions suffered by Hearne during his trek across the tundra in 1771.
On the 3rd of July the weather was again very bad, but we made shift to walk 10 or 11 miles, until we were obliged to put up because of not being able to see, due to the drifting snow. By putting up, no more is to be understood than we got to leeward of a great stone, or into the crevices of rocks, where we smoked our pipes or went to sleep until the weather permitted us to proceed.
Our group was working hard, but not as hard as old Sammy! Our tent was a Moss Stardome II, which we purchased for our Thelon River trip in 1993. As advertised, it performed very well in strong wind.
By the next evening, we had made it through Little Marten Lake, and set up camp at the mouth of the river leading to Big Lake. We slept well that evening, knowing that tomorrow we would enter this wide stream with a gentle current. We all hoped for an easy passage upstream to Big Lake. That is the tent of Carey and Janice in the foreground.
We set off the next morning even more hopeful that this large stream would allow us to reach Big Lake without having to drag or portage any more.
After three hours, however, the canoes started scraping and bumping across the rocky stream bed, until
We eventually ran out of water several km (couple of miles) away from Big Lake. We were all becoming a bit frustrated. Whose idea was this, anyway, to start our trip on the opposite side of the mountain from the Coppermine River? Oh well, maybe tomorrow would bring better paddling conditions, without the need to drag or portage.
Lunch the next day! No water in sight. As soon as we began going upstream in the morning we ran out of water. We decided that it would be easier to not bother with a dry river bed, and simply head straight across the tundra to Big Lake. Kathleen and I first took up canoeing because backpacking at our age had become too hard. We now found ourselves backpacking with a canoe, and wondered where we had gone wrong.
After six days, we finally reached Big Lake, only about halfway to our hoped-for destination of Point Lake. In August of 1820, Franklin reached Winter Lake, and intended to proceed to, and return from, the Arctic Coast that summer. Akaitcho, his guide, argued against this plan, and told Franklin that 40 days would be required to reach the Coast. The first 11 days would be through country with no wood. Most importantly, Akaitcho told Franklin that there would be no caribou to hunt, as winter was soon approaching.
Franklin, however, remained confident, and replied, we informed him (Akaitcho) that we were provided with instruments by which we could tell the state of air and water and we did not imagine the winter to be so near as he supposed.
As we huddled in our wind-bound, cold camp nearly two centuries later, Kathleen read the response of Akaitcho.
Well, I have said everything I can to dissuade you from going on. It seems you wish to sacrifice your own lives as well as the Indians who might attend you. However, if after all I have said you are determined, some of my young men shall join your party, because it shall not be said that we allowed you to die alone having brought you hither. But from the moment they embark in the canoes, I and my relatives will lament them as dead.
Fortunately for Franklin, he accepted Akaitcho’s advice, and postponed his trip to the following spring. If not, it is likely that all 20 men who reached the arctic coast in 1821 would have died. As it was, only nine men survived the trip.
We left Big Lake after a day of being wind bound, and have now reached the height of land, looking toward Starvation Lake. But we could not continue because of strong winds. For two days, we waited impatiently for better weather. Just a few km ( a couple of miles) east of here, the returning, weary, starving Franklin party was blocked at Obstruction rapids for nine days in late September trying to cross the Coppermine River. That delay proved extremely costly, as the men began to die of starvation in early October, within 65 km (40 miles) of Fort Enterprise.
We are now over the height of land. The sun is out, the air is warm, and we are portaging downhill to Starvation Lake! I enjoyed the lines of people and gear making progress to the end of what we hoped would be the last portage before Point Lake.
We paddled into the outlet bay of Starvation Lake, to begin our descent of the Starvation River, which was a small stream winding 17 km (10.5 miles) to Point Lake. Although 10 rapids were indicated on the map, these were primarily toward the bottom end. We hoped to be able to canoe most of the Starvation River, and were surprised to see the water disappear over a narrow ledge at the outlet. In reality, we should have expected a drop at the outlet. We beached to scout.
The first marked rapid on the Starvation River turned out to be a waterfall, which required a portage.
We are now at the end of the portage, at the first marked rapid, on Starvation River. We all would have liked to stayed in this very scenic spot, but felt compelled to continue. The Starvation River was obviously going to be more difficult than we had anticipated.
After breakfast the next morning, we completed our fifth portage on the Starvation River, but were still only 8 of the 17 km (5 of the 10.5 miles) to Point Lake. As we prepared to load the boats, a small group of Caribou filed past. Eventually their numbers swelled to over 2,000 animals, traveling and grazing and snorting across the tundra in flowing groups as they have for thousands of years.After the last caribou disappeared over the western ridge, we turned our attention back to the Starvation River.
We are now half way through the sixth rapid on the Starvation River. We have encountered a section choked with boulders and ledges, and have powered the canoe to the river bank to avoid potentially pinning on the rocks. We could perhaps have run this, but when this isolated, we prefer not to take any risks. Things were going well enough.
We were able to run the next three marked rapids, and soon gained our first view of Point Lake, and are at the end of the scouting trail above the 10th and last marked rapid on the Starvation River.
Both side channels of this drop were blocked by large rocks about half way down, but we were able to line the canoes past. I have heard it said that if you can not run it, then you can not line it either. Maybe so. But we all felt that lining past was the most prudent.
We then paddled away from our overland route into the calm afternoon. It was ten days ago that we first started tracking, dragging, portaging and lining away from Winter Lake. The leisurely paddling was very welcome. We enjoyed our first evening on Point Lake. The wind was calm, and no portages lay ahead of us for at least six days.
We set up camp early, to rest. We washed ourselves and changed clothes for the first time on the trip. Kathleen and I lay in the tent, warm, dry, clean and comfortable. We fell asleep content that we had finally completed the most difficult portion of our Coppermine River journey.
The next morning on Point Lake was exquisite, as we glided effortlessly around serene bays along the gentle shoreline. Kathleen relaxed at lunch. We all looked forward to four calm days on Point Lake.
So, guys. That is the end of this portion of our trip down the Coppermine River. We were still nearly three weeks and 530 km (330 miles) from our final destination of Kugluktuk (now
Coppermine at Coronation Gulf on the arctic coast. That will have to wait for another time. I go work to do! I have enjoyed seeing these images again. It's been a long time. Hope you enjoyed them also.
Thanks for taking the time to post this report. I find it very interesting, looking forward to the next segment when time permits.
Yes, thank you and very interesting and looking forward to more.
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That is quite the trip, One I would like to do one of these days!!
Thank you for taking the time!
Thank you for taking the time!
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