Flight to the Nahanni
by
Lesly Andrews
Nahanni Tour by Lesly Andrews On Saturday morning June 16th Jerry, Orville, Jeannine and I boarded a Cessna 206-float plane for a daylong tour of Nahanni National Park. Our pilot Ted Grant took one look at us and ordered Jeaninne to the tail of the plane for the entire trip because she is petite. The rest of the heavies got to sit in the front. We took off from the float dock our runway was the Mackenzie River. This was a bit scary, as the Mackenzie was full of debris, whole trees with their huge roots floating down our runway. We flew west over Ft. Simpson it was fun to look down at the cute little settlement. Then we headed out over a vast expanse of muskeg. This bog land surrounds Fort Simpson, explaining to me the origin of the billions of mosquitoes and black flies that attack us relentlessly. From the muskeg we climbed into the Nahanni Range Mountains elevations reaching 5000ft. Ted pointed out Dahl Sheep on high mountain ridges and the rare Trumpeter Swans that nest in the area. Ted dipped and banked the plane as we dropped down into the Nahanni River Valley, unfortunately my stomach and equilibrium stayed up at 7000ft. Flying over the river I could see large standing waves and the famous figure of eight rapids. Just looking at the fast moving water gave me butterflies; I kept thinking how brave Jeaninne was to have paddled this river twice. On one of her trips she was supervising high school students. Our first stop was Virginia Falls, Ted led us on a two and a half hour race from the top of the falls to the bottom and back up again. I have a clear memory of the fleeting beauty. Jeannine has portaged these falls, she says it takes all day to do 6 trips back and forth with gear. The water at the base of the falls is very fast with standing waves, not an easy place to start out from. As we taxied up the river just above the falls, I hoped the engines on the plane wouldn�t stall and leave us floating down the river and over the falls. We flew further up the river to a spectacular group of mountains called the Unclimbables. These are one of the seven mountains that elite climbers must conquer. Ted circled the plane in among these towering mountains, from my seat it appeared we were flying directly into one of the faces. I looked over at the others and they all looked like a deer caught in the headlights, sitting there frozen staring at the face of the mountain coming directly at us. At what appeared to be the last moment we veered off and head up to Glacier Lake. As it was raining we could not land so Ted took us to Rabbitkettle Lake. Rabbitkettle Lake is a beautiful blue clear mountain lake. It is known to have the highest density of grizzly bear activity. I wasn�t really looking forward to meeting a grizz. Circling in for a landing we saw a big moose feeding on the shore. Between feeling as nauseated as a person can feel without throwing up and looking at the moose I wasn�t watching our landing. So I was very surprised when we hit the water and then bounced way back up into the air. I don�t know how I didn�t vomit as we continued to slam down onto the water and bounce back up into the air. Poor Jeanine was sitting in the tail and getting the worst of it. I looked over a Jerry who never looks worried and he looked worried. He explained later that he calculated that on the next bounce we would hit the water nose first if the plane didn�t get back in the air. Ted eventually landed the plane safely and we all crawled out a little worse for wear. We had lunch at the warden�s cabin. The area had been invaded by the grizzly, a shed had its walls ripped away and the bear have bitten into cans of paint and solvent. There were signs of claw scrapping on metals poles ten feet high! From Kettlelake we flew over the Ram and Nahanni Plateaus. The Plateaus looked so inviting. I wanted to ask the pilot to let me off so I could go hiking. Ted flew down through an opening between two mountains into Little Doctor Lake were he maintained a lodge. Our landing there was somewhat better but by no stretch of the imagination was it good. There were two gentlemen using the lodge and we sat and talked with them, while Ted and Orville worked on the plane. Ted felt the floats were not set correctly and that was causing our landing problems. I think we terrified the two guys because they were to fly out the next day on the plane we were tying together with rope. With floats adjusted we headed for Fort Simpson. Landing on the Mackenzie I was tense waiting for another bad landing but the adjustment worked, the landing wasn�t too bad. Walking up the road back to Jeannine�s house we all agreed that the Nahanni Park was the most beautiful natural area any of us had experienced.
