Hikers find newly formed lake on Canol Heritage Trail
Landslide believed to be blocking river
Kassina Ryder
Northern News Services
Monday, July 25, 2016
LLI GOLINE/NORMAN WELLS
Hikers on the 11th annual Canol Trail Youth Leadership Hike encountered an unusual obstacle the week of July 11 when a newly formed lake blocked their path.
Participants with the Canol Trail Youth Leadership Hike had to blaze a new trail to get around a newly formed lake blocking the former route. - photo courtesy of Keith Hickling |
"There has never been a lake. We usually cross this in about 20 minutes, half an hour, this section of the canyon," said hiker Norman Yakeleya. "Usually there is a little stream, a little creek. Once we came to it we noticed there is a whole new lake here."
Yakeleya has walked the Canol Heritage Trail each of the 11 years the youth leadership hike has taken place. The trail, which runs from Norman Wells to the Yukon border, was created during the Second World War to construct and maintain an oil pipeline.
The annual hike is open to Sahtu youth. Participants walk portions of the trail.
Yakeleya said the lake is located at about Mile 30 in Dodo Canyon and it appears that a landslide caused it to form.
The body of water is about half a kilometre long and about 180 metres wide, he estimated.
When the group arrived at the lake, they decided to test whether they could possibly walk through it to the other side.
"We thought maybe we could walk across it. We weren't too sure how deep it was," Yakeleya said. "We checked it out and there was no way that we could get across with our 60 pound packs. It was pretty murky at the bottom, pretty muddy."
Yakeleya said they soon realized they would have to walk around it.
"The group met for a while, we discussed the route and we said, 'well, we gotta go around the mountain'," he said. "It took us three hours to go up on the east side of the bank up through thick bushes."
They broke a new trail and Yakeleya said though the climb was exhausting, the group treated the experience as a life lesson.
"Sometimes, life throws some surprises at you," he said. "We were jubilant when we started walking down the mountain on the other side of the lake."
Though he didn't know exactly when the landslide took place, Scott Elgert, a pilot with Canadian Helicopters, said he first saw water collecting in the lake in April 2015.
Elgert was flying over the area when he noticed a landslide had blocked Dodo Creek, causing a pool of water to form.
"I rounded the corner and noticed the lake had started to form behind the landslide," he said.
Elgert said the landslide didn't happen in one day. He had been watching the process take place over the course of two years.
"The rock slide that created the lake has kind of been falling over the last couple years," he said. "It started I think two years ago."
No matter when the lake was created, Yakeleya said encountering it was an ideal way to teach decision-making and leadership skills, as well as being a lesson on the unpredictability of life.
"We kept encouraging each other, we kept saying, 'This is leadership. This is what it takes to be a leader'," Yakeleya said. "There are things that life throws at you unexpectedly."
This year's Canol Youth Leadership Hike had 12 participants and took place from July 8 to July 13.
