Frank Wolf is Gearing up for a Wolverine Summer Canoe Trip in the North
Ahhh… summer. With the dog days of July upon us, I’m making my way north for my annual wandering pilgrimage, disappearing for a while into a wilderness new and mysterious to me. This year I’m headed off with my buddy Alex Kozma on a 1,200 kilometre, 30-day northern canoe journey in the Yukon and Northwest Territories (see attached route map).
I’m calling the expedition Nèhtrùh, which is the local Indigenous Gwich’in word for wolverine. This venerable creature of the North often travels 40 to 50 kilimetres per day in its wanderings, so the name is fitting as we will average a similar daily distance in the course of our canoeing mission through these ancient lands. Other charismatic fauna we’ll likely encounter along the way are grizzly bears, wolves, caribou and moose.
The trip begins high in the Mackenzie Mountains, in the Yukon, at a small lake called Elliot Lake, which drains via Elliot Creek into the mighty Hart River, which then branches into the Peel River—a spectacular wilderness watershed larger than Scotland, and one of the last fully intact mountain boreal ecosystems in the world. After negotiating the Class 2 and 3 whitewater along the course of these two rivers, we’ll face a six kilometre portage around the Class 5 rapids that rumble through Aberdeen Canyon, then continue onward.
Not far from where the Peel drains into the Mackenzie River, we’ll veer upstream for 130 kilometres on the Rat River via an ancient Gwich’in travel route to Summit Lake, where we’ll cross the divide between the Yukon River and Mackenzie River watersheds. This challenging section up a mountain river is the same area Albert Johnson—the ‘Mad Trapper of Rat River’—evaded the RCMP for weeks during a famous manhunt in the 1930s that captured the nation’s imagination. Our route will take us right past the remains of the cabin where the first stand-off with the RCMP took place.
The final leg of our journey will take us from Summit Lake down the Little Bell, Bell and Porcupine Rivers to the Gwich’in community of Old Crow, where our trip will conclude.
To aid us in our journey, we’ll be using a few key pieces of gear as part of our kit—all the simple, essential basics of travel, shelter and sustenance to see us efficiently and joyfully through the landscape.
My vessel of choice to ride these mountain rivers is the Esquif Prospecteur 17. This is my tried and true, ‘Swiss army knife’ of expedition canoes that has served me well for dozens of expeditions over the years. It’s able to nimbly negotiate whitewater rivers, while also having the hull speed to travel effectively upstream. Its T-Formex Lite hull is incredibly durable and yet surprisingly light—a great combination that will allow us to bang it off rocks all day, while still being a reasonable carrying weight for portages along the way.
To propel us along, we’ll be using a combination of paddles. On the upstream and flat-water downriver sections, we’ll use Werner Churchill bent-shaft paddles. These light, durable blades won’t wear us down during long stretches of smooth water, and will allow a high tempo to paddle up the eddies of the Rat. On technical whitewater and shallow, rocky downstream we’ll use Werner Bandit whitewater paddles. These durable, whitewater-specific blades will shift and spin the canoe on command and take whatever the rivers throw at them.
To help keep the boat dry down rapids and keep us cozy on cool days, we’ll outfit it with a North Water Spray Deck. In addition to the protective characteristics of the deck, it also makes us more streamlined in headwinds and is a great platform to lay out your map case and keep the spare paddles handy on top.
Apparel-wise we’ll be wearing Kokatat Maximus Centurion life vests for comfortable floatation and warmth with plenty of storage pockets, as well as Kokatat NeoZip Long Johns to keep us warm and protected running whitewater and dragging up the Rat River.
To keep our gear dry and easy to haul over portages, we’ll be using Sealline 120 litre and 70 litre Pro Packs, as well as a 60-litre barrel equipped with a North Water Quick Haul Barrel Harness. These robust packs will fit under the gunwales and are extremely comfortable to carry, making packing and unpacking easy, and the portages a relative breeze. In addition, I’ll use a Sealline Big Fork 30 L daypack for my personal gear, which I can wear while simultaneously carrying the canoe.
In camp, we’ll cook over fire whenever possible but will also use an MSR Whisperlite International stove for those long or wet days when we want a quick meal when we get to camp without having to gather wood and labour over a fire. This bombproof little stove always runs and can be easily disassembled and cleaned/fixed if the need ever arises. The MSR Alpine 2 steel pot set is great on the stove or for cooking over fires—and since the stove nests inside it perfectly, it protects it while in transit. For the silty waters of the rivers we’ll be plying, we’ll utilize an MSR Miniworks EX Purifier System to transform everything into clear, pure drinking water.
Food-wise we’ll be utilizing delicious and quick Backpacker’s Pantry meals for our evening fare. A couple of my favourites are Stroganoff Sauce, Mushrooms and Beef and Pad Thai with Chicken—but you can’t go wrong with any of these meals, which are done in a snap by simply adding boiling water at the end of a long day. Rounding out our cuisine will be quick oats in the morning, tortillas with meat cheese for lunch and a few pepperoni sticks and trail mix to snack on throughout the day. It all tastes good out there!
After a long day on the water, we’ll settle in to catch our Zs inside our 4-season MSR Remote 2 tent. This spacious two-person shelter has plenty of room and a durable build to ride out heavy wind or rainstorms that might funnel up the river valleys. We’ll be cozy in our light and warm Thermarest Parsec -6 C sleeping bags atop plush Thermarest Neoair Xtherm NXT sleeping pads that insulate us from the ground and take out any bumps and lumps on the ground that might disturb our princess-like sleep.
So, there you go—we’re all kitted out for a summer of paddling in the North! If you’d like to follow us along on our Nèhtrùh Expedition to see where we’re camped every night and to get a daily haiku about the essence of that day or moment of the day, please check out our Inreach Mapshare Map Tracker starting July 9th: share.garmin.com/NehtruhExpedition
