Deren from Ride, Paddle, Repeat shares a story about his 22 day Yukon canoe trip!

From having it rain every time they landed to make camp during the first week, to catching and eating yummy Grayling, to dumping in a very cold, very fast moving river, to amazing views, to bonding as a group, Deren and pals had an amazing time paddling the Hart River in the Peel watershed.

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Transcript

00:00 - 00:01
Hello and good day, eh?

00:01 - 00:03
Welcome to the Super Good Camping podcast. My name is Pamela.

00:03 - 00:04
I'm Tim.

00:04 - 00:05
And we are from SuperGoodCamping.com.

00:06 - 00:10
We're here because we're on a mission to inspire other people to get outside and enjoy camping

00:10 - 00:11
adventures such as we have as a family.

00:11 - 00:14
Today's guest is a very outdoorsy guy.

00:14 - 00:17
He He paddles, ride rides, bikes, hikes, and loves camping.

00:17 - 00:21
Judging from his YouTube channel, he's a big fan of mountain biking and trail riding.

00:21 - 00:27
He's also hyped some pretty amazing places, hung out with Canoehound at its Bushcraft camp,

00:27 - 00:31
likes playing bass in jazz jams and getting out in a canoe.

00:31 - 00:35
If you see someone walking around the outdoor adventure show slapping new stickers on a food

00:35 - 00:38
barrel he's carrying around, that's probably this guy.

00:38 - 00:42
Please welcome Darum from Ride, Pedal, Repeat. Yay. Welcome.

00:42 - 00:44
Great introduction. Thank you so much.

00:44 - 00:45
I'm happy to be here.

00:45 - 00:46
That's Tim's work.

00:46 - 00:53
Just yeah. I'd this year's been the we haven't I haven't haven't been doing them just just because.

00:53 - 00:59
And, well, largely because Pamela has known most of the most of the guests we've done this

00:59 - 00:59
year. Repeat.

00:59 - 01:02
Yeah. Rep repeat. Re revisits, I guess. Yeah.

01:02 - 01:07
So I cobble together some stuff that's usually somebody else's.

01:07 - 01:12
I I'm totally totally plagiarizing other people's work, so it's easy to do.

01:13 - 01:14
Don't admit that.

01:14 - 01:15
Okay. Sorry. Accurate. The logos,

01:16 - 01:16
they're gonna

01:16 - 01:18
Very cool. So

01:18 - 01:19
how are you doing?

01:20 - 01:21
Yeah. I'm doing well. Thanks very much.

01:21 - 01:24
Relatively nice day outside even though it's getting colder.

01:24 - 01:32
So already been out walking and, walked the dog, and we have a nice park right here in Nowtown Kitchener, Victoria Park.

01:32 - 01:37
So that's my morning routine. So feeling pretty good. Thanks. How are you guys? What kind

01:37 - 01:38
of dog do you have?

01:38 - 01:41
We have a 14 pound, like, Shih Poo Shih Tzu Beetle mix.

01:42 - 01:44
Yeah. Yeah. We have a Cockapoo.

01:44 - 01:46
So he's a poodle cross as well.

01:46 - 01:52
Yeah. Lovely dogs. Not not great for the portajes, but, everything else, you know, we have a

01:52 - 01:57
smallish place, so it's perfect for him and he definitely runs the town here. So

01:59 - 02:00
He goes back country camping with you?

02:01 - 02:05
No. He's too much of a prince. That's our fault. He's failed him. So yeah.

02:05 - 02:08
He isn't, like, being not comfortable. So yeah.

02:08 - 02:13
Yeah. We've Farley has only been on one backcountry trip with us.

02:13 - 02:15
There was just one at Mississauga or Massassauga.

02:16 - 02:17
I don't how long ago was that? Month? 16?

02:17 - 02:19
Beginning of October. Yeah. About a month ago.

02:20 - 02:24
Yes. Diva. He doesn't he doesn't even wanna go front country camping. He just lays there.

02:24 - 02:27
We like to hang out in the car when we're when we're front country camping.

02:27 - 02:34
And we thought the tent was gonna be the the car for backcountry camping, but he actually got out and hung out.

02:34 - 02:36
Wandered around a bit. Yeah. It was good.

02:36 - 02:43
So, in particular, I wanna talk about you just did a trip to the Yukon, not just did, but you

02:43 - 02:46
did a trip recent a recent huge trip. Tell me about it.

02:46 - 02:49
It was like 20 days, 22 days, something like that?

02:49 - 02:53
Yeah. You're absolutely right. It was 22 days on the water.

02:53 - 03:01
It started right at the end of June, so we pretty much got in on Canada Day or just before. I don't recall.

03:01 - 03:03
So that was really cool to spend.

03:03 - 03:05
Actually, our second night was in Canada Day there.

03:06 - 03:09
We took the ground shuttle to Mayo.

03:09 - 03:16
And if you've seen Jim Baird's, video series or the full video for the Hart River, essentially,

03:16 - 03:22
we basically carbon copied it except we did it in a as you saw heard like a much longer time

03:22 - 03:25
frame because we wanted to spend more time in different areas.

03:25 - 03:30
But the route is essentially the same so we got the float plane in Mayo, flew us into Elliott

03:30 - 03:36
Lake, spent our first night on Elliott Lake which as soon as you get in there, it's like absolutely stunning.

03:36 - 03:41
You feel like you're in a different world and I know it's cliche but, like, those photos and

03:41 - 03:47
videos, it doesn't do justice to the mountain ranges and, just like it looks like the age of

03:47 - 03:55
things is just older but in a in a grandeur kind of beautiful way, not, you know, not anything

03:55 - 03:59
negative and you just feel smaller, you know.

03:59 - 04:03
Again, like, I think it's it's humbling in a in a beneficial way.

04:04 - 04:08
And as soon as we got in, of course, it started raining and that seemed to be the theme for

04:08 - 04:10
the first like 7 days.

04:10 - 04:14
It's like you'd be on the water and stuff and it'll be fine, maybe overcast.

04:14 - 04:17
As soon as you land and you want to make camp, it's gonna start raining.

04:17 - 04:20
It just that's the way it went. So that was fine. We waited it out.

04:20 - 04:25
We found a nice spot on Elliot Lake actually not where we intended to camp. Yeah.

04:25 - 04:30
It was pretty overgrown I guess but, across the way it looked like there was like a horse camp

04:30 - 04:34
or something like that that was, that had a couple of wasp structures there.

04:34 - 04:35
So we actually made camp there.

04:35 - 04:39
It was a really nice start place to start our camp, start the trip.

04:39 - 04:44
And the other reason that was nice is because we also had a nested canoe, so we had free boats.

04:45 - 04:51
One boat was a 16 foot nested inside the 17 so we actually had to disassemble all the 17 footer,

04:52 - 04:57
take out the seats and stuff like that and nest the 16 foot inside which means they could strap

04:57 - 05:02
it to the full plane on 1 pontoon and then strap the other boat so free in total 2 and 1 and

05:02 - 05:09
then 1 on the other pontoon, fly us all in, 6 people total, free boats, and then we had to reassemble

05:10 - 05:16
the, yeah the 16 footer with, with with some like mediocre ish tools, but it sounds fun.

05:16 - 05:21
It was a good so having that, like, a horse camp and having that shelter and having that nice,

05:21 - 05:28
like, actual flat spot to do to do the work and make our first dinner and get ourselves acquainted

05:28 - 05:29
and, yeah, it was nice.

05:29 - 05:30
It was a great start to a trip.

05:30 - 05:37
And then, the next day immediately we got up and headed from Elliot Lake into Elliot Creek.

05:37 - 05:41
And if you saw Jim Baird's, you know, video, it was low water for him.

05:41 - 05:47
So we were that's why we went early as we could, because we were worried about the low water situation.

05:47 - 05:52
I think it took him 4 days and a lot of dragging took us 2 days relatively smooth.

05:52 - 05:54
We didn't have to drag really anything.

05:54 - 05:59
There was just like enough water, just enough for us to to float through, which was great.

05:59 - 06:04
And even a couple of swifts, which was really good to get our, you know, like, adrenaline flowing

06:04 - 06:09
a little bit because one of the things about this trip that I was little I would say apprehensive,

06:10 - 06:13
not worried, but apprehensive about was the level of white water.

06:13 - 06:20
And I'm a relative novice, did a couple of, trips and, of course with with Paul Mason, which

06:20 - 06:25
really helped, I guess, at Palmer Rapids to kinda get upskilled on that and with the same paddle

06:25 - 06:27
partner that I was gonna have.

06:27 - 06:31
So, like, pretty much all of us went up a couple times to Palmer to do some of the training

06:31 - 06:34
and then the lower mad as, like, training.

06:34 - 06:38
Most people there had more experience than I did in Whitewater who were on the trip.

06:38 - 06:44
The trip was led by a gentleman named Paul Hoy, who's a person I've tripped with before.

06:45 - 06:48
He's on the Facebook groups for pretty much all of them and Yeah.

06:48 - 06:49
I'm sure I've seen that name before.

06:49 - 06:51
Yeah. Yeah. He's he's got a ton of experience.

06:51 - 06:56
He's actually been to the Yukon a couple of times before. Also, the Hood River.

06:56 - 06:58
He's done all the the, you know, Nahanni.

06:58 - 07:00
He's done them pretty much a lot.

07:00 - 07:04
And so with him, we were able to self guide the experience which really saved a lot of money

07:04 - 07:09
because if you have to do a guide on this I actually don't know if they guide the Heart River.

07:10 - 07:12
They might, but it would still be a lot more money.

07:12 - 07:15
So we had Paul as like our de facto guide.

07:15 - 07:21
I did a great trip with him in tomogamy, a flying trip before, another trip in tomogamy, so we have good history.

07:21 - 07:24
I like him as a as a power partner and as a trip leader.

07:24 - 07:27
He's also a really great poet, which is really cool.

07:27 - 07:34
So I'm hoping to have him on my podcast, scene to scenic and, have him share some of his poetry. It's it's really neat.

07:34 - 07:39
So, with Paul, he he was in the boat with his other friend, Tim. Yeah.

07:39 - 07:41
And then, so that worked out.

07:41 - 07:49
And then we had another couple of friends join us, Chris and Mikaela, who both had pretty good whitewater experience.

07:50 - 07:56
And then my paddle partner, her name was Kathy and she's close to 60, I think, but like a boss,

07:56 - 08:00
like really strong, had some experience in in rivers before too.

08:00 - 08:07
So, and our communication was increasingly getting better as time moved on, so feeling pretty good.

08:07 - 08:12
But still, the Whitewater was, you know, it could be challenging but overall, it worked out

08:12 - 08:14
as a trip like really well.

08:14 - 08:19
It was also great because the progression of Whitewater, like, started low and went higher as

08:19 - 08:21
it as the river moved down.

08:21 - 08:27
So by the time we got to the Peel, which is where the trip would end, that's where, like, that class 4 rapid was.

08:27 - 08:32
And, I actually lined the top of it with Tim and the other two boats.

08:32 - 08:35
They actually shot it, which was good, and they both made it. It was fine.

08:35 - 08:38
And I ran the bottom of it, which was a lot of fun. Yeah.

08:38 - 08:44
Overall, like, 22 days gave us a lot of time to be able to stop and see some sites, and and

08:44 - 08:48
we took a couple of rest days, of course, on different places. Wanna do some hiking. Yeah.

08:48 - 08:53
I'm happy to talk more about any of the the different aspects of it, but just wanted to give you a review.

08:53 - 09:03
I mean yeah. I I you've seen it happen faster by others, and I always think, like, I went all the way up there.

09:03 - 09:06
I wanna hang out and check some of this stuff out, man. So yeah.

09:06 - 09:13
It's, it's from what I I've seen of your your pictures and whatnot and and the the little blurbs

09:13 - 09:19
that you put in, like, especially on, on your Instagram, I think I that I would be way more

09:19 - 09:24
inclined to do it the way you guys did it. Just all that majesty.

09:24 - 09:28
Just all that that that beauty. Keep it all in. Yeah. Yeah.

09:29 - 09:31
Because it's, it's not like you do that a lot. Right?

09:31 - 09:34
Like, it's not a every year sort of trip or anything like that.

09:34 - 09:36
Yeah. You're absolutely right. Yeah.

09:36 - 09:38
I would say it would be for me a bucket list trip.

09:38 - 09:41
Like I I I turned 40 that year.

09:41 - 09:46
That was gonna be like my big 40 year, you know, trip and thankfully my wife was very supportive

09:46 - 09:51
of that too because she doesn't love moving water but she let me go up there and it was.

09:51 - 09:53
Like, I found it was the right amount of time.

09:53 - 09:59
I actually was getting, I think, a little homesick by, like, day 14 thinking like, oh, I don't know.

09:59 - 10:01
Can we do another week of this? Whatever.

10:01 - 10:04
But it just it was the right call.

10:04 - 10:07
Being out there because and that just happens for me because it's the longest trip I've ever

10:07 - 10:13
done, longest I've been away from home, but every day was something new and I would even say

10:13 - 10:16
there's a little bit of magic in in each of those days.

10:16 - 10:23
So Elliott Creek was really cool and then the topography changed a lot once we got, into the Hart River proper.

10:23 - 10:28
And the color of the water too was incredible once we got to the Hart, but the first camp we

10:28 - 10:33
had in Elliott Creek, which was, I said, it was on Canada Day, was a really cool spot, nice little gravel bar.

10:33 - 10:37
We're able to get a fire, I think, for the first time too, which how it dried out enough.

10:37 - 10:41
So for that, we had a firebox stove, So we're feeling great about that.

10:41 - 10:46
And, like I said, we were just all kinda getting used to each other and used to the group dynamic

10:46 - 10:48
because we haven't camped as a group.

10:48 - 10:49
You know what I mean?

10:49 - 10:50
I've camped with Paul before.

10:50 - 10:52
Chris has camped with Makayla before.

10:53 - 10:58
No one's met Kathy that I was, you know, like that I knew about, so the group dynamic was cool

10:58 - 11:03
to see that evolve and also like grow and work really well because, you know, like that could

11:03 - 11:07
be a potential problem I think if, if you don't have a good dynamic.

11:08 - 11:14
And then when we got to the Hart River proper, the water color changed to this like turquoise, like absolutely gorgeous color. Yeah.

11:14 - 11:19
And then the mountain ranges got even bigger because you could see them far away and then when

11:19 - 11:22
you got to me, you're like, oh, wow, these are these are incredible.

11:22 - 11:29
And, our first night on the Hart River, we camped, on kind of like a sand ish bar and a huge

11:29 - 11:33
thunderstorm rolled in, which is actually really cool to be to, like, to be in your tent and

11:33 - 11:35
see and hear it and just the power of it.

11:35 - 11:40
Like you realize, like I said, you felt small because you realize the power of nature when you're out there.

11:40 - 11:43
And when that thunder hood, like it was shaking like your tent.

11:43 - 11:49
Like it was really cool, you know, in that sense.

11:49 - 11:54
I mean, if if I didn't have experience in the background before, I'd probably terrified, but

11:54 - 11:57
I was actually just more in awe of it, to be honest with you.

11:57 - 12:00
And it lasted all of 30 minutes, I don't know.

12:01 - 12:06
And then we got out and started fishing and stuff and that was one thing cool that I really

12:06 - 12:12
appreciate about the trip too is, I haven't done a ton of fishing before, I do enjoy it but,

12:12 - 12:17
catching arctic railing is really cool and they're really good fish and really tasty.

12:17 - 12:23
So we didn't get into some good ones until later in the trip, but, you know, they were like little tiny guys.

12:23 - 12:26
I guess maybe it was a time of year or 2 or whatever of it's the temperature of the water.

12:26 - 12:28
I don't know, for the most part.

12:28 - 12:33
So we were thinking, oh, like, we watched Jim Baird, like, just get all these massive grayling

12:33 - 12:34
and we thought this was gonna be the same thing.

12:34 - 12:39
But, in the 1st week, we didn't really land anything good and then started getting a little

12:39 - 12:42
better as we continued through the trip.

12:42 - 12:49
There were 2 kind of highlights I've well, more than 2 but of places we stopped the hike, which was really cool.

12:50 - 12:57
One was day 8, so we had gone through 7 days of a heart river stopping on various places, all

12:57 - 13:00
of which had like I said, the landscape was really cool.

13:00 - 13:07
Actually, day 4 and 5 are really neat, that was like the first like, I guess, amazing landscape

13:07 - 13:09
moment that just took us really by surprises.

13:10 - 13:14
We were camping at the base of this, again, another gravel a lot of times we camp with gravel

13:14 - 13:23
bars just and where we could find flat spots and if you see the video I have one, one part of

13:23 - 13:27
the video and I'm working on part 2 and 3 of, the actual video on my youtube channel for this

13:27 - 13:33
but, there's a mountain that looks like you're looking at Mordor from like Lord of the Rings.

13:33 - 13:41
It's just like amazing scree coming down, that kind of makes like a deep channel and, it just

13:41 - 13:44
finished raining because of course we landed and you know, we're about to make camp so the rain

13:44 - 13:46
came, that's just the way it was.

13:46 - 13:52
But afterwards, this rainbow, most vibrant rainbow obviously just like came over in front of

13:52 - 13:58
the mountain like the mortar mountain and like the photo, so it's just like, again, I won't

13:58 - 14:03
do it justice but, just on Rhea and we were able Mikaela had a drone with her, so she was able

14:03 - 14:07
to get up and get some drone footage, it's also in the video, which I really appreciate that contribution.

14:08 - 14:10
And, like, it just lifts your spirits.

14:10 - 14:14
Like, I just don't know how else to describe it. It was incredible.

14:14 - 14:16
Like, so that that view was amazing.

14:16 - 14:19
That was day 5, just at the base of this mountain.

14:20 - 14:27
And then around day 8, we stopped at like, it was kind of this time instead of being on a river

14:27 - 14:31
right, river left situation, we were camping kind of in the middle where there's a fork.

14:32 - 14:35
So we camped in the middle and the river forked around us both ways.

14:36 - 14:41
And looking both ways, like backwards and forwards, we're in this valley of these big mountains

14:41 - 14:46
on your side and it looked kind of like, I've never been to Norway, but to me it looked like

14:46 - 14:50
as if you were in like Norway if he's big fjords almost, you know what I mean?

14:50 - 14:55
It was incredible that way And so we base camp there for 2 extra days and we hiked up one of

14:55 - 14:57
the, mountains on the right side.

14:57 - 14:58
We just bushwhacked it kind of.

14:58 - 15:02
We said, hey, this looks like a great spot to climb and we did and we got up there.

15:02 - 15:06
And and once we were up there, the view again just changed so much.

15:06 - 15:11
You can see like the braids and then there and then, you know, little offshoots of the river

15:11 - 15:14
going other places and stuff like that.

15:14 - 15:19
And, for miles, like, just nothing, just pure wilderness.

15:20 - 15:25
And just to me, we just sat there for an hour just taking it all in.

15:26 - 15:31
I had mused with one of my guests on the podcast that I had fully intended I brought a notebook

15:31 - 15:35
and everything, fully intended, oh, I'm gonna write all this great stuff. And I didn't.

15:35 - 15:39
Like because I was just taking it in like I couldn't even write.

15:39 - 15:43
It was just too much for your eyes, for your ears, for your you know what I mean?

15:43 - 15:45
Like that's what was really neat about it.

15:45 - 15:50
It just captivates you and I guess captivates probably the best word I could use to describe it.

15:50 - 15:55
So that was a wonderful hike, it was a day trip and then, the next day we carried on and then

15:55 - 16:01
we got about day would have been about day 9 or 10, we got to Mount Nitro which is also where

16:01 - 16:07
Jim Baird stopped and again, like in his video, I think he did it it in a day or 2 and just

16:07 - 16:12
like beast molded it like he always does, but we spent 3 days there at the base of Nitro.

16:12 - 16:17
That campsite is really cool because for the first time, it was like elevated, there were like a few plateaus.

16:17 - 16:19
So you'd like land your boats.

16:19 - 16:23
There'd be a plateau up to like the living room, I guess, or area, whatever.

16:23 - 16:26
It's a fire pit and stuff and relatively flat.

16:26 - 16:31
And then another plateau up to like your sleeping area where it was actually like you had shrubs

16:31 - 16:34
and grass almost, which is the first time we saw that for a while.

16:34 - 16:39
So we'd camp up like that premium like penthouse suite like area, have our fires and stuff down

16:39 - 16:44
at the second portion and then in the middle, again, it kind of braided out so you'd have a

16:44 - 16:46
great place to take cold dips.

16:46 - 16:50
That was the other thing we did a lot of of is I did a lot of cold plunges, because even though

16:50 - 16:56
it was middle of summer, with temperature that water is still like 3 or 4 degrees or something.

16:56 - 17:02
So that was that was a cool experience for me too, but we spent 3 days at Nitro and, we climbed

17:02 - 17:06
up not the same I personally didn't climb up the same side that Jim Bear did, although Chris

17:06 - 17:12
and Mikaela the following day did do that, which they said was extremely sketchy, so good to Jim.

17:12 - 17:17
In terms of like just being able to get up with, the vertical and the scree and stuff, we went

17:17 - 17:23
to the I guess, well, we're going to say it's the left side where there was some rocky oak cross

17:23 - 17:27
that were really cool that, made for an excellent viewing port.

17:27 - 17:33
And we took some amazing photos and again, just hung up up there for hours just just taking

17:33 - 17:39
it in and the view up there on Mount Nitro is just something else because you're deep into the

17:39 - 17:41
mountains and the valleys at that point.

17:41 - 17:47
And you can see how the the river ebbs and flows and the other nice thing too is is we were

17:47 - 17:48
at that point, we were like, okay.

17:48 - 17:53
It's time to put spray decks on because we didn't we didn't, at that point, put on the spray

17:53 - 17:57
decks, because we weren't gonna hit any white water that we knew of anyways.

17:57 - 18:01
And that was actually true because, you know, you don't know what's ahead of you. Right?

18:01 - 18:05
So getting that vantage point and being able to see a little bit ahead cut us in, okay, we're

18:05 - 18:08
probably gonna run into some some harder rapids.

18:09 - 18:14
We have a funny story about the sprayskirt too, it's also in the video is that, Cathy and I

18:14 - 18:19
actually lost ours because on day 5, after we left that beautiful campsite where we saw the

18:19 - 18:25
rainbow and everything, we, we dumped and so did actually, so did Paul.

18:25 - 18:28
He so Paul was leading, we were in the middle of Chris McKayla sweeping.

18:29 - 18:32
They're they're quite experienced Chris McKayla in the back, so they will avoid this.

18:32 - 18:36
But we're running around the corner, and we didn't have anything at this point strapped in or

18:36 - 18:40
anything like that because in our own ignorance, and this is something we learned quick.

18:40 - 18:44
I'm actually very grateful this happened to us early in the trip on day 5.

18:44 - 18:48
So you would learn from it and, you know, be a bit more diligent.

18:49 - 18:56
Came around a right hander and, there's a sweeper going right across and it from a, you know,

18:56 - 19:00
from our vantage point, it didn't look like anything, really.

19:00 - 19:02
It was just like a looked like a twig.

19:02 - 19:06
When you got around, it it took you so fast and the corner was very tight.

19:06 - 19:11
So Paul and, Tim, who are ahead of us, all but made it.

19:11 - 19:14
They were so close, but just got the tail end.

19:14 - 19:19
And then, I think, they probably could have stabilized themselves, but I think they just opted

19:19 - 19:23
because they were close to shore to just dump and they were able to get up really quickly and

19:23 - 19:27
salvage your stuff, so they didn't swim and their boat didn't go too far.

19:27 - 19:28
They were able to retrieve it.

19:29 - 19:33
Kathy and I, unfortunately, because we were right behind them, it was too late for us to course correct.

19:33 - 19:36
It's another thing we learned is to give a bit more space.

19:36 - 19:41
And we were heading straight for this thing and we've quickly realized this was gonna be a problem.

19:41 - 19:47
So we were able to get the boat sideways, at least, because we didn't want to, like, hit it head on.

19:47 - 19:51
And we just rolled ourselves, like, there's no way we were gonna be able to stop it.

19:52 - 19:58
So that that way, the boat went under and, Kathy was in the bow, in the stern.

19:58 - 20:02
She went under as well, but I held the boat as much as I could.

20:02 - 20:05
I said, like, Kathy, like, you gotta move. So she did.

20:05 - 20:06
She went left, and I let the boat go.

20:06 - 20:08
And that thing's like a torpedo.

20:08 - 20:10
The river is really quick at this point.

20:10 - 20:13
And I think it went down 2 kilometers, and we didn't strap anything in.

20:13 - 20:18
So, of course, all our stuff is, like, gone. Everywhere. Yep. Everywhere. Yeah.

20:19 - 20:23
And, so, thankfully, I had a bit of better vantage for him. I'm a little taller.

20:23 - 20:27
So I was able to see Tim on River Right getting up.

20:27 - 20:32
And I so, of course, at this point, I'm also swimming and now we we all took the the less like,

20:32 - 20:33
the lesson of Paul Mason.

20:33 - 20:39
So we, you know, feet up, like, you know, head back, just feet first going down. And it was fine.

20:39 - 20:45
We knew eventually it would be something, but rivers, up north that way are a little different

20:45 - 20:49
than like in Ontario where you'd see a lot of eddy pools and it's like a 300 meter swim.

20:50 - 20:53
It's like it goes for a long time.

20:53 - 20:54
You know what I mean?

20:54 - 20:57
So thankfully, it was shallow enough where I saw Tim on the side.

20:57 - 20:58
I'm like, okay, I could stand.

20:58 - 21:00
And I was able to stand up and walk to shore.

21:00 - 21:04
Kathy, unfortunately, she made it a little bit further, but she went on the left.

21:04 - 21:10
So she was across the river from us. Our boat was gone. Our stuff was gone. It was cold.

21:10 - 21:13
I had a dry top and a dry pants.

21:13 - 21:17
Soon realized that it's really not adequate because water just gets into that stuff.

21:17 - 21:20
Like, that's why people have the full dry suit with the whole thing.

21:20 - 21:21
A zip up. Yep.

21:21 - 21:22
I would do it differently. Yeah.

21:22 - 21:26
I would definitely invest in a dry suit because it was. It was cold.

21:26 - 21:28
I was not prepared for the for the level of cold.

21:28 - 21:33
And, we were I was able to with Paul and Tim because they had their boat, they had their stuff.

21:33 - 21:39
And me and Kathy were able to get with them while Chris and Mikaela chased their boat essentially. That was the plan.

21:41 - 21:42
And they found the boat, which is great.

21:42 - 21:49
And we were able to, kind of make it a little bit further, maybe a kilometer down the river before another sweeper.

21:49 - 21:56
And Paul and I actually had to had to like dump ourselves and and jump off because we had 4

21:56 - 21:59
people on this boat with all this gear and they couldn't steer at all.

22:00 - 22:02
So we got off and we made it to shore.

22:03 - 22:06
Kathy and Tim in the boat made it to shore, which is great.

22:06 - 22:11
So we were all for 4 of us, we're able to get together with Paul's boat and his stuff, and we

22:11 - 22:14
stopped and actually made a fire because we were really cold.

22:14 - 22:16
And that was the right move.

22:16 - 22:21
So we were getting warm and we had our Garmin in reaches and we're trying to communicate with

22:21 - 22:22
Chris and Mikhail see where they were at.

22:23 - 22:27
So, thankfully, what happened is is we all made it, first of all, to River Right, which is good

22:27 - 22:30
because if one of us made it over to a left, that'd be a problem.

22:30 - 22:31
We'd have to cross over again.

22:32 - 22:38
Our boat was, salvaged a little bit further down, maybe 800 meters, but around the corner, we couldn't see them.

22:38 - 22:44
And they were able to walk up on river right with us and Chris came up and met us, which is

22:44 - 22:45
great, and told us where we were at.

22:45 - 22:53
So we all were able to walk down, you know, we got the boat and stuff but we lost some things. Kathy's barrel actually opened.

22:53 - 22:59
She had a barrel as she rented from the outbidder and, I don't know what happened but the the

22:59 - 23:04
barrel opened and she lost a bunch of food, unfortunately, and and our coffee rations and stuff like that.

23:04 - 23:08
So, it could have been a lot worse, honestly, but this is I don't know.

23:08 - 23:10
Losing your coffee, man. That's pretty bad.

23:10 - 23:12
Yeah. Well, actually, that was that was like a thing.

23:12 - 23:17
So I had some other coffee and some other people had some other coffee, but it wasn't enough.

23:17 - 23:23
So we were using, like, 2nd thirds of grinds and stuff in the morning, and that was like it was we made do.

23:23 - 23:28
It was a first world problem, but, like, it definitely impacted, you know, the morning experience.

23:29 - 23:29
But I'm

23:29 - 23:32
about to say one one of the things that got lost was the sprayskirt.

23:32 - 23:34
So this is actually really a cool story.

23:34 - 23:37
I mean, not that it happened, but the way we found it.

23:38 - 23:40
So the skirt was gone. We're like, oh, shoot.

23:40 - 23:42
And that's that's an expensive piece of kit, and it's not ours.

23:42 - 23:44
We're renting it along with the boat.

23:45 - 23:46
Some other stuff was lost.

23:46 - 23:51
I lost, my hat because like I said, I didn't strap anything down, my water filter.

23:51 - 23:52
So I lost some stuff.

23:52 - 23:57
Kathy lost some stuff, but thankfully, you know, all of our dry bags and stuff were there.

23:57 - 24:01
So we had most of our tents, sleeping bags, all that stuff. We had it. It was fine.

24:01 - 24:06
And we got back kind of on the horse and we made a quick camp, but one thing was we were going

24:06 - 24:10
a little further down and we first braid that happened had 3 channels.

24:10 - 24:12
So we have our left center, we have our right.

24:13 - 24:15
And we were scouting it out thinking which one do we take?

24:16 - 24:17
They all look pretty viable.

24:18 - 24:22
I guess, as fate would have it, because I don't know what else to call it, we took the left

24:22 - 24:25
channel, we're going down and it's again, it's pretty swift.

24:25 - 24:27
We see this red thing in the water.

24:27 - 24:30
We're like, oh, someone dropped like busted their canoe up here.

24:30 - 24:34
So the first boat passes it, but as Kathy and I go by, we're like, that's our spray skirt.

24:34 - 24:41
So we're like we're like get to shore and then we we dislodge it and we have Chris in the middle

24:41 - 24:42
of a river because he can wade.

24:42 - 24:43
He's got his dry suit.

24:43 - 24:44
Everybody else got a dry suit.

24:44 - 24:48
I don't I don't have a dry suit. So we dislodge it.

24:48 - 24:51
Chris is going like, you know, it's like coming by him.

24:51 - 24:56
He just I don't know it's it's hard in the water and and it's faster faster than you think.

24:56 - 25:01
It just misses like he just misses it and the skirt's going down again. We're like, okay.

25:01 - 25:08
But at least this time, we we know where kind of where it is and, it gets lodged and stuck up

25:08 - 25:11
somehow in the middle of a river on something we don't even know.

25:12 - 25:15
And actually, right to the left of that spot is a great place to camp.

25:15 - 25:17
So we were able to and it's like 500 meters.

25:17 - 25:22
So we're able to get down, go to left, river left, make camp, and devise a plan where Chris

25:22 - 25:27
and Mikaela and myself were able to actually, like, dislodge and carry the spray skirt.

25:27 - 25:29
And so we had the spray skirt at.

25:29 - 25:32
And, yeah, so that all happened within the 1st week.

25:32 - 25:36
And like I said, I'm grateful for that experience because we learned a lot of lessons through

25:36 - 25:42
that and I think it really helped the resilience to, so we were one thing is, like I said, we

25:42 - 25:44
were a lot more cautious around corners.

25:44 - 25:49
We stopped and scouted a lot more at that point to get around corners and find good lines.

25:50 - 25:58
We gave more space, we strapped our stuff in, which in case we and we never dumped again, which was great, because you

25:58 - 26:02
were You had everything strapped in, so what's what's the where's the fun in dumping?

26:03 - 26:09
Yeah. Well, yeah, exactly. Also, because we didn't want to repeat that experience but Yeah.

26:09 - 26:15
So all that to say is when we finally got to, Mount Nitro, we were able to get the spray skirts

26:15 - 26:22
and put them on, for the next leg of the journey, so to speak, because Nitro is kind of I wouldn't say it's half halfway. Yeah.

26:22 - 26:27
So the next leg of the journey after Mount Nitro, which again was an incredible experience.

26:27 - 26:30
Again, the top topography changed a little bit.

26:30 - 26:34
The river got a little wider and a little faster, and so we did put the spray skirts on for that leg.

26:34 - 26:40
All throughout, like, the next leg, there are all these, like, amazing cliffs and spires and

26:40 - 26:42
cool things happening on the cliff side.

26:42 - 26:47
So we were taking our time again to to to check those out while we went down, and then you get into his canyon.

26:48 - 26:50
And so we had this amazing campsite.

26:51 - 26:53
Would have been day 11 or 12 on I don't recall.

26:53 - 26:57
Maybe 13 or 14 because we had stayed so long at Nitro.

26:57 - 27:04
Regardless, this campsite was on river right and on the left was a 300 meter canyon. Just amazing.

27:04 - 27:10
So you're camped, like, within, I don't know, 15 feet of this thing and it's amazing and the

27:10 - 27:12
rivers in the mid in the middle. Right?

27:12 - 27:15
And the great little eddy pool, so we're we're catching grayling and stuff.

27:15 - 27:20
And at that point, we had like that night too because it was just such a scenic spot.

27:20 - 27:23
We had like a a group bonding activity.

27:23 - 27:26
We we played, like, charades and had some games and stuff, and it was really fun.

27:26 - 27:33
I just, like, the every day that we kept going, the the group dynamic was getting better and

27:33 - 27:36
we were staying up more, talking more at the fire and stuff.

27:36 - 27:41
And because it doesn't get dark until, well, like 1 AM, I guess, like, we've had times where

27:41 - 27:43
it's like, oh, it's midnight.

27:43 - 27:45
I guess we better go to bed.

27:45 - 27:46
So that's the other thing.

27:46 - 27:51
It's like, because, you know, it's the summertime, it never really, really got dark.

27:51 - 27:56
I think on on the last night we were there or the second last night, I actually woke up at like

27:56 - 28:01
3 AM to go to the bathroom and then I saw like what would be considered a sunset and got some

28:01 - 28:03
great photos because it's so beautiful.

28:03 - 28:05
But the rest of the time, it's just like sunny.

28:05 - 28:11
So I wore a sleep mask because I couldn't actually sleep in the tent with all the light, and

28:11 - 28:13
I found that that really helped me sleeping.

28:13 - 28:19
So those are some of the things I learned up there, but, through the canyon was a really nice really nice spot.

28:20 - 28:25
And then after the canyon, it was kind of, like I said, wider and flatter.

28:25 - 28:31
So it started getting flat again as we're approaching the Peel River system, which, is where

28:31 - 28:32
the Hart River actually ends.

28:32 - 28:37
And it was really interesting because when we were the last couple days we were on our trip,

28:37 - 28:41
we we were off of the Hart River and on the Peel where they come and pick you up.

28:41 - 28:46
And when we got to the confluence of the Peel, we didn't even well, I didn't even know that was a confluence.

28:47 - 28:50
Paul told us because of the GPS at his GPS and says, oh, we're getting on the Peel.

28:50 - 28:55
I'm like, doesn't make any sense because it I thought it was gonna be as dramatic as it was

28:55 - 28:57
with the Heart River coming out of Elliott Creek.

28:57 - 29:02
But, you know, he was able to point it out so we could see it once and we actually camped right at the confluence.

29:02 - 29:06
There was another good campsite and that's where I I got to see that sunset.

29:06 - 29:12
And throughout it all, like I said, we just we had some really good group bonding, we had some great fishing.

29:12 - 29:20
One of the spots right before the Peal, river, which was really really cool, was, again this after the canyon.

29:21 - 29:26
We made our way through and there were like these big free pyramid shaped mountains, like almost

29:26 - 29:31
perfect pyramid shaped mountains that were in the distance and as we got closer, we noticed

29:31 - 29:34
that there were some mountain goats climbing up, which is really cool.

29:34 - 29:39
So we had stopped to watch the mountain goats, which ended up being a great campsite anyway,

29:39 - 29:40
so we stayed on that spot.

29:40 - 29:43
And, there's also some good fishing there.

29:43 - 29:48
So we caught I think 8 or 8 or 9 grayling between the 3 of us that were fishing, which is really

29:48 - 29:50
cool and we we were able to eat some.

29:51 - 29:56
And, yeah, the pyramid shaped mountains were just, again, just another way that we were surprised

29:56 - 29:58
because it looked different from everything else.

29:58 - 30:03
Like the everywhere everyday there was something new to explore and see, I guess, which is really cool.

30:03 - 30:05
And that was one of my favorite campsites too.

30:05 - 30:09
It was actually a really small site relatively speaking, but it it was another like little bit

30:09 - 30:12
of a canyon wall and like I said, the mountains in the distance.

30:13 - 30:18
And it was also getting warmer, so we finally, you know, on day 8 and throughout the rest of

30:18 - 30:23
the trip, it was more sunny more frequently. And it didn't right?

30:23 - 30:28
Like, it rained the first 7 days of a trip, not continually, but like I said, almost on clockwork

30:28 - 30:29
at certain times of the day.

30:29 - 30:33
Always seemed to, find us when we were setting up camp.

30:33 - 30:37
So it was nice to see the sun and have it come out and be a little warmer.

30:38 - 30:42
And then when we got to the Peoe River, we approached like the the last couple of days we spent

30:42 - 30:44
getting through those big class 4 rapids.

30:45 - 30:48
And, that was a really cool experience. That was really fun.

30:48 - 30:52
And by that time, we had a lot more confidence in the whitewater. So,

30:53 - 30:53
yeah.

30:53 - 30:58
It was bittersweet when we were at the last campsite and the the the plane came to pick us up.

30:58 - 31:04
And, I think the the last thing I could say about the trip is the plane ride home was spectacular

31:04 - 31:09
too because you then you fly through all the different mountain ranges and stuff as well.

31:09 - 31:12
And you actually fly over the Hart River, so you can kinda see, oh, we were there.

31:12 - 31:17
And what was cool is for 30 seconds, you could see the river in the plain and you watch the

31:17 - 31:20
river go like as far as you can see and you're like, wow, we paddled that.

31:20 - 31:24
We paddled all of that which is amazing and then the different mountains and stuff.

31:24 - 31:30
We saw the same Mordor looking mountain but from the aerial view, really cool perspective.

31:31 - 31:35
And, we made it back to Mayo and just, back to Whitehorse.

31:36 - 31:40
And we spent one extra day in Whitehorse which was really grateful for to just recover and and

31:40 - 31:44
take a shower and like, you know, reminisce and stuff.

31:44 - 31:46
And, yeah, that was it.

31:46 - 31:53
But, like, overall, it just it felt like we were moving fast, but we were moving slow.

31:53 - 31:55
So I don't know how to describe it.

31:55 - 31:58
And just, like I said, I couldn't even do a lot of writing.

31:58 - 32:01
It was just my senses were taking it in. What I

32:01 - 32:06
find with shooting stuff on a camera and thing that it takes away from your visual of actually

32:06 - 32:11
seeing it with your own eyes, so I can imagine that you'd want to just take it all in with your eyes.

32:11 - 32:19
I know that, like, I don't have I don't have I haven't done anything to to to that level, but

32:19 - 32:23
just doing things like, you know, Killarney, Algonquin, whatever.

32:23 - 32:31
I'm so much more inclined to to whip out the camera and take stills as opposed to set up video

32:31 - 32:34
shots and stuff like that just because I am.

32:34 - 32:35
I'm looking around, you know.

32:36 - 32:38
So I Thomas will turn around.

32:38 - 32:42
My our my eldest our eldest, will turn around and be like, close your mouth, dad.

32:42 - 32:45
Because you're just like, you know It's

32:45 - 32:46
in flies.

32:46 - 32:48
Yeah. Sucking in all that beauty.

32:48 - 32:53
Man, I can I can totally see why that would be a bucket list trip? That's that's pretty wild.

32:53 - 32:56
How do you set up the the plane?

32:56 - 33:01
Like, obviously, it'd be easy enough to book it to to go in, but do you have a I assume you

33:01 - 33:05
have a specific date that they're so you have to be there at a certain time?

33:06 - 33:10
Yeah. You're absolutely right. We were also fortunate in the sense that with the Garmin, we

33:10 - 33:16
were able to communicate with, with, I guess, the the booker of the the flight to just confirm

33:16 - 33:18
when we're gonna be there and stuff.

33:19 - 33:23
But, yes, we did in advance set up the the basically, the date and time.

33:23 - 33:29
And, we actually had it was interesting because a few like, maybe a week before our actual anticipated

33:30 - 33:35
pull out date, they were messaging us, because they had our garments and stuff and like, oh,

33:35 - 33:38
like our our beaver is in for repair or whatever.

33:38 - 33:42
We might have to, like, shuttle you out with like, because you can actually at the takeout on

33:42 - 33:45
the Peel, you you can get a land shuttle.

33:45 - 33:48
It takes a lot longer but apparently, they might have might have done that.

33:48 - 33:53
So we were fortunate in that, I guess, for whatever reason, they were able to finish the maintenance

33:53 - 33:56
just in the nick of time and be able to fly us safely back.

33:56 - 34:00
But we did have a bit of communication through the Garmin but essentially, if you didn't have

34:00 - 34:03
that, you just be there and Yeah.

34:03 - 34:06
It's Saturday at 2 PM. Right. Yeah. Exactly. That's it.

34:06 - 34:08
So they set a time now.

34:09 - 34:13
It's it's common that the plane will be delayed sometimes.

34:13 - 34:17
So we actually had to wait an additional hour just at the campsite, which is fine.

34:17 - 34:22
We knew they were coming but I suppose if you didn't have our communication, you might be a little worried.

34:22 - 34:27
So but, yeah, you set the day and time and essentially make do your best to show up and if you

34:27 - 34:32
don't show up, they, think there's they'll do a reconnaissance or something if it's like an

34:32 - 34:39
extra day, but usually you'd have some kind of communication, with you like a garment or something.

34:39 - 34:41
We made you all 3 of us had it. So

34:43 - 34:50
Nice. And I I just backing up a little bit with was Kathy that lost her food, right, out out of the barrel? Correct. Yes.

34:50 - 34:54
How did did so I I I'm making assumptions.

34:54 - 34:57
You guys packed extra food for that exact scenario?

34:57 - 35:04
We all shared. Exactly. We we all brought too much, so that really helped and we were able to to share different meals.

35:04 - 35:08
She she was a like, most of what she lost, I think, were breakfasts and stuff.

35:08 - 35:10
So not everything was gone.

35:10 - 35:12
Like half her barrel was still there, which is great.

35:12 - 35:16
And then we kind of jerry rigged the lid system because I think we we lost her lid.

35:16 - 35:22
So there was like a canvas bag that one of the gears pieces came in from the boat, like when

35:22 - 35:27
we had, the deconstructed canoe and we're able to like kind of rig it so it was over top and

35:27 - 35:32
we we when when we're strapping stuff in now, we were butting it up against the other barrel

35:32 - 35:34
so that it was like almost one unit.

35:35 - 35:41
So, she didn't lose everything but she lost enough that we definitely ended up sharing. And that was nice.

35:41 - 35:46
That was kind of the vibe with the whole group too is, you know, I shared my food with people. They shared their food.

35:46 - 35:49
We didn't plan to do shared meals per se.

35:50 - 35:53
We thought maybe we'd have a shared breakfast or a shared dinner, like, once.

35:53 - 35:56
But everybody was kind of responsible for our own, and we ended up just sharing.

35:56 - 35:58
And it worked out totally fine.

35:58 - 36:01
And, thankfully, we caught some fish, so that helped a bit too.

36:02 - 36:08
You mentioned, mountain goats. Did what did any other wildlife viewings?

36:09 - 36:14
Oh, yeah. You're right. Numerous bald and golden eagles, which were really cool to see.

36:15 - 36:23
So that was really special, and we got to see on the second last day one black bear, who was

36:23 - 36:25
across the river from us.

36:25 - 36:35
No grizzlies, oh, and a few moose actually, a few moose, mostly it looked like like, a mother

36:35 - 36:36
and a calf kind of situation.

36:36 - 36:41
So we didn't really see any big antlers, but there are a few moose as well. I'm trying

36:41 - 36:48
to think how many years ago, 3 or 4 years ago, Thomas and I saw a bald eagle, in just in Georgian

36:48 - 36:50
Bay, just the bottom of the French.

36:50 - 36:55
And with I was that was I was like, holy mackerel, that's a huge bird, man. That's crazy.

36:55 - 36:56
That was that was very cool. Yeah.

36:56 - 36:57
You're absolutely right.

36:58 - 37:04
So, okay. So here here's just one that because I when I was going through your stuff, you mentioned nesting.

37:04 - 37:06
How did whose whose idea was that?

37:06 - 37:12
Was that somebody else has has done that before and that's how you guys knew how to to do that or the outfitter or?

37:12 - 37:18
Because I I thought that was pretty cool pretty cool way to dodge having to need 3 canoes and

37:18 - 37:19
and only having space for 2.

37:19 - 37:23
Yeah. Thanks. I believe it is the Outfitter's concept.

37:23 - 37:26
I know they've done it before, on multiple trips.

37:26 - 37:32
So we when we arrived in Whitehorse, we were there a couple days early to, like, just secure

37:32 - 37:37
our provisions and stuff and we spent the the day right ahead of a trip before a flight at the

37:37 - 37:44
Outfitters, doing the deconstruction and like fitting spray skirts and stuff and so they were

37:44 - 37:48
they were kind of coaching us through how to do the process which worked out well for us and

37:48 - 37:53
having that experience being able to like do it ahead of time and then put it back together

37:53 - 37:58
without having to try and attempt it the first time when we were actually in the wilderness was helpful.

37:58 - 38:03
So, yeah, that was the outfitters, concept, and it seemed to work pretty well.

38:03 - 38:04
Yeah. I think it's a great idea.

38:04 - 38:07
That way, you can get 6 people out on a trip instead of only 4.

38:07 - 38:08
That's it for us for today.

38:08 - 38:12
Thank you so much to our special guest, Darren from Ride, Paddle, Repeat.

38:12 - 38:19
Please do check him out on Instagram and YouTube, and check out us out on Instagram and YouTube

38:19 - 38:24
and Facebook and Twitter and reach out to us if you want to anytime we are at hi SuperGoodCamping.com

38:24 - 38:28
that's hi SuperGoodCamping.com and we'll talk to you again soon.

38:28 - 38:29
Bye. Bye.