17-Aug-2022 -- We had been planning to go confluence hunting by seaplane in the north for a few years, but because of covid, we were delayed two whole summers. Finally, in August 2022, we arrived in Radisson as our base of operations. The first point we attempted was 53N/76W because of the short length of the trek that would be required from a large-ish lake there to land in. We quickly discovered that hiking through the dense taiga in the summer wasn't very practical.

So we concentrated on finding points close to the lakeside. We'd been wanting to come to Lac Wiyâshâkimî (Clearwater Lakes) for years, but it seemed a stretch given the range of our small seaplane. But on August 17, we filled the airplane's 3 fuel tanks and a big red jerry can full of avgas and headed north from Radisson towards 56N/74W.

With the permission of the national park, we flew to East Clearwater Lake, a meteorite impact crater 465 million years old. The flight took two hours over uninhabited lands, with a strong tailwind. We were worried that the high winds would cause waves too high in the lake to land in, but the wind at the surface was completely calm. We knew the point was very close to shore, and we landed nearby.

The shore of the peninsula here was made of big boulders, so we slowly taxied over to them until we were able to shut down and tie the plane up to trees and rocks. It was beautiful. The water was completely clear and we spent some time on shore just appreciating how lucky we were to be here and see this scenery.

Soon it was time to capture the point. We hiked into the woods just 30 meters and there it was. The point is on a hummock of lichen and moss, with the lake just barely visible to the north.