Day 26

Dubawnt River Below Snow River Confluence - Dubawnt Lake

Distance 30km [613km]
Portage 0 [12]
Very Fast Water 0 [30]
Rapids 2 [24]

Good start to the day, the wind moderated overnight and the swift flowing river was calm. We made many miles aided by the current which in places was moving us at about 13 kilometres an hour. We were now seeing large banks of ice and snow along the shore line. We stopped to check out one of these and John found a number of active burrows on the hill side, he thinks these possibly belong to Arctic foxes. We are also starting to see families of Canada Geese with numerous goslings and surprisingly we still see Bald Eagles, amazing as there are so few trees for them to nest in.

Taken at 3am from our Day 25 camp, the Dubawnt looking downstream

Taken at 3am from our Day 25 camp, the Dubawnt looking downstream

The Dubawnt River in millpond conditions

The Dubawnt River in millpond conditions

Remnant winter snow bank, Dubawnt River about 10km downstream of our Day 25 camp

Remnant winter snow bank, Dubawnt River about 10km downstream of our Day 25 camp

More snow as we approach Dubawnt Lake

More snow as we approach Dubawnt Lake

Lunch on a cold day

Lunch on a cold day

We ran two sets of rapids before exiting the river proper; both were relatively straight- forward without the usual high waves. We lunched between the two rapids and whilst we ate we noted it was getting dark and the wind had turned around; the sky appeared dark with an eerie opalescent appearance. By the time we reached the first bay of Dubawnt Lake it look like a storm so though it was only 1 pm we elected to camp in a less than desirable spot. We had no sooner got the tent up when the rain started and continued for the rest of the afternoon while we dozed. It finally stopped about 6pm, long enough to make a scrappy meal. It is bitterly cold and damp with a mist on the water, my feet feel like lumps of ice.