A bison producer sailing around the world from northern Alberta has hit a snag on the Peace River.
Ben Gray portaged his 57-foot boat around Vermilion Chutes, a 16-kilometre set of rapids with little problem, but has become hung up in low water on the Boyer Rapids, a shallow section of water on the Peace River in Wood Buffalo National Park.
On June 3 the boat, called Idlewild, was waiting for 600 metres of cable to be brought in to winch it across shallow water.
Knowing that low water could be a problem in the Peace River, Gray installed a set of wheels to the side of the boat to help it around portages and through low water.
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Unfortunately, because the wheels’ extra weight pulls the boat deeper in the water, it requires 11/2 metres of water for proper navigation.
“We were elated to cross the portage in two days in spite of adversities,” Gray said in an e-mail.
“We expected good going to Fort Chip, but the river widens to two km above Boyer and with a flat gypsum base there are no channels, just rough shallow fast moving water.”
The Boyer Rapids are west of Peace Point in Wood Buffalo National Park, about 100 km west of Fort Chipewyan, where the Peace River empties into Lake Athabasca.
Also on the boat are Gray’s sons Brad and Kevin, who sometimes travel ahead of the Idlewild in a jet boat to chart the deepest course.
“Kevin spent five hours charting and I went with him at the last but just no channel, so we had no choice but to try,” Gray wrote.”Brad at the helm of Idlewild did an excellent job of staying on GPS points, which required sharp turns. We had full power to provide momentum and went over a considerable distance of less than four feet (1.2 metres) with Idlewild rocking erratically on her wheels, and she floated free for about 60 feet (18 metres), then got very shallow again. We kept slowing until stopped with the motor over-revving in shallow water.”
He said his friend Tex Fimrite was expected to arrive June 3 with the cable for the boat’s hand winch.
