A Canoe Trip Through the Grand Canyon of Canada BY ANDY COCHRANE It wasn’t until our second or third banked turn that we could see the river below — a meandering blue line barely visible through a thick layer of cloud and smoke. As the plane continued to descend in a slow circle, the landscape became progressively discernible: clusters of spruce trees woven together with thick shrubs, which is typical of the taiga, the ecosystem just south of the Arctic tundra. After another bending left, the bush pilot pointed out the window of the Twin Otter to a straight stretch of the river ahead, signaling we were about to land. Less than a minute later, the floats touched down, slowing us almost immediately. This marked the official start of our father-son canoe trip, just above Virginia Falls on the South Nahanni River, a hidden gem in the Northwest Territories, Canada. |