I just signed on to do a far north trip this year. I'm really psyched. I've never been that far north. It's a guided trip. But I'd still like any info I can get before I go. So if anybody finds a link to background info or has personal experiences thay can share I'd really appreciate it.

Dates July 1-12

I've read Che-Mun's outfit 100 &  101. Plus the 2nd group after Back was Factor James Anderson, and my name is James Anderson. So should my tripping name be Factor?

I'll be doing more online searches. But there's lots I won't find too, so if you see sometime interesting please send it my way.

Thanks

Jim:

Years ago I read a great piece on Back's descent of what was then the Great Fish River (now the Back River). I believe it was in "A Company of Adventurers", or possibly Breton's "The Arctic Grail". An amazing story, made me want to paddle that river.

This thread was move to this location at the original poster's request.

Nana

Have a SAFE and fun trip!!
Just read the BWJ article you mentioned.
From the pics in the story, it doesn't look like there are many trees to hang a tarp from?
I guess you could bring some poles, but I can't imagine a trip without a tarp of some kind!
Look forward to the pics and fish tales

JJS,
 I was wondering how your trip went, or if you made it back?
I knew about the work situation. Q-Dave had mentioned it too me, but family obligations prevent me leaving MI, but would jump at the chance under different circumstances.
Looking forward to pics and some kind of trip report
Also gear report on your OTB boots?
I bet a back-up camera will be on your next far north excursion

Glad I scheduled some time for YK, but 2 days is enough time to see most of it. The local book store had a wall of nothing but arctic and canoe tripping stuff I'd not seen before.

ST, I bought a back up battery. Probably should get an extra memory card too. OTB's were perfect. Used a 2mm NRS wetsock and a NRS Hydroskin liner. There was still some ice floating down the river with us. Solid footing. Slightly tight kneeling in the bow and getting the boots under the seat. But still OK enough to feel safe if I needed to do a wet exit.

Check out outfitters; Black Feather, Wanapitei, and Nahanni River Adventures. I got a list of rivers from the other trippers I need to do. Mountain, Bonnet Plume, Nahanni, etc.

First couple days on the Baillie we were running ~25 sets a day, CII & a couple CIII. All scouted from the boats on the fly, except one CIV. You could see the river falling away. 8 kph with just the current. Decked  canoes, a couple Old Town Discos, knee pads, but no thigh straps. Decks worked great. You could pull the skirt up or down like a wind breaker as the weather changed.

About 8k for a turbo-beaver, arctic west?? airlines. We needed to stop twice coming back from Hawk Rapids to refuel. Pilot took off from YK at ~ 6 AM and we were back in YK ~ 6 PM. Pilot was cool. Picked us up below Hawk Rapids and flew low through the canyon on the way out. He was having as much fun as we were. Fuel stops are wherever they leave some 55 gal drums. Used a diamond mine for one stop.

I went with Wanapitei. I don't think these outfitters make much on these trips. $$'s add up fast.

I'm been trying to get some pics posted, so I'll try again.
Spent a few days in YK walking around. Lots of shacks in old town, here's a great place to eat.

Here's the view from on top of old town looking to the new town section.

That's a trashed plane next to the storage container.

Back in the air we begin to see the end of trees.

In the air we see Artillery Lake is still frozen up.

1st camp, plane is gone, ice up-stream, good flow heading down-stream. The ground is spongy and lumpy. The frozen permafrost is holding ponds and puddles everywhere.

Here's another camp. You can see the circus tent we used for a dinning shelter. The bottom had netting and solid panels we could open or close. One pole and stake out the sides.

The river was flowing about 5 mph. You might be able to see the slight boils in the water. Always some snow in sight somewhere. We were running 20-25 sets of rapids each day. Scouting most drops from the boats by just standing up. We used two Old Town Discos, 16' and 17'. The outfitter in YK already had wind nuts on the larger one so we could remove everything to nest them together for the flight.

Here's view from a top one of the low rises.

JJS,
That is some desolate looking country.
Beautiful in a sparse, minimalist way.
I was going to ask if you could use a Fly set-up, but I see now that you would have to bring poles for that.
Not much use for the old camp hammock up there

Some of the rapids we ran.

Beyond this campsite we saw signs of someone else on the river.

After lunch the next day we found 8 young guys from the twin cities going to the Back, Meadowbank, Quoich, and Baker Lake, about 30 days. Said there was a group of 5-6 girls ahead of them. I think we saw their bus come into YK while we were there. The youngs guys were traveling at night. It never really got dark.

Caught some nice Grayling. Wouldn't recommend them for eating, locally they're called white fish. The scales are larger than lake trout. Caught a nice 30" laker in the Back. Skinnier than Q trout, but more fun. It ran around the river more since there wasn't a deep spot to run to. I guessing it was fitter living in a river. Everything was barbless too.

Back River was huge, good flow but less rapids than the Baillie.

Just a tad buggy at times.

Playing around with my photo stitcher program.
Baillie River Panorama.

Must be my monitor resolution/quality?
Picture loaded okay, but looks like a water color picture, which in itself is pretty cool