Day 2 (Jen)

Worth noting: Muskox at lunch, test shooting a bear banger, first class I rapids. Sunday, June 26/05

To add to Drew’s notes from yesterday, leaving Yellowknife was a bittersweet experience for me as I was leaving home a few thousand kilometers later than the rest of the group. The YK has been home for me for the last 8 months and on top of the frantic packing session at the Legion, I was trying to deal with all the last minute stuff involved in leaving home. My favourite part of yesterday was the downward spiral that the plane made as it moved to land in the lake. It was like the whole world was being turned on its axis – you couldn’t tell which way was up. When we touched down, the landscape of the Baillie River barrens looked positively lunar. Tonight we are camped a few kilometers down river from last night. There is a bit of a ridge rising behind our campsite and I took a quick walk before dinner. The landscape reminds me very much of Scotland . . . rocks, low bushes (I don’t think these ones are heather, must ask Tim), and views in all directions. During our paddles today we went over some whitewater skills with our paddling partners. Luckily I am with Levi – he’s a patient teacher with me, the most inexperienced of the group. Alie and Tim are together and Jenny and Drew in the last boat. At lunch we were treated to the sight of two muskox munching their way around the tundra. I think that we must have been silent enough because they didn’t get scared away by our presence. Tonight after dinner we went over some bear safety tips and familiarized the group with how to use the bear bangers and screamers. We shot off a test shot into the air – it would be enough to send me running, that’s for sure! (ed: much later in the trip, when we entered potential polar bear country, we had a heated debate about whether to test the bear bangers. Pro was to practice and see how they worked and make sure they worked, con was that the instructions recommended a thorough cleaning of the starter pistol after each use, which we didn't have the capability to do. Somehow, apparently none of us remembered that we had already tested it on day 2 - we should have checked our journal.)