Fitz to Smith Bump and Grind Edition 2017

By Natalie - September 10, 2017

A few years back we did our first top to bottom Slave River Run as a duo double date with our good friends John and Gen. It was a special trip. Since then, we have tried to do a top to bottom every year. I think we missed last year, but the year before that we had a nice trip with Leif's mom and boyfriend Rob. We just finished our top to bottom for this year dubbed by John Blyth as Fitz to Smith Bump and Grind Edition 2017.

Yellow Route map by John Blyth, annotations are my own.

Although the trip is becoming more 'normal' for us and it is easy to become jaded or to think that there is no new story here, I realized that our adventures with our northern family and friends and our adventures as a new family of three is worth writing about. Sure, the trip no longer carries that ring of doing something new which is always a great motivator for sharing the story. However, the newness is still there in other ways, the spectacular scenery is still there, and the friendship is still there.

This year was a little different because we weren't the ones instigating the trip, we actually tagged along with some of our friends who had never done it and were really excited to explore the entire river in their canoes. Although it was not our first time kayaking or kayaking and camping with the newest member of our family (baby Davis is now 6 months old!), It was definitely the longest kayaking trip we have taken with him. Also, somehow, Leif convinced me to paddle this old school extremely tippy racing downriver boat with a wing paddle. Suffice it to say, I flipped three times over the course of two days and rolled zero times. I was petrified the entire time and my neck and back are still super sore from being tensed up so much!

In the past year or so a lot has happened in my life and I have been way too busy trying to be too many people at once (kayaker, scientist, mother, wife...) that I feel that I have been sorely lacking in being able to enjoy the spontaneous times with friends and giving myself the space to reflect and express the gratitude for these moments. Trips like these are what makes life worth living. So, thank you Gord, Krystal, John, Justine, Joey, Renee and Leif for putting up with me and my anxiousness and nursing breaks and making the trip awesome.

Here is a photo essay with photos taken by other people because I can't seem to get my act together to get out a camera these days.

This is how we roll these days. (Photo by Krystal Brown,)

Getting into camp just in the nick of time. (Photo by Joey Roy)

Morning light at camp. We got here at dark the night before. (Photo by John Blyth)

Is Leif really cooking a smoky for breakfast!??? And... Thanks Krystal for holding Davis, super stoked he didn't poo on you. (Photo by John Blyth)

Late morning start... whatever. (Photo by John Blyth)

Are those hot coals?

Mid morning snack just downstream of camp. Joey.. we are maybe just about a third of the way. (Photo by John Blyth)

You can just barely see me in my super tippy kayak as John helps stabalize the canoe for Renee. I was too afraid to get any closer to the eddy. (Photo by Joey Roy)