31 July: Days-51, Total-55; Miles-50, Total-1864
– Chuck
It was a cool evening, good for sleeping. I awoke at
5:30am, couldn't sleep so answered some email and finished yesterday's
Journal entry. It was such a cool, beautiful morning that I built a
campfire on the beach and started making some coffee and a huge breakfast.
Soon Bill was out fixing a "meal-of-the-day" with smoked salmon,
macaroni, rice, onion, garlic, etc. We planned to share this great flavor
dish during the day.
We dried our tents and other gear, then I had a chilly river bath. Great!
Paddling started about 11am and by 3pm we were passing Mountain Village.
A boat with a local Eskimo fisherman and his family, floated alongside.
He told about the village and the route on to Fish Village.
This great river has been steadily widening. It has been expanding at
an even greater rate recently. We now guess it to be about 3 miles at
the narrowest sections and perhaps six or eight at the wider parts.
It is often difficult to tell which is the real shoreline and which
is a large island. Now it most often looks like a large lake or bay
with the far shore five miles or more away.
In the morning, the wind was not much help; we both paddled. But now,
on these wide-open expanses, we can sail and tow. I try to paddle just
enough to keep the towline slack. However, when I take a break to look
at the map or GPS we just keep going, pretty nice.
We have a little over 35 miles to Fish Village, so we will look for
a campsite about 10pm. The water is calm but the wind is only of marginal
help; we are moving slower than usual. These wide areas have less current
and the main channel, if there is one, is hard to find.
The water is now choppy with some whitecaps; we have been looking for
a good place to camp for an hour. If the waves keep rolling me from
the side, I will need to cut loose so I can quarter into them with less
rolling action. Bill’s canoe has a wide flotation sponson along
the gunwale on each side, plus has outriggers with floats that extend
about two feet on either side. All this makes his wider boat nearly
impossible to roll over in anything but the wildest storm. Actually,
he now only has an outrigger on the port side, the other got knocked
off at Ruby. This shore is a 30 foot high mud bank. It looks flat on
top so we paused and Bill pulled his way to the top. It is muskeg, thick
spongy clumps with knee deep voids between. I have tried to hike on
muskeg, not easy. The locals once told me to just wait until it is frozen
with a few feet on snow. We decide not to wait. Mid-night sun is beautiful.
Sunset lasts for a couple of hours. It is nearly dark and we spot what
we think is an island with a sandy shore about two miles toward the
center of the river. We sail/paddle and get really close as a storm
cloud with lightning looms a mile or so away. Crunch, we are on a shallow
sand bar a quarter mile from the shore; drats! It is nearly dark and
we couldn't see it until we were part of it. By standing in the canoe,
I think I see a way around the long sand bar. We back off into deeper
water and make a half-mile end run to the sandy beach.
Tents were up in a flash, it was 1:15am; we zonked.