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Table of Contents Nahanni Rafting Trip

Drive from Vancouver to Fort Simpson and back, through Northern BC and Alberta, some 4500 km.

Along the Alaska Highway: Fort St. John to Fort Nelson. Grizzly, having breakfast on fresh shoots.

Cute, just like my Teddy bear.

An invitation

Late 2011 I received an invitation from Ian Cumming, living in Vancouver, to join the Nahanni Canyon rafting trip in July 2012. This would be organized by the “Golden Age Hikers Club of Vancouver”. I was surprised, a Grand Canyon like valley in The NWT of Canada?

Ian promised me a real wilderness trip, with grizzly sightings along the banks of the river. The previous trip on the Firth River in the Northern Yukon in 2006 was also very special, see:

http://p6.hostingprod.com/@treks.org/ss_yukon.htm

We had a choice, take a flight to Fort Simpson through Yellowknife or drive. The flight was expensive, around $1000, and driving the over 2000 km from Vancouver to Fort Simpson across British Columbia and even partially along the Alaska Highway seemed like an attractive tourist trip provided we would do some sight-seeing and hiking along the way.

We decided to leave early and use 6 days for the drive North instead of the normal 3 days.

Drive from Vancouver to Fort Simpson and back, around 4600 km in total. With way points on Google Earth. Created by Ian.

Map of SW Canada.

Drive from Vancouver to Fort Simpson through Northern BC

We stopped over in Whistler, where Ian has a chalet and I did a 10 km run in the valley along the bicycle trails; In Lilloet, a very dry and warm oasis, where we did a hike on a 500 m high forested ridge along the murky Fraser River; in Prince Rupert, before we visited the xxx ranch; in a shady oil workers motel in Paradise Peak along the Alaska Highway, North of St Johns, in the morning we spotted grizzlies along the highway having breakfast on fresh shoots as the roadside grass was recently cut; in the Indian hamlet of Fort Liar, half way on the 400 km long gravel road to Fort Simpson and the only settlement with a gas station, camping (with zillions of mosquitoes), shop and motel but no restaurant, I did some running along the river being barked at by chained dog; and finally in the regional capital city of Fort Simpson with 2000 inhabitants, half natives, after crossing the 1 km wide Liar River on a ferry, the floatplane base for the rafting trip.

Drive from Fort Simpson to Vancouver through Alberta

Returning we went to Hay River and stayed with a second cousin who is the local CBC North corespondent; this was a nervous drive as we just had a flat tire punctured by two small rocks and we had it fixed by a scrap car old timer hobbiest who barely survived a car accident some years ago making him a cripple; took a flight on Buffalo Air from Hay River to Yellowknife returning the same day, visited the local parliament which has a system resembling more that of tribal leaders going for consensus; drove 800 km to Grand Prairie and were delayed by an escort over 20 km due to forest fires North of High Level, the road was closed three days the week before, the only alternative road was through Fort Liar which is 700 km longer; visited a second cousin in Grand Prairie for the Cumming ancestor tree; stayed in Jasper, the crowded tourist town where did a day hike to base of Mount Robson, very popular, with stunning views, we could see the top which is rare; the last night we stayed in xxxxx where the walk in town and around the lake turned into a dash for shelter due to the many mosquitoes; and finally reaching Vancouver in the rain and traffic jams using the scenic Fraser River canyon road past the dry valley of Kelowna.