Whitewater Rafting in North America

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Outside Magazine, July 2004

Destinations: Whitewater Rafting Rivers
Find Your Flow
Northwest Territories, Canada

By Grayson Schaffer


	Scroll down to view the complete whitewater rafting key (illustrations by Tomer Hanuka)

SOUTH NAHANNI RIVER
»NORTHWEST TERRITORIES, CANADA
HOW LONG: 21 days, 300 miles
WHEN TO GO: June to August
AFTER SLIDING YOUR CANOE over the beaver dam at the Nahanni's headwaters, at Moose Ponds, in Canada's remote Mackenzie Mountains, it's 300 miles and three weeks of rock slalom back to civilization. Two-man canoes with a five-to-one guest-to-guide ratio mean you'd better know how to paddle. The most difficult whitewater comes early on, through the Class III rock gardens. On day ten, scramble up 4,921-foot Sunblood Mountain, peer down at 300-foot Virginia Falls, and rejoice that you've got nearly two more weeks of wilderness bliss before you're back at Fort Simpson, not knowing what day it is—and not caring. »OUTFITTER: Blackfeather Wilderness Adventures runs three-week trips for $3,450 and two-week trips, bypassing the rock gardens, for $2,900 (888-849-7668, www.blackfeather.com). »DIY: Blackfeather has perfected this agenda, but if you must go it alone, permits from Nahanni National Park are $75 per person (867-695-3151, www.pc.gc.ca/nahanni). Blackfeather rents canoes for $190 a week; South Nahanni Airways will fly up to six people and three boats from Fort Simpson to the put-in for $4,866 (867-695-2007, www.cancom.net/~snasimp).

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