June 16 2005

We returned to Ft. Chip from Saskatchewan on June 12th,  that day included some great fishing for some good sized lake trout, Corinne took the prize for the largest fish today, after Kurt Fink had the largest the day before.  June 13, hauled Idlewild out with a large loader lifting the stern with the bow riding on the front axle.  The first loader was a little small so they quickly got a larger one from the municipality.  Guy Thacker was a talented and careful operator that soon had us on level ground.  Bruce Ingles wasn't home today so he left us keys to his truck and shop, we got his welder down to the dock and by the time we had Idlewild blocked, Tommy Champagne arrived and welded the new axles on.  He worked without gloves, nonstop except when we made him eat supper at 8:00PM.  He finished with a smile at 10:00 PM.  We gave him a tour of the boat as a token of our appreciation.  June 14, Guy came early and had us floating free by 10:00 AM.  We washed the decks and reloaded them with some coolers and gear we had dropped off to make room.  We said our goodbyes and returned through the Quatre Fourches channel back to the Peace River and after traveling for a bit longer anchored not far from the Slave River.  We saw several cabins in beautiful spots along the river.  June 15 with an early start we soon got to the point where the Peace turns into the Slave River and carried on from there.  The Slave is a line between the rocky terrain of the Canadian Shield and the soft terrain of Wood Buffalo.  Wood Buffalo National Park is approximately the size of Switzerland. 

We would like to thank all of the people of Ft. Chip that made our stay so much fun - Maxine and Steve Bourke, Tom and Peggy Robinson, Reggie McKay (retired tugboat captain), Bruce Ingles, Oliver Glaufield & Karen Fersovitch with the museum, the staff of the Lodge, Mrs. Mah at the Athabasca Cafe, and several others.

We have had a lot of new river experiences and certainly this section is different than we had seen.  Now depth is generally good but the large granite boulders are an issue to steer clear of even in 50' of depth.  The swirling currents they provide have swung us around not to mention the "Vidar" jet boat that encountered a large whirlpool.  "Vidar" is the replacement support boat generously provided by Brian Peterson of Grande Prairie.  We had good charts provided by the fine people of Ft. Chipewyan as well Kevin Gray and John Laninga did chart some sections to be sure of the river conditions.  At 5:30 PM there was a mix-up with communication and we ended up stopped on a sand bar.  The “Original Muskrat” quickly pulled the Idlewild sideways and was soon free and clear with the assistance of a wake from ‘Vidar’.  We carried on to near Fort Fitzgerald to anchor for the night. 

With the rainy dawn on June 16 we prepared and soon had both jet boats out and were pulling the Idlewild out of the water with a loader provided by Dave Hehn and Glen Freund.  With a couple wheel problems that were caused when we were stuck on Boyer Rapids, and we were delayed a few times and got into Fort Smith Northwest Territories with total mileage to date of 870 miles from Dunvegan.