Day 23

Our last full day has come to an end. Of our total 750 km trip we have 7 k left. About an hour and 15 mins of paddling. Bill and I both have mixed feelings about leaving. We paddled the day in half a daze – everything holding a sort of ceremonious reverence in its finality. We likened the experience to breaking up with a significant other before you’re ready. We knew we’d soon be free of our long days of responsibility, but we wanted only to spend a few more days in our little bubble. Our stomachs turned as we paddled under some high tension lines, the first sign of human impact we’ve seen for awhile. It’s hard not to get sentimental after this much time out. The solitude was broken by a brief raisin and coconut bit fight, in which various campers got pelted with fistfuls of gorp. We pulled into a site about 7 k from the reserve around 4:30, and it is a splendid place. The river here is affected strongly by tides, the level causing an entire set of rapids to cyclically disappear and reappear upstream of our campsite, along with some small islands and a great section of shoreline in front of our campsite. We pulled up the boats nice and high here to avoid the rising water. We’ve calculated high tide to be around 6:00, so that’s perfect fro the morning. We’ll ride the tide to our destination. It’s strange to think that James Bay, part of Hundson Bay, gateway to the arctic, is only 15 k away from here. I am excited to see the ocean from the air tomorrow. In the evening today we crouched around the fire ad ceremoniously made our explorer bracelets. Ours are special, for they are made from the rope which we used for rigging our tarp. The rope that held up through some of the wildest storms, and over 50 k of the fastest sailing I have ever done, on or off a sailboat. We have paddled 750 k, tomorrow we board a plane, fly to moosonee, take the polar bear express south to Cohcrane, and drive home. We are almost on the road home. We will have a short, deep sleep on our last night in the backcountry.