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5 weeks north of the Arctic Circle


kickingfrog

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A very tangible reason why I love Canada so much. I would love to paddle that river in my kayak. A simple view through the eye of a lens can be so powerful, passionate, and complex at the same time. I honestly believe those pictures can very well be a person's soul as it is raw. Amazing how life can be captured in it's truest form.

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I'm not sure if I'm more impressed with the trip, or the fact that you had a digital camera in 1998 :lol:

 

Seriously, what an awesome trip. My father used to work in Tuktoyaktuk on the Beaufort Sea. I had the opportunity to go one time, but I was 16 and didn't want to spend time with my parents :rolleyes: Wish I had of known the opportunity I was missing then ;)

 

Thanks for sharing Rob.

 

Joey

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Those are some incredible photos, especially considering it was 12 years ago! Trip of a lifetime for sure!

 

I would've crapped myself seeing a Muskox so close and especially since he did some charging. The grizzleys too. I think that's why I couldn't do those type of trips lol.

 

Did you feel fear there?

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Thanks for the comments gang.

 

It was a very memorable trip. I did keep a journal, but I can't find it after 12 years and 4 house moves. The photos made it very easy to remember the majority of the trip, but I'm sure there are some stories that are lost until I can find that journal.

 

All try to answer some of the questions:

 

YES!!! Very buggy! We had a dinning tent to allow us to try to eat our food without ingesting mosquitoes with every bit , it even worked sometimes. The tight weave nylon pants and shirts did a lot to thwart the bugs and bug jackets were used as well. On the river wasn't too bad even if there wasn't much of a breeze. Even the rocky banks/shore areas weren't too bad either. The big issue was if you started walking in the low scrub areas away from the river. You would basically kick-up tens of thousands of mosquitoes as you went. There is a picture of me somewhere, my upper back, shoulders and hood of my rain jacket looks like fur. At these times there was a constant hum of mosquitoes wings.

 

The 24 hours of daylight lead to some unexpected issues for me. I never had a problem with sleeping in "daylight", although it took me a number of days to adjust back to darkness, although sleeping in a bed after 5 weeks, may have had something to do with it as well. The advantage was that any mosquito in the tent at night was easy to locate. I did developed some bad camping habits though, because you could put anything down and find it easily at night because it was not dark, that first trip back to Algonquin was a rude awakening.

 

For all the fish, that one picture is the only one. We were just fishing for food most of the time and the cameras were packed away. The pike and lake trout were very ordinary, but I really wish I had a photo of one of the Arctic chars, because I may never catch another.

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Did anyone say "stellar" :thumbsup_anim:

 

Never having caught a grayling (yet) I think you'd have had a hard time tearing me and my 4 weight flyrod away from them.

 

I will ask you Rob, did you catch fish in that muddy water stretches?

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Absolutely outstanding trip Rob, thanks for taking the time to tell us the tale !!

 

Must be an incredible feeling to be face to face with cariboo, muskox & grizzlies in their natural setting, specially being charged at by one of those brutes. Sorta makes the deer in my backyard pretty tame by comparison :lol:

 

Awesome report !!

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Did anyone say "stellar" :thumbsup_anim:

 

Never having caught a grayling (yet) I think you'd have had a hard time tearing me and my 4 weight flyrod away from them.

 

I will ask you Rob, did you catch fish in that muddy water stretches?

 

I was too afraid to bring a fly rod, and I've been kicking myself for 12 years about it. The lower river was unfishable due to the suspended particles. That delta didn't form overnight.

 

Absolutely outstanding trip Rob, thanks for taking the time to tell us the tale !!

 

Must be an incredible feeling to be face to face with cariboo, muskox & grizzlies in their natural setting, specially being charged at by one of those brutes. Sorta makes the deer in my backyard pretty tame by comparison :lol:

 

Awesome report !!

 

If I was a better writer (and faster typist) I would tell the story of the "Grizzly that didn't know we where right there". One of the other great sites was twice watching gyrfalcons capturing other birds in flight. The speeds where incredible to see in person.

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If I was a better writer (and faster typist) I would tell the story of the "Grizzly that didn't know we where right there".

 

Most of us aren't good writers or typist either Rob....least not me anyhoo :lol: .... but I'll bet we'd ALL luv to hear THAT tale !!

 

C'mon, give it to us :thumbsup_anim:

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