On Saturday, June 18th, my crew and I arrived safely in Fort Vermilion! There were a couple of hundred people there to greet us as we brought our boat to rest on that muddy shore. They’re all muddy shores it seems! We left our campsite at Wieler’s Landing a little late, so we had to row pretty steadily for four hours to arrive on time. But hey, we’re hardened Yorkmen, so it wasn’t too tough!

The trip was absolutely amazing, and that was in large part due to the incredible crew I had! They had wonderful, positive attitudes, great senses of humour, strong initiative, keen work ethics, and were just the best damn crew a Captain could want! I have never before experienced teamwork like that, and I consider every member of the crew a member of my family now.

It wasn’t easy saying goodbye, but at least 2 of them live close by and we’ll visit often. I’ll be blogging lots more about the trip, and you’ll also be able to read about it in some magazine articles in the coming months.

NEW! York Boat Photo of the Day!

I’ve decided to share some of my photos with you, releasing one each day. Some are of the boat, some of the crew. Click for larger view. Enjoy!

Two days before the trip sets sail, Jae, Andre and Jack try on their costumes. Notice how *clean* the coats look!

Since Teresa is still on the water, I, Darren, am posting some of the latest pictures and information from the York Boat Expedition. The crew left Dunvegan, Alberta on June 1st, and they’re all set to arrive at Fort Vermilion on June 18th.

They’re having a fantastic time, being welcomed by communities and school groups all along their journey. The hospitality they’ve received has been wonderful.

You can read all about the York Boat expedition at the Geotourism Canada website, including scheduled stops.

There’s also a live progress map, a Facebook page, and a Twitter page.

We’ve mentioned before that Flow North has been working with GeoTourism Canada to create a guide for the Peace River, and it’s almost complete! It will be available on GeoTourism Canada’s Go Vado! website in a couple of months, but we thought we’d give you a sneak peak. We’ve written this guide to the Peace River to be both interesting and practical. From a practical standpoint, we’ve listed possible campsites and emergency road access, and 119 GPS waypoints for major stopping points, like boat launches, camping or rockhounding sites. Some major gravel bars and shallow areas are mentioned, but of course, the river is always changing and with river levels fluctuating because of the dam, it’s very hard to predict what areas will be problematic and what areas you’ll just float right over. Besides the practical stuff, we’ve also researched the history of the river, its landings and settlements, and included plenty of stories and geology. We know you will find this guide interesting and extremely useful! To help you plan your trip, have a look at the overview below, read this page about trip planning, and then call us to reserve your boat! The last column of the table below indicates distance paddled if you start in the town of Peace River instead of Hudson’s Hope. Of course, there are many places along the river that you can start from — contact us if you want more info — and you can calculate intermediate distances from the running totals. Guide #1 is about things to do in Hudson’s Hope, the starting point, and the paddling journey starts with Guide #2.

Hoodoos along the bank (near Taylor, BC) Right side of The Gates near Hudson's Hope, BC

HTML Table Generator

yes* = Road access is not exactly at the starting point, but is there is access nearby (explained in detail in the guide).

Don’t forget to fill in our “Perfect Paddling Trip” Survey!

Well, my paddling for the summer is done — I finished paddling the upstream section of the Peace River last week. A friend of mine and her very cute dog came along this time, so I wasn’t solo. We canoed in one of our 16′ Paluski Fastwater canoes from Hudson’s Hope in BC to Peace River, a total of 375 km. We did it in 8 and a half days, averaging 44 km/day.

It was a great trip! We had a great time, although we experienced all that September weather has to offer. Overall, we can’t complain, as the only rain we got was at night (not counting a few drops on day 2). We had fall fog every morning, and it was pretty chilly at night. We definitely reached the limit — and beyond! — of our zero-degree-rated sleeping bags! Some hunters we met said that it had been -10 C overnight in a town nearby, so it was probably at least -7 C. That explained why we were so cold! We slept in all our clothes, wearing toques and scarves. We also had to wrap up the dog, and a couple of times she was shivering so much, Carolyn got the dog to climb into her sleeping bag to warm up. Little Buddy didn’t like that much — it was a long, dark tunnel to her! — but she didn’t have her winter coat of fur yet so she had to warm up somehow!

We had some pretty nice campsites overall. There’s a cabin at the Cotillian rec area with running water and a wood stove that’s open for people to use — we, unfortunately didn’t know about it until later and we didn’t see the access point. From the river, it just looked like a gravelly creek bed. But, we had a great time camping just the same! One night, in an established camp ground we met some wonderful people who shared their delicious supper with us — marinated steak, caesar salad and baked potatoes with fixings I’d never seen before! Birthday cake, wine, and elk sausage! Oh, we were in heaven! And great company too! Aaah, the bliss of food eaten outdoors, cooked on a fire, with friends! Nothing could be better. We met some other nice people on our trip as well, including some hunters that were very generous to share their food and coffee with us. It was funny, because as we were just starting up the bank, we met a gentle, older fellow heading down to work on his boat. He said kindly “Hey, we ordered us a couple of girls!” I replied, “well… sorry we’re late!” It was cute! It wouldn’t have been as cute coming from a slimy guy, but from this grandpa, it was great.

The water level was still pretty low, and fluctuated quite a bit. Near Hudson’s Hope and the two dams the shores looked unnatural to me. The water levels went down 3 feet one night, causing us a lengthy portage the next morning. Another day, it went up about 2 feet. We were always glad to see the water level up, since it meant we wouldn’t have to worry quite as much about gravel/sand bars. We went the wrong way through a cluster of islands and ended up in a very shallow section one afternoon, where we earned our status as voyageurs.

It’s hard to sum up 9 days in just a few paragraphs. It was fun, cool (literally), gorgeous, interesting, entertaining, and all that! And what I’ve learned will all be going into the Paddling the Peace guide I’m writing for GeoTourism Canada.

Well, I did it. I paddled by myself from Peace River to Tompkins Landing. If I’d had a little more time, I would have continued to Fort Vermilion, but with the Canoe Races at Hutch Lake on Saturday, I decided to come off the water a couple of days early to prepare. So, Wednesday, I sent frequent SPOT updates to Darren, as was our plan if I wanted to be picked up. It worked great. What an incredible journey!

Some stats about my trip:
– My GPS says 305 km paddled, but it was tracking while I walked around a bit too, so it’s probably about 295 km paddled or so.
- My GPS says I spent about 40 hrs 49 min moving and 20 hrs 28 min stopped. But I’m pretty sure it doesn’t account for time it’s turned off (at night, and at some stopovers, to save batteries).
- My gear weighed 86 lbs (39 kg). My kayak (a Prijon Kodiak) weighs 62 lbs (28 kg). I weigh 130 lbs (59 kg). Therefore, my arms and core body transported 278 lbs (126 kg) approx 300 km (the current helped). And I also lugged that 148 lb (67 kg) kayak up the shore repeatedly!
- I spent 6.5 days and 6 nights on the river.
- My average was 46 km per day. I aimed to do 50. This is considerably faster than the 10-day package (43 km/day), but in line with the 8-day package (55 km/day).
- I sat on shore through 2 thunderstorms, with nothing but a raincoat for protection! (That’s also why I didn’t make 50 km every day.)
- I used 1 bear-proof container, 6 dry bags, 1 mesh bag, and about 30 ziplock bags!

- Of the 6 times I camped in the wilderness, 4 times were completely away from people (more than 20 km?). The 2nd night I camped at Sunny Valley with a farm and cottages nearby, and the last night I camped on a new friend’s yard (wonderful Metis man I just met).
- I did all this with no rifle, only a can of bear spray, but I didn’t see any bears. It would have been a challenge to keep a gun dry….
- I didn’t lose or break a single item I brought along.
- I saw deer, moose, elk, wolf, various bird and beaver tracks. I saw actual deer, including some fawns, elk (one calf), beavers, bald eagles, other eagles/hawks. No wolves or bears — not even any bear tracks. That doesn’t mean there aren’t any, just that I didn’t see any.
- I heard all sorts of interesting sounds and birds that I wish I could identify!

It was a truly phenomenal trip, and since I did it alone, I had lots of time to think and reconnect to myself. I know it sounds a little corny, but in today’s hi-tech world and fast pace, we can get disconnected with ourselves, and taking time away to reconnect is so important. I am much more “the real me” now and far less stressed.

I’ve been adjusting to being back in society for almost a week now, and I’m feeling pretty well integrated again. My senses were pretty heightened, and I was more introverted than before, but I’m pretty well back to normal now. If you’d like to chat with me about my experiences, I’d be more than happy to share what I’ve learned and details for places I’ve camped. I’m working on a trip report that I will post on Canadian Canoe Routes, Paddling.net, Paddle Alberta and maybe a few other places. Once I’m done that, I’ll post the links here. I’m also planning on uploading a bunch of photos to Panoramio — I’ll post the link on this blog when I do!