Yukon River Trip

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Trip Start May 24, 2008 Previous
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  Dawson City, Yukon, Canada
Friday, June 20, 2008

Yukon River Trip!
 
The big day arrived the box was delivered!   What a deal. We got the box delivered out to our soon to be digs in Wolf Creek. It survived the trip sort of. It looks a little worse for wear but Jim Wiebe knows how to built boxes and our 'stuff' arrived.
Wohoo!!! Off to the Yukon!!
 
Wed June 4, we launched at around 8:30 AM to a sunny cool day with a little breeze from the south (which is a good thing if you are going North).
The water level was low due to the two control dams upstream from us. One hydro dam at Whitehorse rapids in town and the other at Marsh Lake. 
We paddled until 3:00 pm and get down as far as Lake Labarge

Hugh checking the map/GPS/ Spot

. We stopped at one 4 star campsite but fresh grizzly tracks persuaded us to move downstream a bit. It really is an historic river and we are constantly marveling at what the miners did over 100 yrs ago to get down to Dawson City.
 
Our next day we set off early as the wind on Lake Labarge is legendary and the water is COLD!!!!
The wind built throughout the day but it was at our backs so we paddled the full length of the lake 48km.
For you flat land type paddlers that is a long way!!! We were beat but got to a great campsite at the top of the lake which is part of the World Heritage 30 mile river stretch. Old buildings are there with the old Telegraph office bits and pieces left from old prospecting claims. There is an old NWMP post across the river.
There even are the bones of an old river boat right at the campsite.
 
The next day paddled 50km again but with current so we made good time. There were all sorts of old wood yards along the banks where the paddle wheelers would load up wood for their boilers. We arrived at Hootalinqua campsite, which means the meeting place. It is at the confluence of the Teslin and Yukon rivers.
If the Yukon was low, the Teslin was in major flood. Dirty water screamed along carrying all sorts of huge trees along with their roots. It was quite the sight watching this all from shore.
That evening we ran into two German girls who were doing the trip down to Carmacks. Julia and Gisa were somewhat afraid of bears and we think they were happy to see someone else

Dawson from the yukon

.
We had a good chat with them and found they had come here to learn English and were doing little adventure tripping and then moving off into Alaska.
We saw them off and on for the next three days leap-frogging them on the river.
 
With the addition of the Teslin to the river we were paddling at approx 15kph so we really didn't have to work that hard. We paddled 90 km one day due to the high water and ended up in Carmacks on day 5.
It was raining when we arrived and cold so we stopped at the Coal mine camp right long the river. They are canoe friendly and have cabins to rent as well at a campsite.
We rented a cabin with the two German girls who happened to arrive right after us. This place has showers and a laundry along with burgers and ice cream. (not DQ Harry, but close). So much for the roughing it. We stayed for two nights as the forcast was for lows of below freezing.
 
We headed off on Tues June 10 for the last half of the trip.
We had obsessed all trip, about the famous Five Finger Rapids, downstream from Carmacks

Cheryl's biscuits

.  We felt the high water would give us problems but there did not appear to be any way around them. We talked to some river guides who said not to worry.  We had a spray skirt.  We are confident of our white water skills but having Cedar on board gave us pause.  We arrived at the rapid with trepidation but took one look and went for it. It was over in a few seconds. We could see the hazard but we were up to the challenge. A bit of a let down, I suppose, but we got good photos of them from above and below so will add them when we get a chance.
We paddled late that day looking for a good campsite. 90+ km again.
The river along here has a different character in that there is still lots of mining with people living and working on the river.
We saw jet boats, not the sporty types, but the working ones with all sorts of gear piled on them.
We stopped at historic Fort Selkirk. This old trading fort just below where the Pelly River confluence, has been restored by the YTG and the Selkirk First Nations. There are caretakers there who do interpretive stuff as well as an interesting video about the fort with some original footage shot back in the early 1900's.
We should have arranged our schedule to stay there as we only spent two hours

Dawson River Hostel

. The fort area is also an old meeting ground for first nations folks from all over the Yukon and Alaska.
 
We ended up one night at Kirkman Creek.  The daughter and Grand daughter of Robin Burian, who spent many years working on the river and living year round at Stewart Island, live here in the summer and have a campground with a small cabin to rent. They also have burgers for sale as well as bread, jams & jellies from locally picked berries, buns and cookies. We arrived right after a biblical rain/hail storm that left us cold and wet so burgers for supper and an old log cabin with an old style cook stove to dry us was a total treat.
Cheryl baked biscuits in the oven the next morning.
That evening a jet boat arrived at the creek along with a couple of quads. These guys are miners working claims up the creeks in the area and they were arriving for tea and to pick up bread. There is an extensive system of roads up behind the campsite connecting a lot of the mines. They even have a airstrip cleared.
We wondered if Doug Gudwer's buddy was one of the owners who apparently owns a mine in YT which he flys into.
On our next day, the White River came in from the west adding much silt to the Yukon

Julia Gisa and Hugh

. We had stocked up with cleaner water prior to this.
We paddled past Stewart Is., which is at the confluence on the Stewart and Yukon Rivers.
Its history has been lost due to the erosion from the river.  Paddle wheelers used to bring silver down from the Mayo/ Keno area to Stewart Is where it was transferred to larger boats for transport to the outside.
 
Our last day on the river saw another 100km day.  We paddled into historic Dawson City much like the Stampeders did back in 1898.
We stopped at the Dawson City River Hostel across the river from Dawson. There is a 24 h ferry running so it's easy to access the town itself. The original miners set up on this side of the river to avoid the mass of 30,000 others in an area approx the footprint size of Rivers or downtown Canmore. We rented a cabin there, a bit rustic perhaps but it was good to have a place to retreat to after a day of checking out Dawson.
 
Dawson itself is a very laidback friendly town. Like any tourist style town lots of young kids working.

Kirkman Creek Cabin

There is a full slate of activities everyday. The weird part really is the sunlight.
The sun is still shining at 11:00 pm and up at 4 AM so it never really gets dark. It's hard to tell what time it is and folks seem to get on weird time schedules. They go out for drinks at 11:00 and come back at 3:00 AM.  We oldies are in bed at 11:00 even though the sun is still on the camper.
 
Hugh had to fly back to Whitehorse to pick up the truck and camper. He stayed down there for an extra day to sort out some technical issues like his renewed driver's license has not arrived from AB. Cheryl will be doing the driving until the darn thing finally catches up to us. We also had to get the power converter replaced in the camper and that took a couple of weeks to get the part and get it installed. Luckily we were on our trip for most of the intervening time.
 
We're now altogether in Dawson waiting for the solstice and the big party that accompanies it.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

River Barge	Robert Service's Cabins	Sam Magee's Ashes	BMWs galore in Dawson
#4 dredge Bonanza Creek	Condo living	Solstice with Barbara and Daniel	School at Fort Selkirk
AM coffee	aufies	rest time	Lupines

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