On The Land: July 27 – The Canol Trail Day 4

We finally made it into the mountains and on to the Canol Trail.

Crossing the Mackenzie River.

The Dodo Canyon.

The Twitya River meeting the Keele River.

Storm clouds over the mountains.

We started our work at Mile 170, working in the rain. None of the wells that we checked had water and the only well that we expected to have water was destroyed by a bear.

Mile 170 in the rain, Ekwi river in the background.

As the rain had soaked all of us through to the skin and we needed fuel for the chopper we headed to Ram’s Head (this is one of my favorite places) Stan, Debbie and Bailey welcomed us to the hearth with hot coffee and fresh homemade cookies.

Ram’s Head Lodge.

Looking down (towards the Norman Wells end) the valley.

Re-fueled, both us and the chopper, we headed for Mile 142. We spent several house working here, as all the wells produced water.

Mile 142, The Canol Trail.

As we were lifting off there was a single mountain that caught my attention, it was beautiful, so I decided to name it, Thomas Mountain and it is located at N64^o13’30”, W128^o25’00” (might be off by a little as I was locating it from the chopper).

Map showing the location of Thomas Mountain.

Thomas Mountain.

At 1600h we packed up and prepared to head to Mile 131 & 131.3, however as the sky had cleared and we could see the mountain tops we decided to make a run for the far end of the trail and go for Mile 225.2.

At 1710h we arrived at Mile 225.2 (all wells dry),

Chopper on top of the hill.

from there we worked our way back to Mile 224.6 (again all wells dry),

Chopper in the willows.

on to Mile 222.5 (this site we did manage to collect some water samples),

Ranger station.

Canol Trail sign.

and then to Mile 208. No wells to sample here however we had to check the buildings for drain pipes and conduct an assessment of the creek bed. By this time we had gone over our flight plan (this means that we should have been on the ground at the chopper hanger (208 miles away) as we had reached the hour that was filed as the end of day).

The camp.

The kitchen (used by hikers and hunters alike, for shelter).

The pump house.

The NWT sign on the pump house.

Another hope to Mile 202 (it’s on our way home) no landing required,

Mile 202.

just some air photos and notes then the hour and a half flight to the base. Most of the flight back we were racing a storm front. All said and done the samples were in the fridge and we had dinner 2300h.

This is my third trip to the Canol Trail and I don’t know how many hours I have logged in the choppers flying through the mountains, but what I can say is “wow” (said in a respectful whisper). There is no way for me to convey the awesome beauty that I have seen, so all I’ll do is add some photos.