Island Northern Dubawnt Lake - Outlet Bay (NE Dubawnt Lake)
Distance 41 km [730km]
Portage 0 [14]
Very Fast Water 0 [30]
Rapids 0 [24]
We set out early as we had some big expanses of open water and the wind was already a moderate quartering headwind. It had already blown large rafts of ice into the bay we had crossed yesterday. Fortunately we did not encounter ice until the entrance of Outlet Bay where a number of very thick “icebergs” had been pushed up on shore by the wind.
We had some strong paddling across about 7 kilometres of open water to reach one of the entrances to Outlet Bay. We seemed to paddle forever to reach the entrance where we thought the Moffitt Cairn was situated and the wind became so strong we were forced to stop for lunch. During lunch, John checked the GPS and found we were at a more southerly entrance into Outlet Bay than we had thought. This navigational error proved a blessing as it gave us a more direct route across to the Tukto fishing camp we hoped to visit tomorrow before re-joining the river. We did a further fifteen kilometres after lunch with a strong quartering following wind, very difficult for John to steer and required a constant big effort paddling. Again we had no real choice but to camp on a very rocky shoreline. Oh, for a beach as they make unloading and loading so easy. We have had two hard days and will be glad to be off the long stretches of open lake and back in the river again.
An evening sit in the kitchen, checking the maps for tomorrow
Camp on island in Outlet Bay, Dubawnt Lake