We’ll be paddling the upper part of the The-lew-dezeth (Thelon River), the largest river in the Barren Lands and easily the most magnificent. The Thelon is, without question, the most remote and the most pristine wilderness river of any considerable size left in North America. Our 120 mile (193km) long route is 80% river paddling. There are eight rapids along our route but no portages at all.

Our entire route is on the tundra, south of the Thelon Wildlife Sanctuary, and is one of the most remote places left in the world.

Big treed sandy eskers are prominent topographical features along our Thelon River canoe route. They stand out many miles away and greatly enrich the landscape. Scattered along these eskers are spike-shaped spruce trees and below their sheltered flanks grow stands of robust spruce and tamarack. Exquisite aquamarine ponds and kettle lakes with beaches all around are almost everywhere you look. The scenery along these eskers is so extraordinary that it seems to belong to a surreal, fairy-tale world.

There’s a good chance of seeing a few tundra wolves on this Thelon River canoe trip. About 80% of tundra wolves are white in colour, so most of them are highly conspicuous against the green summer tundra. Sometimes, they will walk into your campsite with 10 or 20 feet of us, just to check us out! Of course, normal, healthy wolves are completely harmless.

Muskoxen and moose are large animals we can count on seeing on this canoe trip. Most herds consist of 10 – 25 animals. Often a grizzly or two or three is spotted and occasionally, a wolverine or two. This is also a wonderful trip for birds. Birds of note include jaegers, merlins, bald eagles, osprey, many species of ducks, large numbers of moulting Canada geese, and several species of loons.

Archaeological sites are abundant on the Thelon river where ancient hunters waited for the Beverly caribou herd to cross these rivers on their summer migration. It is illegal to remove any of this material, so we will take only photos and leave them as they lay. We’ll look at stone caribou fences (used to funnel caribou to killing sites), tent rings, chipping stones, arrowheads and spear-points.

You just can’t get any more remote than the Thelon, anywhere else in the world north of Antarctica. Not only is the Thelon the largest and most remote river in the Barren Lands, it’s also the easiest and safest to canoe. And nowhere else on the Barren Lands today are you likely to see a greater number or variety of birds and mammals. Arctic summers may be short, but the Thelon enjoys some of the best summer weather in North America, thanks to it’s dry, sunny climate in this deep interior location.