Chris Dickinson: July 2009

23 July 09 River Garry with Callum

Callum Anderson, paddling buddy in the village, struts his stuff in the River Garry playhole

These small boats are crazy, and the paddlers in them even crazier!!

21 July 09 Exploring Loch Leven, Lochaber

Lovely view back west along Loch Leven with Pap of Glencoe to the left.

18 July Loch Carron and Loch Kishorn visit

Nice weekend based at Plockton with the Argyll Mountaineering Club. Was somewhat lame with an achilles strain and so took things easy. Saturday made a nice trip to north side of Loch Carron.

This lovely view is from North Strome Castle out towards Plockton

Castle window frames a lovely scene

The heather is blooming early this year

View of Loch Kishorn from the Bealach nan Ba road in Applecross

17 July 09 Plockton

Arrived at Plockton for the AMC meet. A gorgeous evening as we walked down into the village.

Sun sets on the crags that form the backdrop to the spectacular bay at Plockton

11 July 2009 Findhorn Gorge

A raft coming through the first drop below Randolph's Leap

Chris running the staircase rapid in the Sluie Gorge

Sean Mulligan exiting the same rapid.

Russians on the Garry!!

Oleg and Olga warm up for the Garry, below the barrage.

Great form as they run the ledge drop below White Bridge

Digging through the hole on the second last rapid on the river, below the A 85 bridge.

I treated them to tea and cream scones at the Glengarry Castle Hotel

Happy Russians!!

7th - 12th July 09 Russians visit Spean Bridge

We welcomed Nikita and Anna, and Oleg and Olga to Spean Bridge. They come from St Petersburg in Russia and like to paddle on rivers too!!

Here Oleg and Olga are "building" their catamaran that they brought over on the plane.

When inflated and ready to go it is a pretty sleek looking craft.

Once afloat the St petersburg flag is mounted amidships and they are ready to go!

The craft is fast, manouvreable, safe and in the hands of skilled paddlers it can go some.

Nikita and Anna (who is a beginner) enjoyed an eventful ride down the Awe and had four swims on the way.

5 July 09 Spean paddle

Andrea and Laura from Norwich called and I took them for a guided trip up into the base of the Spean Gorge. The generous fee was given to the Nepal Schools Trust.

Laura

Andrea

27 June 2009 Fly out from Athabasca

At 0800 on the dot, the Twin Otter dropped out of a clear blue sky and taxied across to us.

The Twin Otter can take three canoes inside and half a dozen passengers and so it made two trips to pick up the whole group and ferry us back to Carswell Lake where the truck and van were parked.

In just twenty minutes we flew back over country that we had spent two weeks paddling through! Astonishing. It was great to see the whole landscape from the air, the huge lake, the delta, the William, the dune fields, the Carswell and finally Carswell lake.

We thanked the pilot and his co-pilot for a great flight and loaded up for the long 13 hour drive back to Saskatoon, stopping en route for a fine steak dinner. A great river trip with great people.

26 June 09 Cantara Lake - no plane!!

We woke up early for a 0600 plane pick up. It was raining and foggy, with slight breaks overhead. A Twin Otter droned overhead making multiple passes but unable to land. A sat phone call established that the plane would not be able to get in until 0800 next day. A rainy morning was spent, before things began to brighten and folks got enthusiastic again and started to fish.

I spent a hour or so on cantara without too much luck, a couple of small jackfish that I put back. As I was almost back in camp I hooked this monster, a 35lb northern pike that took nearly three quarters of an hour to land and gave a right royal feed. My biggest fish ever! At least thee or four other large pike were also caught at different times and all agreed that Cantara Lake was almost unique for the sheer number of large pike in such a small lake.

Filleted and rolled in flour, lemon pepper, garlic etc, the fish was delicious.

Keith and Lawrie hauled in a whole lot of pickerel, some of which were taken back to Saskatoon

All in all it was a beautiful end to our day on Cantara Lake and a fine evening suggested good weather for the next day's pick up by floatplane.

25 June Athabasca to Cantara Lake

Next morning the rest of the group paddled past and we followed them up to the start of the portage trail. Climbed over to Cantara Lake with the canoe and then the baggage and paddled across the lake to the point where the plane would do the pick up.

24 June 09 Lake Athabasca paddle

After the trout breakfast, it was time to tackle the Lake. A fresh breeze was developing making for a choppy lake. We all set off together, but things did not turn out that way! Paddlers split early with some canoes inshore, another part way out and yet another making straight across the huge expanse of Thomson Bay. For safety, Sally and I decided to paddle after the outermost canoe, which in time we passed. At this point Walt and Wharran were shipping a little water and slipping behind the group. We saw them go safely ashore, and eventually the three inshore canoes, one by one turned and went in. In time, Malcolm and Candy behind us turned in. At this point we were well into the crossing of the Bay, and so knowing that all were safe at shore, Sally and I decided to paddle on, making a landfall after 3 and half hours on the far side of Thompson Bay.

It was a breezy day with the occasional large and steeper wave, but spectacularly fine weather with views right across the Lake. The scale was hard to judge at times.

We finally found a good camp site and pitched the tent and set out to explore further.

We hiked some 3kms up the beach and then walked inland through a burned area to find Cantara Lake, where the plane was due to pick us up. From here we found the portage trail from Lake Athabasca and followed it back and then returned along the beach to our camp. There was no sign of the remainder of the group and so we judged they would paddle up in the morning. We made a fire and enjoyed a spectacular sunset over Lake Athabasca.

23 June 09 Wiiliam River into Lake Athabasca

Travelled the last part of the William River to where a right hand cut off channel leads directly towards the right side of the delta. We arrived at Lake Athabasca in fog and paddled, and waded in places east towards Thompson Bay. After a few disagreements about what constituted a decent camp, we eventually found a beautiful camp on the edge of a dune field overlooking this massive and spectacular lake.

Very early next morning Lawrie and Candy (seen here) went out on the Lake and just 200m offshore Lawrie hooked and reeled in this superb lake Trout which was eaten for breakfast.

22 June 09 Athabasca Sand Dunes

The William River has many rocky rapids and ledges, but eventually it hits the sand!

After the last rocky rapid the river braids spectacularly nito sandy channels all the way through the delta and eventually into Lake Athabasca. We set up a camp close to here to explore the heart of the greatest dune field.

Camp was a brushy bar on river right, opposite some of the largest dune walls.

From this camp, next day, Sally, Candy, Walt and I hiked into the heart of the largest dunes and climbed to the summit of this one. It is a surreal landscape for the north of Canada.