Sun 21st August
A friend met us after work and took us to Sunwapta Falls. At the falls we hiked to Big Bend camp-site which took a couple of hours and was pretty easy to do. We only had a few stops on the way. We had to camp at Big Bend as Athabasca Crossing camp-site was full. We built the canoe that night so that we were ready to leave first thing in the morning. During the night, I awoke to find a mouse or something sitting on me which scurried off as I moved – it creeped me out a bit until I fell back asleep! (not that I told Vicki…)
Mon 22nd August
We awoke early and cooked breakfast. We cleaned the gear and packed the kit away quite fast. We were almost ready to go before the next people were getting up. We set off and made it to our camp-site around lunch time without any incident. The section we were most concerned about was the meeting of the Sunwapta and Athabasca rivers although this was fun but not as challenging as I had expected, just big haystacks which could be easily negotiated. It was no problem and has eased my concerns for next year – we portaged this bit the first time we came through and it was horrible!
Thank you to the couple from Germany for kindly taking a picture as we were leaving Big Bend Campsite
Tue 23rd August
We awoke to the sound of heavy rain. In fact, it rained so much the river rose almost 2 feet! It also went from a glacial silt light grey, to a murky brown and much more aggressive. It was past midday before the heavy rain ceased and we finally got under way. We reached the Athabasca Falls without much drama; the water was higher and faster which provided more of a challenge than the day before so we were unsure about whether to canoe below the falls. After the few hours getting to the falls we decided against it in the interests of safety and not getting back to Jasper too late. The heavy rain last night / this morning delayed us considerably and we would not make it home until 2000-2100 if we continued. The most interesting section was just before the falls. We decided to line the boat a little way as we were sure the Falls were close. This was an error as the falls were a few km away and we lined for no real reason. We hopped back in the boat and continued, almost making the same mistake as last time with the Class III canyon that we swam through last time appearing just in front of us taking us by surprise again! Still, this time we are far better in the canoe and had the skills so could back-paddle and manoeuvre out of the way in time. I was not so concerned about it this time as we are better, but it was much safer to give ourselves some breathing space before the Falls. The manoeuvre against the current into a little beach was very smooth and I was very impressed at how easy it was – to think we came here without these skills before!
We packed the canoe up just before the Falls and hiked to the car park there. We called a friend to pick us up and headed home with new found confidence for the expedition.