Why we will be returning to the Spectacular NWT next summer
” Nahanni, where few men go, the far off river, with shores of death”. That’s the opening line of Donald Wilder’s 1962 NFB short film about legendary prospector Albert Faille’s 7 attempts ( beginning sometime in the 1930’s ) to navigate Canada’s most dangerous river in the Northwest Territories by home made boat in search of gold. Faille tried 7 times and 7 times he failed.
We felt a bit like Albert Faille last summer when Dean, our Simpson Air bush pilot floated us over the South Nahanni canyon crest in a Cessna 185 float plane, took one peak at the approaching weather front and said ” sorry folks”, ” we have to turn back”, “this is called dead man’s valley for a reason.” Dean banked left, we looked out the window to our right, and got a brief but breathtaking glance at the river about 2500 feet below the awesome canyon wall of granite. So close!… and yet so far from the geographical jewels of the South Nahanni that we waited so long and traveled so far to see.
Albert Faille would plan all winter long for a yearly spring/summer crack at the Nahanni. He would leave Fort Simpson in the spring as soon as the ice gave way. By the time he got up the Nahanni as far as
Virginia Falls
Virginia falls ( 5 to 7 weeks by boat ), the approaching winter weather window was narrowing to the point that he had to turn back.
In our case, we waited anxiously at the comfortable Mackenzie Rest Inn the day of our booked flight into the canyons for the bush pilots to return from weather re-con flights to determine if we could go. We felt like astronauts on board the space shuttle as Houston was at T-30 and holding. We finally got the word that a weather window had opened enough to , so we scrambled to board the Cessna float plane. Dean strapped us in and wired us up with headsets to talk and hear each other over the noise of the engine. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we have planned to visit the Nahanni for almost 20 years. Marlane and I were travelling with our good friend John Wright of Ipsos Reid Polling fame. It was John and I who decided while sitting at our cottage those many years ago to put the Nahanni on the bucket list and this summer presented itself as the time to go. It was thrilling to feel throttle up as the floats smacked the surf of the Mackenzie river before lifting above the surface for a birds eye view of the Mackenzie river delta.
Although it’s much easier these days to reach the river than in Faille’s time, It’s still quite a trek and quite expensive. We flew from Toronto to Yellowknife through Edmonton, then on to the remote village of Ft. Simpson ( gateway to Nahanni ) which is another hour and a bit by plane west of Yellowknife. We had booked a day tour of the Nahanni National Park by float plane with legendary bush pilot Ted Grant, who owns operates Simpson Air. Had the weather allowed, we would have spent 7 -8 hours soaring through the four distinct canyons of the South Nahanni landing twice on the river itself – once at the magnificent Virginia Falls which thunders over the granite ridge from twice the height of Niagara, and once at Glacier Lake, the pristine body of water that meets the ragged monster mountain range of granite known as ” the unclimbables.
In hindsight, it was a bit ridiculous to have given ourselves a window of only a day to get into Nahanni, but we are busy people with little time off who have become accustomed to the culture of instant gratification. Mother nature works on a different schedule though and so do the people of Canada’s north, who are good with that. It doesn’t take long once you find yourself in the NWT to realize how small and insignificant you are in comparison to the vast landscape and natural forces. The vista flying towards the Nahanni range is beyond breathtaking.
All was not lost though, we got to roam around Yellowknife and Fort Simpson where the 1st Hudson Bay trading post remains. We saw wild life from a too close for comfort distance and caught Northern Pike on Great Slave Lake. The Winter has now set into the NWT and the Nahanni will be impossible to see again until the spring but just like Albert Faille, we remain determined to see it, even if it takes seven attempts.