What a gorgeous morning we woke up to – fog coming off the lake but blue blue sky above. Slower start to the day. The water had come up a full foot and we would have lost a canoe had it not been for the last person before bed moving them further up the lake bank – the implications of the lake going up a foot is that the river is now up a foot as well (oh boy rapids………rapids……), the implications of losing a boat………hard to measure.

Mike is continuing his Chuck Norris look and Perry said ‘the bears will need chuck norris spray’.

We paddled out to meet the river and then towards Virginia Falls. We had to stop and collect firewood along the way as the campsites at Virginia are often busy with little firewood. We loaded up a bunch of wood on the canoes and went the final 10k to the falls. Thankfully we stopped a good way before the falls. Pulled over, emptied the canoes, met the guides at the park – Maeve and Pauline – and a HUGE thanks to both of them for providing some power as one of my backup battery systems had failed.

We humped the gear up to the camp and wow it is hard to properly put into words how amazingly spectacularly gloriously miraculously stunning it is. They have put boardwalks around and cedar platforms for the tents. The walk to the ‘edge’ of the falls is all beautiful boardwalk in the trees.

Virginia Falls (Nailicho in Dene) was declared a world heritage site in 1978, and a Canadian Heritage River in 1998. It is twice the height of Niagara Falls. Total drop is 117m equivalent to a 35 story building!!! The water is effectively back cutting the gorge – i.e. it is moving up – at  rate of 4 mm per year…..

Now just chilling in camp and listening to Rob play some Canadian Railroad Trilogy – I feel pretty bloody patriotic right about now. We live in an amazing country!