Down the River

Anthony heads down the staircase with the last of his belongings. We were looking forward to a long trip down to the Rynda Cabin where we would spend the night.

I looked at my watch as I left and noted that it was 8:35am. The other guys were a little bit in front of me but I had skis so I figured I would catch up quickly. By the time we got out to the main river, the wind was once again blowing hard... But not quite as strong as it had on many of the other days. I didn't mind. It was pretty effortless pulling the sled with the wind at my back. Certainly much easier than the trip of river. I was a good 5-10 minutes behind Matt and Anthony when I noticed that they hit some open ice. The wind whisked Anthony away and I could tell he was having trouble controlling himself on the ice with his nordic skis. But a smile crept onto my lips as I remembered back to my high-school days and the many times when I would take my sharp alpine skis onto frozen lakes and go skate-skiing.

As soon as I made it to the wind swept ice, I took off my skins and ventured onto slick surface. As soon as my sled was completely on the ice the wind took it and tried to make it pass me. By then I was starting to realize just how much fun this was going to be and let out a joyous yelp. A few quick shoves with my ski poles and I was ahead of my sled and cruising on the ice. I quickly zipped by the other guys and they were setting up their own methods of gliding. The wind was strong enough that I zipped down the river at an estimated average speed of 7-10 mph just by standing up and letting the wind push me. Every once in a while a big gust would come along and my sled would attempt to pass, and a few times it did. A few more quick shoves with the ski poles and I would be ahead again.

I made it down to Pt Rothsay in only 2hours 13 minutes. But the bulk of that time was spent in the short distance from the Rynda cabin to the main river and then a deviation around a dusty portion of the river near Point Rothsay. Whew! Fun stuff.

The other guys made good time as well, and before long we were almost to the Garnet Cabin. Unfortunately we met up with some open water. Hey, that's what the canoe was for anyway. I volunteered to supply the power to the paddle.

Of course, I couldn't resist snapping a few photos along the way. Note the wind blown snow and dust behind me. This are was protected from the wind otherwise I would have had some difficulty controlling the canoe.

A typical load. The ferry trips were only a few hundred yards. Not bad at all. It did make me miss canoeing though.