Baffin: Day 6 and 7 - the 2nd and 3rd day of walking - bear track!

It is a beautiful morning.

Celine and Sonia sit by the river in the early sunshine soaking up the beautiful scenery and contemplating the mountains and life.

The calm doesn’t last long though, as soon we are dismantling tents and packing the backpacks. By 8am we are ready for our 15km from Owl River cabin to June Valley cabin.

Before getting into deep walking though, there is another lake, 2km upriver, which Celine says gets fished by the locals.

We get there, we try and no fish.

We are however rewarded by an amazing picture of the mountain reflection in the lake and incredibly ……..by some bear footprints!!!!!

Bear footprints!

A bear was there, fairly recently. We are told this is very rare so far in the park.

We’ll have to keep our eyes open.

I am afraid this was all the excitement we had for the next five hours. The distance ended up being 18km. We did not have any major river crossing, but the bogs were so bad that Celine went in straight up to her knee and we all gave up trying to keep our feet dry.

The routine of dealing with the terrain, negotiating water and mud, whilst carrying 25 kg on our back took a little bit of the shine from an amazing landscape. 

We made camp by 3pm. And by that time we were all done with the day.

Camp set, Celine made tea. Nothing better than a refreshing cup of tea to reinvigorate the spirits. There’s another lake, 1 km up.

Another chance for fishing. There are four of us going: Jason and I and Celine with her rifle ….. just in case.

Again the fishing proves unfruitful. Not a single fish in sight. And no takes. The lake is perfect but with only migratory fish living in this region, it feels pretty dead. I have a few casts and then it is Celine’s turn to test her fly fishing skills. As expected, she is rather good.

Fishing abandoned, is time to go back to our freeze-dried food. We had muskox yesterday; it is Arctic char tonight.

A good meal and chat and it is time to turn in. 

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Day 7

It is now day 7 and our 3rd day walking. A few aches to back and shoulders by carrying the pack, but the legs are ok.

The routine has set in: breakfast, brake down camp, pack, get ready to go, walk.

Another 17km from June Valley cabin to Glacier Lake cabin.

Again, we make a stop to another massive lake to check for fish and again no luck.

I keep looking at some sort of movement in the water in both lakes and river, but I can’t see anything.

The walk is pretty much the same (geese, seagulls, lemming holes and luckily no bears). The scenery even more beautiful. But the amount of streams and bogs we pass has increased so much that we decide to wear our wet shoes for over 3km.

The pack is still heavy and the only way to reduce the weight is to eat more of our rations and faster. 

We are now moving closer to the Akshayuk pass itself and we are rewarded with some amazing views of Asgard. 

In camp by 3pm. No further fishing for a while, so time for a wash and a change of clothes (after 4 days of the same t-shirt and underwear). New Gillette advert by the river. 

Tea and dinner. We have whale bourguignon for supper. Delicious. Unbeknown to us it is Celine’s birthday today and she presents us with some homemade brownies for celebration.

By the way, the Anzacs are all but gone.

Celine is just 35 yrs old. She’s lived with the Inuit for 13 years…..!

Time for bed.