Muskrat Falls

Muskrat Falls is more than a brutal portage. It's also an impressive display of the powerful combination of water and gravity. The falls do not have the grandeur of the old Grand Falls as the drop is not as far and is split into two sections but given all the water that flows into the Churchil/Hamilton/Grand River after the falls Muskrat is probably bigger in a GPMS (Gallons per milli-second) sense. Either way I wouldn't choose to go over either set of Falls in a canoe.

The upper section:



The Lower Section:



The Boss and I spent some time looking at the falls then in a fit of madness took a "short cut" around the south side of the mountain rather than hike back up the path. If you try this when you get to the big rock with "GO BACK" spray painted on it. You haven't gone to far to turn back and this rock is good advice.

I've posted two road videos to YouTube: Sasquatch? and Firelake55. My YouTube username is Kensapiens. If they look OK I might try to post a couple of others.

The Churchill/Hamilton/Grand River Trip

One of the big reasons we chose to go home this summer was to try to get out on the Churchill/Hamilton/Grand River (all one river) before the lower Churchill development makes it off limits and then floods the valley. We watched the weather and when we saw two days of sunshine we went for it.

We put in at the lower end of the Gull Island Rapids. Low water at this time of year meant we had a little bit of rough water to pass through in sight of the start. You can almost see it in this photo of our start point.



We ended up having a little trouble getting through this spot but luckily the Boss had some duct tape that saved the trip after a bump on a rock put a small crack in the bottom of the canoe. Thanks again Boss!

For the most part the river was fast moving but clean. Lots of current but no trouble with rocks. We made camp on the first night on the downstream side of Tom's Island on a big sandy point. This is our Dad and the J-Set pitching a tent. You can see how clear the weather was.



That night was chilly for me who foolishly brought only a +7 rated summer sleeping bag but the morning was beautiful.



It was another great day on the water on day two. We went from Tom's Island all the way down to Muskrat Falls portage. Along the way we made some stops and found an old trappers river tilt. A tilt is a small cabin. This one is no longer habitable.



The portage at Muskrat is crazy steep which sadly cannot be expressed with my photographic ability. Suffice it to say I held the canoe with one hand and used the other to help crawl up the trail. And it obviously doesn't get used much as it's a very narrow overgrown trail. Once we got into the trees the black flies became wicked. Evil. Cruel. In 30 seconds the bug dope was sweated off and the claustrophbic heat of the bug net was preferable to eating a steady diet of blackflies with each breath.

We camped on top. It wasn't chilly this night. It was downright cold. I survived but barely and I certainly didn't sleep.

In the morning the wind came back up pretty stong. The Boss wanted to see the Muskrat Falls before they became another victim of "progress". But hey, Air Conditioning is a need. It's not like people could live without it. Really, why would they want to?

So the Boss and I did the hike down to the falls and we all got a ride back to the valley rather than paddle the last of the river. In theory that part will remain untouched so we can always paddle it later.

OK enough for today. In my next post I'll try to give you a photo impression of the falls.

Part one of my thoughts on the trip home

I am disturbed by the proliferation of cabins/cottages. Rabbit Island has 8 cabins facing the mouth of the river and a spot cleared for a ninth! The last time I was fishing off Rabbit Island there were two small cabins tucked into the woods. The town still has a population in the 7-8000 range. I think it is symptomatic of the runaway consumption in our society. Same number of people, twice as many houses and 4 times as many cottages.

I think this is a large part of why outside of my parent's house HVGB doesn't feel like home anymore. I know the other half is that I have changed too.

We got out of town a bit, a boat ride up Goose Bay which was neat and a canoe trip on the Grand/Hamilton/Churchill River but I'll cover that in a later post. I didn't get everything done that I'd have liked. Visiting was almost nil as I took a few days to relax and the rest of the time just flew by.




This reflection I'd like to touch on Geocaching. I like it. My bro who mentioned it in comments here earlier as a new hobby introduced us to it on the drive in. Now I have to eat my previous words. I want a GPS because geocaching is fun. We used it to break up the long drive into HVGB and for anyone planning to do that trip or drive the loop when it gets completed (next year?) I highly recommend it. It really made the drive part of the holiday and not just a marathon to be endured.