The Thelon and Elk Rivers

The muskox is one of the few large mammals capable of living year-round in the severe arctic environment

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The Thelon River is probably the best river we have ever paddled for wildlife viewing. It is also the best river to get eaten alive by mosquitoes and blackflies—they are horrific so be prepared!

Within half an hour of paddling into the Thelon Game Sanctuary—set up in 1927 by the Government of Canada as a preserve for the then endangered musk-oxen—we saw three wolves and four musk-oxen. One of these appeared to be completely unconcerned when we paddled the canoe within feet of her—Lynda insists it was a 'her' as it was so gentle—where she could have easily touched 'her' with an outstretched paddle. We watched this shaggy creature for over ten minutes as 'she' grazed the tops of dwarf tundra birch.

All told, we saw over 30 musk-oxen (one group of 21), 7 moose, 6 wolves and countless lone caribou. As well the river is bird watcher's paradise. The well-treed valley is home to thousands of geese and a myriad of other birds—I have never seen so many peregrine falcons anywhere in my life.

We didn't see a grizzly bear but we found many sets of tracks and one place where a bear had casually opened a well-hidden and rock-covered food cache box. Made of 3/4-inch plywood, and the top screwed down with 24 2-1/2-inch deck screws, the bear had simply used the claws of one paw to open it like a beer can!

As to the biting insects—be prepared for bugs like you have never seen before. One day at lunch, as we sat under our kitchen tarp, I watched as thousands of blackflies massed into the inside front corners of no-seeum-netting where they were trapped. I reached up about 3 feet and rubbed my hand down the netting and was then able to scoop up enough blackflies to literally fill my two cupped hands . . . I estimated them at easily more than 5,000!