July 25

When we saw the red roofs of the cabin jutting out into the lake we knew that our expedition was coming to a close. Plumbers Lodge is an iconic fishing lodge that has been operating since the 1950’s. It is one of the last fishing lodges on Great Bear lake. Fisherman arrive on a Friday and leave the next Friday. We will be leaving tomorrow with the group of fisherman that spent the last week here. We have been the only paddlers departing from the lodge this summer. There is only one woman in the group of fisher people. Guess it is mostly a man’s sport. at least here.

We are shown to our cabin, where we quickly take a shower and get ready for dinner

The cabin, the interior and the dining lodge. We even had our own table with the name of Paddlers on it.

It didn’t take long to head to our cabin and fall asleep in clean sheets.

July 26 breakfast, catch the charter flight and back to Yellowknife

The next morning, we packed up our packs which are now considerably lighter and headed to the lodge for breakfast. It was fun to hear about the fishing adventures that were had this week. A lot of fish were hugged and released as is their motto. The fishing boats were all lined up waiting for the next group of people to arrive for their fishing adventure.

The barrel of full beer cans indicated that fishing wasn’t the only thing that was enjoyed this week.

It was a beautiful calm morning on the lake.

About 10;00 we heard the plane land on the nearby runway. We were shuttled by boat to the airstrip and waited while the new group of fisher people with smiles on their faces got off the plane. It was about an hour flight back to Yellowknife.

Lots of memories were made these last three weeks.

Arrived back to Yellowknife, Don retrieved the van and we headed to the campground while Jim and Brian headed to their hotel. We met up to have a delicious meal at a new restaurant serving Indian food. After filling up on ice cream we said our good-bye. They have a flight early in the morning. We are going to visit the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Center before driving south.

July 27. Morning at the Museum, on the road again

Jim and Brian highly recommended spending some time visiting the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Center. We are glad that we took their advice. The museum is well done with lots of informative information about the area. We were able to take our time and view all of the exhibits. Our plans to have a leisurely drive thru Canada have changed as unfortunately one of the roads we had planned to take is now closed due to fires. Many of the areas have extreme fire warnings as well as unhealthy air. Jasper National Park was closed, but the roads thru Banff were still opened. We only drove thru, but the area has lots of appeal to return there someday. Our trip back to the states from Yellowknife went quickly and smoothly. It was a trip that created a lifetime of memories.