July 8, 2023: Hot Springs, Hot Weather

We got back on the river and through the rapids at Lafferty's Riffle as we exited First Canyon. These weren't nearly as lively as those at Virginia Falls, likely due to the river having dropped by at least a couple of feet since we started out.

After a few minutes we were at the Kraus homestead, where there are hot springs. They were pleasantly warm and smelled very sulphuric. Mark and I dipped in our feet (Miles didn't want to, and after yesterday's hike/swim he has blisters that we are trying to keep dry, so that's just as well), but some others in the group went in up to their necks. If the day were cold/rainy, I'll bet the hot springs would be more tempting.

Our feet in the hot spring pool - the water was a beautiful blue-green colour

The sulphur creates a delicate white residue on the surrounding beach that we carefully left undisturbed

We also visited the inside of the old Kraus family cabin, which has been filled with wooden paddles from past travellers on the river. Jen had alerted us to the tradition the night before, and Miles had carved a small paddle from driftwood, but he liked it so much that he didn't want to leave it behind, so we will bring it home as a souvenir, and instead I signed our names on the inside of the door. Kendra was very excited to also try whittling, which was a bit nerve-wracking to watch at first, but she seems to have caught on well, and now the kids are going around looking to borrow knives whenever there is downtime at camp.

We emerged into The Splits, where the river separates into many braids. Fraser said that it had been cleared out quite a bit since his last trip, so it was easier to navigate. Richard tried rowing, which went well until the current almost pushed us into a bank - I crouched and deflected some springy tree branches with my paddle, and Fraser calmly jumped back into the rower's seat and corrected our course. It is not intuitive how to navigate the bends and the current - my instinct would be to have the nose of the boat face forward, but often our guides will be rowing at an angle to balance out the current and navigate the curves in a way that seems at cross purposes - but it works.

The canyon walls diminished in height as we got close to The Splits

We officially exit Nahanni National Park

We spotted several wood bison - first two singly, and then a small herd. They were originally native to the area, but these bison were reintroduced to the area after they had been extirpated. The population is doing well.

Bison herd!

Bison dropping at our campsite - my hand for scale. Also, my hand is so tanned, in spite of more sunscreen than I would ever apply. Paddling exposes the hands, and there's no shade on the river.

The sky was cloudless and it was unrelentingly hot. We were dunking hats and shirts and dousing with buckets of water to stay cool. Maegan measured the temperature at 34 degrees Celsius in the shade at our campsite. She also reported that there is a forest fire near Nahanni Butte, and we could start to see the haze and smell the smoke. [PS. We later learned that today Norman Wells, north of Nahanni National Park, had an all-time record high of 37.9 degrees Celsius, which exceeds the all-time record high for Ottawa, in spite of being so much farther north, and it was the hottest day in history for the Northwest Territories.]

Our campsite was opposite Jackfish Mountain (Ridge?), where you can see the evidence of a large slump from permafrost melt (earthquake activity?). It was very windy when we arrived, and the campsite was sandy, but by bedtime the wind had died down, so at least our tents didn't fill with sand every time we opened a door. And, there are no ants! But more horseflies are plaguing the group, although none got me. And we found wolf prints at the campsite!