Bloodvein River, Canada
Day 3 – Artery Lake to Stone house Rapids (28km)
by Ruth E
Today was the first day of multiple rapids, and multiple portages!
After breaking camp, off we set for a day covering 28km and rapids 10 to 23.
The weather was glorious and very warm!
We came to the first rapid, number 10, which separates the upper part of Artery Lake from the lower part. Martin & Nikki paddled it first and found out it was rather shallow and rocky, so it was decided the other boats would portage it using the boat rails! This made portaging easy as it was a ladder with rollers instead of rungs.
Very easy to use for the loaded boats, but you had to watch out as you got to the bottom as it was a tad slippy!
We then crossed territories from Woodlands Caribou Provincial Park in Alberta into Atikaki Provincial Park in Manitoba.
From there we went on to rapids 11 & 12 which were bouncy grade 2’s with some bailing required. Followed by a grade 1 rapid.
Next came rapid number 14, Moosebone Rapid, and this was a grade 3. We hopped out to inspect and decided to run it, only keeping the heavier bags in the boats and removing all lighter and smaller items. And this was the photo of the day, taken by Nikki:
We breezed through rapid 15 and onto rapid 16, a grade 5, which we had planned to portage river left by lining the boats down. But the path was too overgrown to safely line the boats down, so instead we hopped over to river right and proceeded to portage the 325m – the first proper portage!
Rapid 17 this was a grade 4/5 so portage was required, but only 35m this time.
Rapid 18 Nutcracker Falls was next, there was a 75m portage. Ian & Graham decided to walk, whilst the rest decided to practice their lining skills!
We then continued on to paddle across Bushey Lake and hunt for more Pictographs.
Rapid 20 was a grade 2 and paddled smoothly once the line was established.