After a lovely but long drive, we arrived in Hay River, NWT. We’re hear to fetch our canoe that we will use for our expedition. We sat down in March examining all of the options for a boat for the trip (rent, buy, packable) and this option won out in cost and convenience (at the end of the trip).

As my dad would often say, “If you want to dance you have to pay the band.” In this case, we are prepaying. The canoe will come back down the Mackenzie via barge while we will likely fly.

So, the first day of the expedition was a long one: eleven hours of driving, 7 degrees of latitude, and one entire album of The Emeralds because my music hadn’t downloaded.

Now, off to breakfast and boat fetching!