Aug.25: Pulpit Rock hike, Deadmen Valley

The next morning, Karen led some of us on a short hike to the canyon rim overlooking the Gate. The hiking trail wound up a very steep path; while climbing, we all had to be careful not to accidentally dislodge rocks on the group members below. When we finally got to the top, we were rewarded with an excellent view of Third Canyon and Pulpit Rock. Definitely not a place for those afraid of heights...there are no warning signs or fences, and the abrupt drop-off can be unnerving.

At lunchtime, I decorated a paddle for our group to hang in the Thousand-Paddle Cabin (officially known as the old Northwest Territories Lands and Forests cabin). John had carved a small wooden paddle on his day off at Virginia Falls, and with aid of a ballpoint pen from Ginny I inscribed a picture of all twelve of us in a canoe as well as the words "Canoe North / Nahanni Wilderness Adventures 1999" along the miniature handle. Everyone signed the back.

It rained a lot today, with tortuously brief snatches of sunny blue sky from time to time. We paddled through Second Canyon, past Headless Creek, and through Deadmen Valley. Both Headless Creek and Deadmen Valley were inspired by the deaths of Frank and Willie McLeod, two brothers who trekked through the Northern wilderness, looking for gold in the early 1900s. Charlie McLeod mounted a search for his brothers in 1908 and found his brothers' skeletons in the valley. According to some reports, the skeletons were found without their heads, and the positions of the skeletons seemed to indicate that the two brothers had been attacked while sleeping. After the burial, the area has been known as Deadmen Valley and a nearby creek as Headless Creek.

When we reached the cabin, we hung our small paddle up with the others and signed the registry book. I scribbled a cartoon of a guide trying to sell miniature paddles, and we also described the location of our paddle in the cabin (if you're facing the interior of the cabin from the doorway, our paddle is hanging in front of the window on the left). We could have spent hours examining all the paddles left in the log cabin...hundreds of them nailed to the walls and hanging from strings stretched across the ceiling. Each represented a group that had passed through, and most were inscribed with the date, names of the group members, and sometimes an additional comment.

We paddled on further downstream before setting up camp in the rain. It had been a long day, and we were all pretty tired. For the first time in the entire trip, we skipped Happy Hour. No one felt like an elaborate meal tonight so we decided to have soup and grilled cheese sandwiches instead, and most people went to bed soon after.