Coppermine – Escape Rapids
The Coppermine river gave us her all and shined in all her splendor our last full day of this epic adventure. Tomorrow we will find ourselves in Kugluktuk, after just a 20 mile paddle, but today we got to bask in the glory of all that the Great Spirit has created in this lush river valley rushing amidst the barren lands of the North.
Today started with sunshine, then a quick rainstorm then back to sun for the remainder of the most epic day of the trip. We paddled a stretch to Muskox rapids, which we scouted. Nothing too tough, just big waves. After Muskox we encountered never ending whitewater through a towering, wide, copper colored gorge. We shot everything, only stopping to land-scout the named rapids. Sandstone rapids gave us no trouble and we continued on our way. Finally we came to “Escape Rapids,” supposedly, the most challenging run of the river. We scouted from a steep cliff river left, and decided to shoot for it on river right. The waves were big and a little spicy, but our trusty spray-deck kept most of the water out of our boats. It was a thrilling run through an “S” curve and did definitely require some technical maneuvering. It was my favorite shoot of the day and it brought us right to a lovely campsite with an incredible view. Words cannot describe how beautiful this day on the river was, but I can say it was my favorite day on a canoe trip ever and that’s out of about 350 other canoe days in my life.
-Bram