1998
Seal River June 21-July 11,1996
by Steve Kohlhepp
As soon as I turned the page of the HUT! and saw the ad, Wanted Seal River Paddlers, my stomach started doing flip flops and my mind started reaching out to far away places. I responded to the ad, met with the people planning the trip, and after some consideration decided to sign on.
The Beaver on floats smoothly glided to a stop on the mirror calm southeastern side of Nagassa Lake in northeastern Manitoba and we had arrived at our first campsite. James flung open the door of the plane and we stepped out onto the floats on a bright sunshiny evening looking over a two hundred-yard long beach. We were met by millions and millions of flying friends in the form of mosquitoes. We quickly donned our bug jackets and were able to keep most of them at bay. We set up our three tents, got our three canoes outfitted, and readied for the 180 mile trip down the Seal River to Hudson Bay. Eric cooked the traditional first nights' meal of steaks over glowing campfire coals and it was a satisfying feeling here our first night in the wilds. Later as I lay snug in my tent and sleeping bag Sig Olson's words drifted into my sleepy head 'It's the start of a new adventure and I know its going to be a good one'.
The six of us had met a couple of days before our touchdown by plane, at my home to load canoes and gear and drive to Lynn Lake, Manitoba. There we flew into Nagassa Lake with La Ronge Air. The six being Eric Ajax, Andy and Tony Nelson the brother team, Bob Zoet, James Taylor, and myself Steve Kohlhepp. Erik and Andy were pretty much the ringleaders of the voyage who, along with their wives, had done the organization and planning. They had been working, planning and dreaming about this trip for over a year with the rest of us signing on at various intervals during the planning.
There is a lot of work that goes into a trip of this size and the better the planning and organization the more fun and safe the trip is. Eric, Andy, and company had done an excellent job of putting the trip together and it showed in what a great time we all had on the trip together.
We were a crew that had various levels of wilderness experience and whitewater paddling skills. I don't know if I would place any of us in the expert category but all were well beyond the beginner level. The Seal River is a big river, a quarter of a mile wide in many places and very, very fast with many stretches of rapids tumbling for over three or four miles. It is also a remote northern river with the only way in or out is by bush plane, or a risky paddle by way of Hudson Bay to Churchill. We elected to fly out. We carried with us an ERIPB, a personal locator beacon that could he set off in case of emergency and our location pinpointed via satellite. Our various skill levels seemed to blend together very well for a safe trip with only a few mistakes that luck got us out of without anyone being hurt.
After starting on Nagassa Lake we paddled across thirty-mile long Shethanei Lake the last of the lakes until Hudson Bay. As soon as we left Shethanei Lake and entered the Seal River the current was fast and didn't slow down much the whole length until you get to the bay. I believe we were the first group down the river that season as we didn't see or hear anyone except for an Indian group. They were three people and a dog in a motorized rubber Zodiac from Tadoule Lake, an Indian settlement up river. We encountered them where the Wolverine River empties into the Seal. They had been out on the land for the past ten days fishing and were heading home. They gave us a good tip on a campsite about four miles downstream. What a campsite! It was about seventy-five feet above the river on the side of an esker with a sweeping view of the river in front us and a mountain of an esker behind us. The campsite had a plaque placed there by friends of the famous Canadian canoeist Bill Mason. The plaque read 'The River, The Canoe, The Paddle, The Man Bill Mason, Seal River Trip 1988. His Spirit Will Come Through'. It was a beautiful and fitting place for a remembrance of Bill Mason.
This northern area is called the land of little sticks and is a transition area between forest and tundra. Spruce and jackpine are stunted by the cold climate with most trees smaller than a foot in diameter.The river is bordered by forest, rock, and sandy beaches, and towering over the river are many hard packed pink sand eskers. The eskers stretch for miles and miles, have very little vegetation on the top, and are quite level and perfect for hiking. We did just that, spending many hours throughout the trip hiking eskers and viewing the surrounding wilderness. As we worked our way closer to the bay the land gets lower and boggier and more tundra like with fewer and fewer trees. We encountered several areas along the river that had ten to fifteen foot high glaciers like snow or ice banks that stretched for a mile or more along both sides of the river. On the 4th of July we found ourselves lining the canoes from atop these glacier like banks of ice with melt water dripping into the river and an occasional piece of ice calving off into the river.
Some days it seemed as if the entire day was spent in whitewater rapids. Some of the rapids stretched for five or six miles. Most of them we could run but we did do some lining where we could not find a clear route through the rocks. I believe we were fortunate in that we paddled the river early in the season when the river had more water in it than later in low water causing more rock gardens and more difficult route finding. We tried to stay close to shore, as a wipe out in the middle of this wide river could have been a big problem. Speaking of wipeouts, we had two. The first one occurred when one canoe zigged when they should have zagged and ended up wrapping the boat around a boulder about twenty yards from shore. Luckily the boulder was a big flat rock that both guys could get out and stand on, and all the crew worked together to get people and gear to shore. The second was a stupid mistake for all of us when we failed to scout a section of river that had about a three-foot ledge on it. We all went over it causing one boat to wipe out again. This was just a dumb move on all our parts and luck was with us as nobody was injured. We spent a lot of time scouting rapids where we could not see a clear run, but this one we screwed up.
Of course the name of this river is the Seal and we started seeing seals 100 miles from the bay. The closer we got to the bay the more and more we saw. We only ate one meal of fish, as the fishing was slow. When we were about three or four miles from the bay we could see a great cloud like mist over the ocean and we entered into an otherworldly mist or fog, which limited our visibility to about one hundred yards. It was an eerie feeling, with huge car size boulders drifting in and out of view as we paddled down stream. We probably saw over a hundred seals lazing on the rocks the last few wiles. As we would approach their perch they would slide into the water. The river widens and braids out at the mouth, making it difficult to pick your way through to the ocean. But find our way we did, and out we went to Hudson Bay.
After spending a night at the mouth of the river we paddled north about six or seven miles on a calm Atlantic Ocean to the Seal River Heritage Lodge where we waited for our float plane pickup to fly us to Churchill. When we started paddling on the ocean after dodging rocks for two weeks on the river, my bow partner James shouted "watch out rock", only it was a moving rock! The rock was a Beluga whale. For the first mile or two paddling north on the bay Beluga whales surrounded us swimming under, around, in front, and behind us. They seemed to be just as curious as we were. What a great way to top off the voyage.
In summary the Seal is a river I would paddle again if there weren't so many other rivers to travel on. We lucked out with great weather and a great crew that pitched in and worked together in potentially dangerous situations. We had a lot of good laughs throughout the trip and I am sure the memories will stay with me forever. The only negative about the trip was that it was to short. It seemed that after no time at all we were headed out. That's why as I write this in the middle of February. I and another group of friends, find ourselves well into the planning stages of another northern river in the summer of 97. For now I have those great memories of the Seal River to fall back on.
Letter to the Editor from Michael Anderson
Dear Minnesota Canoe Association:
While conducting a search for references on beluga whales in western Hudson Bay, I had the opportunity to review the Seal River Trip Report by Steve Kohlepp. I would make the following comments:The Seal River drainage system is within the traditional territory of the Sayisi Dene Nation, a Denesuline, or "Chipewyan", First Nation. The main community of the Sayisi Dene Nation is at Tadoule Lake, Manitoba, which lake is part of the Seal River system. Thus, the "Indian group" from Tadoule Lake referred to in the Trip Report are Denesuline from the Sayisi Dene Nation. The traditional territory of all Denesuline First Nations (there are several) extends from Fort Chipewyan, Alberta to the Hudson Bay coast, north almost to Yellowknife, NWT and south to Reindeer Lake and the Churchill River. Prior to the great waves of epidemics brought on by contact with Europeans, Denesuline territory extended from the Churchill River to the Coppermine River and west into northeastern British Columbia. The barren ground caribou is central to the culture and lifestyle of the Sayisi Dene, and as a result, the traditional territory of the Denesuline reflects the vast migratory range of caribou. The Denesuline are perhaps amongst the oldest indigenous nations in North America and speak an Athapaskan language that is linguistically very similar to Navajo.
As noted from the comments in the Trip Report to the "tip" from the Denesuline on the good campsite, the encounters with unseen rocks and the "slow" fishing, your members may wish to directly contact the Sayisi Dene Nation for advice and assistance on trips in the Seal River basin, for any local information regarding seasonal weather conditions, etc., and, should your members wish, to arrange for the services of a knowledgable guide. When planning a trip into the Seal River area, I would recommend that your members contact Mr. Ernie Bussidor, President, Sayisi Dene Hunters and Trappers Association, c/o General Delivery, Tadoule Lake, Manitoba, Canada, R0B 2C0. Ernie can be reached by phone/fax at (204)684-2013. In that the Sayisi Dene have continuously used, occupied and inhabited the Seal River area for several thousand years, a trip to the Seal River may "come alive" when assisted by the services of a Denesuline guide or guides from Tadoule Lake. Your members may also wish to contact the Chief and Council of the Sayisi Dene Nation at the same address noted above, or at telephone (204)684-2022 and fax (204)684-2069.
