Day 16. Thu. July 28 (57°27’07” N, 74°23’52” W)

In which our protagonist makes wake.

9:30 PM          57°36’22” N, 73°46’32” W

I got up and cranked. On the water at 7:20 AM and off at 6PM. Tired, even more so than my usual very, but it has been another successful day. I am now about 18km from the Welcome Rapids.

Today’s entire route wended through a rocky valley. It still looks like a river, but it still moves like a lake. Whenever I stopped there was no current whatsoever. The weather remains fine, and I am acutely cognizant of my luck. I keep glancing around to look for approaching storms. Though the sun is not constant, the sky is dry. Previous paddlers had it much tougher. I thread the narrows that the chart calls Passe Quurngualuk, and I will learn later that Marilyne Marchand, who did this route in a packraft the same year I first visited Tursujuq, portaged across the narrow southern stretch of a nearby peninsula to avoid fighting the wind. Lynette Chubb and Laco Kovac spent most of their time battling headwinds in fully zipped drysuits. I, on the other hand, have often needed to pull my drysuit down to my waist to avoid overheating.

Speaking of Lynette and Laco, I pass the mouth of the Riviere Charpentiere, which they descended to reach the Leaf. It’s not obviously a river’s mouth, just a couple of rocky islets hiding what looks to be a sizable cove. As with so many other spots on this trip, I am too far behind schedule to explore at my leisure, otherwise I would have paddled up to see their campsite and last rapid. Next time, I tell myself.

Wildlife up here has been limited to water birds for the most part, but today brought a slinky surprise: As I slid between the shoreline and a tiny islet just a few meters away, something splashed into the water in front of me and disappeared beneath the surface. A moment later a dark creature emerged on the islet and bounded quickly into the brush, presumably toward its lair. I never got a good look at it. It was fairly large and long, but it didn’t have a beaver’s tail. Probably a river otter. 

Now I’m camped on a small point shaped like a dolphin’s dorsal fin that juts out from the southern shore. As both shorelines have grown steeper, they have presented fewer easily accessible campsites, and I waited too long to start looking for one today, making me tired and annoyed. There was a decent flat space on the point, and I was too cranky and hungry to go farther unnecessarily. (After dinner and a shower, my better mood sent me on a hike to check out the little harbor the point creates, but the spot didn’t offer much to tempt a camper, just shelter from the breeze. Luckily I didn’t need it.) 

After passing the Charpentiere’s mouth, I have the benefit of the annotated maps that Lynette and Laco posted online, and I know exactly how far I have to go to Tasiujaq: 307 km. (I’ll refer to my benefactors as L&L from now on, as I will be referencing their very helpful trip report frequently.)

Again I need to sleep. Hope to get 7.5 hours. It’s very warm, even when the sun went behind clouds during dinner … usually I need a thick jacket by the time the sun gets over, but not this evening. G’night.