Hi Richard,

If you are in Colorado, I would suggest joining the Rocky Mountain
Canoe Club www.rockymountaincanoeclub.org . They have several paddlers
who are prone to long trips in northern Canada. Dues are $20 per year,
and well worth it for what you are looking to do.

You might also post on the Rocky Mountain Sea Kayak Club's forum
www.rmskc.org The RMSKC is a group primarily out of Denver, and they
also have members prone to leaving on long trips.

Mountainbuzz, the Colorado Paddlers Resource, and other sites should
still be on the Canoe Club's website. Those would be good additional
places to find local paddlers.

The local Colorado whitewater shops might allow you to post on their
boards. REI would be another place to post. Screen those people! There
are a lot of wannabe paddlers who will talk impressivly but are unsafe
to paddle with. REI is really bad for that.

I would also suggest you consider a shakedown trip beforehand. Find a
northern river where you can do a week or two week trip, and make
everyone who is interested in your long trip participate. Since you
stated your only real paddling experience has been in Utah, the
Northwest Territories is a whole different world. The shakedown trip
will help you understand the climate, but also allow you to see the
different personalities inolved in the trip. You'll learn the benefits
of a shakedown trip when someone shows up with a lantern, and another
doesn't have a full bug suit with a mouth zipper. Even doing a short
section of the McKenzie would work.

I met a couple of guys from Boulder when I was refuelling in Fort
Providence a few years back (I was leading a Nahanni trip from Moose
Ponds to Ft. Simpson at the time). They said the trip was not what
they thought it would be, and they were planning on pulling out at
Fort Providence.

The upper McKenzie is a large fast flowing river. It has dug itself
into a channel that offers few good campsites. The banks are steep.
The Boulder guys said they were spending all their time fighting the
wind, and looking for places to camp. They almost swamped in large
waves, and they were making half the progress they planned due to
strong wind. I assume the wind problem will be worse in the lower
sections.

The logistics of the trip aren't really that hard. You will probably
be able to drive to the put-in (wherever you decide to launch. The
road went to Wrigley when I was up there). For the take-out you might
just hire a water taxi to meet you, instead of a float plane. They're
about half the price as long as you are somewhat close to
civilization. Up there, just about anyone with a large boat will
become a water taxi for the right amount of cash.

Sell the canoe wherever you take out. The locals might be willing to
pay a few hundred $$ if the boat is in good shape, even if you donate
it to a school it is usually better than paying to have it hauled out.

If you have any questions about finding people in Colorado, feel free
to e-mail me and I'll help as best I can.

Eric Nyre