Day 6

I woke to the sound of some of the campers yelling something about the canoe and found that the latrine had been taken down for the day, so we were having to take the canoe across the narrow part of the river to the mainland woods. Apparently, some of those using the canoe weren’t doing a very good job of it, so the others were instructing them rather loudly.

Then there was the sound of the helicopter approaching and landing to deliver the camera for Alexis and Nicolas. It touched down, made the delivery and was off again immediately. Fortunately, the helicopter made it to the river early because that was as bright as the day would be. After I was up and ready to go, it started raining, and it absolutely poured off and on all day. And it was colder than it had been all week.

The rapids were rough and exciting, and fun at the beginning of the day. On the last day of the
trip before we left the river on the plane, I spoke to both Derek and Bruno about how I wasn’t
scared, possibly because I didn’t understand how dangerous it was, and they both agreed and told me that if I had known what peril we were in a good deal of the time, I would have been
frightened! At least I should have been.

Mid-morning we reached some rapids that the guides didn’t think we could cross so they decided we would unload almost everything out of both rafts, take the rafts through the rapids, and then
load everything back on to the rafts, which meant that we would have to portage everything
through the woods and over the cliffs to the place where we could safely load the rafts again.

Nicolas and some of the guys climbed up the boulders into the woods to try to find a path that
kayakers had used in the past to portage over that part of the river. They found somewhat of a
path, but it was rough and rugged and not well marked. Once again the lead party went ahead
and hacked through the forest with a machete, marking the trees and rocks, and tying ropes for
the rest of us to follow. It was a long hike up the cliff, through the woods and then down
another cliff through a very narrow passage between the boulders to the boulders below. We
carried all of the smaller bags and boxes.

At some point it was determined that the rafts wouldn’t be able to go through the rapids even
after they were unloaded, so the guides decided to deflate them, carry them to the top of the cliff and then re-inflate them before throwing them down the cliff into the river again. Derek had
attached all 8 of our water bottles (BPA free) together and was going to leave them in the raft if
he had paddled it through the rapids. I had gone back to the raft to see if there was anything
more I needed to carry and saw Roy’s hat lying on the bottom of the boat. I told Derek that it
was Roy’s hat, and we didn’t want to lose it, so he asked me to attach the hat to the water bottles so it wouldn’t get lost out of the raft. Then when they decided to deflate the raft, someone
carried the water bottles with Roy’s hat attached up through the woods and back down to the
river. By this time, it looked terrible, soaking wet, dirty, flat and still attached to the water
bottles.

Because we had so much heavy stuff, Bruno and the guides devised a rope and pulley system
from the top of the cliffs to the rocks below, and one by one using carabiner clips, the dry bags
and all of our equipment and supplies, including the raft frames, were slipped on a cable from the top to the bottom. The rafts were deflated and carried to the top of the cliff where the guys took
turns using a single hand pump to pump them up again. Then they were sent down the cliff on
the rope and pulley. Some of us were at the bottom, catching the stuff and moving it out of the
way, and most of the others were helping at the top. Our feet were in the water most of the time
because the boulders we were on were in the water. The wind was cold so between shipments
from above, we would sit partially in the water behind the biggest rocks to block the wind. It
rained off and on, but with our wetsuits and helmets on, and since we were already so wet, we
didn’t even notice if the rain started or stopped.

Guilliame’s kayak came down on the pulleys, and he was insisting that someone get his fishing
pole out of the kayak and do some fishing. Eventually, Roy came down from the cliff and
looked in the kayak to find the fishing pole. He started casting into the water from one of the
piles and boulders, and within moments he caught a fish. Christian, Eden and Daniel had fished
every night before dinner, and Derek and Guilliame had both fished daily, and no one had caught a fish--but Roy. He caught it through the tail, and it was only about 6 inches long, but it was the
first and only fish of the expedition!

The canoe people had caught up with us here and were also portaging. I watched in amazement
as Fran and Steve each carried a canoe on their heads, down the cliff through the narrow passage and across the boulders alongside the river. That was the last time we saw them on the trip.

Around noon, with all that Bruno had to do during the portage, he climbed up over the boulders
to the south to a narrow ledge where he set up lunch. The guys had been working so hard all
morning, and they were starving.

So everything was loaded back into the rafts, and we started down the river again. More fun
with the rapids. We came to a difficult spot where Bruno went ahead in the supply raft to check
it out with Guillame in his little kayak. Bruno made it almost through the rapids, and then just
as he was about to go out of sight behind a large rock pillar, his raft flipped, throwing him and
Hugo into the water. We all looked at Derek and then watched helplessly, and in what seemed
no time, they righted the raft and moved to a quieter place on the river. Then we had to go
through the same rapids, and fortunately, Derek learned something from Bruno’s experience, and we passed through without incident.

We were having some great runs, getting soaked, with several “oh sh*ts.” We went over a big
rock that was part of a small falls and were all preparing for the excitement of a straight drop
down when the raft stuck in mid-motion, immobilized on a giant rock.. It was funny, like a
cartoon, and everyone started laughing. There we sat. At first the paddlers on one side would
jump up and down, and then the other side, trying to jar the raft loose, but then we all jumped up and down at the same time until the raft came lose from the rock and spun out into the rapids
again.

Soon after we came to another very difficult spot, and after evaluation, Bruno and Guilliame
went through it. With Derek’s instructions, we tried four times to go through, but were stuck
each time against a large rock sticking up out of the water. At this time, Derek rowed us over to
the other side of the river so the guides could look for any kayakers path (which they didn’t find).

We all climbed up the mountain with Derek, where he told us we needed to build a fire to try to
get warm. He said if any of us had spent any time in the woods, we should be able to get a fire
started--although everything including the ground, the ground cover and all of the trees and dead branches were drenched after days of rain. Then he hurried back down to the raft to meet with the other guides and try to figure out how to get us out of there.

We all started gathering up wood, and Daniel and Jessica, who had a lighter, took some moss and
small bits of wood and did get a fire started. At first we broke the small dead branches off of the
nearby trees, and then the larger branches. At one time Roy came crashing through the woods
back to the fire carrying two great big logs, and the men chuckled and called him “superman.”
Eventually we did get a pretty good fire going, but it wasn’t a threat because our surroundings
were soaking wet. It felt so good.

Eden had brought his thermos of hot water, which he used to make his tea, and although he
didn’t have any tea bags with him, he offered the thermos around for us each to drink the hot
water. Every one of us, as we took a first drink, said exactly the same thing, “I didn’t know hot
water could taste so good.” And it did, because we were so cold and thirsty too.

After warming ourselves, the others climbed down to try to help the guides and left Jessica and I to keep the fire going. We devised a system of drying wood alongside the fire before we put it on
the fire, and the others came back from time to time to get warm again. After a while Daniel
came to show Jessica and me how to get down the mountain and find the others so we could help
with the portage.

As we left with Daniel, he told us that the portage was a long way, that it was very difficult and
worse than the one we did that morning. By this time, everything had been removed from the
rafts and moved up the mountain a ways. The plan was that each of us would carry as much as
we could as far as we could and leave items along the path when we couldn’t carry them any
longer. Then the next group would come along and pick them up and move them further down
the path. Daniel put a really huge backpack on my back, and I picked up a pelican case and the 8
water bottles that were still clipped together with Roy’s hat. The water bottles looked like a huge bunch of multi-colored bananas along with one hat.

I have used the word “path” loosely because not even a semblance of a previous path could be
found along the rapids. Maybe it was on the other side of the river? Once again, the initial party
had looked for the best route, marked it by chopping trees and devising rope or tree branch hand holds along the cliffs so the rest of us could make it along the way. As always, the mountain
was slippery, and the boulders were huge. We climbed up and down them, straight up above the
river. We had to look for toe and hand holds in the rocks, and on the tall rocks that I couldn’t
possibly climb, someone would give me a hand to help me climb up or over. I left the pelican
case along the path with some other bags that had been left behind by others because I needed
both hands to climb over the rocks and trees. I was dragging the water bottles and the hat over
the rocks and through the trees, and they were covered with mud, black marks and green moss,
and could hardly have looked any worse.

Eventually, we came to a cliff that was at least ten feet tall. Alex was at the top, and he was
throwing a rope down to each person as they came through, and then he would pull on the rope,
which was tied to a tree, and haul them up the cliff. I took off the backpack so Alex could pull
it to the top first, and then Nicolas pulled me up to the top of the cliff. He took the long string
of water bottles with Roy’s hat attached and fastened it onto his belt; then he dragged them
around the mountain for the remainder of the day.

I was so glad to get to the rocks along the edge of the water. There was already a growing pile
dry bags and other supplies and equipment. We slathered repellant on ourselves because the
flying insects were horrendous.

The plan was that Alexis was to canoe us in groups of 2 or 3 across the river, which was actually
a lake at this point, with all of our belongings. While we were waiting there, some of the other
guys arrived and said that there were still a LOT of bags, etc., left on the mountainside, all of
which needed to be carried down to be loaded in the canoe.

Roy was getting something out of his dry bag, which was laying there on the rocks, and found
that everything he pulled out of his dry bag was wet! I had noticed earlier that day after our first portage that all of our group’s dry bags were in our raft except Roy’s, Alex’s and mine, which
were on the supply raft. His bag had obviously gotten wet when the raft rolled, so I had a strong
suspicion that my bag and Alex’s would be wet as well, although our bags were still up on the
mountain and we couldn’t check yet.

Roy, Christian and all of the guys who had made it down the mountain then went back up to help carry all of the remaining bags and supplies.

When Alexis came to join us, he loaded the canoe with as much as it could carry, and Anne-
Marie and Jessica paddled across the river with him to a long sand bar where we were to camp.
We needed to be at this place in the river for the night because it was wide enough for the planes
to land tomorrow when it was time to leave. Jessica and Anne-Marie’s mission was to get a fire
started because it was already getting dark.

Next trip, Eden and I paddled across the lake with Alexis after we filled the canoe again with as
much as we could carry. Nicholas had left the water bottles with Roy’s hat lying on the beach, so
I put them in the canoe. The hat looked like a wadded up rag. Eden was an experienced paddler,
and Alexis gave me a paddle and showed me how to use it–another new experience. The water
was gorgeous-–and it really was getting dark. We were all concerned about the men who were
still working on the rocks and cliffs.

When we got to the other side, Anne-Marie and Jessica had a fire started, and they were trying to dry Roy’s clothes and sleeping bag. Anne-Marie wanted me to put up my tent as quickly as
possible before it was completely dark so that if anyone wanted to change clothes before they had their own tent up, they could use mine. Eden and Alexis unloaded the canoe so Alexis could
return to the other side of the river.

My sleeping bag was wet, and by the time I took it to put by the fire, Roy’s was almost dry.
Alex’s was wet also, but his had a flannel lining, and we suspected that it would never dry by
bedtime, which it didn’t.

Some of my clothes were in vacuum sealed bags, which didn’t get wet, but everything else was
soaked, including all of my shoes. I took them and set them all by the fire. My tennis shoes
were the least wet and dried quickest so that I was able to put them on with my dry clothes. I
ended up holding my sleeping bag by the fire most of the evening to try to dry it. By the time the guys all returned to camp by canoe, it was dark. The guides built long clothes lines using all of
the paddles and every available rope. Every inch was covered with our wet clothing because we
were all trying to dry our clothes for the trip home tomorrow.

Since my sleeping bag didn’t entirely dry, Alexis suggested that I fill my water bottle with
boiling water and put it in the sleeping bag, which was a brilliant idea that I am passing along.
Someone found my water bottle, and Daniel filled it with water that we heated on the fire.

We ate in the dark, except for the two campfires that we had going to warm us and dry the
clothes and boots. The night was beautiful–the clouds had cleared and the moon was shining on
the water.