Firth River Rafting Adventure

The ancient Firth River winds across a vast glacial refugia ringed with dramatic mountain peaks and rugged expanses of tundra flowing northward to the Beaufort Sea. The Firth is one of the world's great rivers dubbed "Serengeti of the North".

Yet for all of its inherent beauty, the Firth's greater value is as the sole means of access to a High Arctic region so isolated it is the summer home for 150,000 caribou of the west Porcupine herd. Wildlife which include muskox, caribou, wolves, eagles and falcons are enhanced by the beautiful Arctic plant life.

The Firth is an extremely remote and isolated region. To ensure the park remains wild there are no roads or even trails. Air access is controlled and regulated by permits. Fewer than 100 people visit the park each year, leaving the land almost entirely to its natural inhabitants. There are no settlements in the park. However, traditional subsistence hunting is still carried out seasonally by local Inuvialuit and Loucheux native peoples. 

Weather

Weather in the Firth River valley in the early summer is generally sunny and warm with temperatures ranging from 40 -85 deg. F.  This is a semi-arid area with less than 10 inches of annual precipitation. Participants should be prepared for varying weather conditions in the mountains and along the coast, which may include snow showers and high winds in extreme cases.  On this trip you are high above the Arctic Circle and will be in perpetual daylight.

Experience

No previous experience is required. Your guides will teach any would be paddlers the basics and give you an orientation to safe rafting practices on the first day. Over the period of the trip you will refine your technique and begin to feel like a seasoned paddler. 

In camp, participants should be prepared to share the tasks of group living in an outdoor environment.  Wilderness river rafting has generated widespread interest because of its accessibility to people of all ages. The raft is the ultimate vehicle to discover the Firth's untouched wilderness. To date almost all of the Firth River explorations have used rafts as the primary mode of transportation. Its simplicity is a welcome reprieve for the bad backs and knees of trekkers, and opens up a new paddling realm to canoeists. Our program allows participants to set personal limits and challenge themselves at their own desired level. Regular exercise before any outdoor experience will add to your level of enjoyment. However, a positive spirit of adventure is essential.

Firth River Rafting Tour - Itinerary:

Individual flight to Inuvik. Meet your guide in the evening for a pre-trip meeting. This is a chance to meet each other before the trip starts, discuss the itinerary of the days ahead and review personal equipment.

Inuvik to Firth River
In the morning enjoy the one hour flight across the western Arctic into the headwaters of the Firth River. The biologically rich maze of waterways of the Mackenzie River delta leads into a series of undulating and predominantly treeless mountain ranges intersected by meandering river courses. Our destination is Margaret Lake, 255 km from Inuvik. The gravel-bedded Firth River, at 460 m, flows through an open valley at this point, between gently sloping velvety-green hillsides. Craggy limestone peaks nearby rise 600 m above the river to an elevation of 1,070 m. There are pockets of small spruce trees in the valley bottom, while the slopes are covered with dry tundra vegetation. Well-developed shrub tundra vegetation is present in wetter areas.

Firth River to Joe Creek
Via our whitewater rafts, we'll travel down the river through an open valley with occasional fast sections of water. We will stop once or twice for some short hikes up the hillsides to view some interesting natural and cultural features. We'll camp in the area of Joe Creek, a major tributary of the Firth. This creek has a large number of springs upstream in the valley bottom which serve as a hatchery for Arctic Char fish.

Joe Creek to Wolf Creek
The Firth develops occasional rapids of Grade III but the river stays easy to navigate by the rafts. The landscape begins to change as the limestone rock type give way to volcanics, the valley narrows, mountains steepen and a change in vegetation is apparent. This section has some falcons and eagles nesting close to the river and we may also see some barrenground grizzly bears. Spend some time to hike over the easily gained ridges to get a view of the surrounding country. This is the area in which Porcupine Caribou herd are most likely to be crossing the river and we may be able to spot them and the attendant predators - wolf, grizzly bear and golden eagles.

Wolf Creek to Sheep Creek
This is an extremely beautiful section of the river, leading through open parkland and spectacular mountains. We will be on the lookout for caribou as well as Dall sheep, which are plentiful in the area. Caribou and sheep trails crisscross the hillsides. Sheep Creek, once the site of a gold-mining operation, is now the warden headquarters for the park. Visit the station and hike up the creek and mountain to look for sheep. From Sheep Creek, the canyon has 18 - 24 m (60 - 80 ft) high walls on either side and rapids that reach Grade III. Manoeuvering through the canyon, we should see gyrfalcons, golden eagles and rough-legged hawks that nest on the cliffs.

Sheep Creek Canyon to Engigstciak
Enjoy the hike over the tundra into the surrounding mountains. From the ridgetops, we can see the Arctic coast, Herschel Island and the pack ice offshore to the north. We can also see how the river has incised itself into the valley floor - a sinuous emerald green channel flowing between colorful canyon walls. Rafting down the last section of the canyon, we begin to leave the mountains and finally emerge on the Arctic coastal plain. The river begins to braid and we will camp near a very obvious hill, called Engigstciak, that rises out of the plain to the right of the river. Engigstciak, an archaeological site of great importance, is an ideal lookout that has been used by hunters of successful Inuit cultures for possibly 9,000 years. Now, it is home for nesting birds of prey.

Engigstciak to Buckland Hills
From Buckland hills you have an excellent view of the Firth River delta, the coastal plain and the ocean. This is the ideal place to look for muskoxen as well as other species of wildlife which inhabit the coastal plain, such as wolves and grizzly bears.

Buckland Hills to Beaufort Sea
As the river approaches the coast, it spreads out and braids to an extent that when it reaches the Beaufort Sea, it forms a delta 5 km wide. Generally this is a leisurely affair, with plenty of time to gaze at sandhill cranes flying overhead and ground squirrels chattering from the riverbank. On occasion, water levels may necessitate a short haul of the boats. The coastal plain is a 15 -20 km stretch of tundra that gently rises from the Beaufort to the foothills of the British Mountains. The river enters a lagoon that is protected from the open ocean and the shore ice by a shingle spit and a series of small islands. The islands are home to many nesting birds: eider ducks, glaucous gulls and brant geese. If weather permits we motor to Pauline Cove, at the eastern end of Herschel Island.

Herschel Island
Weather permitting, we will fly from Nanaluk Spit stopping for 3 hours at the historical site and Territorial Park of Herschel island to view the artifacts of the whaling history dating back to the 1800's. Then we return to Invuik where our tour ends.