After seven days of paddling, we’ve covered 291 km and reached Whitecourt, Alberta. The bridge in the picture above was our last obstacle before arriving. They have made gravel bars that reach into the river (likely to change water and ice flow around break up and flooding) that caused the water to get squirrelly with huge boiling eddy lines as we approached the bridge.

There was a strainer up against the bridge pillar where most of the water was going so we cut through some standing waves, ride gingerly down the eddy line, and ran the bridge perfectly.

We pulled in right after the bridge to check out the R.V. and Campground and we are sitting here, showered, and enjoying a bit of wifi (thus some video upload on my social media channels). It was the first portage of our 3400 km journey and it felt good to have a canoe above my head.

We are taking a layover tomorrow to all hands, wrists, and arms a rest and so they can convert all this great paddling into strength.

We’ll enjoy some downtime, reshuffle a few things, and get ready for the paddle to “Camp One” having paddled to basecamp this week.

Speaking of basecamp, congrats to our friend Yun Pan on his summit of Everest (all the others summitting as well).