Little Churchill River Canoe Trip June 22 to July 10, 1999 [Return to Photo Albums]    [Return to News]

We awoke at 6:30 to a symphony of digital watch alarms. Everyone was anxious about the trip and the long drive ahead. We washed up and made our way down to the dining hall for breakfast where we talked over our bowls of Rice Krispies. We were all pleasantly surprised to see that Mary had made cinnamon rolls, usually a Sunday-morning-only treat. We watched Eugenio eat a giant cinnamon roll, and then prepared to head out. We picked up our food and headed for the van. After some last words with J.P., Phil Sanders, Phil Gross, Nacho, C.J., and David Stern, we were on our way at 7:45 a.m.

We drove straight through to Lancaster, Minnesota where we filled up on gas. From there, it was only a short drive to the border. We crossed without incident, and immediately stopped for a photo next to the "Welcome to Manitoba" sign. We enjoyed a fine lunch of turkey sandwiches, bananas and cookies at a campground. From there we drove on, stopping a few times for gas, as fuel stations are few and far between, and to check the canoes. Before leaving, everyone played on the various pieces of playground equipment we encountered, including a swing, a tire swing, a merry-go-round and a jungle gym. Everyone enjoyed himself and was totally at ease.

At about 7:00 p.m. we found a campsite in Grand Rapids, Manitoba. As soon as we got out of the van we encountered massive numbers of mosquitoes at our campsite. CJ had warned us to be prepared to fight off the swarms of pesky critters. We prepared a dinner of salad, spaghetti and cake for dessert. After dinner we all gathered for an informal meeting. We discussed what each of us had been worried about prior to the trip. After our talk, we quickly went to bed to seek refuge from the bugs. All of us are eager for tomorrow to arrive and bring with it the float plane ride that will take us away from civilization until we reach Churchill.

We woke up tired and anxious for the day ahead. The bugs were terrible at this campsite, but I'm sure we will face more bugs as we go along. We had raisin bran and Mary's famous cinnamon rolls. We loaded up the van and headed to Thompson, where we will fly via floatplanes into Campbell Lake. The ride was short compared to the marathon van ride of the previous day.

Upon arriving in Thompson we went to the floatplane place and got everything unloaded. I was amazed, nobody sat around, we worked like a well-oiled machine. The group would take two planes: a DeHavilland Otter and a Cessna 185. The Cessna was the smaller plane.

DeHavilland Otter

Cessna 185

Marshall and I loaded some daypacks and a food pack onto the Cessna. While riding on the plane I was excited and nervous. Landing was cool!! We unloaded and we were totally alone in the middle of nowhere. COOL!!! Pedro, Alex, Brian and Eugenio came in the Otter 10 minutes later. We set up the tents and relaxed until the next two planes arrived. When the rest of the group came everything was set up. Oh yeah they brought one last McDonald's meal. Having a hamburger in Canada this day is amazing. We are all finally alone, just us and the river.

Nick caught two big northerns and this gave us an idea of what the river was like. We are all very excited and happy to be away from it all. We are now starting

to live the experience that we all have been waiting for so long. We had our nightly meeting and we rushed to our tents because it started to rain. Amazingly, it began to hail. Another thing is that it is 9:50 p.m. and it is still light out. Looking back at everything that we did today, I’m sure that everyone should sleep just fine.

We awoke at 7:40 in the morning. After sometime getting the tents down and bags packed we had a breakfast of Corn Pops and breakfast bars that Alex had made the night before. We then got the canoes packed up and we set off for our first day of paddling. For the first few hours we were on the Rasp River. While on the river we encountered about six stretches of rapids. All of us got through the rapids with only minor problems. It had been raining lightly on and off all morning but the rain started to pick up a little now. We made our way to Pelletier Lake. I was very glad to have the rapids behind us because I'm not very good at them and because this was my first day canoeing in a year and I wasn't used to it yet.

After a break of beef jerky we continued down the lake, which just happens to be about 12 miles long. When it was time for lunch we saw no place to stop so we just tied up in the middle of the lake and everyone took a job. After lunch the wind picked up, so instead of untying the canoes and paddling, we got out the rain fly of the 3-man tent and set to sail. We traveled for about 45 minutes like this until the wind shifted direction. We then paddled on in the rain to Lake Waskaiowaka. The wind was now a head wind right as we where going across a large bay. During a short break Andy and Juan’s canoe flipped over. Luckily it was near the shore so they could stand up to get the canoe back together. This taught us how to be alert at all times and not to have any loose gear in the canoes.

We finally reached a rocky campsite half an hour later. All of us were very cold and wet after a day of rain. Kyle and I got out of our wet clothes and retreated to the warmth of our sleeping bags while the others prepared a chicken and rice dinner. Around 8:00 most of us went to bed because it had been a long, tough day with the rain, wind and now the cold.

"Every Body Up" was the phrase that was never heard this morning. Following a cold, wet, and difficult Day 3, everyone slept in due to the strong winds that were keeping us from paddling on Lake Waskaiowaka. It was rather a chilly outside with a constant breeze. The delay provided everyone a chance to dry out their clothing that became drenched the day before, and much time was spent standing around and talking. Zach and Pedro took this extra time to explain to everyone how to handle an emergency and how to work the satellite telephone and the GPS. After a few hours, the wind finally calmed down enough to allow us to start our day of paddling.

We finally departed our campsite around 2:30, which is definitely the latest I have ever left a campsite on a trip. Our paddle for the day consisted of only one lake. A very, very, very long lake! This ocean-sized body of water is called Lake Waskaiowaka, which just happens to be about 20 miles long. With the wind constantly shifting and the lake never ending, I became frustrated. Never the less, we continued to fight the wind and the long lake.

As the day wore on, we finally reached a sand beach around 7:00 p.m. that we decided to be a delightful place to stay the night. After an excellent dinner of spaghetti, we all had desert and some of us had coffee. Personally, I had some coffee and it brought me to heaven. It was very relaxing and put a good end to a rather tough day. After a group photo with the sunset behind us, we all went to our tents to get some sleep for the next day in our adventure.

 Day 5   Saturday, June 26^th    Nick T.

Today has been an odd day. "Every body up" was the call which aroused us from our slumber at about 6:30. After a slightly slower than quick breakfast, we hit the water. We took off from our beachfront campsite into a day like no other. To start off, the sky was slightly cloudy which was cool, and the wind was to down to a minimum. As we paddled upon the lake we found the lake Waskaiowaka fishing lodge. We found there some people, whom the pilot told us about., attempting to fix 1 of the 2 canoes they brought with them. We gave them some duck tape and went on.

As we hit the Little Churchill River, we went round and round from marsh to pebble bank. On one of the numerous rapids that we shot Juan and Andy unfortunately flipped. We got them out of the water and allowed them to change clothes. After that we shot several more rapids, two of which were Class III (we shot them loaded). After a long pull through very shallow marsh, we made land fall into a nice campsite with beach front and back woods camping. Today's campsite is crawling with bugs but we were all toughing it out. I helped build a fire in the beach in an attempt to help dry our boors and socks. After a giant meal of beans, rice and chicken with tortillas we retired.

We awoke at 7:15 to a relaxing paddling day, at least compared to yesterday. We paddled down the river into Recluse Lake to our campsite. During the paddle in the morning we had about a half-hour rest. We all just lay back in our canoes and floated down the river. We then started paddling until lunch.

We stopped in a hidden place under some pines. It appeared that we were sharing our lunch spot with the memories of an old fur trapper, because as we looked around, we saw remnants of old tables, traps, and other long-lost treasures. After a good lunch we paddled to our campsite. Before we hit our campsite, some fisherman passed by us in a boat, we ran into them again just before we began our first portage around some rapids. We could have shot them but we didn't want to risk getting wet. So after out portage we discovered another set of rapids. We did however decide to shoot these. All the canoes made it through without tipping, but we all gained a lot of water from big waves at the end of the shoot. And as we shot them the fisherman took pictures of us.

We then found our campsite right below the rapids in the Little Churchill River. We were all excited to reach it because it was our layover day campsite. Nick went fishing and got some small northern. We decide not to keep them because we had a rice and chicken dinner large enough to feed us twice over. After dessert we had our evening meeting and then returned to our tents for the night.

After a good night rest, one by one we all awoke by ourselves without hearing "Everybody up". We then helped ourselves to an easy going breakfast of oatmeal and hot chocolate. The group was feeling rested and anxious for the day’s activities ahead. The activities in mind were sleeping, bathing, eating, and of course fishing.

After breakfast while the others were reading Pedro, Jonathan and I went fishing. Our goal is to catch enough fish for lunch to feed the twelve of us… We did!!! Together we caught two large walleye and a large pike under the rapids. We were excited about eating them, but not too excited about cleaning them. After cleaning them we set them aside, because it was time for the rest hour. It was good to get out of the sun for a while because some of us were getting pretty burnt. You wouldn't think you could get burn this far north, but you can.

After resting it was time to finish lunch and cooking the fish. Lunch consisted of soup, fish and Spam. After stuffing our faces with food once again many of us took the opportunity to clean our selves along with our clothes, considering what a nice day it was. It wasn't long before dinner had to be made. Well, it did have to be made, but twelve hungry men never pass up pizza dinner. After a quick horsingoggle, Eugenio and I were up to make pizzas. Hmmm good. Delicious! For once everyone's pizzas turned out perfect. The day had been perfect, perfect fishing, weather, and now pizzas.

We were so exhausted from the wonderful day we had just had; we seemed to forget about cleaning up. Zach confronted us with the problem and after a short evening meeting we finished cleaning with hopes that our cleaning up skills will improve. After a short talk standing around the breakfast bars of the days ahead, we hit the sacks to another gorgeous sunset and exquisite moon.

On the previous night during our camper powwow, we agreed to make the morning a quick one. Our average time in the morning breaking camp had been an hour. At 7:00, after hearing the famous "Rise and Shine" we set to work, eager to be quick. We enjoyed a breakfast of grape nuts, raisins and "Easy Layer Bars" and clean up was efficient. Our final time…47 min!!!

Early on we finished our last part of the rapids we camped on without a hitch, and started paddling. Throughout the morning we passed the time playing the movie game (my canoe rocked!), shooting the occasional fast water.

Then we hit our first marked portage. For a few minutes we debated whether or not to shoot the rapids, Eagle Rapids, until Kornman and I noticed the very large drop it contained. We pulled off to the side and took the short portage. I would just like to note the incredible strength of Marshall! He lifted himself up a canoe and all, from his knees.

After taking some group pictures we were on our way. We stopped for beef jerky and then again for lunch which was pretty good. Oh, I forgot to mention that that morning as we moved we passed by a baby eagle sitting alone and hungry in its nest. It gave us a special reminder as to just where we were.

After lunch we paddled a little more, then we drifted as we waited for Nick A. and Zach to retrieve Nick’s hat, that he had left at the lunch site. Once they caught up again, we paddled some more and were treated to another beautiful specter of nature. A bull moose began to cross the river right in front of us, Kyle and Marshall who were in front, almost ran into it.

We reached our campsite very early and pitched our tents. Since we had some time before dinner, we decided to climb a large hill that was across the river from the campsite to see what was on the other side. Although it was disappointing to discover nothing interesting there, we did get some great shots of our campsite. We went down and came back to eat dinner at our campsite. After dinner we cleaned up, and after some tasteful pieces from a fantastic novel, had our nightly meeting. We retreated to our tents, talked for a while, and dozed to the sounds of birds chirping. There was another incredible sunset!

The night before, everyone felt asleep with Kornman’s voice rumbling in the background like a jumbo jet passing far overhead on its way to some distant port of call. I woke up half and hour early before the call and told Nick A. to start getting ready so we would be the first ones out and start getting breakfast ready. But again Kyle and Marshall got there first.

We started moving and finally hit the water after 40 minutes. Today you can call it a Lazy Day. We were pretty near to our next campsite so we just floated down the river until lunch. Of course before lunch we had beef jerky break with the state nicknames game. After lunch we decide to start paddling to our campsite. After an hour we finally hit our campsite.

This campsite is amazing, it is like a little island with a lot of room. Before dinner Kyle, Marshall, Brian and I decided to build up a washer's game. I got into it quickly and defeated Juan in an amazing game. Time passed by until dinner and everything went just fine until we were cleaning up and everybody started to see smoke coming from all directions. Definitely there was a forest fire and because of the smoke we could tell that it was very close. It covered much of the sun and it was very dense. Quickly Zach got out his super phone and called camp to inform them of our situation. He then called the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the fire district manager in Winnipeg to make sure that we were safe and that the fires were not coming towards us. Everyone had many different thoughts about it, and finally Zach had the last call to confirm that we were safe and that the forest fires were south of us. Ahhhhh!!!!! What would have happened if not, was the question. We finally had our meeting and went to bed ready to hit our next day.

Day 10   Thursday, July 1^st    Juan M.

Every body up! No wait, it was Arriba!! At 7:00 a.m. I got out of my tent and look towards the river and I saw no smoke, but as soon as we started paddling there was a sighting of smoke in the distance. The smell of the smoke was growing as we advanced down the river. We pulled over for lunch and there was smoke surrounding our horizon.

After lunch we had a nice rest period in the canoes drifting down with the current which cooperated all day. After the previous easy days we were ready for another full day of paddling, but with the strong current we reached our campsite earlier than we expected. Instead of reading and relaxing we spent most of the time throwing rocks trying to hit sticks floating down the river. After dinner, we started again to throw rocks down the river, but this time as we were Vikings or barbarians each one of us grabbed the biggest rock that we could carry and at the same time we would all throw them into the river. We all laughed and had a great time.

We are now stationed near the confluence of the Churchill River and the Little Churchill, and by tomorrow the Little Churchill River will be only part of our memories. We are all excited about paddling in the Churchill River, our last waterway before Hudson Bay. I know that exploring the Churchill we will encounter a new landscape, new rapids, new memories and of course new adventures.

Day 11   Friday, July 2^nd    Nick T.

Once again, we were awakened to the sound of Zach´s voice screaming Arriba!! After that jolt, we hastily broke camp and dined on cereal and some of the most tasty easy layer bars. After breakfast we hit the water, and with a swift current our early morning paddle was fast-paced. As we moved along the water at an astonishing speed, we finally came upon the confluence of the two rivers. Jonathan and I decided to scout out the rapids so we all climbed an esker to find and amazing view awaiting us.

After group photos and beef jerky, he hit the rapids. Pedro and Eugenio went first and went over. These rapids weren't huge, but rocks were all over the place and can tip you at any time if you were not careful. Afterwards we took a quick break for lunch and we took off for looking for our next campsite.

We camped in the middle of some shallow rapids. There was a large hill directly behind the campsite and when we scaled it, we were able to see smoke billowing way off in the distance. After our meeting we all went to bed preparing for tomorrow.

Wow I can't believe that we have already come this far. It seems to me that the trip is starting to slip from our fingers to our memories like sand slips through an hourglass as time passes. I am not sure about the protocol I should use when I write this journal, what I should say and what I shouldn't. There are some things to be kept among the guys on this trip. I think today was a special day and we all should remember it exactly how it was. I'm not sure if the other guys get this too, but now I have a mental alarm that wakes me up half an hour before the call. For some reason, it doesn't make me any faster in the morning.

The day started of like any other, we awoke to Zach´s call, ate breakfast, and broke camp in a pretty good time. We started our paddling by finishing the shallow rapids on which we camped. For the early part of the morning, there is not too much I can say. We paddled and paddled and then surprisingly we paddled some more.

After a brief jerky break around 10:10, we paddled a little further and came upon some rapids. At first we thought no big deal, just another ordinary set. Boy were we wrong. This was a mean big Class III rapids that just looked small from a distance. It was so big that we had to eddy out in the middle or we would have swamped - Incredibly we all made it through without tipping. I guess we were all excited and a little cocky when Zach brought us back to earth. We hadn't beaten the rapids, it merrily allowed us passage. That really stuck with me.

We stopped a little later and ate a lunch of PB and J burritos. We took a nice long break and continued on our way. Everything went smoothly until about 2 miles from our campsite. It was all rapids in this giant boulder field. It is really hard to describe I guess, but it was so much fun.

Our campsite was really cool. It was an island surrounded by rapids. We made dinner all by ourselves (without Zach and Pedro) and it was super-good . I love burritos. As we talked as a group for a while, and I've said this before and I will say it again, I consider everyone on this trip a very close and dear friend.

Then came our nightly meeting. We sat on a rock and talked about ourselves as a group and believe me, you could feel the unity between us. It was really powerful, our last trip as campers and maybe forever. As I lay here now I can honestly say I have never felt closer to 11 other people.

We were all awoken from our slumber by the startling sound of Zach´s voice. We quickly packed up our Duluth packs and got breakfast ready. In addition to our standard breakfast of grape nuts, raisins and date bars, we all came across something new: a napkin with the American flag on it’ today is July 4^th, Independence Day. This strange sight of something new served as a foreshadowing of the day to come, a day on which we would all encountered many new things. I know that I was apprehensive about the day to come because of the miles of rapids that lay before us, everyone on the trip had anxiety as well. We quickly ate breakfast (good date bars Huggins!) and loaded the canoes. During breakfast I was nor pleased to note that it was very cold and very windy. The weather was not ideal for a day of rapids.

We set off and immediately found ourselves in a long stretch of very shallow and rocky rapids. While the rapids were not dangerous, everyone got stuck on numerous rocks, despite lots of effort to the contrary. After being hung up on a rock for what seemed like the millionth time, it was only 9:30, we made it out of the very shallow rapids into some deeper water. Our elation, however, was short-lived. We quickly found ourselves at the top of a nine-mile stretch of rapids, and things did not look great. All we could see were thousands of rocks, some large, easy to spot boulders, and many rocks just underwater enough not to be seen, but shallow enough to get stuck on. Like the napkins, another first.

No one had ever seen anything like the part of the Churchill River we were on. Equally annoying as the rocks were the wind, current, and meandering deep-water channel, back and forth across this very wide river.

We pulled ourselves across rocks to get to "Portage Chute". It was, however, not meant to be. Portage Chute was a mean looking Class IV stretch of whitewater with tremendous standing waves everywhere. We were all somewhat upset and not being able to shoot it, but we knew that if we tried, we wouldn't have made it through. After a short portage up and down boulders, we got back in our canoes and set off.

We continued our game of cat and mouse with the river until lunch. Just when you thought you were line up perfectly, the wind or the current, or both, would twist you around and stick you on a rock. By now the wind was whipping down the channel and right into us, causing immeasurable annoyance and difficulty. We stopped for a lunch consisting of sausage and cheese burritos, Pringles and GORP. Everyone was tired and cold from the hard morning paddle. We were making decent time but not great time, so everyone realized that we had to keep pushing into the face of a very obnoxious wind.

Afterwards we set off again with renewed strength and spirit. As we continued on down the river we were constantly reminded of the power of nature by the wind and current, which would sometimes stop us, turn is around, or even push us backwards. But like the little engine that could, we all kept pushing hard, and kept moving.

In midafternoon we hit a stretch of rapids that contained 2-3 foot drops. On one of these drops, Marshall and Kyle tipped, another first. Marshall and Kyle had never tipped together before. Andy, Juan, Brian and I immediately paddled over and performed an extraordinarily fast rescue. Just as we got Marshall and Kyle saved away, we encountered another 2-foot drop. We made it through safely and we eddied out to help Marshall and Kyle. We immediately got them out of their wet clothing, and got all the water out of all of our canoes. After getting everything saved away, we paddled on downstream, but I could not shake the thought that nature is very powerful and that we must respect her; Marshall and Kyle's tipping served as a powerful reminder for all.

We continued to paddle and we soon came to the end of our 9 miles of rapids. But not to worry, we soon encountered 4 miles more. We had one short rest stop by a very interesting little waterfall. We made good time through these last rapids and over all the last few miles to our campsite. We camped on a very strange place. The campsite was extremely large and flat. Huggins sad that it looked like the surface of the moon. No matter, we were all so tired we didn't really care. After some difficulty with the fire because of the wind, we got dinner of cooked rice with onions and salmon. Everyone wolfed down dinner and the pudding Juan made for dessert. We made date bars for tomorrow and had our evening meeting. Everyone realized how powerful nature is, and everyone was pleased to be finished with this tiring day.

During one of the last days any of us will spend in Canada as campers, many first experiences occurred: a 9 mile stretch of rapids with thousands of rocks both big and small, a current that often moved sideways or backwards instead of downstream, Marshall and Kyle tipping in rapids, a campsite that looked like the surface of the moon, and last but not least, 4^th of July napkins. Hopefully if we come back as counselors and take out trips, we can put our newfound knowledge and experience to use and share it with the other campers.

Good Night!

At 6:00 am the all-to-familiar-sound of "Everybody up" awoke us. Zach said he told Pedro "It's still windy" and that would be true through the whole day. Today was windy! From the time we woke up at our campsite, a cold head wind blew directly into our faces. The sun didn't show for the most of the day.

By lunchtime we had paddled 15 miles, half way. Everyone was still o.k. But by 2:00 everyone was at their wits end. The afternoon consisted of rapids and more wind. The weird thing is that the rapids run sideways to the river. One particular set of rapids was really shallow that Marshall got out and pushed the canoe along, very funny. But the moment of fun was ruined by the wind. I personally was about to snap but I didn't, no one else did either. We were so tired that we pulled off 2.5 miles away from our campsite. We slowly put up the tents and got dinner ready. I haven't had a better meal on the trail.

Later, Zach saw the tundra and encouraged us to go up and visit it. We did. It was our first siting of arctic tundra and it was amazing. We had our group meeting and went to bed tired and preparing for nice weather tomorrow.

Today was a long day. We awoke at 6:00 to Zach´s call. I thought to myself, not another long day. I just want to sleep. But somehow the rest of the group and I managed to get out of our sleeping bags. When we got onto the water the clouds were right under our noses. It was a foggy morning, but he best thing was that there was just a little wind. After the past day of a roaring headwind we were rewarded with a windless morning.

We paddled through some rapids and the current was pretty strong so we made good time by lunch. After a sausage and cheese lunch followed by a short rest period we hit the water again. But now the wind was starting to pick up and memories from the past worried me. But it still didn't get as bad as yesterday. The river opened up as wide as we had seen, it felt like we were on a lake. In the morning we also took a break and climbed the hill to the top of the river valley and observed the tundra, what an amazing sight. We then paddled through tons of rocks. But we eventually winded our way into the main riverbed. After our exhausting paddle we made our way to the fresh water pump station for the city of Churchill. It was late in the day, we had just paddled 30 miles, and we were never more excited to reach our campsite. When we hit the shores of the campsite several locals greeted us. After a brief discussion with Zach and Pedro they left. Zach said he was friendly and wanted to give us a shotgun for protection against polar bears. He left to go get it and never returned. After this long day we all headed to our tents for shelter from the bugs and looked forward to sleeping in to our layover day tomorrow.

Aaahh. It was a layover day. All of us awoke at different times but most of us got almost 12 hours of sleep. We had a breakfast of corn pops, which mainly tasted good because we weren't rushing to start another day of paddling. After a lazy morning of reading and talking, breakfast bars were made and eaten. It was then time to go back to talking and reading.

After lunch there was a mandatory rest period during which most people had a long game of cards. After that some people took a walk down the road behind the pumping station. Again people just read, talked or slept until dinner. Dinner was a feast especially because there was no layover food for today. We had a huge dinner on beans and rice with not one, not two, but three desserts. Everybody was happy and full. We all cleaned up and sat around and talked.

Zach then called the group meeting. We discussed many things ranging from scenery to our train ride to Thompson the next day. We all also talked about what would happen on the way to and at Churchill. We were all excited that we were hopefully going to see whales and seals and swim in the freezing cold water of Hudson Bay, but at the same time we were all very sad and nostalgic because we realized the trip was drawing to an end. Soon all we would have left is our memories because after today we begin our journey back to camp. The thought that our trip would soon be over got us talking more seriously about the possibility of a reunion. We decided that it was late and we would have plenty of time on the train tomorrow to talk about it so we all retired for the final night camping away from civilization.

Although retiring to our beds like Brian stated, we didn't fall asleep right away. Our mind wandered from the past to the present, of the first 16 days to the exciting events that would follow tomorrow. We awoke to the day we had been looking forward to for the whole trip. The wind that had been in our faces for the majority of the trip was not to be found and a peaceful fog that surrounded our campsite rewarded us.

We ate breakfast for the last paddling day of our trip and packed up the canoes. Before leaving a couple of biologist stopped by our campsite to observe birds. They told us they had seen 3 polar bears swimming at our campsite the day before we arrived, which sent chills down our backs. With this news we paddled off thankful that the bears didn't stay any longer, although it would be cool to see one.

We paddled an hour or two until we hit some unexpected rapids. They were rocky and unforgiving. Luckily 5 of our 6 canoes made it through. Without saying much we waited for Juan and Andy to change into dryer clothes. We hadn't paddled five minutes and a family of seals greeted us. After a few pictures we headed on down the river, but the seals were so curious of the canoes, that they followed us for a short time. By this time we could see the bay in the distance and were getting exited.

Suddenly a call came from Marshall's canoe and they point into the distance. They had spotted the whales. They were in the other side of the river, so we paddled a little closer, but did not want to disturb them. We were a little upset that we couldn't get closer and take some good pictures, but we didn't know the surprise would follow later in the day. We gathered and had a quick break. We could see Fort Prince of Whales to the distance, but it was a longer paddle that it looked.

While paddling to the Fort I sensed something familiar in the air, the smell of salt water, and our friend the head wind was back. But we didn't paddle long until we reached the Fort. We landed and pulled our canoes high on the beach because the tide was coming up and we still needed the canoes to paddle back. Once on the beach we set up lunch and ate because we all were getting hungry. We had to be careful in not to invade the arctic bird's nest because they were becoming pretty aggressive. We walked along a boarder path to the old Fort. No one was there so we had to open the doors and tour it ourselves. On top of the Fort you could see Hudson Bay disappearing over the horizon with Beluga whales swimming into the Churchill River. If you turned around you could see the city of Churchill and expanses of tundra. There was a silence among the group as we looked in.

Afterward we headed back to find out that the canoes were closer to the water than we had left. We pushed off and timed the tide just perfectly because the bulk of the whales were entering the mouth of the Churchill River. The whales swam in front, on the side, in the back ad under the canoes. Sometimes they swam so close that I thought they were going to tip the canoe. Many pictures were taken and Zach video-taped them as well. The whales were gracious and beautiful and seemed so happy. It didn't seem real or maybe too real, I don't know, but what I do know is that we had never seen something so great and that we will never forget this moment for the rest of our lives.

After feeling so fulfilled we started to paddle to paddle to Churchill. Before beaching the canoes we stopped in the middle of the mouth and did the unthinkable. We dipped in 39-degree ocean water. The feeling among the group was that we could achieve anything or achieve any goal we set our minds to, it was incredible and priceless. After a short paddle for shore, we packed up everything and portaged for the train station. We loaded everything on to the train except the soap and out clean clothes. We walked through the town of Churchill to the town complex and had the best showers we have ever had.

We then walked to the Tundra dining room and ate dinner. The food was excellent we didn't have to make dinner and clean the dishes. We did a little local shopping and then boarded the train the Muskeg Express. Once on the train we played cards, talked ant tried to sleep. We had a feeling Zach and Pedro were a little more successful in sleeping because we did not see them once it got dark. We all fell asleep at different hours, but Marshall stayed awake during the entire night.

While awake we talked about the day's activities and how perfect the day was. We remembered day 1 and how far this day seemed. But it was now in the past and we can only look back on it. I assure you that when one of the twelve of us remembers any second of this trip, he will smile and remember how great it was.

After a night of constant twisting and turning in order to sleep more comfortably on the cramped train, everyone awoke at their own leisure and made their way to the dining car. It was here that everyone enjoyed complimentary coffee, juice, and breakfast cookies. I found it very amusing that to watch everyone trying to wake up after such an uncomfortable night. I don't think Andy was even awake as he stumbled in the dining car on his way to get some coffee. As everyone became more conscious, we all remembered that a train had derailed the day before and we would have to take a bus from the town of Gillum to Thompson. We finally came to Gillum around 6:30 in the morning.

It was there that a new problem awaited us. Our canoes would not fit on the bus and there was no way of getting them to Thompson. Fortunately, Zach and Pedro did some quick talking and arranged to have the canoes shipped to Thompson by truck at the expense of the railway. With a bit of relief, we unloaded the train and crammed ourselves on to a bus that made paddling into a headwind and 3-foot waves seem like fun. The bus was not a Grey Hound, it was a Grey Goose. The cushions on the seat felt that they were non-existent, and to make things worse, it felt like the shocks on the bus were not there either. The 200-mile dirt road between Gillum and Thompson had many potholes and it seemed like the road was non-stop bumps. We made it to Thompson around 11:30, and our canoes were suppose to come between 4 and the next morning. As a result, there was a bit of time to kill and very few places to kill it.

We drove to a small history museum of the town of Thompson and were enlightened by the sites and displays. I found some of this really interesting. After the exhausting self-tour of the museum, we drove to McDonalds where we all enjoyed two cheeseburgers and fries. The once familiar smell of fast food reminded us all how close we were to home. Next, we stopped at the place where the truck would be coming to check up on things. They said that the truck would be here around 4:00 or the next morning. So we decide to check back later. With much anticipation we headed to see the Miner statue located in Thompson. We read the history of the statue, and then took a group picture.

Next, we headed to the Thompson Zoo. We all enjoyed the wide variety of animals, but I think the rabbits, pheasants, pigeons, and peacocks were by far the favorite of everyone. Following the zoo we went to the supermarket to buy food for the rest of the trip. Finally we went to get our canoes. They finally came around 4:45 and we quickly loaded them on the trailer and headed as far as we could get that night. We drove for what seemed like forever with many of us drifting in and out of consciousness.

After some time of listening to CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Zach surprised us all by putting in the Sublime tape. We all sang and had a great time with the new music selection. We stopped on the side of the road to make dinner. We quickly made some excellent tacos that we devoured and then we hit the road again towards our campsite. We drove and drove and drove until it finally got dark. When it got dark, well, we kept driving. By this time everyone was tired of being in the van and wanted to get to our campsite.

At 12:30, we finally made it to our campsite and we all quickly set up our tents and fell asleep. It is hard to believe that there is only one day left on this adventure; it still feels like we just started. I know none of us will ever forget what we have experienced together, and we still always look back at it as the greatest accomplishment ever.

Last day of the trip is finally here. Since we were on a public campsite this morning there was no wake up call, this time we woke up with Zach´s shaking of the tents. We were only 7 hours away from camp so we quickly got everything packed and had breakfast. After this we were back on the van were everyone felt asleep quickly because we were still tired. After four full hours of driving we crossed the border, right after we stopped in a playground for lunch. After this nice break we hit the road again. We only had 3 more hours to go. The trip really went fast. We arrived to Bemidji around five, we were supposed to arrive camp at 6:00 so we had time to go to car wash and clean up the van. After this we got into camp in a traditional way and were surrounded by campers and counselors quickly, this felt really nice. We had a nice dinner consisted of hamburgers. After dinner we started getting out of the van all of our trip stuff. It feels amazing that 19 days ago we were picked up by two float planes. I think that everyone enjoyed this trip, I really remember every moment of this trip and definitely by far is the best trip I ever been on.

Now we are back into camp after a great adventure that only we experienced.

The End

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