Navigating the Athabasca River in Northern Alberta
I would like to share with you my experience on the Athabasca River in northern Alberta. The Athabasca is the 13th longest river in Canada with a length of 1234 kilometres. After it was 'discovered' by Europeans, it became a major transportation waterway during the fur trade of the 1800's and later years, the forestry industry. Due to the importance and history of the river, it has been named an official Canadian Heritage River.
The Athabasca originates in the Rocky Mountains at the Columbia Icefields near the town of Jasper, Alberta. At the headwaters, the river ranges from a very slow, meandering, easy paddling stream to a raging, white-water experience for only the most advanced paddlers. My experience took place much further downstream near the city of Fort Mcmurray.
I was managing a fly-in fishing lodge on Lake Athabasca when we purchased a fleet of new aluminum boats and outboards. The boats were taken by tractor trailer up to Fort Mcmurray and delivered to our office on the shores of the Clearwater River; one of the estimated 80 tributaries of the Athabasca. From here, it was my job to assemble a crew and navigate the rivers up to Lake Athabasca, then across the lake to the old uranium mine site of Gunnar, just south of Uranium City. We had originally estimated this to take two longs days and hopefully one night......originally being key.
We assembled the boats on shore and loaded them up with supplies and gas then slid them in the Clearwater. From here, it was a short ride to the forks where it joins the mighty Athabasca. We travelled north, past Fort Mcmurray and towards Fort Mackay. It was a beautiful day with blue, sunny skies. Once past Fort MacKay, the river got a little trickier. There were ever present and ever changing sandbars, which were invisible under the silty waters until you had run aground. The river had a main channel, which we tried to follow, but it started getting dotted by islands. If you chose the wrong way around an island, sometimes you would find very shallow water or worse, a dead end completely. We witnessed numerous bald eagles and moose along the shores, as well as bitumen bubbling from the banks. Bitumen is raw hydrocarbon and the main ingredient in oil. Indigenous people and fur traders used this substance to caulk their canoes and make them more waterproof.
We continued north until darkness fell upon us. It was then we decided to pull onto shore and spend the night. We were beginning to wonder how long this river was due to the fact we expected to make Lake Athabasca by dark. We hastily put up our tents and made a fire, talked for awhile about tomorrow's plans, then went to sleep.
Morning broke calm, cold and clear. We packed up and continued up the river. After a short distance, we noticed quite a change in vegetation along the banks. We must be nearing the delta, we thought. We were flanked by marshes, bogs, flats, reeds and meadows now. The river changed drastically too. Numerous channels kept us stopping regularly to double and triple check the map. After a long morning and many frustrating dead ends, the river opened up in front of us. Lake Athabasca! Finally! To our northwest, we could just make out the shapes of buildings in the distance. We stopped briefly again to chat then headed into Fort Chipewyan. Fort Chip is the oldest settlement in Alberta, on the westernmost side of Lake Athabasca where the Athabasca, Slave, and Peace rivers all flow into or out of. We pulled into the marina and headed up the hill for a hot breakfast. Some of the locals asked us where we had come from and when we told them Fort Mac, they were shocked. Many of them mentioned most people run it with jet-boats and were among a very few white men to do it with outboard motors.
After breakfast, we headed out. We now had roughly 100 miles of wide open water to run now and were anxious to get at it. We finally cracked the throttle on the new outboards and let them run wide open for awhile. We made it about a quarter of the way across the lake when the mid-morning winds got up, forcing us to take refuge on the south shore of the lake. This was frustrating, but it was just too dangerous to continue. We unpacked a few items and relaxed on shore; the northernmost edge of the Athabasca Sand Dunes. The dunes are a fascinating sight to behold. 100 feet high in places and 100 kilometres long, they are home to 10 plant species found nowhere else in the world and an array of wildlife. It was here we waited and watched as a summer storm approached from the north.
An executive decision had to be made now. We were running out of daylight and were ill equipped to spend the night unprotected from the storm in the sand. We figured we could make it across the lake in an hour and a half, and all decided to go for it. We packed up and pushed off. Darkness fell quickly and we soon found ourselves stopping frequently to regroup and recheck bearings. The water was choppy, and every wave would cover you in an icy cold spray of water. The warm sand of the south shore didn't look too bad right about now! Continuing north and eventually, without warning, we saw land. North shore! Now it was just a matter of navigating the many islands of the Crackingstone Peninsula to the lodge. We had all done this numerous times........in the daylight. Every island looked like the last. And the next. I had been told a hundred times; and been taught it in wilderness survival, but this is where I first learned those famous words. Always Trust Your Compass! We arrived at the lodge battered, cold, and hungry and soaked to the bone in the middle of the night; but we made it. A quick check of the track-log on the GPS told me we had gone ~400 kilometres by water in a little less than 48 hours! We called it a night.
In the end, it was an amazing trip that I will remember for the rest of my life. The scenery, wildlife, water and skies were images that I wish I could share with everyone. I hope you enjoyed the story as much as I enjoyed the journey.
Bobby Owens
Alberta Outdoors
Alberta Outdoors is a regular feature at YakfishCanada.com
