august 18, 418m. august 19, 722m N 55˚13 W 122˚42.

our drive today was short, we were heading back to visit our good friends bonnie and jack in fort nelson. we met b & j on the way north, they run the storage place that we left our canoe and all of our gear in when we were heading north in june. when we came back from inuvik the first time, ready to start our river adventures, we pulled into fort nelson via greyhound at 6am. after not-too-much sleep, emma was prepared to lie down in the storage locker and snooze for a few hours. she was just getting ready to do so when bonnie came out and invited us in. no way was she going to let emma sleep on the cold concrete floor when there was a cozy bed inside. so in we went and we both slept dreamily for a couple of hours before facing all the logistics to come. when we woke bonnie had breakfast for us, oh my. we had decided some days earlier to ship 2 of our 3 food barrels ahead to fort simpson, in order to bypass doing the poplar/beaver dam rapids with all of that weight. we had found out about charlie hope of hopes ventures and decided to give him a go as he was our cheapest option (150$). turned out bonnie knew him and told us he was 150% reliable. sweet. so we gave him a call and then madly repacked all of the barrels in order to be ready in time for his arrival an hour later. gosh we had a lot of food. charlie was to whisk our barrels away to the fort simpson visitor center and we would meet them there in a couple of weeks. as we were loading the very heavy barrels into his truck, emmas back went out. uh oh. it was saturday morning and we were aiming to leave that day, but emmas back was in no good condition and the chiropractor didn’t open until monday. so we stayed. b & j had planned to go to their cabin that weekend, but they welcomed us to stay and left us their car keys and movies and a fridge full of food. oh my. we love them. what a relaxing weekend! i think i watched three movies in prep for a movie-free summer, and ate lots of fruit and bagels and butter.

so, we were excited to visit with b & j again on the way home. we pulled in late afternoon, and turns out jack had been following our track-points all summer. ‘what took you so long?! you were only an hour away!’ hilarious. when we got started on the road-trip portion of our way home, jack saw us making steady progress and then all of a sudden, “you go and climb a goddamn mountain! no road even goes there!”. ha ha hoo. needless to say we had a lovely though short visit with them. we also got to meet one of their daughters and three grand-kids. jack told us that bob (of tetsa river) and rita are their good friends and he was able to keep them up-to-date with our track-points all summer. wow. fun!

we unfortunately had to leave a little early the next morning to continue on the long road home, but we managed to make piles of french toast to have breakfast together before leaving. we are so happy to have met them.

day 10 was spent mostly driving, with a short stop at the peace river to say hello. beauty. we camped at a funny campground beside a museum near beaverlodge, and emma felt the urge to move so she went for a long run. when she returned her mouth was purple from a boon of saskatoon bushes.

2nd photo by emma.