July 15th, 2019
We woke up at 3:30 AM, opted to do breakfast on the water, and floated over three miles with the sunrise. The current on the Athabasca was still ripping and its murky, tree-infested water still horrifying. After yesterday, learning that we were hours behind Mike Korta, we spent the morning scouring the shoreline for him and his companion, the judge. We navigated the confusing delta, not seeing Mike, and paddled into the large Lake Athabasca which was somehow moderately shallow (we missed the correct channel by a significant margin). Some wind kicked up during our short crossing, creating small choppy waves that highlighted the shallowness of the part of the lake we were paddling. We decided to eat lunch at a small island about 5 minutes past Fort Chip (Chipewyan). After a quick discussion, we decided to paddle back to town to flesh out the narrative of our cross-country pre-Arctic trip. We fount Mike Korta and had a few beers with him then camped by the town beach.
-PB
This is great. Thank you for the updates.