Bloodvein River, Canada

Getting there and Day 1 – Barclay Lake

by Mike Alter

I can’t speak for the rest of the team, but Ruth and I had been putting in the hard miles to prepare for this trip. We are both independent souls, with different boating styles, who enjoy paddling our own boats, so with thoughts turning to the hundreds of white water kilometres to be paddled as a tandem team (the dreaded divorce boat) we knew that we had to get some serious tandem paddling in.

As such, we had paddled from Sandy Lane car park to Chester Bandstand – and back. 3km of flat water and not divorced, yep, we were ready!*

The trip started so well, we arrived at Manchester airport to be met by the most courteous bus driver ever. He got out of his cab to help us load our 100ltr dry bags onto the bus. When we pulled up at another bus where Nikki was waiting, he again got out to help her load her 150 ltr dry bag, saying “Your friends are on there already” I wondered what had given us away???

Check-in went well, but then Ruth and I were selected for a random full-bag search. Now, that isn’t a problem when you are going to Greece for a week, but an expedition is a rather different matter. We had prepared by already dry bagging everything within the kit bag and were not allowed to touch it during the search. You can imagine the scene at security, where everyone can see:

What’s this? 20m throw line to rescue people (20m rope gets emptied out)

What’s this? 18m throw line to rescue people (18m rope gets emptied out)

What’s this? Tent (emptied out), Sleeping bag (emptied out) clothes, wet boots, river knife …. You get the drift.

Sadly, when it got to the cookware, the fuel bottle and pump still had the faintest smell of fuel in them despite my cleaning efforts – that was them confiscated. Luckily she didn’t check the stove as that would have gotten expensive.

After that, the flights went well and when we reached Winnipeg we got a taxi to a hotel that had been specifically chosen so that it would not be noticeable if we had to hang wet paddling/camping kit up to dry in on our return – you get the picture.

The next morning we woke to the devastating news that Graham’s bags had not arrived – he literally only had the clothes he was standing up in. All his paddling, camping and cooking kit was somewhere (but not here). The waiting game began to see if it arrived in the next 24 hours before we left on the 6-hour drive to our starting point. But in the meantime, it was time to stock up with food supplies (and a new fuel bottle and pump) for the trip as there were no possibilities of resupply.

All stocked, and with no signs of Graham’s kit, we were collected for the 6-hour drive to Red Lake. My choice of cheese and crackers for lunch would come back to haunt me.

The excitement was building as we drove through the Canadian Shield to Red Lake. Here we collected the boats and arranged camping equipment for Graham – clothes had been sorted out within the group, except footwear – so Graham headed with the outfitter to the shops to later return with some crocs (nice sensible footwear for portaging). We also discussed our plans with the outfitter, signed away our lives and gave instructions about how many days should be left before they came looking for us. Also, what type of rescue we were prepared to pay for?

Life suitably signed away we drove to the lake where we were to begin the next stage of our journey!

Pulling up at the shore, we saw the two float planes that we had hired to take us into the wilderness. Ruth and I were in the 70-year-old Beaver, whilst the 4 other members were in the far younger Otter.