In June 1871, the "Enterprise" left Quesnel with a full load of passengers including a reporter from Barkerville’s Cariboo Sentinel. She navigated the Fort George Canyon on July 6, although the help of the passengers was required as they cranked her manual capstan to line through. She arrived in Fort George, then a large First Nations village and a Hudson’s Bay Company Post, and continued onto the Nechako River, up to the Stuart River and through Stuart Lake onto Tachie River to Trembleur Lake to Middle River, finally arriving at Takla Lake on August 12.