Dubawnt Lake at Dubawnt River - 'Nunavut Island', Dubawnt Lake
Distance 29km [642km]
Portage 2 [14]
Very Fast Water 0 [30]
Rapids 0 [24]
We slept in after a cold wet night. It was a beautiful morning, a clear sky and no wind, great paddling weather. It didn’t take long to leave the bay and get out on the lake proper and, not unexpectedly, we could see ice to the east and possibly up ahead.
After several hours heading north we struck our first ice and had to detour around it. It was apparent that, as many others who have paddled this route have found, the ice was packed in against Teall Point. This meant we had to portage across a narrow neck of land to avoid the ice. It was here our troubles started. Due to low water levels we were forced to do a small carry-over of a boulder-chocked narrow opening. This section was only several metres long but involved carrying everything about thirty metres to somewhere the canoe could be reloaded. Having crossed this area we soon came to what we believed was the portage selected to avoid the ice blockage. With some difficulty, we portaged everything over a most difficult boulder strewn fifty metres. We then reloaded for the second time and set off only to discover that, due to a navigational error, we were back in the bay from which we had started. To say that John was furious with himself is putting it mildly, he was inconsolable! We then portaged one hundred and fifty metres across the spongy sphagnum moss from our starting point and this time ended up in the correct channel.
Ice on Dubawnt Lake about 5km SSW of Teall Point
Candled ice, Dubawnt Lake, the ice is as thick as the floating ‘candles’, but still strong enough to support a person’s weight, the candles tinkle like wind chimes as they break off
Although the ice edge appears fragile, trying to be an ice breaker and ramming it with the canoe has little effect!
The short portage to avoid icebound Teall Point, food drums and gear first
The canoe came over last so it can be put straight into the water and loaded
Though it was almost 6 pm we pushed on for a further seven or so kilometres and are now camped in a less than desirable spot due to an extremely rocky shoreline making it difficult to land Big Red. We have straddled back and forth over the North West Territory / Nunavut border all day and we are finally camped in Nunavut tonight. Having set up camp, John tried fishing for our dinner but with no luck. It seems like further insult to injury after our trying day. Large flocks of Canada Geese are flocking on both the lake and along the shoreline this evening.
Camp on small island on the NWT-Nunavut border about 9km NNE Teall Point and 6km SW of Snow Island, we are in Nunavut, but just by a few metres!
Jet contrails from airliners heading to Europe, close to midnight