Out of the blue a friend suggested a remote 100-mile 8-day river trip deep into the Northwest Territories of Canada. Pı̨́ı̨́p'enéh łéetǫ́ǫ́ Deé (the Broken Skull River - pronounced "peep-en-eh-cleh-tone day") flows into Tehjeh Deé (the South Nahanni River) while traversing two of Canada's national parks, Nááts’įhch’oh and Nahanni. Intriguingly I could find very little information online about the Broken Skull River, just a glossy advertising pdf Parks Canada put together, three different companies showcasing their pricey guided trips, and a single magazine article suggesting it was the "best new river in the Canadian North." In a nutshell it would be about a hundred miles of a Class II river through grizzly bear wilderness with a few hot spring side hikes. With airfare to Canada, a rental car, and floatplane charters into and out of the river it was quickly looking expensive. None of that was going to get any cheaper though, the crew would be fun, and Heather had been hounding me about wanting to visit Alaska (same thing right?). It took some time mulling it over and working out our schedule but eventually we committed.
Even when it came time to plan an itinerary I could find very little information. Canada seems to have yet to get around to publishing drafted topographic maps so all we could find were preliminary field maps with some hand drawn features. Readily available satellite imagery is also of notably poor quality that far north and it was very hard to get a sense of how easy it would be to find a camp and how hard the forest would be to traverse for some of the side hikes. We could only guess at the likelihood of seeing a grizzly bear, how bad the mosquitoes, and how dramatic the weather shifts might be. I was appreciative that Keith took charge of making the floatplane charter and car rental arrangements for us. As Lukas, Suhei, and Jack were driving up from Montana they would be chartering a plane in from Fort Simpson on the east while Keith, Kara, Heather, and I went with the more cost-effective option for us of flying into Whitehorse, driving 6 hours to Finlayson Lake, and then taking a charter in from the west. So strangely we would be taking two different planes from two completely different locations to meet at a remote lake to start our trip together (we wouldn't all fit in one plane and so would need two plane loads anyway). The pilots seemed to have an abundance of confidence that there should be no problem in coordinating this. However it was not until a week or two before that we started to have our doubts. Consulting air quality forecasts related to smoke from the widespread Canadian wildfires we had been seeing in the news suggested that there was a chance we might not be able to get in at all and if we did we might be breathing in thick smoke on a viewless float down a river for 8 days straight, which was decidely not the trip we had in mind. Us west siders had a much shorter flight over low passes and a better smoke forecast than Fort Simpson (which was off the chart on a 1-10 scale of air quality) so things were looking especially grim for Lukas and the east siders. Their outlook only became more grim as we progressed days and hours towards our flights.
So against this backdrop we meticulously packed, made our way through LAX (the most miraculously easy LAX experience I have ever had I have to say), Vancouver, and then arrived in quaint Whitehorse shortly after Keith and Kari's plane touched down. We managed to secure a crew-cap truck rental that evening which helped a bit with logistics and provided ample space for our small mountain of gear. Eventually we got checked into our hotel room. After only a few experiences Whitehorse already cemented itself to me as a place where things happen slowly. In the morning we had lots of errands to run around town including a very disappointing WalMart run, confirming our rental car, stocking up on food and a few canned drinks, finding fuel, and securing bear spray and bear bangers. After what seemed like three or four round trips around the small town we finally had everything we needed and set off for a long drive on the highway to the north. The further we went the rougher the road, eventually turning to a graded dirt road for the last couple hours. We arrived to the float base at Finlayson Lake in the late afternoon and got settled into a warm and spartan bunkhouse cabin. Outside the mosquitoes were fierce, thankfully worse than we would see most of the trip. It got dark very, very late with only a few hours of darkness this far north at this time of year.
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| Legāenjōje (Finlayson Lake) |
Day 1. We awoke to a considerably smokier morning in both appearance and smell. Our flight was delayed as the pilot had to run someone else off somewhere later than planned. Around 11am we finally piled gear into the Beaver and had our first float plane flight. We flew over endless meadows, meandering rivers, and interesting patterned ground. Unfortunately I got the bum headset so missed out on hearing the conversation and so just looked out on the smoke-shrouded landscape. After about 1.25 hours we crossed over a low saddle and swung a loop to land on Divide Lake, easily the smoothest landing I have ever experienced. In a few minutes the pilot was off and it was us in the wilderness. I enjoyed seeing the others bewilderment at the instant isolation, something I had experienced so many times with helicopters and fixed wings in New Zealand. It was quiet here. Shortly after landing we received an InReach message from Lukas- they would not be able to fly into Divide Lake potentially for days and instead opted for a Nahanni trip from Virginia Falls down; do not wait up for them. It was definitely disappointing to not have our friends join us, especially since they were the catalyst for this trip, but at least we would not be waiting around with an uncertain outcome. We had a snack and geared up at the small dock before pushing off a little before 2pm. The smoke was a bummer, robbing us of the pristine views promised, but thankfully not bad enough to affect our breathing.
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| Qtaa Tué Fehto (Divide Lake) at the start of the adventure |
We paddled a half-mile across the lake to find its small outlet. The outlet was not visible until we were right in front of it. It was...meager. We drifted a short distance over the Divide Creek shallows until I heard the inevitable scrape, the first of many. We probably ended up walking our boat for close to half of the 1.5 miles to the Swallow Falls portage. Along the way I saw countless rocks with multi-colored scrapes of painted canoes that past before. A set of moose antlers and the occasional tree provided diversions. Soon building thunder clouds arrived, followed by cooling rain to add to the adventure and isolation. It took us about a half-hour to carry our boats past the limestone mini-gorge of Swallow Falls, the only portage on our trip. The mini-gorge continued past the falls with a couple wall-lined narrows and boulder-constricted rapids. In all it took us two hours to reach the confluence with the Broken Skull River. This added considerable flow and the scraping became less frequent but honestly I had hoped for a lot more water. We still would hit bottom when the river split over gravel bars and have lots of shallow rocks to actively paddle around. It rained solidly for two hours. Occasionally we would pass by anorexic stands of pines, matchstick-like as tall and skinny sticks with clusters of pine cones only at their very top.
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| Walk-a-boat on Qtaa Tué Fehto Deé (Divide Creek) |
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| Pı́ı́lǫhda Nááréélı̨/Swallow Falls |
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| Now on Pı̨́ı̨́p'enéh łéetǫ́ǫ́ Deé/Broken Skull River |
We saw the first hint of a previously used camp on the river left and decided to go for it at 5:20pm, almost 4 hours from Divide Lake and in a break in the rain. After setting up the tent on a caribou trail I could not resist wading across the river and climbing to the bluff opposite camp for a view. A brief rain shower passed through around 8pm but then cleared overnight. I struggled to remember the finer points involved in hanging food but eventually got there. It did not get dark until very late. 8 miles paddled (and dragged). I slept solidly.
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| Camp 1 |
Day 2. We had a leisurely morning pushing off around 10am. The boat scraping and rock dodging continued as with the previous day. About a mile downriver from camp the smoke started visually and olfactorily. The scenery improved as we continued with grander peaks and thicker forests. We soon found that despite the low flows we could make about 4mi/hr without any additional paddling. The terrain widened considerably at a three river confluence, and then narrowed as we approached Landslide Alley. Here I spotted a mossy scree slope ridge that looked like it would make a short but worthwhile side hike to give us some more expansive views. The views were indeed rewarding but hazy from the smoke. Because of the smoke this ended up being the only real hike above the river we did on the trip.
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| We hiked about halfway up the ridge at center |
Landslide Alley was the most scenic stretch yet with towering cliffs, flowy landslides, fresh debris flow chutes, and the biggest mid-river boulders we would see. For the last 3 miles in Landslide Alley we were dramatically being chased. The downstream view was of bright (albeit smoky) skies while the upstream view was a wall of ever darkening cloud. With trepidation we picked up our paddling pace, hoping to reach camp before the storm caught us. In particular the storm was gaining on us for the last mile; the pure darkness was as if the world was fading away behind us.
Drops started just as we reached the hot spring gravel bar at 3:45pm. We frantically found cover in the nearby forest and set up Keith's rainfly just in time. Here we ran into a group of two packrafters, the only other people would we see on the Broken Skull. Personally I had hoped we would run into no other but oh well. The guy from Colorado told us how there was no trail to the hot springs and that it took them over 2 hours each way; they were also on their day 4 when we were on our day 2. We waited out the most violent thunder, lightning, and rain of the trip for over 1.5 hours. The rainfly was a lifesaver. The rain started easing enough at 5:30pm that we could set up our tents and eat dinner.
After our meals we got things together for the 1.5 mi hike through the bush to the hot springs despite the late hour. I led the way through the weird spongy moss forest. I thought there would be better animal trails but my guess was that the bush was not quite thick enough for trails to consolidate and so the trails were intermittently good but then would dissolve. This was a known grizzly area and we did see plenty of signs so we progressed cautiously. Thankfully it only took us 65 minutes to get through the bush and then only a few minutes further to cross Red Creek and walk towards the obvious steam plumes. To my surprise Red Creek had a healthy flow that would have been boatable. Broken Skull Hot Springs consisted of a large deep lukewarm pool sitting on top of a travertine mound and a perfect temperature large shallow pool just below the mound. The mosquitoes were militant but thankfully did not harass once we were in the springs. We all enjoyed soaking for over a half hour, enjoying the sweeping mountain scenery. Twice a juvenile caribou approached the outflow of the pool, one of the few large animal sightings we would make on the trip. We would have loved to soak longer but it was already past 9pm and we certainly did not want to walk through the bush in the dark. The hike back went even smoother, taking us a smooth 58 minutes. All of us were tired but satisfied by the day's adventures. We spent about 5.5. hours on the river going about 15 miles. Sleep came easy.
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| Pı̨́ı̨́p'enéh łéetǫ́ǫ́ Gaǫfáá (Broken Skull Hot Springs) |
Day 3. With our late evening activities it was no surprise that we would have a slow start. The weather contributed though as we sat in our tents waiting out some morning rain. We carried our boats back over to the main river channel and stopped briefly at the Red Creek confluence a mile down. From here we lost the crystal clear blue waters for more of a creamy color. We still had a few more shallow scrapes where the river split over gravel bars. A few miles further we stopped at Mini Gate, an interesting S-bend through some more resistant sandstone layers; the deep waters here created emerald greens. Here we also did a quick repair to Heather's boat. At our lunch stop I was amused to see lots of fossiliferous limestone with shells, corals, and crinoids. A little below a major creek entered on river right and beyond this point we had no further issues with the river being too shallow. The river had evolved considerably over the last couple days of travel. There was certainly no way I would be able to wade across it anymore like I did casually on our first day. We arrived to Shúhzhıé káı̨lı (river left creek) in early afternoon making 10 river miles. This was our best campsite so far with a nice river flat and perfect place to pitch the rainfly. More nice fossils too. Mosquitoes though.
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| Dedeleɂ Deé (Red Creek) confluence with Broken Skull |
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| Mini Gate |
Once camp was set Keith and I packed our daypacks for a very long hike up the creek to Grizzly Bear Hot Springs. It looked borderline but we had high enough hopes to carry packrafts just in case we could boat back down. We kept a persistent pace up the creek's gravel flats, crossing and recrossing the creek numerous times. At only 2.5 miles up we came to an rocky section of the creek unrunnable at this flow and had decreasing prospects for being able to boat much further up and so dropped our boat gear. The further up we went the less smoky it got and the more dramatic the peaks and crags got. We actually got enough sun to cast a shadow for the first time on the trip and I eventually stripped down to boxers to avoid overheating at our pace. The creek steepened and became more milky as we neared the hot spring. It was a larger spring than I had thought with over a hundred meter length of travertine along the creek with intermittent hot trickles. We explored around, eventually find a large shallow warm pool and a beautiful 4ft deep (but HOT! 115F?) main source pool near the top of the travertine mound. The mosquitoes here were the worst we experienced anywhere on this trip. Keith and I tragically found we could only stand about a minute of immersion in the hot pool before we got the sensation of being cooked. I briefly soaked in the warm shallow pool but the lackluster temperature and mosquito swarms cut that soak short too. The springs were neat to see and in a stunningly picturesque spot but it was disappointing we did not find a Goldilocks "just right" pool after all of our effort hiking 6.5 miles up.
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| Shúhzhıé káı̨lı |
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| Sadéé Shúh Gaǫfáá (Grizzly Bear Hot Springs) warm-ish pool |
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| Grizzly Bear HOT pool |
Getting a better sense for the terrain, we were much more efficient on the way back down the creek as I had a better sense of where to find animal trails and realized they liked to minimize creek crossings. Back at our boats my vote was to give our feet a break and boat the last 2.5 miles back to the Broken Skull. Keith was unconvinced and would have preferred to walk but boated because I wanted to. The creek was even shallower than we both guessed making for scrapy boating necessitating us to get out for nearly half of the run. Keith was right. Oh well. Another late arrival back at camp at 9:30pm. I was thoroughly tired and appreciated Heather making me dinner. It was a solid day. 10 miles on the river, 10 miles of hiking, 2.5 miles of terrible creeking. I enjoyed the physicality of the hike and the humanless wilderness.
Day 4. The forest is now starting to get thick and the river big! This section had some fun splashy wave train riffles. At one point on river right I spotted a waterfall emerging from a cave in the side of a mountain. It was getting wild! Thankfully we had no smoke this day and so received better views of the surrounding mountainscape than previous days. It was a particularly cold day though. We pulled into a creek mouth gravel bar for a quick bathroom stop and noticed the miraculous: no mosquitoes! Though early we declared this our lunch spot. We even managed to lay back and close our eyes for a bit. We noticed a 10 mile long section of gorge which we thought might have diminished camp options at so stopped on the river left at 3pm right at the start of the gorge. Keith and I searched for a bit but eventually settled on a camp, which proved be be our easy favorite of the trip for scenery and comfort. We boated about 16 miles this day. More interesting rocks. Lots of fresh animal signs but the creatures remained elusive. We had some light rain in camp but overall this was the best weather day of the trip.
Day 5. We awoke to find a cold morning with a light drizzle and no smoke. We pushed off around 10am again. This gorge section proved to be really nice with the best wave trains on the trip and tall cliffs dropping straight into the river. Smoke came and went. We saw a mom and baby caribou hopping along the shore at one point. A little above Black Wolf Creek we passed the two packrafters for the last time. Black Wolf Creek was a potential camp for us but the creek looked uninteresting for boating and the camp options not up to our standards and so we decided to press onward. We reached the Nahanni River about 2:30pm. From here on we were on an opaque pea soup river with no more riffles. Despite the calm appearance the river was cranking with an effortless 6mi/hr pace. The Nahanni also signaled a change to a much denser forest and a sudden increase in wildlife including birds and lots of beaver signs. We found a nice enough sandy beach camp spot at Mile 75, making more than 25 miles of progress for the day. We settled out river water for the first time and creatively used the pile of logs to pitch our rainfly. We spotted enormous fresh wolf tracks at this camp. Our last night in the wilderness, Heather fired off a bear banger because ?training? We were all surprised by the visible flare and second bang on the projectile. It was a pleasant day with lots of variety, we only wished that we could see more than the shadows of distant mountains through the smoke and misty clouds. No mosquitoes at least. It was seeming very reasonable that we would reach Rabbitkettle Lake tomorrow, a day earlier than we planned.
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| Elusive mountains |
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| Wolf tracks |
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| Bear hang in tree at right |
Day 6. I woke up at some point in the middle of the night to thick whiteout conditions; I could not see the other side of the river! This was probably our coldest morning. Foggy and smoky gave way to just plain smoky. We could now see it, smell it, feel it in our lungs, and it grew thicker throughout the day. We had to imagine the views as we could not really see anything other than forest within a mile of the river. At some point we heard voices behind us and eventually met up with a Black Feather commercial group on a solid 3 week trip. One of the friendly guides kindly gave us their guide notes pdf. We walked the first 10 minutes of the surprisingly excellent and well-marked trail that connects the Nahanni to Glacier Lake. At Glacier Lake people pile into stashed canoes to paddle the length of the lake and then gain a second trail up to Fairy Meadows in the Cirque of the Unclimbables, by all accounts as idyllic as it sounds. Another trip perhaps. We arrived to the Rabbitkettle Lake takeout a little before 4pm. Terrible mosquitoes! We deconstructed boats and switch to carry mode for the 1km trail hike to Rabbitkettle and its campground. Disappointingly we found out that the park ranger had just flown out and it would be a while before they would send another back in. This means that we would not get to hike all the way to the towering travertine mounds of Rabbitkettle Hot Springs, which due to cultural and environmental sensitivity reasons can only be visited with a ranger escort. We later found out that this was the first day in 5 days that any planes were able to fly in or out of Rabbitkettle! Yikes! We tried to get a ride out but unsurprisingly it was not to be. We used the late afternoon to clean and dry gear, and I even went for a quick dip in the lake. We had a mellow evening sharing a picnic table and campfire with a group about to start their trip down the Nahanni. We made 22 miles this day. It felt good to finish. The smoke was unfortunate. Loon calls across the lake greatly added to the atmosphere.
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| Evening doomsday dropoff on Rabbitkettle Lake |
Day 7. Heather and I had a long sleep in until 10am because why not. The morning was noticeably less smoky than the day before with visibility back up to about 7 miles. After a quick breakfast we hiked the trail to the Rabbitkettle River, the furthest we could go without a ranger escort. I despise the trashy ground squirrel we have in southern California that like to eat all my fruit and dig up my yard but have to admit that the squirrels here were 100% adorable. One stayed curious enough to let me snap a few good photos of it collecting bedding material. Along the trail we passed by some nice lakes. We caught a few hazy glimpses of the Rabbitkettle Hot Springs mounds from a lookout and then later from the river. It would have been a highlight to get to visit it.
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| Camp at Gahnįhthah Mįe (Rabbitkettle Lake) |
Back at camp we had lunch and Heather and I were starting to go for a dip in the lake when we heard an engine whine and then minutes later our plane skidded across the lake. Ooof! Some notice through our InReach would have been nice! We frantically packed up camp in a record 10 minutes and walked swiftly over to the dock. To our great luck Shaun needed to make a detour to Glacier Lake to pick up some surplus gear from some climbers which meant that we would get a brief bonus stop on the west end of Glacier Lake with a quick smoky view of some of the granite monoliths at the mouth of the Cirque of the Unclimbables. We were all impressed!
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| Cirque of the Unclimbables in the hanging valley at right |
The rest of the flight back was still hazy but way more scenic than our flight in with wonderful lakes, glaciers, mountain-scale folds, landslides, cirques, cliffs, falls, and multi-colored mountains. It looked like fantastic country to explore further. We landed on McEvoy Lake and hydroplaned around the corner to their fancy Inconnu fishing lodge. Since the fly fishing charter was on hiatus this year we got the plush treatment in a couple of their well-kitted out cabins with all the creature comforts including beds, hot showers, electricity, and fast Starlink WiFi. We were treated to a nearly Thanksgiving level feast including homemade pizza and got a tour of some of the crew cabins, workshop, and generator bank. The mosquitoes were bad but otherwise it was a highly civilized reentry out of the wilderness.
So we finished a day earlier than planned giving us a little time to explore the Yukon after. It was an unusual trip when considered against the backdrop of smoky skies, shifting plans, and missing seeing our friends at all. The smoke could have been much worse for us though and at least it sounded like our friends' Nahanni trip went great as well. I managed to pocket a hundred miles of river in a new country and squeeze in visits to four hot springs. Heather had a rare opportunity for a low stress multi-day river trip without rapids of concern. The trip highlight for me was the general experience of following the water from a lake to a small outlet stream, to a mountain river to a muddy trunk river and witness the many shifting landscapes and moods along the way. The float plane flight out also added a lot of appeal. More wildlife would have been appreciated. A better experience with Parks Canada would have helped. Keith was so impressed he seemed to be immediately planning his next trip into the region. Maybe someday I will be intrigued to return to appreciate the Cirque of the Unclimbables, Victoria Falls, and maybe some more challenging boating. Thanks to everyone, particularly Lukas for the initial motivation and Keith for the prodding to have us join this trip.
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