Amazing trip! Thanks for sharing!

Super Inspiring!

Excellent film!

Thanks. I watch a lot of paddling videos but I don't think I've seen any that did such a good job showing us the geography with the earth animations. Really lets you appreciate the scale of the landscape.

Incredible documentary

Incredible video, amazing trip, and a spectacular view into a part of our country that has been seen so little and is actually very hard to find imagery/information about!

@BradMitchellPhoto

4 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. Yes, it is truly a spectacular piece of country, and a really great place for an adventure. Cheers!

Incredible place with a well documented, narrated journey! Thanks for taking us along! Looking at getting a packraft soon! New sub - I’ll definitely watch your other packrafting videos.

@BradMitchellPhoto

3 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. If all goes as planned, I'll have new packrafting videos on San Juan River (UT) in April and South Nahanni (NWT) in September. Happy paddling!

Amazing adventure! Amazing video!

Thank you Brad for sharing your adventure in a way that fills me with gratitude for this beautiful world. You are a wonderful storyteller.

Amazingly well done and incredible adventure. Thanks for sharing!

That was fantastic! Thank you for sharing your adventures!

What's awesome! So beautiful video! Your trips it s something 🙌🙌🙌🙌🔥

Loved it!! Thanks Brad!!

I enjoyed following you on the inReach tracking site, and wondered what it might actually look like. Your skillful video was more than I expected! Thank you for taking the time to tell this story. It was a real trip for me.

This was a really well done video. Amazing trip though some pretty spectacular scenery. Thanks for putting this video together. Enjoyed it very much.

@BradMitchellPhoto

Жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it! It is a spectacular river. Happy paddling!

Your videos are some of the best! Your narration adds much information and compliments the video very well.

@BradMitchellPhoto

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for your comments Dan.

What an incredible adventure! Excellent video and narration.

@BradMitchellPhoto

Жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it! It is a truly excellent wilderness river.

Wonderful narrative and photography, Brad! Really enjoyed your terrific work!

@BradMitchellPhoto

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Karen. I hope we can get out together on a river again soon.

Wow, what an amazing adventure! Thanks for sharing your packrafting trip. I will add Mountain River to my very long bucket list. lol :) :)

@BradMitchellPhoto

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching and for your comments. Good luck on that bucket list!

Amazing country and exceptionally well documented. I especially appreciate your comments on Port Good Hope. What were the dates of your trip? Traveling Mercies.

@BradMitchellPhoto

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Jason, for watching and for your comments. We did the trip August 15-30. We had planned for two more layover days, but were delayed in Yellowknife on our way in due to delayed baggage. This was a great time of year to do the trip because there were essentially no mosquitoes, it got dark enough at night to see the aurora, fall colors were just starting up, the wildlife is all in prime shape and temperatures were still very comfortable.

@jasongray9411

Жыл бұрын

@@BradMitchellPhoto It didn't seem buggy at all so I presumed it was late August, early September. I hope to do a similar trip someday in the Brooks range, but your trip has me thinking . . . . it's water I can manage. Again, well done! You are very talented and I appreciate you sharing your adventure. Be safe out there . . .

Very, very awesome adventure and video. I'm looking at a ~ten day packraft trip in the NWT in late-July/August. This trip might get a little out of our price range. What other rivers might you recommend? Anything with only one flight from the road?

@BradMitchellPhoto

Жыл бұрын

Sorry Eddy, but this was my first trip to NWT and I don't have any direct experience on other rivers up there. We spent 14 days in the field on our trip, including the flight in from Norman Wells, 9 days paddling the Mountain River, 2 layover days hiking near Mountain River, 2 days paddling Mackenzie River and 1 full day in Fort Good Hope. A couple of our paddling days on Mountain were short to accommodate additional hiking. We had planned 2 more hiking days, but were forced to give those up and start our trip 2 days late because Air Canada lost one of our bags on the flight to Yellowknife. Our thought was to enjoy lots of extra time in the field to get the most value for our dollar, since this is an expensive trip. You can make the trip shorter by chartering a flight back to Norman Wells from the Mountain/Mackenzie confluence, but that costs more money. We're looking at South Nahani for future trip. There are various put-in locations for different trip duration. We're looking at John and Koyukuk Rivers in Alaska for this year, from Annaktuvuk Pass to Allakaket. This route has inexpensive commercial flights on both ends to/from Fairbanks. Good luck with your paddling adventure!

@LukasEddy

Жыл бұрын

@@BradMitchellPhoto all good advice. Sometimes the best things cost money :) thanks for the tips!

Great trip! Is the water usually off color like that in August? And how was the fishing? Thanks!

@BradMitchellPhoto

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. The river was very dirty at the start. I don't know what was going on upstream to make it so. But we had heard about its muddiness before the trip, and so were expecting it ... and which makes me believe that it is not unusual. The river became more clearer as more streams brought in clear water. We gathered all our drinking and cooking water from these clear side streams. We each carried a 10 liter dromedary bag. Filtered all drinking water. Fishing wasn't so great. We fished a few eddies where clear streams came into the river. Caught two grayling at Cache Creek, and a rainbow trout at Canyon 5, all on medium sized Meps spinners.

Great video Brad! What paddles are you guys using for this trip?

@BradMitchellPhoto

Жыл бұрын

Tom and I are using 2 piece straight-shaft high-angle Werner Ikelos paddles. This is a super light weight high-performance carbon fiber paddle ... and it comes with a heavy price tag. When paddling local rivers, especially when I expect to be banging my paddle against rocks, I'll use my sea kayaking paddle, which is really too long for packrafting, but it keeps my Ikelos from getting all banged up. I definitely recommend a high-angle paddle for packrafting, as the boat will paddle straighter if you can keep the paddle blades close to the side of the boat. We also carry Tom's 4 piece paddle as a team spare paddle on wilderness trips. I'm not sure whether he has the Werner Powerhouse or the Sherpa. If you are interested, here is my full wilderness packrafting gear list: www.bradmitchellphoto.com/2021/05/08/gear-list-for-multi-day-packrafting-trips/

Great Video! Where do you put your Bear Containers in the packraft? Do they fit into the ISS? What Containers do you use?

@BradMitchellPhoto

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. My food was packed in one full-sized BearVault container (lunches) and two 15L Ursacks, with aluminum liners (one for breakfasts, one for dinners). Each Ursack was put into the side tubes of the packraft, way up front in the side tubes, but forward of the clip-in Alpacka dry bags. Put them in so that their closure ropes lay in the tubes running aft, which makes it easy to find the ropes and pull out the bags when it comes time to unload the boat. The hard sided BearVault goes in the back of the packraft immediately behind the seat. It sits on top of my Hyperlite backpack, which is inside the packraft laying flat behind the seat to pad the bottom of this area. It's important that the BearVault doesn't hit any rocks along the River, or you'll get a hole in your raft for sure. So the BearVault should be surrounded by soft stuff.

@Packraft_Stories

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for the reply. Did i understand correctly, that the BearVault is also inside the ISS?

@BradMitchellPhoto

Жыл бұрын

Not sure what "ISS" is, but the BearVault is inside the inflated portion of the raft just inside the T-zipper and up against my backrest. This is probably the least likely location inside the inflated raft to collide with a rock, unless my raft goes upside-down, and keeps the BearVault near center of gravity.

@Packraft_Stories

Жыл бұрын

Thanks again for the reply. ISS means InternalStorageSystem. I hope you don‘t mind me to ask another question. There are not much trees in the area, so where did you put the Ursacks at night. I‘am from germany and planning a packrafting trip to the peel watershed i a few years and the bears are the thing i‘am concerned about the most.

@BradMitchellPhoto

Жыл бұрын

We were able to find trees on all but the last night. Basically, we stacked all our Ursacks and BearVaults a distance from camp, with all Ursacks tied to the trunk of a tree. Then we put two motion-triggerred motorcycle alarms on top. Our theory was that any disturbance from a bear would wake us up and we would get up to defend our food cache with bear bangers and pepper spray. Tie the bags loosely to the tree or wind will move the tree, moving the bags, and setting off the alarm. Have a great trip on the Peel!

Just curious, would you say your route is able to be taken by canoe?

@BradMitchellPhoto

6 ай бұрын

Yes, this route, or at least most of it, is guided as a canoe trip by guides today. I suggest you talk with one of those guides, like Blackwater, and watch some KZread videos of canoers running it. Note that canoers often use a different starting point. It is definitely an intermediate to expert canoe trip. I'd say that we are intermediate level packrafters, and packrafts are more difficult to flip than a canoe, and we managed to flip a packraft. So flipping a canoe somewhere along the line has significant probability. But it is a truly wonderful trip!

Is it normal for the river to be so turbid?

@BradMitchellPhoto

4 ай бұрын

Yes, the Mountain was nearly opaque orange where we put in near Dusty Lake. Most of the tributaries are crystal clear, so the Mountain cleans up as you go downstream. No problem finding clear drinking water from these tributaries. Looking at satellite images on Google Earth, Mountain is turbid all the way from near its upper headwaters.