Wilderness Canoeing in Canada

Windbound Sifton Lake

Distance: 0.0km, another forced rest day for wind – [cumulative total 660.5 km]

InReach: Day 36 Gale force N wind all day Wind & waves too dangerous so reluctantly stayed put Went esker walking Hopefully can paddle tomorrow J&K

Camp: 63.731°N 106.438°W

Woke to yet another windy morning. We packed everything except the tent and John did the jobs he was too tired to do last night. Our hope was that the wind would relent and we could get going later in the day. It was already gusting to about 25 knots and although it would have been mostly behind us for a short distance once the river swung north it would have been an impossible head wind. We decided it wise to wait for better conditions and sure enough it continued to blow a gale all day. We used the time to try and dry out the wet gear from yesterdays rain and John falling in lining. I took the opportunity to sort the food drums and do an inventory of our food. Whilst sorting I foolishly left one of the drum lids on the ground whilst I took the things I needed for the evening meal to the tent. I was only gone a few minutes but it blew away. We searched all along the shoreline however it was obvious it had blown into the pond we were camped beside. A tense time for me because we were not sure that it would float however we paddled the 200 meters to the other side and after a bit of a search we found it bobbing against some rocks. I was relieved, as without its lid one of our food drums would have become useless. It would seem I am a shoe in to be awarded the wooden spoon at the end of the trip, today I almost lost the food drum lid, yesterday it was my paddle and the day before it was my wide brimmed hat. In each case it was John who found the lost article.

We had time to explore our surrounds, walked to the top of the esker, it is an amazing and complicated series of steep sand ridges with awesome views up and down the river. We then went across to the tundra behind the esker, it too was magic being scattered with huge glacial erratics. After his meltdown last evening John had his photo taken with one of these claiming it to be a photo of a glacial erratic alongside a geriatric erratic. Later John tried his hand at fishing with nary a bite. There has been no let up from the wind but at least it keeps the mosquitoes at bay.