Nahanni J O U R N A L

A f a m i l y ’ s r a f t i n g r e u n i o n d o w n t h e N . W .T. ’ s l e g e n d a r y
“dangerous river” — on the 80th anniversary of their

 Jennife Paerson
g ra n d fa t h e r ’s 1 927 to 1 929 ex p e d i t i o n

photograph by Noel Hendrickson

Day oNe glimpse of the Nahanni, its Fourth Canyon

Fort Simpson to Virginia Falls and – with a collective gasp – Virginia Falls.
The boreal forest stretches out beneath us, In The Dangerous River, my grandfather’s
broken only by the occasional sinkhole lake, 1954 account of his N.W.T. explorations, he
as we leave Fort Simpson and the Mackenzie writes about feeling the vibration of the
River behind. The Twin Otter floatplane lifts “Falls of the Nahanni” from 20 miles away.
west, into the sun – still high in the northern One week later, on August 25, 1927, Grand-
sky – and over the Nahanni National Park pop snapped the earliest photographs of
Reserve, a 4,766-square-kilometre slice of the then-unnamed falls, accompanied by
N.W.T. wilderness near the Yukon-B.C. Minnesota prospector Albert Faille. Now a
border and the headwaters of the South lifetime, two days and four flights later, my
Nahanni River. Save for the roar of the father, brother, sister and I touch down in
engine and wind, our group travels in the heart of the Nahanni wilderness, as our
silence. We have waited all day for this flight; plane scuds to a stop on the wide and silty
some of us have waited our entire lives river near the campsite above Virginia Falls.
to raft the South Nahanni – a Canadian My heart skips a beat. This is where my
Heritage River that moved Pierre Elliot family’s love affair with Canada began.
Trudeau to make it a national park reserve

I
in 1976. Two years later, the area became t was my brother, Jeremy, who planted
the first natural region in the world to be the seed of this family expedition – to
designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. mark the 80th anniversary of Grand-
We fly over the canyons and karstlands pop’s 1927-to-1929 paddle up the South
of the Ram Plateau in the Mackenzie Moun- Nahanni. Soon I was calling my sister, Sam,
tains, where every ripple of rock is lit golden in Victoria, and urging her to join us. Her
in the evening sun. Shafts of sunlight burst only reservation: our easy raft float down-
through the clouds and we catch our first river wouldn’t compare to Grandpop’s
adventures navigating rapids in a loaded
canoe, surviving sub-zero temperatures and
BeYond all iMaGininG living off the occasional kill of wild game –
“so you’re going up the Big nahanni? Boy, epic stories he recounted in five books,
you’ve bitten off something this time! they numerous magazine articles and over Sun-
say there’s canyons in there thousands of feet
deep, and the water coming through faster’n day dinners at the Victoria home he shared
hell.” —r.M. Patterson’s The Dangerous River with our grandmother. Raymond Murray

WestWorld >> S u m m e r 2 0 0 9 47
Patterson was one of Canada’s foremost soon come alive in full sound and colour: the string of murders and deaths by starva-
adventure writers. A legendary figure in our the Sluice Box Rapids, now a roar of white- tion, accident or misfortune along the river
family, he also inspired a generation of water, and just ahead, Virginia Falls, plung- were more likely the result of gold, greed or
Canadian adventurers, many of whom to ing 92 metres into the river’s Fourth Canyon. poor planning – in the wake of the frenzied
this day attempt to replicate his journeys And at its base, dwarfed by limestone cliffs: and lawless gold rush. Even when Grandpop
into the wild. His first book received rave the three sky-blue inflatable rafts that will and Faille set off from Fort Simpson in 1925,
reviews: The New York Herald Tribune transport us 200 km downriver over five their dream of paddling north up the
described The Dangerous River as “an emo- days. From here, they are the size of jelly- Nahanni was considered pure suicide.
tion of the north . . . recorded, it is not too beans. My 71-year-old father and I stand for From a rocky launching point on the
much to say, in a mixture of Thoreau and a moment, spellbound. Over the din of the beach, we don wet-weather gear: sou’westers,

I ask my father how long he has waited for this moment.

Jack London.” The New Yorker called it “truly rushing water, I ask how long he has waited Patagonia rain pants, rubber boots and life
enchanting,” while The New York Times said for this moment. His eyes are fixed on the jackets. Packs loaded and secured in the
its modest writing “betrays no indication river ahead. “Forever,” he responds. 18-foot Moravia rafts, we then settle in, five
that Mr. Patterson realizes what a remarkable We could spend hours here, but the river to a craft, a guide at the helm. The dramatic
man he is.” waits. We strap bags to backs for the 1.2-km rust-coloured Fourth Canyon is the first of
portage to lower ground through rosemary- four to come. At their greatest height, these
Day TWo like Labrador tea, northern starflowers and sheer rock faces – which escaped the last ice
Virginia Falls to Strawberry Island kinnikinnick. A dirt trail descends in a steep age – rise steeply to 1,200 metres, then curve
Nothing beats the Canadian North for bring- series of switchbacks, where the waters’ into natural amphitheatres of dolomite,
ing diverse groups of people together – my gentle mist falls on us like fresh dew. South- limestone and layers of sedimentary rock
grandfather and Faille 80 years ago and now erners James and Jacob are already lounging that rival the Grand Canyon.
the Patterson clan: me, the writer, my father, on a log below, dressed in camouflage gear. In one of the other rafts, Jeremy and Sam
a retired B.C. Supreme Court master, busi- They will spend the better part of this trip swap old jokes, leaving me, the baby of the
nessman brother Jeremy and architect sister waiting for the rest of us. family, alone with Dad. I feel privileged, keen
Sam. Then there’s the rest of our 15-member The Nahanni is the stuff of legends – tales to experience the river through his eyes as he
group: Wall Street fund managers Jen and of gold and adventure, trappers and prospec- trades anecdotes about Grandpop and the
Laura; Corin, an amateur photographer; real tors, of the indigenous Nahanni and those river with the guides. His face lights up as he
estate mogul James and his 14-year-old European adventurers, my English grandfa- sees for the first time the landscape he has
nephew Jacob; journalist Michael and wife ther included, drawn here in the quest for until now only heard about. “The cliffs and
Vivien; guides Rob, Kaj, Jamie and Bhreagh. freedom and fortune. After the Klondike this marvellous, calm water flowing through
Awoken early the next day by the camp Gold Rush, placer gold was rumoured to here – it’s just extraordinary.” He points to the
bustle, we are anxious to pack up the tents have been found up the Flat River, a tribu- shore: “That’s the sort of spot where Grand-
and follow the wooden boardwalk through tary of the South Nahanni. But men stayed pop would have camped, on that grassy bank,
Jack pines and black spruce to Virginia Falls. away, fearful of the unforgiving terrain and with a place to beach a canoe.” Further down-
The black-and-white photographs I’ve seen the numbers of dead or missing that led to stream is Marengo Creek, which Grandpop
in Grandpop’s heavy, leather-bound albums tales of “head-hunting Nahanni.” In reality, named after Napolean’s favourite horse.

48 W e s t w o r l d >> Summer 2009 (top left) Noel Hendrickson, (R.M. Patterson) Palmer Lewis
 But it isn’t long before the clouds roll in. because it would have been tough to paddle or caribou smokies roasted over the fire.
And just a few hours later, at a rocky camp on up. It’s too deep to pole, and in these canyons Dinners feature smoked arctic char and
Strawberry Island, I lie in my tent and listen there are no beaches for tracking a canoe.” asparagus soup starters, main courses of pork
to the rolling thunder echoing off the can- Travelling downriver at about 10 klicks, tenderloin, chicken curry or lamb kebabs on
yons and mountains like bursts of gunfire. we soon pass the Flat River and the site of a bed of couscous. Later, we perch on camp
Faille’s cabin, where in 1927 Grandpop stools, sip tea and talk well into the evening
Day Three stopped on his way to the falls. Faille spent as Michael shares stories of life in Africa
Strawberry Island to The Gate decades on the river, prospecting for gold and the guides tease Jen and Laura about
A light mist rises off the river as we launch the and trapping furs. But large quantities of Sex and the City. But always, the focus comes
inflatables and head downstream toward the gold were never found. back to the river and Grandpop’s books.
Vivien encourages my father to read from
The Dangerous River while Michael takes
notes. Jamie, the son of bush pilots, who
now studies at Oxford, observes, “What’s
most compelling about these stories is
the legend that was R.M. Patterson himself.
He’s a great writer, but he was also out there
living life in a really big, amazing way.”

Day Four
Virginia Falls
The Gate to Headless Creek
Figure 8 Rapids
The rafting life is making some of us restless.
The Gate
Kraus Keen to climb mountains in search of Dall’s
The Big Bend Hotsprings
Deadmen Valley
The Splits

Nahanni Butte secrets of the nahanni

(left to right) Rob navigates Deadmen Valley;
R.M. Patterson wrote five books based on his
adventures (in 2000, a Rocky Mountain in
the Kananaskis Range was named after him —

His eyes fix on the river. “Forever,” he responds.

Patterson’s Peak); the author and her father;
Sunblood Mountain towers over Virginia Falls.

South Nahanni
Watershed
Nahanni National
Park Reserve

W
Figure 8 Rapids, a stretch of whirlpools, boils e fall into a rhythm: awaken early, sheep, eight of us scramble to the top of The
and eddies that Grandpop and Faille, remark- breakfast and break camp. The Gate, a narrow limestone passage with
ably, navigated without portaging. High water guides buzz about, prepping the 460-metre-high walls, for a view of Pulpit
has since changed these rapids – now catego- rafts for another day on the river and, in a Rock and downriver toward Big Bend, a
rized as class III-plus in difficulty. But by place where time is meaningless and cannot 90-degree hairpin turn in the river. At the
canoe, says Rob, the Nahanni has always been be gauged by the sun’s position in the sky, summit, Corin snaps photos and a shirtless
an incredibly challenging river to run, so “you preparing meals that provide the day’s struc- Jamie salutes the sun in a yoga pose. I study
can imagine what it was like for your grandfa- ture. Pancakes and sausages one morning, the almost-bonsai twists of stunted trees and
ther and Faille to canoe upstream. That’s why eggs Benedict the next. Lunches are eaten tundra plants, brittle reindeer lichen and
The Dangerous River is so talked about now, en route – pita stuffed with tabbouleh Continued on page 59

(top) Jennifer Patterson, (bottom) Noel Hendrickson Westworld >> S u m m e r 2 0 0 9 49

 Nahanni
Continued from page 49 Day Five where Matthews almost drowned after fall-
Headless Creek to Lafferty Creek ing overboard in 1928 and enter the dra-
low-lying shrubs laden with crimson berries, We paddle past Headless Creek and through matic First Canyon, its towering limestone
thinking of Grandpop and the “dreamy Deadmen Valley, stopping at Sheaf Creek. walls the highest yet. Later, at our Lafferty
afternoons” he spent hiking here, where We’re looking for the site of the cabin where Creek camp, Dad reads from Grandpop’s
“the river was a distant murmur through the Grandpop and the English trapper Gordon journals, written in the form of a letter home
warm scent of pines.” Matthews, his companion on his second to his mother in England and published
We soon pass through the foreboding Nahanni trek, overwintered in 1928-1929. posthumously as the Nahanni Journals.
Funeral Range to the Headless Range and We pull the rafts onto the beach, and while
Headless Creek, so named for two brothers Vivien and Jamie investigate wolf, bear and Day Six
whose decapitated skeletons were discovered raptor tracks in the sand, Sam stumbles Lafferty Creek to The Splits, a.k.a.
tied to trees here in 1908, or so the legend upon a rusted stovepipe and a conspicuous “Bug Hell Island”
goes. In 1927, strangers again warned Grand- clearing in the trees. Further upstream is It is the last full day on the river and we slip
pop against setting out on another expedi- the likely site of the men’s food cache, into swimsuits in preparation for the hot
tion: “Men vanish in that country,” one where foodstuffs and fur pelts were stored springs ahead. From here on, we’re at the
cautioned. “Down the river, they say it’s a on high wooden platforms to deter ani- mercy of the infamous mosquitoes of the
damned good country to keep clear of . . . a mals. We examine sunken cabin beams and North; Rob warns us to keep bug shirts at the
country lorded over by Wild Mountain Men the remnants of a makeshift stove, fash- ready. Soon enough we reach Kraus Hot
. . . the river fast and bad.” The MacLeod ioned from an old oil drum, with the enthu- Springs, greeted by the sulphur stench of
brothers’ murder was but one of hundreds of siasm of amateur archaeologists. Kaj is rotten eggs. The rocks in the pool overlook-
dark stories about the Nahanni. From 1908 certain we have found the site, exactly as ing the river are covered in a brown sludge,
to 1945, many more men disappeared, Grandpop described it, in a clearing in the the water warm and brackish. Kaj slathers his
starved to death or died here mysteriously. trees. Dad’s chest puffs with pride as photos face with mud, a Nahanni tradition, as a light
Fittingly, that evening on a river-rock are snapped for posterity. Even Rob and the river breeze keeps the bugs at bay.
beach under blue and pink brush strokes of guides make a note of the find for future We camp on what Bhreagh dubs “Bug
cloud, Dad reads a passage about Willie and trips downriver. Hell Island” in The Splits, where the
Frank MacLeod from The Dangerous River – We lunch at Dry Canyon Creek, ride the Nahanni widens as it braids and weaves in
ghost stories in a haunted valley. high-standing waves of the Cache Rapids Continued on page 92

Westworld >> S u m m e r 2 0 0 9 59
 british columbia
nahanni
Continued from page 59

myriad directions. Bug shirts are the preferred

TO ADVERTISE IN MARKETPLACE,
dinner attire, as dragonflies dive-bomb our
PLEASE CONTACT GILLIAN TRAINOR AT
heads, hunting for insects. We bat the bugs
604.299.7311
away from one another. But when the hordes
alberta reach class-IV-plus we escape to the sanctu-
ary of the tents, diving in and quickly zip-
ping up the fly. But I still count – and kill
– more than 60 mosquitoes that have some-
how followed us inside.

Day SeveN
To Nahanni Butte and Fort Simpson
It is with mixed feelings that we leave the
river behind. Jeremy, in particular, is heart-
broken that the trip is almost over. And all of
us feel humbled by the epic journey made so
many years ago by Grandpop, without the
lower mainland security of experienced guides or their
gourmet meals. Soon we are returning by
hawaii plane from Nahanni Butte to Fort Simpson,
where roads replace rivers and hot showers,
flush toilets and bed linens await. The group
scatters, to B&Bs and frontier hotels, with
promises to meet up for a last supper at the
only restaurant in town. But like Grandpop,
after months of sleeping in the open air,
I cannot bring myself to stay indoors. Instead
I lie in a hammock in the B&B’s garden,
reading and rereading passages from
his books in an attempt to prolong the
euphoria of being on the river. Later, unable
north america to sleep, I lie staring at the ceiling fan, plot-
ting my return – this time for two weeks,
in a canoe.

 eco footPrint Low impact.

 GUided BY natUre Nahanni River
Adventures/Canadian River Expeditions
(1-800-297-6927; nahanni.com). Cost: $5,022.20
per person for seven-day expedition.
 Gear Quick-dry clothes, hiking boots, rain
gear, insect repellent. Checklist at nahanni.com.
 additional intel The Canadian
Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) works to
protect the 40,000-square-kilometre Nahanni
watershed from mining and to expand the park’s
boundaries. cpaws.org/programs/nahanni
 critical readinG The Dangerous
River: Adventure on the Nahanni by R.M. Patterson
(TouchWood Editions, 2009; $19.95); Nahanni Jour-
nals: R.M. Patterson’s 1927-1929 Journals/ed. Richard
C. Davis (University of Alberta Press, 2008; $29.95).
 on-screen Nahanni (1962), a short
National Film Board classic, following Albert Faille
upriver to Virginia Falls. nfb.ca/film/Nahanni 

92 W e s t W o r l d >> Summer 2009