2011 Lorillard River

Lorillard River, Nunavut Canada, July 9-31 2011

This note also has some background on the crew, our plans, and the river.

The Crew: We are a party of 6 paddlers: Brian Johnston, (Beaconia Manitoba), Gerry Reckseidler, (Stonewall Manitoba), Jeff Creed (Coquitlam British Columbia), James Gallagher (Bemidji, Minnesota), Rich Durant, (Portland, Oregon) and Lee Sessions (Portland, Oregon). Lee, Brian, Jim and Rich paddled the Mara—Burnside in 2009, and Lee, Brian, Gerry and Jim paddled the Hood River in 2010. Most of us have 15-25 years of remote wilderness canoe experience on most of the major rivers in the Canadian North including the Back, Kazan, Coppermine, Kunwak, Quoich, Ellice, Armark, etc., as well as smaller and less well known rivers such as the Arrowsmith, running to Pelly Bay and not far from the headwaters of the Lorillard. Jeff is our newest crew member and is retiring this summer after serving as Fire Captain with Vancouver Fire Rescue Services in BC after 30 years of service. Jim retired this summer from the US Forest Service where he was a biologist among other roles. He also hunts, fishes, and taps his maple trees to make syrup in Northern Minnesota. Gerry had the good sense to retire some years ago and has recently written a book about hiking in Mexico: www.amazon.com/Mexico-Trails-Adventure-Guide-Walking/dp/1.... Brian teaches high school math in Northern Manitoba and is a whitewater canoe instructor. Rich took an early retirement from ADP and chairs the Living Yoga board of directors in Portland. He is an avid kitemaker and plans some Kite Aerial Photography on this trip. Some of his work can be seen here: www.flickr.com/people/richdurant/. Lee leads the Intel Capital Business Development and Marketing team and is looking forward to a few weeks traveling by canoe instead of airplane.

The Plan: The Lorillard River runs Southeast from near Brown Lake, South of Wager Bay, to Chesterfield Inlet, ending at Daly Bay. Our planned route is listed at this link: batchgeo.com/map/b763d5beabdc0f93337d62016bde9f8b We have been intrigued by the Lorillard River for some time, and this year the stars aligned for us to explore it. Water Survey of Canada data was previously collected near the mouth of the river and show peak run-off during the month of July and minimal flows the rest of the year. www.r-arcticnet.sr.unh.edu/v4.0/ViewPoint.pl?Point=3546#s.... We should have sufficient water to paddle the river. Actual conditions may cause us to deviate from this plan or bail out entirely and paddle the Quoich River instead. We plan to paddle the Lorillard until we approach Hudson Bay, then cut over to the Connery River via some tundra ponds, and then work our way over to Chesterfield Inlet by cutting over to the Sagvaqjuaq River, which ends at Saqvaqjuaq Inlet. We plan to paddle to Severn Harbour/Hanbury Island and then cross over to the South side of Chesterfield Inlet, then paddle to the Hamlet and camp in town. Upon arrival in Chesterfield Inlet, we will contact the RCMP Officer, Mario (contact info below). We may be able to use the shower in the jail’s holding cell so we get cleaned up for our return flight to Winnipeg. Chesterfield Inlet is a small hamlet with about 350 people on the West Coast of Hudson Bay: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesterfield_Inlet,_Nunavut.

Human and Natural History: The Lorillard River was explored by U.S. Army Lt. Frederick Schwatka of Salem Oregon on behalf of the American Geographical Society, 1878—1880. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Schwatka He named the river after one of his benefactors, a founder of the Lorillard Tobacco Company. He went up-river by dog team. We have not found accounts of anyone going downstream. There are reports of Inuit previously living near the mouth of the river and Gerry and Brian met with Buster Welch, a retired fisheries biologist who lived near the area for many years and explored the region by skidoo. They previewed our proposed route with him and he believed it was possible. Polar bears may come inland and he suggested we bring firearms just in case. (We will bring two shotguns in waterproof cases and an electric bear fence for camping along the Hudson Bay/Chesterfield Inlet coast). A few years ago some mining companies conducted geological exploration activities along upper stretches of the river and we may find the remnants of the exploration camp: dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection/M44-2005-B1E.pdf . The area is said to have plenty of wildlife and we expect to see wolves, caribou, fox, seals and birds of prey. The Melville Penninsula Caribou herd inhabits the area: www.arctic-caribou.com/journey/JourneyOfTheCaribou.html

Communications: We are renting a satellite phone which we will only use in case of emergency or to arrange a pickup in the event our route is not passable. In the event of an emergency, we will attempt to arrange a plane for evacuation or call the RCMP for assistance. Satellite coverage can be unreliable and phones do not always work. Three of us have Spot satellite trackers and may periodically “check in” while en route.

Gear: We are paddling 17 foot folding Pakboats, red in color with yellow and blue covers. We have 3 heavy duty 3 season tents tan/yellow in color. We have a multi-color 12x 16 foot Tundra Tarp and a 12 x 12 REI Screen Tent. Many of our packs are Red in color and should be highly visible from the air. We carry signal mirrors for aircraft. We will have at least a few fishing rods. We are carrying bear spray and two shotguns for polar bear protection and we have some first aid and repair gear, extra paddles, PFDs, etc.

Itinerary: Brian, Jeff, Gerry and Jim are departing from Winnipeg on July 7 for Baker Lake and will be staying at Baker Lake Lodge. Lee and Rich will be in Winnipeg July 8, traveling to Baker Lake on July 9. We have chartered the Ookpik Aviation Single Otter on tundra tires for the flight from Baker Lake and plan to fly in on July 9 and find an esker landing spot. ookpikaviation.ca/contact.php We plan to paddle the river and make our way to Chesterfield Inlet July 10-30. We are all returning from Chesterfield Inlet on First Air to Winnipeg on July 31 (departing 12:40PM, arriving 4:18PM). Lee and Rich will be back to Portland on August 1.

This trip was shortened due to a Polar Bear encounter.

We had an incident with a polar bear and as a result we ended our trip early. Everyone is ok and there was minimal equipment damage, but after numerous attempts to drive the bear away, he became increasingly bold and deliberate and eventually we had to put it down to protect ourselves. Pretty depressing, as it was a beautiful animal and polar bears are threatened by habitat change. That said, they were abundant in the area of our travel this summer. We paddled the Lorillard River. The incident occurred 53 air miles from the hamlet of Chesterfield Inlet, 70 miles by boat on Hudson Bay, and 23 miles from Daly Bay. It was just ~2 miles from where we planned to turn inland to the Connery River to avoid paddling along the Bay where we might encounter big tides and more polar bears.

Bear incident location: maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=64....


The bear first arrived at 2AM Wednesday July 20, and woke up one of our party by nudging his nose against the feet of our partner while he was asleep in the tent. He sat up with a start and screamed at the bear while cocking the shotgun. The bear’s head was in the vestibule of the tent but we managed to scare it away by screaming and yelling. The bear had already destroyed our bug tent and gotten into a food pack before opening and entering the tent vestibule. It was a calm night, but perhaps the noise of the rapid kept us from hearing any of the destruction.

We cleaned up camp and set up the electric fence, then tried to sleep for an hour while waiting for the sky to brighten so we could proceed down the rapid. The bear returned a second time a few hours later, about 6AM. We used bear bangers and fired warning shots, but the bear returned a third time within an hour. He attempted to stalk us by snorkeling up the river underwater, so only his nose was showing. At first I thought it was a seal but it looked different and didn’t go under water the way seals usually do. We screamed at it, threw rocks and tried to scare him off again. With the bear banger and a warning shot he backed across the river and sat there for a half hour looking at us. He blocked our exit downriver at a rapid. Had the rapid not been there, we may have been able to move down river at night. More tellingly, had I not noticed the bear snorkeling upriver, he could have come around behind us, getting very close to a rock wall where we would not have seen him until too late.

We got out the satellite phone to call the conservation officer for advice, but while we were doing this the bear approached a 4thtime. We stood as a group of 6 with the two shotguns in front. At about 8:11AM, we shot him when he was about 120 feet away. Three of the 5 shots hit the bear but did not stop him. He loped over a hill in the direction where we had planned to begin portaging overland…right into polar bear country.

We filed a report via satellite phone with the RCMP and conservation officer. They asked us to finish the bear off, skin it out and mark the location. But at that point we only had 10 slugs for our 2 shotguns so we declined to go after the wounded bear and moved our camp back up river several miles upstream. Since we had limited ammunition and were facing a wounded bear and possibly other bear encounters, we asked the RCMP to help us find some options for a pick-up on the river to end our trip early. With the RCMP's help, we were able to make arrangements with local Inuit from Chesterfield Inlet to pick us up by boat at Daly Bay, a ~70 mile/3 hour motor boat trip on Hudson Bay. Meanwhile, we moved up river to put some distance between us and the bear.

The next day, Thursday morning July 21st, a conservation officer arrived by helicopter just after 9AM. He and the pilot tracked the bear and shot it 6 more times to dispatch it, 3 with a high powered rifle and 3 with a shotgun and slugs at close range. The eight year old bear weighed 950—1000 pounds and was about 10 feet long. It was a healthy male with about 1” of fat and nothing in its stomach. We looked like six skinny seals to him and had we not been prepared it could have been ugly. The conservation officer skinned the bear and put the hide and head in the community freezer. It will be sold at auction with proceed to benefit the local Hunters and Trappers Organization. The officer confirmed that three of our 12 gauge Sabot slugs penetrated the bear.

We traveled the remaining 40km of the river to salt water at Daly Bay and met the local Inuit boats around 6PM on Thursday June 21st, and we got to the Hamlet of Chesterfield Inlet around 10PM after a cold but uneventful boat trip on Hudson Bay. The next plane going South departed Sunday afternoon. We camped for three nights on the shore of Hudson Bay at Chesterfield Inlet and took time on Friday and Saturday to file reports, sort and dry gear, and re-book flights. The RCMP let us use their phones and allowed us to take showers in the holding cell of their “drunk tank” on Friday and treated us to a nice dinner of caribou steaks and arctic char Saturday night.

Otherwise, the trip was spectacular, with plenty of caribou, great weather, good food and pleasant company. The scenery was amazing and the whitewater provided the right amount of challenge and fun. We felt sad to have to leave the tundra early but couldn’t risk another run-in with the wounded polar bear and decided to come home early. We were very lucky to be so experienced and so well prepared. Most of us have paddled in the Far North for ~20 years, including in Polar Bear territory. We were also extremely appreciative of the excellent support from the RCMP, Nunavut Conservation Officer, and local Inuit to assist us with a safe end to our trip after encountering the bear.