Kazan River Canoe Adventure, Nunavut

Our Kazan River Canoe Trip offers awe inspiring wilderness, fantastic wildlife viewing opportunities, great fishing, and is incredibly rich in human history with ample archeological evidence of the past peoples who lived on the land.  Until very recently from an historical perspective Inuit people continued to live out on the land and evidence of there relatively recent presence remains in artifacts, Inukshuks, tent rings, and food caches.  In the last 50 years there have been no people on the land, it is real wilderness, but one feels the incredible presence of these past inhabitants.

Your trip begins in Rankin Inlet on the Shores of Hudson Bay, from whence we depart by charter bush plane for a spectacular flight over the tundra into the Kazan River.  We'll spend about 12 days descending the lower Kazan River from the area of Ford Lake (or Princess May Lake on the Kunwak River) down past the stunning Kazan falls and on to Baker Lake.  The trip will end in the Inuit community of Baker Lake.  Along the way we'll spend time exploring the stunning barrenland environment.  We can expect to see caribou, arctic wolves, musk ox and numerous waterfowl and birds ...

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Kazan River Canoe Adventure, Nunavut

Our Kazan River Canoe Trip offers awe inspiring wilderness, fantastic wildlife viewing opportunities, great fishing, and is incredibly rich in human history with ample archeological evidence of the past peoples who lived on the land.  Until very recently from an historical perspective Inuit people continued to live out on the land and evidence of there relatively recent presence remains in artifacts, Inukshuks, tent rings, and food caches.  In the last 50 years there have been no people on the land, it is real wilderness, but one feels the incredible presence of these past inhabitants.

Your trip begins in Rankin Inlet on the Shores of Hudson Bay, from whence we depart by charter bush plane for a spectacular flight over the tundra into the Kazan River.  We'll spend about 12 days descending the lower Kazan River from the area of Ford Lake (or Princess May Lake on the Kunwak River) down past the stunning Kazan falls and on to Baker Lake.  The trip will end in the Inuit community of Baker Lake.  Along the way we'll spend time exploring the stunning barrenland environment.  We can expect to see caribou, arctic wolves, musk ox and numerous waterfowl and birds of prey.  Fishing, particularly for Lake Trout, is exceptional.  The trip will have plenty of time for fishing, hiking and exploring.

Suggested Itinerary:

(note:  this is a suggested itinerary only, conditions on each trip may vary)

Day 0: (Aug. 2):  Meet in Rankin Inlet, Nu.  (note participants are responsible for their own flights to Rankin Inlet, plus meals and accommodation while in Rankin)

Day 1: (Aug. 3):  Today we will take our charter bush plane flight west over the tundra for about 1 hr into the Kazan River.  We'll set up camp at our landing spot in order to explore, acclimatize and enjoy the spectacular environment.

Day 2-6:  Ford Lake to Kazan Falls.  This section of river contains a mix of river and lake paddling.  Along the way we will encounter several good sized class 2 rapids which can either be run or lined.  We'll hope to camp at Kazan falls at the end of day 5, carry all our gear around the gorge on day 6, setting up camp at the bottom of the falls.

Day 7: Kazan Falls.  We'll take a day off here in order to explore around this stunning location, fish, hike or just relax.

Day 8-10:  Kazan Falls to Baker Lake (the Lake, not village).  Fast current helps us along in this section.  There are a number of large class 2 rapids in this section which depending on water level we run or line.

Day 11-13:  We'll finish the the final section of the Kazan river and then head along the shores of Baker Lake to the community itself.  We've allowed some extra time here in case of wind on the Lake.

(note:  depending on wind, weather and the group there may well be time for a 2^nd day off in the later portion of the trip)

Aug 16:  Flights home from Baker Lake.  (participants are responsible for their own flights home.