Winter Expedition on the Pontax River 2015

We're right in the middle of a class 4 rapid here on the Pontax River. Looking back upstream, incredible ice formations. That's the Pontax 3, which is a tributary of the Pontax. We're looking up the Pontax 3. And downstream, huge elevation drop. So I think over this next hill, it's going to be pretty neat. Water just ahead. It looks like we're right around the main flow of the river, so I think it's high time we start cutting towards the shore. It's a great day. We had a windy river. It was really protected and intimate. And now we're out here in the middle of an enormous rapid, which is really neat. What do you think of it, Kev? I just learned to skate on snowshoes. It's cool. Look at my skates, though. Another big rapid here on the Pontax River. Here I am in the Hudson Bay lowlands. It's on day 5 of the snow trek. Sorry about the JQ camera. We've just finished chopping wood and doing our chores, as I like to call them. And the day is basically over. Once again, I'm exhausted. And I just want to go in and sit down and relax. But I thought I'd just come up here and have a look around to see what the terrain looks like. And it's pretty common to what we've seen every night here. There's a lot of coniferous, a lot of pines, a lot of black spruce. Most of it, I believe it is. A few deciduous trees there. I think they're poplar, but I'll find out. But this is basically what it's like. Down by the river, there's quite a lot of dense trees along the river there. That's the Pontax behind me. I'll see if I can turn around. Not great in these snowshoes. That's the Pontax down there, that flat bit in the distance. You can see that there's sort of a tighter growth along the river. And then fairly barren once you get back. So that's all I've got to say. It's about minus 20 or so. So I don't want to keep my hat off for too long. But I thought I should record something. Anyway, thanks for listening. So this is night six on the Pontax River. We've finally got settled in. And we're just getting dinner under go. And we are about 70 kilometers down from Hudson Bay Road. So we're about just a little under halfway from being at Rupert Bay on James Bay. You can see our tracks coming up. Tomorrow we'll head downriver that way. But I just wanted to show you our little camp setup. So we've come up a bit of an incline hill here. It doesn't show you how steep it is. But it was actually a bit of a steep climb up here. We've come into this hollow of trees. So I thought I'd just show you what the setup sort of looks like. Sorry, if I do that it means I've punched through the snow. It hasn't really set up that hard yet. And I'm not wearing snowshoes right now. So you have to bear with the camera shake a little bit. Oops. A little bit. That's where I punched through already. Coming out. And I might do it again. There we go. So, I've come into the hollows here. This is my sled here. I flip it over at night time on its side just to keep the ice crystals from building up. They're my Atlas snowshoes which I have not worn a single day here. Other than, sorry, three minutes from the highway. And Dave said get them off and put the bear paws on. I gave it. And there's my box. In my box I keep all my gear that I need right away during the day. My water bottles, my nut bottle, goggles, extra gloves, change of pants. All sorts of stuff goes in there. And you can see the other sleds that are sort of scattered around the place. And we sort of pack down the trail. We all put our snowshoes point up so if it snows at night time you can find it. I can't stay in one spot here. Oops. Anyway. And then there's the tent. Our food boxes are out front. And we have the tent right there. The stovepipe coming out the side. It's a heated tent. We've got some firewood out front. More firewood inside. We've got a really good tree here we can cut wood. Let me just see if anybody's home right now. We'll go inside and say hello. I'll just hang on. There. We have some people at home. That's Kai. There's Vanessa. Sorry it's fogging up a bit. There's Dave. And there is Matt in the background right there. That's the stove. We're cooking dinner. I'm not sure what we've got on the go but I'm sure it'll be delicious. Coconut curry. Heather, you're going to wish you were here for that. Alright. So that's what I've got. I just wanted to show you my easy lounger back there that I've got set up. It's the latest model. Luxury lounger. Take care. Bye for now. At the end of these ones. Here we are. Big Falls on the Pontax River. I've come around to the left bank to scout the route through. And it looks like this is going to be a good way to go. You can just see the rest of the group there on the right bank. And they're moving back to the toboggans now. We've got some really neat ice here. I'm getting about as close to the edge as I dare here. And it continues down. I think it's very difficult to get the sense of scale here but a lot of elevation. We're going to use the GPS and measure the exact drop here. But a really neat spot. Arctic Ocean, baby. I can taste a little bit of salt. Yeah. You can taste salt, Dave? A little bit, not much. It tastes mostly fresh. You try, Vanessa. We're still at the mouth of the river. Oh. I guess that's high tide. You didn't get her face. Yeah, I don't taste any salt, actually. My turn. I'm salt sensitive. But you already thought you tasted some of the ice. I did. Less than the ice.