In March 2010, I received a telephone call from Bob, asking if I could accompany with him to Dalton Post, to try to recover a raft that had travelled past the take-out at Dalton Post during the summer of 2009. He wanted to travel by snowmobile, traversing the Tatshenshini River, below the second canyon. Can that even be done? I asked. Is this even safe? I was non-committal but told him I would look at some topographical maps and get back to him.
A few days later we headed to Dalton Post, in an old school bus (Bob’s favourite mode of transportation) towing a trailer with two snowmobiles. Our plan: take two days, try to navigate some old mining trails until we can locate a path to descend the rocks, cliffs and trees down to the river. Then, if that was a success, try to find the raft, under the snow, that was rolled up under ‘a tree’! The challenges were numerous.
We arrived at kilometre 164 and parked the bus in the unplowed rest area nearby. We loaded up with survival equipment, and we launched the snowmobiles to descend the steep Dalton Post road. When we arrived at Dalton Post, we crossed the Tatshenshini, and headed West, travelling a series of old mining trails for several kilometres. The mountain snow was so deep that it was physically travelling up and over the hood and windshield right into our faces! We crossed two open creeks, one strewn with round boulders. We had to stop frequently to cut fallen trees obstructing our progress. Bob checked the GPS and a flimsy map frequently. We were soaking wet from walking in the deep snow to cut trees, and the water spray from driving through unfrozen water. After a few hours, we got to a location where it looked like we could descend to the river. We packed a trail, then returned to the bus on the Haines Highway.
We would spend the night at the ‘Camper Bus’ at ‘Tat Camp’ on the upper Blanchard River. Our snowmobiles were badly frozen up from melting snow, slush and the unfrozen water of the open creeks. As we pulled into the Blanchard River Maintenance Camp, Bob stopped in to ask a favour, and one of the staff members allowed us to put the snowmobiles in their heated garage overnight to thaw.
We got a fire going, in the Camper Bus, stripped out of wet clothes, and enjoyed some food, drink and great laughs. I had never experienced the Tatshenshini wilderness like this before, and it was fascinating.
We were up bright and early. We had to get the bus unstuck from the deep snow, hooked the trailer back up from the maintenance camp and head back to the viewpoint pullout near the Dalton Post Road. The overnight cold had made yesterday’s trail firm, and the travelling was easy.
Within an hour, we were below the lower canyon of the Tatshenshini, tromping around in the snow looking for the needle in a haystack. I tripped over the raft (literally), we loaded it up and were back at the bus within three hours. Mission successful!
The final ‘event’ was that the bus was stuck, again, in the viewpoint. I watched in confusion as Bob hooked up a strap to the front of the bus and the back of his snowmobile to try to pull it out. “A snowmobile can’t pull a stuck bus Bob” I said. “My snowmobile can” Bob told me. Turns out, Bob was overconfident at his sled’s ability. We spent the next few hours digging.
While I do not recommend people snowmobile the Tatshenshini River canyon, it was an amazing trip, on a beautiful clear day, with one of my best friends ever. And it wouldn’t have mattered to me if we hadn’t found that raft at all. The adventure and time together were priceless.
