Town of Athabasca to Fort McMurray, July 31

After a successful gathering of concerned locals in the Town of Athabasca organized by the Crooked Creek Conservancy Society, I was joined on the water for the second time by our support person - Laura Griffin. Laura has been an outstanding assistant who has made our lives a whole lot easier and we are thankful for having her aboard.

The stretch of river between Athabasca and Fort McMurray was our longest unsupported stretch of river. Taking our time we paddled for twelve days through the most difficult stretch of river on the Athabasca. The Grand Rapids and twelve other difficult sets beyond them have over the years claimed the lives of many unprepared river travelers.

To navigate this stretch of river involves first getting there, which is a lengthy paddle in itself. We were very fortunate to be joined by Darcy Zelman, owner of Grand Rapids Wilderness Adventures. Darcy shared his cabins, river stories, and great food with us, and assisted with transportation as well.

The Grand Rapids are simply enormous and can't be run in an open canoe. The geology and river morphology of the area are an amazing spectacle. We portaged our gear and lined our boats around this challenging feature taking nearly an entire day to complete a small section of river. After the portage, we were in for a real adrenaline pumping treat - two days of whitewater paddling through boulder gardens, large wave trains, and holes that spanned the entire river! Please do not attempt this stretch of river unless you are a skilled whitewater canoeist possessing remote wilderness camping skills. We played it safe the entire time, always knowing where we were and scouting difficult sets in advance of running them.

We saw a dozen bears in this stretch of river, and had some close encounters that kept our adrenaline pumping into the evening. Two of these encounters were particularly scary...

Our First Bear Encounter

We were peacefully enjoying our lunch of peanut butter and crackers. A bear decided to join us. He was a mere seven metres away when we noticed him. Too close for comfort! Schaun and I did our best caveman impressions, and managed scare the little guy off. After seeing seven more bears that day, we thought it best to be extra vigilant from there on out.

A Bigger Bear

So, it should have been no surprise when we were joined by another bear at our next peanut butter and cracker lunch. This time we were prepared with a bear banger and spray. Word must have spread through the woods that we weren't really actors because our caveman impressions did not work this time. The bear approached to within a few metres, our adrenaline surged, bear banger went off, and the bear only flinched. We shuffled down the shoreline getting ourselves closer to the canoe (our next plan being to jump in the canoe and hope for the best). I don't think bears particularly like canoes, because just being close to our canoe seemed to scare him off!

That was the closest bear encounter I've ever had - and I used to work with bears for a living! So now we were we paddling through intense whitewater with deadly river-wide holes, and our only escape route (the shore) was now infested with bears. I have no shame saying that I was perhaps the most afraid I've ever been...but I'd do it again in a heartbeat!