Broken Skull River to Virginia Falls
Virginia Falls to Deadman Valley
Deadman Valley Through First Canyon
First Canyon to Blackstone Landing
Contact us: chorton@azteca.com
| This is more of a photo-journal than a journal; you should reference the guidebooks for detailed trip information. We did the trip as two people in a single canoe. If you are planning a trip down the Nahanni, you will find that one canoe and two people is a little slim due to the remote nature of the place. We did it in order to spend a little time together. If you are a little unsure about your capabilities, then you should go with more people, or on a commercial trip. We saw several commercial groups and they appeared to have just as good a time as us. The only difference is they paid 2-3 times as much, but didn't have to cook.
We used the Peter Jowett guide and found it to be fairly accurate. As far as gear recommendations- take a 3-person tent, take real rain gear, and take rubber boots that go up to your knees. We also took a good camera and kept it stowed in a Pelican case. We used a 300mm lens, which was very useful. We also developed all our film to Kodak Picture CD's. Our trip started from Ft Liard, Northwest Territories; we flew via Wolverine Air. The reason we flew out of Ft Liard rather than Ft Simpson is because we were initially flying via Deh Cho Air. To make a long story short, we made reservations to fly Deh Cho at a competitive rate. When we showed up in Ft Liard, Deh Cho informed us they no longer flew float planes and hadn't done so for months. They instead made reseverations for us to fly Wolverine at a substantially higher rate, which included extra expense for Wolverine to fly to Ft Liard. I would have rather saved the money and driven to Ft Simpson. My advice: stay away from Deh Cho Air, fly Wolverine. Our flight was very good, and I felt Wolverine Air treated us like they valued our business. The flight included spectacular Arctic mountain scenery and some good views of Virginia Falls and the upper Nahanni River. We flew to Island Lake, a couple days upriver from Rabbitkettle, the typical fly-in spot. The river was at spring runoff levels, it had rained very heavily for the two weeks prior to our arrival. Look at the hidden canyon in the picture below! |
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