August 2-27, 2024
Written by Dennis Pennell

Five paddlers (Tom, Andrew, Brad, David, Dennis) took most of the month of August, 2024 to go up north and run this river. All five of us were paddling Alpacka packrafts (Expeditions x 3, Classic x 1, Gnarwhal x 1). We flew out of the Vancouver, BC airport on August 2 via Air North to Whitehorse, YT. There we were met by a vehicle shuttle service provided by Kluane Airways. The shuttle drove us from Whitehorse to the local Canadian Tire store where we purchased bear spray and canisters of isobutane fuel. Then we did the seven hours long ride to Finlayson Lake, NT.

You can see the Garmin inReach track of the trip here: S Nahanni River (garmin.com). In the early part of the trip (Moose Ponds and first few days downstream), we saw moose tracks everywhere, along with occasional bear and wolf tracks. Later in the trip, after Virginia Falls, we started seeing more caribou tracks, wolf tracks, and many more black bear tracks. For significant wildlife, we saw one cow moose, one bull moose, four or five black bears, one likely grizzly bear, one caribou, four Dall sheep, a couple of peregrine falcons, a few eagles, extremely skittish Canada geese, several unidentified species of ducks, ravens, gray jays, shore birds, and squirrels.

Much of the trip is within the Nahanni National Park Reserve. We paddled about 600 kilometers in total, all in packrafts. Much of it was flatwater with minimal noticeable current. One day we did 70 kilometers on a very flat section. That is 43.5 miles. Not something I ever want to do again in a packraft.

We arrived at Finlayson Lake on August 2 and spent one night there in a little “cabin” with no electricity. We were scheduled to fly to the Moose Ponds the next day, but had a weather delay. Finally about 9 PM on the evening of August 3 we got the word that the weather had cleared and to get ready to leave. The one problem I had with Kluane Airways is that they verbally told us that we could either fly out late on August 3 (which we did), or we would have to wait until August 5 because they were fully booked on August 4. Since we had a reservation and had fully paid for our flight, that would have been unacceptable to us and we would have definitely let them know that had it come to it. Putting other parties ahead of us would not “fly” with us.

We had planned the gear so that all five of us could fit on a single flight in the de Havilland Beaver airplane. The flight to the Moose Ponds in the Kluane Airways Beaver took about 45 minutes, and we landed about 10:30 PM. After a few minutes of looking around and consulting maps, we found the old airstrip which served as a campsite. While only about 100 yards in a straight line from where we off-loaded the plane, the trail up to the campsite was about ¼ mile. We got tents set up and settled in around midnight (still light enough to see just fine) to a cold night sleeping on six inches of wet cushy moss. Very comfortable. Very wet. Frosty the next morning.

We launched the next morning, August 4 on the Moose Ponds under the imposing presence of Mount Wilson (photo above), and proceeded to paddle toward the outflow of the lake into the river channel. After about an hour and a half, we found a substantial beaver dam that was forming the lake. It was easy to slide the packrafts over the beaver dam, and down the river we went. The river starts out about twelve feet wide and six inches deep with a gentle flow. A couple of times we had to walk through shallows, but only for a few yards at a time. We saw lots of moose tracks, but no moose. To my surprise, the river even up this high in the drainage, had a slight sediment coloration to the water. This increased as we went downstream and by the second day the water was definitely affected by sediment. By the time we got to the confluence with the Liard River many days and hundreds of miles downstream, the South Nahanni was hundreds of yards wide in multiple channels and flowing maybe 15,000 CFS (10K to 11K at Virginia Falls), and the color of brownish-gray metal.

Note that the river level was abnormally low for the time period. Per reports, the first 35-40 miles of the river has lots of class 2 rapids with a few class 3 rapids here and there. We took our time through this most excellent section of the river so as to enjoy it to the fullest. At this low flow, the class 2 rapids were more of a 2+ character, very long and technical. And fun. Excellent low water, technical rock gardens. There were three or four class 3 or 3+ rapids, two of which we scouted. No swims.

Soon we passed the confluence of the South Nahanni and the Little Nahanni River. We met some packrafter/climbers at Finlayson Lake who had just finished doing a trip on the Little Nahanni and the South Nahanni. They really enjoyed the Little Nahanni, and spent about a week doing some climbing in the area. But they warned us of the miles of flatwater we would encounter on the South Nahanni as we approached the native village of Nahanni Butte. I can attest that they did not exaggerate.

The next major landmark on the river is the confluence with the Broken Skull River. We camped at the confluence. The difference in water clarity was striking. The Broken Skull was almost perfectly clear, while the South Nahanni was brownish-gray. At this point I was thinking we had chosen to run the wrong river.

While camped at the confluence with the Broken Skull, the group of eight canoeists from the London, Ontario area whom we had met at Finlayson Lake came paddling down the Broken Skull. They reported excellent paddling on a class 2 and 2+ river down to the confluence. Note that you can rent Esquif Prospector canoes from Kluane Airways, and have them flown into the put-in of your choice. However, at this low water level, I think trying to paddle loaded 16 and 17 foot canoes down the technical rocky section of the South Nahanni would have been a mistake. The rapids were too rocky and technical to run in these canoes, too long to reasonably portage, and very difficult to line. Don’t try it.

Rabbitkettle Lake is a lovely lake separated from the river by about ½ mile of forest with a nice campground on the lake. Supposedly at higher water it is possible to paddle from the South Nahanni River to Rabbitkettle Lake. But the canoeist group tried this (they were assigned by Parks Canada to camp on the lake) and after several hours of portaging and walking their fully loaded canoes, they emerged from a creek back onto the South Nahanni upstream of where they had left the river earlier. Needless to say, they were very frustrated over this turn of events. So instead of camping on Rabbitkettle Lake as they had arranged with Parks Canada, they poached our campsite (with permission from the Parks Canada Duty Officer) on Rabbitkettle Island in the South Nahanni River. When we showed up at our assigned camp they were already there and had spent the previous night. It all worked out fine in the end and we enjoyed their company. We would run into them a few more times in the coming days.

*Virginia Falls on the S. Nahanni River in Yukon Territory*

Virginia Falls is absolutely amazing. There are no words to adequately describe the power of this spectacular torrent of whitewater. The total vertical drop is twice as high as Niagara Falls. Note that the flow here was around 10-11K CFS. It starts as a fun looking class 2 rapid, quickly turns into a class 3 for a few yards, then even more quickly becomes a class 5 with multiple tongues, holes, massive rooster tails, and overfalls, and then splits around a huge rock island to pour over the main drop, which is multi-tiered and complex, with one place where the water shoots 40-50 feet into the air. It is something to see for sure.

We arranged with Kluane Airways to do a food drop for us at Virginia Falls. The campground has large walk-in bear proof vaults for food storage. The Kluane folks flew in our food for the second half of the trip and stored it in the bear proof vaults for us. Unfortunately, these vaults are upstream of the falls, so we had to portage our gear plus the new food supply around the falls.

We spent two nights at the Parks Canada campground at Virginia Falls. Note that all camping is on wooden platforms, so free standing tents are much easier to set up than the two-pole non-free standing models most of us had. The wooden platforms were otherwise a blessing since it rained quite a bit while we were there. There were two “Ranger Chicks” who were the Parks Canada presence at the Virginia Falls campground. Among their other duties, they do a presentation every evening at 8 PM about the life of the First Nations Dene people who lived in the area long before the white folks came. Bonus: they made traditional Dene style bannock to enjoy during the presentation, along with strawberry jam, plastic butter, and a big pot of Labrador tea made from the local plants. We got to enjoy this both evenings we were there.

Very soon after launching below Virginia Falls, we entered Fourth Canyon. The canyons are named First, Second, Third, and Fourth, in reverse order as you travel downstream. All the canyons were exceptional.

Another interesting feature along the river downstream of Virginia Falls is a place called Pulpit Rock.

It is a 600 foot high 3rd class scramble to the top. From there you have excellent views all around, including the tall cliffs of the “gates” just downstream. There is also a camp there which was occupied by a commercial group in three rafts. As our group was returning from the scramble up Pulpit Rock, the eight canoeists previously mentioned came down the river. They were banging on their canoes and yelling. We caught the words “bear” and “boat”. Turned out that a black bear had just punctured a packraft belonging to one of the commercial guides, and at that moment was chewing on the bow bag of one of the packrafts in our group.

It ripped a palm sized piece of PVC out of the bow bag, and chewed up the repair kit that was inside. There was no food in the bow bag. Luckily the boat itself was not damaged. We reported the incident to the Parks Canada duty officer, and the next day Parks Canada flew in on a helicopter, posted warning signs, and closed the campsite. Later we learned that this bear had been exhibiting similar behavior for several weeks and this was well known to the outfitter. My guess is that the outfitters did not report these incidents because they did not want to lose access to this camp.

The next significant feature of the trip was Prairie Creek and the massive Prairie Creek delta. We hiked up the creek with our packrafts for 4 miles, including two or three places where we had to wade across.

*Hiking up Prairie creek with Packrafts*

Three of the group hiked about one mile further. Then they paddled back down to where Brad and I were waiting, and all of us paddled on out from there.

The canyon that Prairie Creek flows through is stunningly beautiful. The water is crystal clear. Excellent day. Note that before putting on the water, I would air up my blue packraft to get the wrinkles out.

Another beautiful hike we did was from Prairie Creek camp to Dry Canyon. Another canyon similar to Prairie Creek, but without any flowing water. Very scenic.

Three of our group had planned to backpack up to Ram Plateau for three days/two nights. But the area was so smoky from wildfires in the area there would not have been any views. Plus, although the map shows a route (trail?), there is no trail. It is a several mile bushwhack through the spruce, alder, and willow forest to get there. So they didn’t go. Instead we enjoyed some additional layover days on the South Nahanni.

We stopped by the little village of Nahanni Butte on a Saturday. Everything was pretty much shut down. The store/post office was closed. We saw a few canoeists from Yellowknife who had also stopped in Nahanni Butte, and three or four local Dene residents driving through “town”. One of the local Dene men brought us a plate of chocolate brownie cupcakes his wife had made. Other than that, Nahanni Butte did not have much going for it.

Finally we got to the confluence with the Liard River. At this point the canyons were behind us, the river was flat, slow, and grayish-brown. We hammered out the miles and took out at a place called Lindberg Landing. Due to the abnormally low water the shoreline was deep red mud for dozens of feet before getting to firm ground.

Our pre-arranged shuttle provided by Nahanni River Adventures (the same outfitter that did not report the black bear at Pulpit Rock upstream) showed up almost on time, and shuttle driver Gabriel happily drove us about 2 ½ hours to Fort Simpson, NT. We spent the night there in a campground, where sadly, a black bear was harassing folks in the campground and the local authorities came and shot it dead and hauled it away. We walked to a Vietnamese/Chinese restaurant for dinner, and a local/Dene restaurant for breakfast the next day. Pictured here is their “Basic Breakfast”.

Then we got a taxi to the Fort Simpson airport from a local provider who quoted me $25 for the trip, failing to mention that the $25 was a per person charge. Not his first rodeo.

The flight to Yellowknife was about an hour. We got a rental car in Yellowknife, and established ourselves in the local Fred Henne Territorial Park. We explored part of old town Yellowknife. We wanted to visit the highly regarded Yellowknife Historical Museum, but unfortunately it is closed on Monday. Maybe next time.

Next we had dinner reservations (recommended) at the famous local fish house called Bullocks Bistro.

*Freshwater cod and bug repellant beer in Yellowknife*

I had an excellent dinner of freshwater cod (burbot) from Great Slave Lake, potato fries, simple salad, and two tall cans of local IPA.

Staying at Fred Henne Territorial Park was a mistake since it is very close to the airport, with planes revving their engines until midnight, some sort of an industrial whining noise, and a cannon going off about once per minute to scare the birds off the runways. Needless to say it was not a restful night.

It was a memorable and challenging trip in many ways. But if I had it to do over again, I would go earlier in the summer so as to have higher water, and paddle a canoe.

Trip Report: South Nahanni River, NT, Canada

Trip Report: Two Rogue Laps

Trip Report: Summer Bumping down the Grande Ronde