Last Traverse!

I just finished the last traverse of the summer! We were dropped off in the Tuya River (well, on an island in the river), and spent the day hiking up and down the ridge next to the river. Before 8am, I had my pants rolled up and boots off, knee deep in murky river water. It was a great way to wake up after getting out a half hour early today. I lost my trav parter for about an hour, because he took off while I quickly took my fleece off. Apparently it wasn't fast enough, because he was way gone. We were just heading up the bank of the river, so it wasn't too bad, but I was walking for about 30 minutes and had lost his footsteps, so I tried yelling, and ended up turning on my radio. Apparently he was about 1km upstream by a gossan. I found a good game trail and just booked it up there, but it still took about half an hour. The rest of the day was good, lots of going up the hill and then down back into the river (for outcrop). I ended up getting ravaged by the black flies today though. I have 12 bites on my neck and face, but most (10) are on my neck. Good thing I don't react that much to them, because one's right by my eyeball.

Our pickup spot though, OH BOY. It was a swamp on the map, but I think some beavers had decided to move in there, because the water was up to my knees. My boots, that I took off to get off the river island first thing this morning, were soaked. My pants, also soaked. Oh boy. We had to cut down trees and cut a bit of a helipad, so that Jim (our AWESOME pilot) could land and take us out of that mess. He got in no problem, which was nice because we were cutting brush until just before he arrived. So good to hear that chopper today. :)