Spring 2006 The Journal of Canadian Wilderness Canoeing Outfit 124 photo: Susie Harings Susie photo: HAWAIIMEET Mr. YA! DOUGLAS - Holding -the This Yukon 1911 Territory photo of flag,George Cliff Douglas Jacobson, was right,sent to is joinedus by a subscriber.by fellow Snake We certainlyRiver paddlers recognize Jim the Mandle pose andand Dicklocation Person as the (centre) Douglas in a cabin hula-style at the celebrationmouth of the of Deasetheir crossing River in the the Arctic northeast Circle corner in northern of Great Yukon. Bear Lake, The threesomethough we werewere notpart of afamiliar group led with by this Cliff particular down the photo river andand thethrough clothing the Douglasscenic mountains is wearing. of Thethe region. self-portrait Cliff’s bytrip the report author begins of Lands on PageForlorn, Six. is one www.ottertooth.com/che-mun Spring Packet As always, it was great to hear from Alan Kes- still eagerly await each edition of Che-Mun, We had a brief note from noted paddler Bill selheim, who along with wife Marypat Zitzer seem and enjoy reading all the articles. In 2005, I Layman about an excellent web site for canoe to be building a fine second generation of canoeists did several canoe trips, but the jewel in the gear reviews and opinions. out there in Montana with their three children Eli, Icrown was a two-week fly-in trip down the Tur- he link to my article, Canoe Gear for Sawyer and Ruby. nagain River to its confluence with the Ketchika the Subarctic, can be found on the main ope you’ve received my renewal River and then down the K. to the Liard River page of http://www.townoflaronge.ca/ check by now. Sorry to lapse from in northern British Columbia.” TWelcome/ This article will soon be featured at time to time. Believe me, it’s nothing “We did a short stretch on the Liard, taking www.myccr.com and a link to it will be set up at Hpersonal, and Che-Mun is one of the very few out at Coal Camp. The trip was organized by http://paddlingcanada.com/resources/ . This is publications I hold on to. I’m happy to see your Laurel Archer, who was doing research for her a revamped copy of an article I have been post- index in there. I look back at old issues fairly next book on northern B.C. rivers. We were six, ing year over year and it gets a large number of often, for one reason or another, so it’s a handy including friends of Laurel’s from Saskatoon hits so I think the advantage to your readers is service. Speaking of that, you got my name in and Waterloo. It was a very rigorous trip, cool significant. Please look through the article to the index slightly wrong. It’s Alan, not Alex. temperatures with rain every day but the last. find reference to you gear which I am using and It’s usually Marypat’s name that gets mangled! There is a 7 km. portage around a gorge and have reviewed.” [Editor’s Note - It’s been corrected!] Falls on the Turnagain. We hired a helicopter to “As you know, we completed a family exped- take us around that stretch – it felt like cheat- One of our subscribers sent Jeff Traversy Outfit ition down the Kazan last July-August. It was ing! We then walked back along the portage, so 122 knowing of his interest in the Douglas exped- rigorous conditions during our passage. Lots of Laurel could complete her notes – it was in very ition of 1911-12. wind and tough weather. Black flies were out in rough condition and hilly as you might expect. am a professional fishing guide and spend force. But we came together as a family team in “Fresh bear sign was every where, so we my summers guiding on Great Bear Lake, a very rewarding way. The kids never whined or made a lot of noise as we walked along. Es- N.W.T. After some research and discus- complained, and I realized at some point that I pecially when one of us stepped on a hornets Ision with a couple of other guides we went wasn’t interacting with them as my children so nest! The fishing was excellent and the bugs looking for the Douglas cabin up the Dease much as I treated them as trip mates. They pulled were really not a problem. The white water was River and in July of 2005 we found it along their weight and became full partners. Most challenging, but we were very careful scouting, with another cabin likely Hodgson’s at the rewarding of all, since we’ve been back, they’ve and the river info from one of Laurel’s guiding same site. all talked about wanting to return to the Barrens colleagues was very helpful in avoiding some “I am currently looking for Hornby’s cabin again. problems. [Ed.Note; his article had previously which was built just east of Ft. Confidence. In “This summer is the second in the coming- been published in Kanawa.] August 2005 I found a stump field near the of-age trip series. ( Each of our kids has a “fetal “We had no dumps, just one scare when suspected site but the remains of the cabin were river” -- a river trip for which they were in the a canoe wedged between two boulders. It not found. I hope to continue the search this womb. The Kazan River is Eli’s. Sawyer’s is the was right by the shore, and we were able to summer. Yellowstone River. Ruby’s is the Rio Grande along pry it loose and empty out the water. Laurel “I’ve sent a few pix of the Douglas cabin the Mexican border.) We are doing the entire said only a handful of groups do this river; it and fireplace dated July 2005 (see Page 12) As Yellowstone, Sawyer’s river, from Yellowstone is remote and there is the expense of flying you can see 95 years have really started to take Park to North Dakota, roughly 600 miles across in. But it was truly spectacular mountain its toll. We have contacted the Yellowknife Montana. scenery, even reminiscent of the South Heritage group and they have made note of its “Should be much more relaxed and less logis- Nahanni river, which is not far to the north. location and existence. I have flown Douglas’ tically challenging. As a bonus, we plan to hike to Of course, it lacks the height of the Nahanni’s route from Great Bear across to the Dismal Younts Peak, in northern Wyoming, which is the canyons. Lakes and on to the Coppermine River and it is headwaters of the Yellowstone. The hike should “I would recommend the trip highly; when truly remarkable . take us about eight days, round trip, and it is some Laurel’s book is published, I am sure it will inspire “I am heading north to Great Slave in May of the most remote wilderness in the US, outside many more to do the trip! and then on to Great Bear for July and August of Alaska. Big-time grizzly country.” “This year, we are planning to canoe closer to Hopefully I will return to the site and continue home; the Petawawa R. again for our Spring WW my search for Hornby’s cabin. As you know, it’s One of our original subscribers, Blair Richardson, warm-up, the Madawaska, Salmon and Moira riv- possible that the cabin could be long gone due is still with us and, more importantly still paddling. ers, and then two trips in Quebec: the Mistassibi to Hornby’s cabin building reputation. After all, He now lives in Oakville, Ontario. Nord-est and the Ashuapmushuan.” he spent one winter in a dugout cave!” . Editor’s Notebook e have two wonderful books under review in this Outfi t on page four; Canoesworthy Ten Rivers and Being Caribou. WTh e latter is something truly unique. For those of us lucky to have been on extended northern trips of pure wilderness travel, you ydro-Quebec will invest $25 billion for new hydro dams on Quebec’s North Shore and know that something changes in you and how in Nunavik. Th e plan is to generate 4,500 megawatts with 1,000 megawatts earmarked you perceive nature. Th at has been something for export sales. Th e utility has not identifi ed the new projects yet, although studies are hard to quantify - until now. Hadvanced on damming the Romaine River on the lower north shore of the St. Lawrence, with a I think that is what writer Karsten Heuer potential to generate 1,500 megawatts. has done in Being Caribou. Th e book succeeds Hydro-Quebec could also dam other rivers on the lower north shore or projects in Nunavik, on many levels but what is completely unique as the northern third of the province. Th ey would also like to convince Newfoundland to develop to this reader, is its account of the connection the 2,200-megawatt Gull Island project on the Lower Churchill River in Labrador. with a diff erent life form. But Quebec premier Jean Charest said his government has no plans to develop Great Whale I think a great analogy was seen in the River, which fl ows into Hudson’s Bay, in spite of its potential generating capacity of 3,212 big power failure in 2003. In my city of three megawatts. In the 1990s, the northern Quebec Cree, waged a successful campaign against Great million, Toronto, the night sky shone with Whale.