2 Friends Paddle 200 KM on REMOTE Arctic Watershed River | EP. 5 | When systems break down

You guys know how the old Adagie goes. Another 100 meters another portage. In last week's episode we pushed through a heavy section of rapids and liftovers slowly making our way through the technical section of this river. We managed to hit some good sets of rapids and were treated to some beautiful campsites. We've been grinding but the hard work isn't over just yet and there are still some big drops left in this river. Welcome to this week's episode. Such a beautiful morning. It is. It has like a weird warm breeze to it. Do you feel that? Yeah. Man, I thought I was saying like I kind of wish I had left more stuff out to dry. Is your stuff just not on me right now? It's just like not perfectly dry. Yeah. Man, I don't know. I'd say this is the most beautiful set we've had. This and Adrian Falls. Yeah, Adrian Falls is so sick. Yeah. Best site ever. Good morning. It is the morning of day eight and I'm really sore today. We worked really hard yesterday and my body can feel that today. We just had some breakfast. Our favorite one is granola with milk and we're all fueled up. We're going to start packing up camp here shortly but it's been kind of a slow moving morning for us. We're hoping for another big day on the water. We crushed a lot of distance yesterday and we're hoping that we can do the same today. We're getting close to the end of the section with like all the rapids and waterfalls and craziness and so we just need to buckle down and get through these last little couple stretches before the flat water takes us out to the Kasagami River which then flows into the Harakana and then out into James Bay where we'll start our paddle across the coast to Musoni. I feel like we haven't been thinking very much about that next phase of the trip but it's kind of like this has been our the biggest thing on our mind right now is getting through the crazy sections that we're in right now and once all that's over then we can worry about tides and all the other fun that comes with paddling along James Bay. Should be good. I think one thing like you said we're just worried about getting past this section but more so I think we have to start now enjoying it you know like it's definitely it's probably two days out of this section before we hit flat water again and I'm assuming it's going to be a lot more boggy and not as many rock outcrops so like I'm kind of just like trying to take it all in right now because I know the next section is probably going to be have its own challenges in its own right aka no fresh water. We have to fill up the bear barrel with water so I don't know I just I think like right now there's so many variables of the next step ahead but we should just like you know take take a minute to enjoy what's happening right now what's right in front of us yeah we're having fun. Even if we don't though like there's not much left to accomplish for tomorrow yeah though we have to do it in the rain and if it is over like slippery rock and stuff yeah might be sketch not gonna be chill but I'm down to push today yeah the Autobahn just sounds like it's gonna be fast eh? Yeah it does. No speed limits on that rapid. Let's do it let's do it all right so right now we're heading through what looks like a a maze of islands like there's there's a current flowing every which way around here there's waterfalls a lot of ledges so we're slowly making our way down river left side hopefully punching through into some flat water but it's just like beyond beautiful the topography of this area has changed completely and it's almost like pocket water like it's like a waterfall a nice pool a runnable rapid a waterfall a nice pool and the river really doesn't get much wider than this for as long as we can see anyways so it's I think we're enjoying this right now it's it's a lot of fun slow moving but we're on vacation while we were loading up the boats eric ended up slipping and falling into the water luckily he didn't end up hurting himself and he also managed to stay dry even though the water was above the waistline of his dry pants did you land on your elbow or anything no no literally like I fell as fast as possible I just kind of slid down oh nice yeah but I was fully submerged and no water no leakage no no leakage dude I'm checking out that's awesome dude so we're currently just portaging around these chutes oh shoot another chute oh shoot so many chutes yeah maybe the other side's better eh yeah let's go check it out we just push it in the water we're currently portaging through an island like a forest on an island and it's absolutely beautiful in here and there's two massive chutes on either side of this island just gushing with water a little paradise in here all right so eric found a nice easy line around this island and I took the absolute hardest way through the thick of the forest and so now we have to go pick up our gear which is on the other side the island because I'm not portaging it back yo so I'm right at the top of this corner like I think if we just pull in like actually yo even right here pretty easy to climb up climb up all right so we just stopped for a quick little lunch break on that rock behind me but we're not wasting any time we're getting back on the river and heading a little further down we want to get a lot more distance covered today so we're not wasting any time and getting back out there yo that wind was messed up so it kind of looks like we're lined up right to hit that stuff we want to hit yeah dude draws the worst line yeah straight waves yeah probably misread that it felt like when I was trying to cross draw the wind was pushing the nose back in yeah I just felt like massive gush for sure yo it's all good bro now just shut down yeah yo we just gotta keep pushing along man do you feel the wind yeah was that from the wind it's actually a notch out on this tree today has been a real grind we're making distance it hasn't been overly difficult but uh I don't know we we definitely I don't feel like we're really rushing neither of us really felt like we're really rushing but um Eric slipped earlier I slipped um both of us okay um we left a fishing rod behind uh so we had to go back like I don't know probably like half a kilometer and paddle against the current and it was just like probably only wasted 15 minutes but it's just like we seem to be a little bit off our groove today and uh we're not really sure why but it's definitely like a reason to take it even slower out here um we just ran a line not long ago that like did not go as planned at all and luckily we were able to bail out but for the most part we've hit very good lines on this trip but that last one uh I think it was a bit of a combo of us misreading it and also um the wind seems to have picked up quite a bit and that may I felt it a lot on a couple portages ago and I'm thinking that maybe the wind also contributed to us not being able to make the turn that we were looking to make so I don't know all in all I think it just means that we really need to take our time out here and and make sure that we're safe and we're taking it slow other than that we're crushing a lot of distance it's a beautiful day out and uh yeah it's absolutely beautiful out here like it has been for like the last like four days love this area yo go we're okay go straight go straight go straight are you talking about that one I I last minute I was kind of like yo I actually think we could have just hit that yeah me too you want to just turn and hit it yeah but yo to do this yo paddle forwards then paddle forwards forwards forwards yeah that's okay that worked out that was sick beautiful then we have the next rock behind us to get behind in this situation we actually used a front ferry to make our way down the river backwards it might seem kind of like a backwards idea but the control that the front ferry gave us was perfect for slipping behind rocks on our way down good let's drop it back and then in the current going down the left side of this rock we're in a c-turn so paddle forward but we're gonna wait a second wait a second let's get into that current now yeah now we want to get left nice dude yeah that was awesome man yo good recommendation going back down a little bit oh we're 4.5 clicks from camp right now from camp this morning and uh we are about a kilometer and a bit out from camp potentially we're going to camp frogsong falls it's been uh it's been a pretty crazy day I think today's the day of liftovers you know it almost seems like every single set we get to not really runnable maybe a little section of it we can run and the rest is just lifting over waterfalls and then we've come across maybe five or six waterfalls today alone or waterfall-esque features so it's been pretty tough but the sun's out and we're on vacation all right do we see our hole the one that we want to be left of the second feature back up here yep so are we hitting this we're hitting this yeah we're staying left of that hole yeah we're riding this wave train essentially out to those splishy splashes that you can already see and then we're kind of like going like this uh but to the right to the oh yeah yeah yeah we're gonna go into that bay yeah yeah okay so let's turn in here a little more forward now back pedal nice okay now draw or cross draw now yeah you got it no big deal for the boys that was so sick yo this might be one of my favorite sets of rapids the maneuvers are like legit through islands so we've just arrived at camp number nine for the night we had another absolute grind today uh we pushed really hard we're both i think very very sore from it um i think we made it probably about five kilometers today so just very very slow moving but the good news is that we've gotten ourselves to a good place now that we we feel like we're on track to be able to make it to moosonee in time we wanted to make sure to leave about five days for the coast um just because weather delays wind like all sorts of things can happen along the coast and we're on a reduced paddling schedule because of the tides so with all of that taken into factor we wanted to make sure we left ourself with ample time to get across and if we make it back early then neither of us have been to moose factory or moosonee before so we'd be able to have some time to check that stuff out so the push is good i think we've got only another four or five kilometers to the end of like where the rapids really are on this river and then we've got some like big days of uh of flat water paddling ahead of us so anyways we're just gonna jump in go for a swim and try to unwind a little bit we've got our clothes drying and uh yeah that's pretty much it take a look how beautiful this light is eric running around with no clothes on nice speedo from our campsite tonight drawing out all our warrior gear over there we were soaked when we got in again even with the dry pants just from sweat how do you feel after today dead my back is numb my knees feel shot my thighs burn but i'm having a great time okay we should eat and i can use a shot of whiskey baby i'd love a shot of whiskey priorities all right so we finally got our tent set up we have a water hang going right now we just ate our third of four taco dinners eric's just digesting that right now and we also got a tarp set up going because we are suspecting some rain coming in tonight and we want to have somewhere we're planning a bit of a lie-in tomorrow we're both very sore today we worked very hard the last few days and we think we earned it so we're gonna lie in tomorrow and when we do get up we want to have a nice place to chill if it is raining so we're just uh packing up the final few things here and i'm scrambling the last little bit of my energy here before i hit the sack to give you guys a bit of an update so so i hope you guys have a good night it's crazy to think that in high water based on where you're seeing driftwood all this is likely underwater from the far far shoreline over there the moss in the background you can actually see the waterline i can't even imagine good morning it is the morning of day 10 out here we're finally in the double digits hard to believe we've been out here for that long forecast for the day little cloudy sporadic showers hasn't been coming down too hard yet but uh yeah we're having a bit of a lazy morning this morning we're we didn't get out of bed until like nine uh i spent some time journaling in the tent this morning eric was catching some z's and uh yeah we just got our fire going and we're gonna probably make some moves at some point this morning but we're not really in any rush to do it we also don't really care how far we make it today because yesterday was a really solid day for us so we're just gonna push on and uh and see where we make it to we're feeling pretty good about where we're at and uh yeah might as well enjoy this final section before things get all boggy as we head into james bay talk is cheap my darling when you're feeling right at home i want to make you move with confidence i want to be with you alone help me help you start it you're too comfortable to know throwing out those words oh you gotta feel it on your own that's it baby that's it now i'm stuck in for some prison and time keeps dragging on that whistle on down to san antonio i love paddling through like rocky sections like this oh yeah we're just going straight in let's stay right side though paddle for it yo we actually have a little stretch to paddle here that's a waterfall right here we're gonna get to it and just because you said that you drink it now it's a waterfall it was probably back paddle through just in case there's something juicy in there you know no i'm not against you i love a back paddle i know yeah like the bottom what's going on down there yo i think you have to shoot right all right battle hard can we hit this all right yeah we're good so we took on a little water after the last couple sets of rapids we're just taking a minute all right so we've absolutely been crushing it this morning i just said this morning it's actually 2 45 in the afternoon my bad we didn't leave till i think 12 30 today that was a nice chill morning for us that was well needed it looks like we just arrived at another waterfall that we're gonna have to portage around but the portage is nice and clear over a bare rock so we should be able to get that done pretty quickly and then we're probably gonna have lunch sometime soon so the rain's held off and the last couple features have so we've gotten an inconceivable amount of snags on this trip and we just got yet another one we don't even know why we're throwing lures anymore because there's literally no fish in these waters like it's actually sad to watch us like just collect snag after snag in a hopeless fishing bro why haven't you caught a fish you're still skunked hey as a boat we're not skunked that's all that matters i'm sticking to it an inconceivable amount of zero fish in this river for today's lunch we actually have cheese and salami wraps we're also out of wraps but we have mustard i feel like that's a fair substitute for the wrap that's maybe that's my opinion but let's dig in a nice quarter inch piece of cheese you want to find a nice round salami then you get your mustard two shakes kind of taints the taste i find right but that's why you have this it's about four o'clock and we're gonna try to push on over the next three hours to the very final waterfall on this river we don't really know what the next couple features are going to be like we have a another waterfall as well to get by maybe another set of rapids really depends on how quickly we can get past those but would be really nice to get to that last waterfall so that tomorrow we can start the very final stretch of the katawagami where maybe we can get to the uh kesagami river tomorrow night we'll see how uh take it one day at a time though we'll see where we get today never gets old no you want to see an old yeah oh sick there's another one there crazy oh like something got eaten here yeah are those ribs you think i don't know i think so all right so we just uh got out to do another portage and it looks like someone had a barbecue here without us i don't know for sure i feel like these might be ribs of an animal likely a moose or a caribou but they are scattered everywhere crazy hopefully whatever it is is full now i'm just uh portaging around another rapid here found a sneak route through this lake back area over here the pugs are pretty thick right now babe all right so we just finished the portage around what we believe to be the second last set of waterfalls on this river trying to enjoy every minute of it once again we got saved by some nice open rocky space that we were able to portage around and it looks like we actually kind of came through a bit of an old campsite because there's some cut logs and an old fire pit as well so kind of cool to see that now we're just jumping back in the boats and we're very close to the final waterfall so kind of exciting kind of sad but we're definitely both feeling very proud right now like just this last little section that we we crushed was a complete grind and we barely stopped other than like having a late morning today and maybe a couple chill mornings where we left a little later but like other than that just grinding every single day so i'm very proud of us i think that uh we worked really hard to get here so definitely feels like a big accomplishment and uh the trip's not over yet there's still uh there's still lots ahead so another section done on to the next all right go right of it yo what is my water bottle back there is my yo just pull over here it's a fast walk up has to be the water bottle all right so i haven't been having a very good trip in terms of water bottle management my water bottle my nalgene trusty old nalgene that i've taken for like the last like three two or three years anyway anyways and all my favorite stickers on it i lost it a couple probably about five days ago on this trip uh and i'm pretty sure it was while we were camped on a rocky point that had a slope on either side and i'm pretty sure it rolled off that site at night like after i brushed my teeth or something and when i went to go find it in the morning it was gone nowhere to be seen and so i had to get a new nalgene and luckily we had one that we were using for something else and now we just finished a set of rapids i looked down because i was getting thirsty luckily i looked down and i was like where's my nalgene well there it is right there super annoying at least i didn't actually lose this one man always gotta that's why it's so important to have like a solid system in place about where everything goes i've had my nalgene tethered to my pelican case the entire time and uh it wasn't there now i noticed anyways welcome back to the canoe onwards we go so we do need to be a little bit like in terms of the v that we're hitting yeah we want to be on the left side of it yeah i see that basically hugging that rock because of that shallow rock yeah so that'll be like we need some uh draws and cross draws to help us get in position for that we're okay right here the current is going to bring us around i actually think we might even need to be more to the right we were heading into a set of rapids that led into the final waterfall of the trip the current was pretty strong and it was a complete boulder garden which posed a high risk for pinning our canoe okay i think we might be okay to back ferry okay forward nice we pulled over at the side of the river to scout a line it was going to require some detailed maneuvers but we were confident that we could pull it off nice nice one man with our hearts beating quickly we jumped back in the canoe and started making our way down the set of rapids yeah if you get to the right side of this we're gonna be good bro we have to be a little bit further over after this too right yep suck us right over there yeah forward forward forward forward all right we're good we're right after this rock yeah holy that was scary that was a grand finale right there we recovered well by the time you're all registered yeah i like bro i it was too late like i already made two paddle strokes to get us left or a drawer or whatever that was yeah and then you were saying that and then it registered and i was like man i can't recover from this it when we were like lined up yeah we were lucky there was actually like a decent amount of current going left that helped us get by that rock but dude like overall we we did well getting down there and that was one of the scariest things not ideal to have that happen this close to a waterfall but man we had a day we made it to the very final feature on this river we did it man we absolutely did it real life let's make camp yeah and enjoy a couple shots of whiskey yes sir all right so we made it to camp 10 we are at the final waterfall on the katawagami and from here we are basically flowing through some marsh as we approach uh james bay we pushed pace again today especially since we left at 12 noon and uh still made it like a decent amount of distance i think we about 4.5 5 kilometers and not across some easy terrain again lots of liftovers it was uh it was really tough but uh we grinded had another humbling moment at the end of the day but you know what we we did the best that we could through it and uh and here we are and i think we're being graced by the river gods with some sun after a rainy day when we thought we were going to be in rain for kind of the next couple days so feeling pretty good right now might have a couple sips of whiskey by the river as a treat for the day got a nice little tarp set up in there for if it rains good tent pad this is so good get that siding this is one of my favorite backcountry meals is just taking craft dinner and adding dehydrated ground beef to it look it's like a dq blizzard you can flip it upside down flip it upside down no big deal but does it get much better than this i don't think so no that's how you know it's a real scoop of kd beef look at that wow so good