Day 2. Thur., July 14. 56°44’50” N, 76°31’45” W

On which our protagonist is astonished by a long-anticipated force of nature.

I sleep at least 10 hours, from 9PM – 7AM. This morning I wake to overcast skies and the kicking wind of the forecast, but oddly no whitecaps. I practice my full yoga routine, which I began fully clothed but stripped down to shorts and tuque by midpoint. I could see my breath. Still can. It’s 42F inside.

The landscape is grassy and inviting. I take a short walk up the hill and back wearing my black pullover, thick lined pants, and blue fleece jacket with hood up, plus work gloves. I eat breakfast at 9AM and plan to be on the water by 10:30. The goal is to use the park’s cabin at Nastapoka Falls this evening, but I think I have 35 km to go, likely under tougher conditions than yesterday.

9PM  56°54’45” N, 76°32’35” W

It has been an amazing day.

Got on the water at 10:43 and took it slowly and deliberately. My regular expedition breakfast of Mountain House classic skillet and steel-cut oats kept me moving. After the early morning’s breeze, it became a flat, windless day, and a bit misty. Occasional rolling sea swell but not big, just rocked me gently. I took a few ice floe pictures but didn’t stop too often, as I estimated I’d need another 8 hours of paddling to make it to the Nastapoka.

Didn’t look at my watch till it was 1PM. Felt great, not hungry or needing to relieve myself (as I’d often needed to yesterday … I drank a lot of park HQ coffee). From a good distance, I spotted a black bear ambling northward along the shore, and I tried to get some video. Also saw many gorgeous dark waterbirds with a white spot on their wings. Loon-like. (I later learn they were black guillemots.)

I didn’t see much in the way of streams emptying into the bay, and it felt odd after seeing several yesterday. Finally saw some mist rising up from inshore ahead and figured, here’s one, maybe I’ll stop for lunch and a water refill. As I got close, it became clear it was no tiny stream. I’d found the Nastapoka. Clearly, happily, I’d been wrong about the distance. Only took 11 hours of total paddling from Umiujaq. I couldn’t believe it at first, but as I paddled, the falls peeked over a ridge and they are unmistakable.

As I approached, I spotted the cabin Bobby mentioned on the north bank. I beached the boat near the decaying carcass of a dead wolf, its ribcage exposed. I stayed upwind of it as I carried gear up to the cabin, getting everything inside by 2PM.

The cabin, which the rangers built just a few years ago, is well worth the few bucks the park charges. It’s got room for six in three bunk beds, plus cabinets, a table and a gas heater, and solar-powered interior lights. There’s also a small second room with its own external entry door and an emergency stretcher inside. Sufficient room in there for hanging a drysuit and keeping drybags out of the way.

The afternoon is sunny and gorgeous, unlike the bracing weather I remember from four years ago. I eat a lunch of ham, cheese, cashews and a Clif Bar outside (at the cabin’s picnic table … I’m really roughing it here) and take off on a hike up the falls by 4PM-ish.

The river. Wow.

The power of the falls has to be seen and felt to be appreciated. Niagara is certainly larger, but the Nastapoka’s force is concentrated in a single narrow torrent. It doesn’t simply fall, it gushes and hurls itself into the air before cascading to the bay. To see Nastapoka Falls surrounded by nothing but wilderness is astonishing. I hiked past it to the first then second rapids above it, and each in their turn was a jaw-dropper. Hope my photos and video come out.

I didn’t get back till past 7PM and ate at 8:30, needing a bath and some clean clothes. I have to sleep because tomorrow is the big portage, or the start of it anyway. I’ve decided that if it takes two days to get up the valley, so be it.

Tomorrow I go into hardcore map-and-compass mode, I think to myself. My next goal along the coast is White Whale Point, which is just south of the valley I must follow. I climb into a top bunk by the cabin door and study the map of my intended course until lights out.