My first view of the mighty Peace River by the Dunvegan Bridge. I've been daydreaming about this river for a long time and here it is. I dropped off my boat in Dunvegan and drove to the town of Peace River.
Then some hitchhiking back to the boat. This is the highway up to Yellowknife, NWT. I may be back through this way again to go north, but for now I was headed west.
Dunvegan, my starting point, is a National Historic Site for the remains of it's fur trade fort. The church and chapel of the St Charles Mission can be seen across the river from where I put in. This is probably not too different from the view in the 1890's.
My two day paddle through the Peace River Valley was pretty awesome
I got to try out my sleeping setup on this trip. I sleep in the boat. It's like sleeping on a Coleman air mattress.
I put my bivy inside to stay dry. I've had this bivy for 3 years now and this is the first time I've used it. It works!
Then I cover everything with my Bulldog tarp. I've also had this for three years and this is the first time I've made use of it.
The day before the trip I visited Fort Fork NHS.
This is where Sir Alexander Mackenzie wintered before completing the first overland crossing of Canada in 1793
Like Jasper House the actual site is across the river
Again I wanted to walk on the actual site so on my river trip I stopped at the opposite bank, tied up the boat and went looking around.
I wasn't sure if anything was left. I had heard that most of the site had been eroded by the river. There is a modern flag pole marking something, not sure what location it represents on the actual site.
The fireplace I thought I might find at the site I actually found the next day in the town museum
As a nice bonus the museum also had the original plaque from the cairn now across the river from Fort Fork
I knew this plaque existed from this photo, but I'm still not sure if the original designation was National Historic Site, or National Historic Person.
