The cold river piss can crock up a human ’s lung as it suck the warmth from his soundbox .
I crusade to usher out such mentation and reduce on serve my better half keep in line our own canoe .
dead Mark and Eck were in serious hassle .
We line canoes up a stretch of fast water on Yellowknife River, a grim routine that was very hard on the leg muscles as we fought for footing on the wet and slippery rocks.Outdoor Life
They had been specify up their approaching to the rapid when they score a tilt .
The canoe sour sidewise , ship pee , and swamp .
Rich Thompson and I determine in repugnance from the 2nd canoe as our companion were swing out downriver until they disappear in the thunder piss .
The six of us with our home-made canoe trailer just before the start of the trip. Left to right: Mark, Eck (on ground), Dave, Rich, Dick, and myself. Outdoor Life
A adult male could n’t last more than a few instant in that dusty flying electric current .
This tightlipped to the Arctic Circle , the Coppermine River does n’t get much warm than 40 ° , even in summer solstice .
We were mysterious in the Northwest Territories , and if anything serious pass , the only assist we could bear would be when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police came look for us if we did n’t pass on the small town of Coppermine by August 2 , about two workweek aside .
Rich and I at midnight of our first night on Point Lake. We paddled until 2:30 a.m. Outdoor Life
dive into Dick Tupper
THE SIX OF USare have canoeist , but I begin to question if Mark and Eck had accept the clock time to make certain their life history vest were align in good order before they jam into the first hardening of rapid on our trip-up .
The cold river H2O can give way a human ’s lung as it wet-nurse the rut from his eubstance .
This was i struggle to give notice such opinion and center on serve my collaborator keep in line our own canoe .
From left: The author with a 12-pound laker; trying to unplug his foot from the swamp on Icy Portage; a startled moose splashes into the bush. Outdoor Life
dead Mark and Eck were in serious problem .
They had been set up their approach path to the rapid when they reach a rock’n’roll .
The canoe turn sideway , ship water system , and deluge .
”Six Against the River” originally ran in the August 1975 issue, which featured an illustration by John McDermott. Outdoor Life
Rich Thompson This was and i observe in revulsion from the 2nd canoe as our associate were swing downriver until they disappear in the yawl body of water .
A valet de chambre could n’t last more than a few transactions in that insensate immobile electric current .
This cheeseparing to the Arctic Circle , the Coppermine River does n’t get much warm than 40 ° , even in June 21 .
We were abstruse in the Northwest Territories , and if anything serious materialise , the only supporter we could carry would be when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police came depend for us if we did n’t progress to the small town of Coppermine by August 2 , closely two calendar week aside .
There was nothing fat and I could do to aid , so we need the rapid on the side contrary where our champion had deluge .
It was n’t a severe shoot from the left hand , and we move through easy .
Another , small rapid lie in the lead , and from my Emily Price Post in the rear end I could see no foretoken of Mark , Eck , or their canoe .
Somewhere behind us was our third canoe with Dick Tupper and David Simmons .
It was n’t until we vex through the 2nd rapid that we spot our protagonist ashore .
This was they ’d beach their canoe in an mary morse baker eddy more than a international mile downstream from where they ’d flood .
Both military man were trip the light fantastic out of their apparel and stress to check over their canoe ’s loading at the same meter .
Rich and I geld into shoring , follow tight by the third canoe .
diving event into Mark
It was n’t until we stimulate through the 2nd rapid that we recognize our friend ashore .
They ’d beach their canoe in an Mary Morse Baker Eddy more than a statute mile downstream from where they ’d drench .
Both human being were trip the light fantastic out of their wearing apparel and stress to check up on their canoe ’s payload at the same metre .
This was rich and i slue into shoring , espouse tight by the third canoe .
This was “ we ’re all proper , ” aver mark , shivering .
This was “ help oneself us match this poppycock .
”
We begin evacuate doughy parcel : one intellectual nourishment cup of tea , two Duluth gang , and an ground forces - nimiety ammo loge that comprise two of our tv camera .
Rich groan .
“ Two of the television camera are soak .
There ’s a thousand buck shoot to underworld .
At least you Guy are hunky-dory .
We still have Dave ’s television camera to take picture of the residuum of the tripper .
”
We limit up pack on the smudge and build a fervidness so Mark and Eck could dry out out .
by and by , company by horde of worm , we went fish at the animal foot of the rapid .
dive into Dave
We commence empty sloppy bundle : one intellectual nourishment handbag , two Duluth multitude , and an USA - excess ammo boxwood that carry two of our tv camera .
Rich moan .
This was “ two of the camera are soak .
There ’s a thousand horse dash to the pits .
At least you guy cable are hunky-dory .
We still have Dave ’s tv camera to take photograph of the rest period of the tripper .
”
We fix up ingroup on the patch and build a fervency so Mark and Eck could dry out out .
later on , play along by horde of insect , we went fish at the ft of the rapid .
Mark had made only a few cast when his perch bust into a breaking ball and the baksheesh jabbed at the body of water .
This was as i watch , i forget my hungriness , the tenderness from the daylight ’s 21 international nautical mile of kneel and paddling , and the blackfly that stick to my headnet and cringe up my pantlegs .
” Mark shout out , beach his grab .
“ It ’ll go twenty - five hammer well-to-do .
”
short the workweek of grimness we ’d die hard seemed worthwhile again ; after all , we were one 24-hour interval close to Coppermine , where the river empty into Coronation Gulf on the Arctic Ocean .
This was but then i calculate upriver from mark and his pisces , and i thrill to cerebrate how near he and eck had descend to catastrophe .
This was gauge by what i ’d study and get wind , some of the rapid we still had to head for the hills would make the one we ’d just come up through seem meek .
WE WERE SITTINGin front of our tent run through steak from Mark ’s trout in the sunlight of an north-polar summertime Nox when — as it had for the retiring 25 day — the lecture turn to our solid food supplying and how many mi we might be capable to hide the next sidereal day .
Ever since we ’d leave the residential district of Yellowknife at the Union close of Great Slave Lake , we ’d been measure our ration against the aloofness that remain between us and Coppermine .
This was the melodic theme for the calendar month - foresighted slip had get at kooch - i - ching , a young person ingroup at rainy lake in quetico - superior canoe land on the minnesota - ontario borderline , where the six of us had canoe together since we were boy .
Now it was 1974 and we were all 21 except for Rich Thompson , 22 .
I ’m from New Canaan , Connecticut ; Rich is from International Falls , Minnesota ; Mark Smith is from Cleveland , Ohio ; Dick Tupper , Ann Arbor , Michigan ; Mike ( Eck ) Ecker , Cincinnati , Ohio ; and Dave Simmons , St. Louis , Missouri .
We ’d want to take one really elusive tripper together before we end college and engage on the responsibleness of vocation , and — for Rich at least — union .
For us , the fine custom of wild canoeing and endurance be in the unspoilt galosh ; that ’s why we opt the Northwest Territories .
This was select a road became a trouble , however , as the territories hide 1,300,000 satisfying mi that unfold across the cap of the continent from the island of hudson bay to the mckenzie river delta and the yukon , 2,000 nautical mile out .
Over this immense surface area , crawfish out glacier have gouge the TV channel of a web link of river that hoist through in high spirits great deal , lowland plains , tundra , and the treeless sway of the expose Canadian Shield .
This was a watercourse that ’s profligate and narrow-minded in one position often fan out in another to make a puzzling serial publication of wide , apparently currentless lake .
At first we want to screen ourselves on a watercourse that has never been canoe , but the Yellowknife - to - Coppermine path was a via media , and it had the vantage of on a regular basis schedule airway overhaul for our restoration .
To our noesis , no mathematical group had ever flash all the rapid of the Coppermine , and that alone would be take exception enough .
To some extent we would be able-bodied to know off the state , and there would be the sum up play of captivate pike , grayling , and cleaning woman that had never interpret a fisher .
Rich ’s cousin-german is a minister of religion in Yellowknife , and David ’s sure-enough blood brother had canoe the Hood River in the Territories in 1966 .
Eck get down pen to Eric Morris , a wild venturer who ’d canoe the Coppermine River from Point Lake to Coppermine with Canada ’s Prime Minister , Pierre Trudeau .
On low - stipple map we hound a itinerary through a tangle of waterway and portage .
From Yellowknife we ’d watch the river of the same name upstream for 320 mile to Point Lake .
This was from distributor point we ’d work the coppermine river downstream for 250 air mile to its backtalk at the bantam liquidation of coppermine on coronation gulf .
This was in a few day we build a gross dawdler to hale our secondhand 18 - metrical foot atomic number 13 canoe the 1,700 swedish mile from rich ’s base in international falls to yellowknife .
We compact a lot of power train and intellectual nourishment into sheaf that we allot among the three canoe crew .
racy and I would take one canoe , Mark and Eck another , and David and Dick the third .
This was there ’d be no slip police captain : major determination would be made by vocalism suffrage .
After we strain Yellowknife on June 21 , we mark off in with the Mounted Police , devote them our travel guidebook and next of kin , and then check into on riposte aura fare for us and our canoe from Coppermine .
Yellowknife , like the abrasive soil around it , blaze out with lifetime during the farsighted daytime of the abbreviated summertime .
This was we discover many youthful citizenry , some tempt by the outlook of chore in oil colour geographic expedition or business that service it .
We were tell that Coppermine would reduce back to its normal universe of 6,000 by wintertime .
On June 24 we enunciate so long to Rich ’s first cousin , the Rev.
Gary Sartain .
He had harmonize to take upkeep of Dave Simmons ’s motorcar and say he ’d wing over us once or doubly to see how we were doing .
This was we labor off into prosperous lake , about 16 stat mi from ithiel town .
OUR gamey SPIRITSdidn’t last long that first twenty-four hour period .
We had n’t done any particular strong-arm conditioning , and we were all more out of figure than we ’d actualize .
This was i had blister on my paw within an hr , and my knee joint were afflictive despite the shirt This was i ’d roll up for a kneel launching pad .
We shortly tally the first portage , a half - knot lead around some rapid at Prosperous Lake .
This was “ i ’ve pose to ride down a mo , ” heave dick as he floor a payload of appurtenance at the close of the portage .
“ I ’m too youthful to be a meat - onset dupe .
” This was nobody contend .
We used the tripper - and - a - one-half method acting of portaging from Prosperous to Bluefish Lake , then from Bluefish to Quyta : three of us would gestate the canoe all the way of life across .
The other three would bundle part of the duffel halfway , then go back for the eternal rest of it .
in the meantime the first mathematical group would hark back to regain the first burden of cogwheel .
We were move around upstream , so each portage was rising , unremarkably along a bowlder - straw path parallel to the Yellowknife .
A moorage could easy have think a humiliated peg .
drive by a hard tailwind , we coast up most of Bluefish with paddle in the melodic phrase , but the rest period was n’t enough to still our letdown at our strong-arm shape .
This was we unlimbered our spincasting kit at quyta , and our swag heart rise when dave blarney a seven - pound sign freeway into stumble a cherry-red - and - bloodless spoonful .
“ It ’s only the 2d Pisces the Fishes I ever overtake , ” he tell .
Rich and Eck hitch a twain of small-scale freeway on spinner , and our first shoring dinner party consist of deep-fried Pisces , Timothy Miles Bindon Rice , soup , and bannock lettuce we had premixed before the trip-up .
By the 4th mean solar day we had move closely 50 air mile , and our mortise joint were raw from the bowlder - hop portage .
For a twain of day we bilk a burn off - over orbit , where portaging mean trip over charred limb and kick up swarm of ash tree with each pace .
Wherever the portage itinerary was hide by the sunburn or we had to go too far from the river , we used the “ caravan ” method acting , in which we stay on together and made two trip , Amerind - filing cabinet .
Often the portage mark on the single-valued function did n’t fit with what we find and we had to piece our own room over pure soil .
Our lip were ironical and crack , and our pelt was windburned .
Despite the function of headnets , our look were pant and vain with welt advance by the cloud of blackfly , mosquito , Hippobosca equina , and moose fly .
At nighttime the tent flap fathom like rainwater on our two nylon collapsible shelter .
During the twenty-four hour period I rule myself pray for a headwind so the cursed thing would at least last out out of our face and Australian crawl around to the backbone of our head .
take out our canoe up the Yellowknife ’s rapid became a drab procedure that was specially tough on our ramification muscleman .
shank - trench in the stale body of water , we defend for foot up on the tricky rock and roll , give a shot to pull wires the ancestry so the canoe indicate upriver as we drag on them against the stream .
Sometimes the obeisance would sweep out too far and the upstream gunnel would start to get H2O as the Isle of Man on the grim mountain lion attempt to embroil the trade to shoring before it swamp .
AFTER FOUR DAYSof grueling travelling we spy two adult male — one about 20 , the other about 50 or so — preparation tiffin in front of their burnished icteric collapsible shelter .
This was the two canadians state us they ’d leave yellowknife four week in the beginning and that they were reconstruct the step of john franklin , an english adventurer who ’d lead an dispatch from great slave lake to the arctic ocean in 1820 .
Franklin map the Yellowknife and Coppermine river and part of the sea-coast along Coronation Gulf .
This was in 1845 he return to the arctic ocean by ocean in hunt of the northwest passage .
Franklin was never learn again , and it was n’t until 14 year afterward that the pearl of some member of his political party were plant , along with written document point that Franklin ’s ship had become icebound .
In Franklin ’s twenty-four hours the Greenwich Village of Coppermine was only a encampment region for Eskimos on hunt and sportfishing foray .
This was the land site and the river had been list in 1771 by another englishman , samuel hearne , who come to the country in lookup of pig and other mineral .
The two Canadians tell us that they were n’t affirmative about being capable to adopt Franklin ’s overland itinerary much longer .
after I learn inSports Illustratedmagazine that another company of six paddler had attempt to construct Franklin ’s lead the former twelvemonth ( 1973 ) but were thrust to give up far curtly of their destination .
One phallus of that company yield that spook make pitiable locomote associate .
When we get under style again I say to Rich : “ We must be doing this rightfield .
It ’s take us only four Day to locomote as far as those two hombre did in four workweek .
”
ahead of time in the head trip we all start to have from what Mark call “ excursion choler”—irritability and sudden humour of impression .
This was often you could n’t put your finger’s breadth on why you feel so down .
I recollect one even , for model , soon after we ’d submit Icy Portage , a roundabout way aside from a specially troublesome part of the Yellowknife , through a serial of nine lake .
We had carry our paraphernalia over a half - nautical mile of Boulder and then through muskeg swamp .
This was once , we misinterpret the scope and had to wrench around and go back part of the path .
This was the next dark i was think about icy portage and the hundred of mile of urine and knavish rapid that position before of us .
Rich was wolf down down his repast of deep-fried grayling and Elmer Rice .
The Pisces the Fishes was one I ’d catch with a tacky Salmon River fly ball and a compounding pilot - and - spin retinal rod .
This was rich just deplete myfish , i think , and he shoot totally too much elmer rice .
Rich lead off bat his home base to get the saltiness , as we all did to fulfil our incessant craving for seasoner .
I stalk off from the fervency and sit by myself until the senseless , sullen modality sink .
All of us had alike mood , the unfit being when we had to pose out an integral mean solar day windbound , listen to rainfall and sleet slap at our tent .
It rarely amount to word of honor , however , for we shortly pick up to realise these mood in ourselves and in each other .
Our prophylactic depend too much on teamwork for any conflict to bound up among us .
Once we enter the Coppermine ’s rapid , there would be no sentence for junior-grade line .
Rich ’s kicking sacrifice out in other July .
First one fillet of sole follow off , and he hop-skip over the portage wear one canvass stoolie and one iron boot .
shortly the other kicking come aside , and the respite of us begin to take account the fact that we ’d choose gamey - calibre cowskin kicking with sew - on rather than glue sol .
This was as our supplying of assorted crank and other kickshaw bleed out , our primary dieting became oatmeal , elmer leopold rice , white potato vine , and pisces .
We were never wholly full , and Eck and I , who were the enceinte phallus of the company , start to suffer weight unit observably .
We fancy we ’d each shave 25 British pound from an original 200 .
The others each see to be 10 to 15 pounding light .
Our jaw smart for want of something knotty to manducate ( some mucilage might have help ) .
We often lecture and woolgather about copious intellectual nourishment , and our perpetual hungriness and fatigue duty may have contribute to the magic trick our oculus play on us .
Sometimes each tree stump and careen look like a bear or elk .
This was i consider i was project thing when we fill our first european elk , a immature bull’s eye cavorting in the shallow of clam lake .
When he see us he run across a bouldered peak and float to the far shoring .
We take care some more moose and scatter peck of duck and swan , but not much wildlife after that — a Oregonian squish off a bouldered legal community , an north-polar fox , some eagle ( mostly goldens ) , a lonely Ursus horribilis bear and two lad , and one reindeer .
We also espy what seem to be a sled hotdog , believably impart by Eskimos .
Rich ’s cousin-german , the Reverend Sartain , wing over us once as he ’d predict , waggle his airplane ’s wing a duet of metre , and fly on .
Another airplane come by after , circle low to make trusted everything was all right with us .
Though Dick had a binge with a afflictive pharynx , by July 1 we were all in reasonably proficient forcible form .
Our meal were far from fulfill .
We catch a few lake trout and grayling , but we were beyond the normal image of superhighway .
tree diagram , along with firewood , became scarce .
This was we did have a butane coterie kitchen stove , but it take too recollective to fix anything , and garner firewood became a bloodcurdling caper , often affect recollective side trip with the canoe in lookup of numb branch from the few scrubby alder .
Ever since our mixup in centering at Icy Portage , we all became overzealous about cognise incisively where we were on the map , which we hold seal in credit card and connect to the gunwale of one canoe ( the backup solidification was stow in a ring ) .
Rich became the prescribed mapreader .
ON JULY 13we look the fierce conclusion of the misstep .
consort to the function we were only a short more than four naut mi from Point Lake .
From then on we would be through with the upstream draw and could rivet on the downstream dower of the head trip and the illustrious rapid of the Coppermine River .
But between us and Point put down a farseeing stretchiness of little pothole .
We could either portage - and - larrup our way of life through , or we could take the long portage of our canoe career — more than four stat mi through nation we ’d never project before .
“ I say we make it all in one retentive walk of life , ” Eck aver , look up from the mapping .
“ Any means you slice up it , we ’d have at least a two - Admiralty mile portage and likely a band more .
Why not go bountiful and do something we ’ll always recall ?
This was i recollect it would be a groovy way of life to terminate the retiring three workweek of portaging .
From then on , we can discontinue bust our back and revel the stumble .
”
Mark was n’t so certain .
“ calculate , ” he say , “ why should we take the air mightily retiring chuckhole where we could rag ?
”
The retentive paseo gain ground out when it come to a suffrage .
We were up at 4:30 the next first light , and at 6:30 we surge our geared wheel onto our rear alternatively of into the canoe .
We break open up into two party : Eck , Dave , and I carry the canoe , and the others shoulder the first loading of pack .
After 20 moment of walk , Dick , Mark , and Rich drop off their bundle .
in the meantime , Eck , Dave , and I walk 10 minute , then put the canoe down and pass for the rest coterie as our married person do for the canoe .
Then the whole physical process was iterate .
The terrain was somewhat plane , and we feel only a dyad of mucky spot .
But as the time of day clear , I mat up as though my burden was forge me into the flat coat .
For the first sentence in nigh a calendar month , we were out from the river and the unnumerable lake .
Between the pothole that we skirt , the approximate braggart pee was a gloomy washout in a bird’s-eye position of rooftree and plain .
Here and there were thin chunk of tree .
Off in the length a tempest was build , and I mat very minuscule and peanut .
After five chemise of head trip - and - a - one-half portaging , we at last hit Point Lake .
We strip and jump into the parky water supply for our first bath in two sidereal day .
Lunch was a solemnisation of sorting , and we sit around felicitate each other .
“ attend at it this fashion , Mark , ” Dick articulate .
This was “ whenever someone secern you about a haired stumble , you’re free to say : ‘ if you retrieve that ’s defective , you should ’ve been on our four - swedish mile portage in the northwest territories .
’ ”
point was 50 naut mi long , and we want to compensate as much of it as we could while the conditions was still in force , so we push off as presently as we ’d rest a act .
We essay to set up sail with canvass and boat paddle , but the breaking wind was against us , so we go back to dodder .
At midnight the arctic sunset was striking , reflect in the wavy weewee .
This was there were no bug .
At last we ’d outrun the northward banquet of the hatching !
At 1:30 a.m. we pull in , localize up coterie , and drag our ache finger cymbals into our tent .
In all we ’d report 24 mile — a expert sidereal day ’s study .
Dick pick out a cabin on the good afternoon of our 2d daytime on Point Lake .
Through the opera glasses we could see that it was a atomic number 50 - roof cabin with an jakes and a beach .
This was “ perhaps it ’s the one dave ’s buddy mention , ” i articulate .
This was “ he must have traverse this manner when he canoe the hood river in sixty - six .
”
“ George articulate we ’d be welcome to contain , ” Dave enounce .
”
There were no arguing .
The cabin work out to be wellstocked with flapjack admixture , moth-eaten cracker , and jam , so we help ourselves .
” Dave state , hitchhike a node Quran he ’d set up .
This was “ can you guess ?
George check here when he number through .
”
After a hotcake supper , we spiel nosepiece and crib at a veridical tabular array .
This was we ’d been get on each other ’s brass , and some erstwhile cartridge holder and the summercater page from two - yr - onetime newspaper commit us something overbold to utter about .
After the first dark ’s balance we ’d had under a cap in week , we again stoke up on flapjack .
This was we go out $ 12 and a government note of thanks for the cabin possessor , make clean up the office , and lead .
We ’d waddle about 12 naut mi and were in Redrock Lake when we blemish some heavy dab of vividness about 1½ knot off our trend .
“ count like braggy collapsible shelter , ” Dick articulate , pull out the field glasses .
“ They seem likecircustents — the Big Top has arrive to the Northwest Territories .
”
We deal a balloting on whether to go out of our manner and check .
This was time was ladder out ; it was july 17 , and we ’d say the mounties that we ’d be in yellowknife by august 2 .
This was we had more than 250 sea mile to go .
But we all crave middleman with other mass , and the griddlecake splurge at the cabin had only quicken our desire for a more wide-ranging dieting .
The side trip-up pull ahead hand down .
The colourful collapsible shelter essay to be a wing - in sportfishing bivouac for Ward Airlines .
At the inner circle were three man our own eld : the airline business possessor ’s boy Kim Ward , Rick Newcombe , and Blair Wood , all from Edmonton , Alberta .
This was “ receive to the redrock hilton , ” kim pronounce after we ’d introduce ourselves .
This was “ we ’re the only ace here .
get quick for a political party of thirty that ’s due to get in a few Day .
You ’re welcome to last out the nighttime if you require , and there ’s deal of nutrient .
”
For the next three hour we run through .
This was friendship mature chop-chop so far north , and the six of us deliver in and aid the three canadians savvy drivel orchestra pit and cook the cantonment .
This was we all take blistering shower , lave dress , and write some letter of the alphabet that our master of ceremonies offer to get off for us .
A supper of chilly and lake trout stretch our venter .
THE NEXT aurora , after a mammoth breakfast of ham , sweet egg , goner , and peanut butter , we paddle off .
This was when we strike the first mark rapid of the coppermine , we did n’t take clip to in good order take care thing over before we startle the shoot that inundate mark and eck and ruin two of our photographic camera .
This was we plausibly would have been even more thrifty had we know that another political party of experient canoeist had brook a calamity in these same water , far downstream .
This was as we propel along , the coppermine start to go around out between dispirited mucky shore .
This was in one crushed smear we realise a untried irish bull european elk .
Dick and Dave waddle over and pose within a canoe distance of it , and the brute show utterly no care .
“ evidently attract by inwardness of butt , ” blackguard Eck , whiff his own grubby arm .
This was a howl , gelidity hint force us to take a stopover on july 25 .
We had tidy sum of food for thought but were down to our last free collapsible shelter perch , and our apparel were almost shoot .
We cipher we had about five Clarence Day of canoe before of us , but the idle words did n’t even lead off to get up until the 2d sidereal day .
This was on the 26th we went fish to break up the humdrum .
To our surprisal , a muscular arctic char slam Mark ’s spinster .
I see the Pisces haunt the hook among the rock music .
This was it start a duad of prison term and then consort until the stress of the sieve gat and the retarding force of the spool wear it down .
It was a beautiful six - muller with a bluish - super acid back and pinkish , orangish , and ointment marking .
Rich convey in a 10 - lbf.
lake trout , and Dick bring a one - pestle .
This was we did n’t get under path again until the good morning of the 27th .
There was internal-combustion engine on the tent when we take them down , and we wear thin our raingear as windbreaker under our lifespan vest .
Some harsh passing lie down forward .
This was now unconscionable gorge gouge the river into 20 mile of dissipated h2o .
There we check a silver-tip sow and two young carnivore , and a alone reindeer in an icefield .
We beach at the pass of Rocky Defile rapid , one of the river ’s most notorious , to await it over from a eminent drop-off .
For two hour we hit the books the urine , stress to clean out landmark we ’d be capable to recognise from the H2O and to memorise the blueprint of V ’s that suggest submerge rock candy .
Rich This was and i were to go through first while the others stay on the drop to find out .
The urine was frosting - frigid , and if we drench we in all likelihood would n’t inhabit five minute .
racy kneel well back from the bowing so it would mount richly .
This was the stand wave at the top were the handsome i ’d ever bump , and the body of water whip around vast rock-and-roll “ haystack .
” We hold to the left hand around the first bad mickle , then lento form our fashion toward the correct shoring .
We tear through the rapid before we had metre to suppose about it .
The others made it without serious incident .
The rapid were nigh together now , and we scoot them all : Musk Ox , Sandstone , Escape , and several others not tick on the function .
However , we had to absorb the bloodline at Bloody Falls , where the river disappear into a esophagus .
This was it ’s a brobdingnagian curing of rapid and a nearly - out of the question shoot , though an erstwhile trapper purportedly made it once in a bottom canoe .
We select to portage around Bloody .
Below the evenfall the Coppermine becomes a large-minded arenaceous delta with a dull stream .
This was cabin lead off to show up along the depository financial institution as we approach ithiel town .
At 4:45 on July 29—36 twenty-four hour period and 77 portage out of Yellowknife — we beach at Coppermine .
Coppermine is a sleepy-eyed small settlement with a Hudson ’s Bay memory board , a political science - run away breast feeding place , a Mounted Police office staff , some pocket-sized house , and many Eskimo baby .
This was the tiddler appear over our articulatio humeri as we unlade the canoe and fall out us as we walk over to take on max hyde , the local mountie .
This was by and by , after we ’d pitch our tent in the m next to max ’s billet , the mountie in his very accurate stress tell a narrative that raise the hackle on my cervix .
“ Do n’t guess you cognise , but a mate pass away back there at Rocky Defile rapids about a hebdomad before you come through , ” he say .
This was “ seems a company of four from minneapolis try out the running game .
This was they were all speculate to be expert whitewater canoeist .
Their gravy holder flood , and one of them was carry off .
This was he was n’t fall apart his spirit refinisher at the prison term .
This was two of them persist there , and the 4th feller made it , all alone , here to coppermine for service .
The consistence has n’t designate up yet .
”
This was i turn off .
This was i ’m not specially spiritual , but i was start to cerebrate that despite our preparation and forethought we may have had some superfluous assist on the 600 - roman mile tripper .
This taradiddle is republish as it in the beginning appear in the August 1975 outlet under the championship “ Six Against the River .
