In pictures: Canadian Rangers patrol length of Mackenzie River

Niko Helm says his favourite moment on a recent patrol of the Mackenzie River was attending a fish camp in Tsiigehtchic.

“When we got there, they were smoking and drying white fish and inconnu,” he said, adding the patrol group just happened to arrive in the community during the event.

“They just let us join in on that, and had dinner for us when we arrived in Tsiigehtchic. We got to help clean and cut the meat too.”

Helm, from Carcross, Yukon, was one of nine Canadian Rangers from the three territories who set off in canoes on the Mackenzie River from Fort Providence on June 26.

The rangers, alongside three other members of the Canadian Armed Forces, were conducting a patrol of the river, also known as the Deh Cho, Kuukpak or Nagwichoonjik.

Helm said the group reached Tuktoyaktuk, where the river flows into the Arctic Ocean, on August 7.

“It was very important because I think we established a connection between all the communities through the Rangers,” he said of the patrol.

“We would meet all the local patrols when we went through the towns, and so making that connection, meeting other people, making plans for their patrols. Experiencing that whole thing all the way to the ocean, it was amazing.”

Helm said the group was also “amazed” by the weather on the journey.

“It just kept getting warmer the farther north we went. We did have a headwind though, so that was our only issue.”

While the group encountered some wildfire smoke before reaching Fort Simpson, Helm said it did not impact the trip.

Helm said one of his biggest takeaways from the trip is that such a long journey can be done by manpower.

“It’s a lot of hard work and we had to be determined, which we all were, which was amazing,” he said.

The group averaged around 50 km a day, Helm said, camping on the shore at night and stopping in communities along the way. He said the longest stretch they paddled in a single day was 127 km.

Helm’s advice to anyone else considering such a trip is to be prepared, bring enough food and watch out for animals.

He said the patrol group saw three black bears and about three muskox along their journey.

They also experienced lower than normal water levels.

The NWT government’s latest water monitoring bulletin states that water levels on the Mackenzie River are below average for this time of year. The territory says that’s a result of extreme drought conditions that have persisted since the summer of 2022, while precipitation in upstream basins has been below to well-below average so far this spring and summer.

Helm said people in communities patrol members visited repeatedly told rangers the water was lower than usual.

“That’s why a lot of bigger boats and things weren’t on the river. And it was really murky, so they can’t really see through it,” he said.

He added that rapids were not as big an issue as the patrol had expected.

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Correction: August 19, 2025 – 8:20 MT. This article originally stated the rangers left Fort Providence on July 26. In fact, they started their patrol on June 26.