SCENES FROM THE DEHCHO. PHOTOS: KAREN MCCOLL
THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS FRIGHTFUL, BUT
THE CANOEING IS STILL DELIGHTFUL PHOTO: KAYDI PYETTE
from Willowlake River. Daniel and I had just finished unloading our bar- rels and bags onto a beautiful sand bar next to a creek when they cut the engine of their motor boat and drift to shore. They are going hunting for a night or two, Jonas explains. Tony sits in the boat smiling, his blue eyes twinkling when I offer them
chocolate. Then they’re off again, into the dusky horizon of a sun reluctant to set. It’s hot when we arrive in Wrigley and hit the empty streets in search of a
place to fill our water jugs. Wrigley is the northern terminus of the Mack- enzie Highway, a gravel road completed in 1994 that links the tiny com- munity of 150 people to the Alberta border. It’s a quiet place, but Wrigley’s relative isolation may change when it’s no longer at the end of the road. The 333-kilometer highway extension north to Norman Wells is in the planning stages, with the overall goal being to extend it all the way to the
Dempster Highway near Inuvik. The highway will be built over the existing winter road, which parallels the Mackenzie River in several places. As we pass the fish-filled tributaries downriver, I imagine what it would be like to pass a family picnicking on the gravel bar or a bunch of anglers in their waders. Or worse, the plumes of dust that are sure to follow every driver on these dry gravel roads. The Mackenzie River is already far from untouched: there are signs of humans everywhere. We see boats whizzing by, barges transporting sup- plies up and down the valley and rustic cabins dotting the shore between the six communities we visit. Continue reading “Last Paddle on the Dehcho” at www.rapidmedia. com/0347. Writer Karen McColl is a freelance journalist.
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