We left our “Splitting the Waters” camp with the scent of wood smoke on the air. A forest fire nearby up along at started overnight and we woke up to haze and smoke. We then decided to skip our rest day and out paddle the smoke. We packed up and soon drifted under the railway bridge pictured above. A second one soon followed and we entered a more wilderness part of the trip.

Our lunch beach had been visited by both wolf and geese. It got a bit squally during our stop so we ate quickly and got back into warm cocoons in our canoe. This section of the river showed evidence of a huge ice jam with huge tracts of trees debarked and felled. The banks were steep and muddy and it took us four tries to find a campsite but the look was worth it and went spent the night with a pesky beaver at “Riverbend” camp.

We woke to fog and mist that made the river disappear. We could only hear it, not see it. As the sun rise and warmed the air, the fog burned off and today was a mix of sun, rain, and spectacular clouds. The current was feisty and we made good progress while enjoying some special moments floating past some huge deer that didn’t spook as we floated by.

Tonight, again, finding camping was tough but we again, found a lovely spot beside a creek that will provide a wonderful lullaby for sleep as well as power for our devices because we could deploy our Water Lily Turbine in the creek. So we called this camp “Lily Creek.”

We’ll head into Athabasca tomorrow or the next day for our next town stop and resupply. We passed the 600 km mark of our trip today and we are settling into paddling North like just fine. Thanks for coming along.