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NNSL Photo/graphic

Verniel Morin, Dick Morin, Margie Shepardson, Carl Shepardson, Tom Todd and Leslie Hollweg, all from the U.S.A., ventured from Lac de Gras to Kugluktuk and they say they had a great adventure with perfect weather. - Emily Watkins/NNSL photo

Great Northern adventure

Emily Watkins
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 11/06) - The quest for a northern adventure took six American canoeists up the Coppermine River from Lac de Gras to Kugluktuk.

"We had the best weather and the most relaxing time," says Carl Shepardson of Marlborough, New Hampshire.

"It was warm, didn't have very many bugs and had to do very little portaging."

The group of canoeists are Carl and Margie Shephardson from Marlborough, New Hampshire; Dick and Verniel Morin, Dover New Hampshire and Tom Todd and Leslie Hollweg from Lexington, Massachusetts.

The group flew from Yellowknife to Lac de Gras with First Air, where they began their trip.

It took a total of 24 days.

Every morning they began canoeing at about 7 a.m. and set up camp on the riverbank at about 3 p.m.

"We just took it easy, nice and slow," says Shepardson.

Shepardson says they saw three herds of muskox and many caribou along their trip.

They canoed through the river that connected a few smaller lakes and they portaged when the rapids became bad when they left the lakes.

"This is our (his and his wife Margie) fourth trip up to Yellowknife and the NWT," Shepardson says.

It was the rest of the group's first time in the North and they are bringing home wonderful memories of the beauty that they saw.

"My favourite memory was climbing up a hill and finding myself facing a family of muskox," Todd says.

"Then the bull snorted and the whole herd ran away."