Dreary Days on the Peel Plateau - Aug 9-11

The next few days paddling through the playeau were a bit of a slog.  The weather was overcast and the river was slower so we had to paddle harder to make our miles.  At our next campsite a big thunderstorm came through and thereafter the river was a murky brown colour.  

Typical view of Peel Plateau

We were often paddling into a headwind with the rain driving into our faces.

Even when the river was not braided it meandered back and forth, slowing our progress.

Typical cold and foggy morning

We amused ourselves by collecting interesting rocks when we stopped for breaks.

One lunchbreak we lit a stump on fire and huddled around it to keep warm.

Layover Day, Edge of the Mountains - Aug 8

 Since  it was our last chance for access to the mountains, we stayed an extra day. Glen, Dale, Leo and I hiked up above the treeline, but it was extremely muggy and tough going in the muskeg, so we soon called it a day and hiked back down.

Stopping for blueberries 

Resting on the ridge above the campsite

We did see our first and only cloudberries, but found them not very tasty.

Also cool looking mushrooms in the reindeer moss.

After I went to bed the sun came out and lit up the mountains, a fitting goodbye to the mountainous portion of the Snake River.

Lightshow (photo courtesy Glen)

Below Canyon to Edge of the Mountains - Aug 7

Enjoying a sunny day on the Snake River

Despite a forecast of rainy weather, we woke up to a hot and sunny day.  We soon entered a braided section which required some tricky maneuvering through narrow sections.

Fabulous views in a non-braided portion of the river

We stopped at Waterfall Creek and clambered up the narrow canyon to check out the waterfalls.

After the falls we looked for the last major rapids of the trip, described as a Class III rapid with large wave train and a giant hole easily avoided in the right.  The raft managed to avoid the rapid on the right, but somehow Leo and I managed to go straight through the big rollicking waves, and we forced to (easily) avoid the giant hole on the left.

We camped soon afterward on a broad sandbar covered with dryas seedheads.

Our campsite with its beautiful views

We called this campsite the end of the mountains, because the mountain you can see in the photo above is the very last mountain on the river.  After we left this campsite we entered the Peel Plateau.

S-Bend to below Snake Canyon - Aug 6

We were on the river by 10 am the next morning and made it through the S-bend rapids with no trouble so we weren't too worried about the Class III canyon coming up next. When we reached the takeout to scout/portage the canyon we were surprised to  see it looked more like a class IV canyon.

Scary hole viewed from Portage Trail

So we portaged most of the gear and our boat, and ran the raft through the rapid.

Raft entering rapid

Raft safely through rapid.

Two km later we reached our campsite, located opposite a red cliff:

And before you knew it the beach was strewn with items being dried in the sun.

Highlight of the day:  No rain!  Also successfully ran Snake Canyon!

Plant of the day:  The tiny, beautiful Lapland rhodendron (leaves are about 1.5cm long)

Milky Creek to the S Bend - August 5

We woke up, ate breakfast and packed up in the rain, which is the worst!  We spent the day paddling through a very braided section of the river.  It wasn't terribly challenging, but we had to be constantly alert so we could be sure to be in the best channel.  What with all the weaving back and forth there was a lot of paddling with not much actual distance covered.

Eventually the rain stopped, but there was a very cold headwind, and we had to stop after a few hours to walk up and down a sand bar and try to warm our frozen feet.

Lunch on a sandbar on a bitterly cold day

We found a camp on a sandbar before we hit the S-bend rapids so we wouldn't be hitting difficult water when we were tired. 

Camping under glowering skies

Much to our surprise it didn't rain all evening so we were able to dry off our gear.

Looking back upstream

While we were making supper in the bug tent we could hear a perigrine falcon crying (bird of the day).

And the flower of the day:

Cinquefoil

Milky Creek Layover - Aug 4

We woke up to rain, but it eventually stopped,but we started our hike up Milky Creek in the fog.  We foolowed the creek till we came to a steep ravine.Then we headed across the muskeg toward MacDonald Mountain.

Milky Creek

The Backbone Mountains to the east came out of the clouds, but MacDonald Mountain and the rest of theBonnet Plume Range to the west remained enshrouded in the fog.

We spotted a single Arctic Poppy :

Eventually MacDonald Mountain poked out of the clouds.

and we found some actual partridgeberries (lingonberries), the berry of the day!

The muskeg was tough going, hummocky and soggy. 

Tromping through the muskeg

Eventually we gave up and returned to camp to dry our socks out.  The sun came out for a while, but it rained on and off all evening.

Reptile Creek to Milky Creek - Aug 3

Setting off in the morning fog

We woke to a cold and foggy morning, but later it cleared up for fabulous mountain views.  We passed cliffs with groups of Dall sheep.

and later we spotted a caribou crossing between 2 islands.  There was nothing too difficult today, but we had to keep alert to choose the right channel so we wouldn't get stuck in the shallows.  For a while we chased a family of mergansers ahead of us, until they finally turned down a different channel.

We wanted to stop at Milky Creek so we could do some hiking in the shadow of Mt. McDonald, the highest mountain in the Bonnet Plume Range, and we fretted that we'd miss the creek if we went down the wrong channel.  We weren't sure which mountain was McDonald, until we turned a corner and there it was and soon after we came to a beautiful campsite across from a rocky cliff, right where a milky creek entered the river.

Milky Creek enters the Snake

Soon after we set up our tents it started to rain hard, and Milky Creek became Chocolate Milk Creek.  But it cleared up after the shower, and Cathy made cinnamon buns.

 Delicious!