By Tracy and Janet Hays
First off, I want to acknowledge how grateful we are to Mat and Judy for asking us to join them on this adventure of a lifetime. It was way beyond anything we would have ever cooked up on our own. The trip was demanding, intimidating, and exhausting but so very rewarding. Mat did such a fine write up on our Yukon Paddle, all I could possibly do is perhaps add some fluff, so I’ll give it a shot. If you haven’t read Mats report, here is a link to it. https://rockymountaincanoeclub.net/2023/09/05/trip-report-yukon-2023/
On the drive up we traveled in separate vans, but stuck pretty close together. Mat and Judy, and Tracy and Janet. In southern Alberta the wheat fields sway in the breeze like the confused current of a huge green sea. The occasional bright yellow canola fields were in beautiful sharp contrast. The landscape changes quickly as we tour Banff and Jasper parks, first time for us. Rugged mountains, glaciers and thundering waterfalls were all incredible. Further up the road we stopped at Laird River Hot Springs to soak a while. Real nice spot. You can learn some interesting things just listening to conversations, such as “the corona virus was developed in North Carolina as a bio-weapon, Obama deemed it too dangerous and turned it over to the Chinese for safe keeping. Jesus Christ and Big Foot are one in the same, and you must be careful around lake shores here at night or the Squanga might get you”. You may not believe all that, but here’s a fact. The farther north you go, the more stuff cost, especially gas. We paid over $8 per gallon for much of our gas. On to the Yukon, this is exciting! For some reason, I had doubts this trip would happen, you know, something would come up (for us anyway). But we make it to Whitehorse, get shuttled to Quiet Lake and the trip begins. After Quiet Lake comes Big Salmon Lake then the Big Salmon River. This place is so incredibly beautiful. The river is clear and fast, lots of log piles, several that we had to portage on twisty slippery steep trails through willows. And the flip and swim Janet took here was a little scary that Mat described so well. Sure hope we don’t need that bear spray that got away floating down the river somewhere. The mountains here are the old rounded variety. The forest is lush with every imaginable shade of green. I feel like we are all immersed and lost in a Bob Ross happy masterpiece. It’s just unbelievable. After about 150 miles and 8 days we reach the Yukon River. To tell the truth, I was a little disappointed we didn’t start the trip on the Yukon at Whitehorse, mainly because we missed out of paddling Lake LaBerge. But now the Big Salmon is one of my favorite paddling life highlights. And, we have a reason to return someday soon.
The Yukon River is much bigger than the Big Salmon, perhaps a quarter mile wide here. At the start of the trip the beer I bought was bulky and heavy and kind of in the way. So I thought “drink up and eliminate the burden”. Seemed like a good strategy at the time. But tonight I had my last beer and we have at least seven days to go. Oh well. On the 9th day we reach the town of Carmacks. We have paddled over 200 miles but we are not quite half way to Dawson City. Had a burger, beer and ice cream, and a hot shower felt real good. Let’s talk pain- we all deal with it to some extent, be it neck, shoulder, back, hip, knee or whatever, you do your best to block it out of your mind. But if you allow it, pain can steal the joy away from paddling. My back is killing me and I know I’m not the only one here dealing with pain. There are no spring chicks in this group. We all know the bus stops here daily and can take us back to Whitehorse and its our last chance to bail out of this trip. Most people end their trip here and finish the second half another time. ‘But ya know, we’re not most people, and we’re in the Yukon man, and Dawson City is the goal. All of us treasure this break from society and the comradery our small group. I believe without uttering a word, we all silently came to the same conclusion, quitting is not an option, “F#ck it-paddle on!” Next morning it’s a little windy and we were coming up to five finger rapid. Back in the day this rapid gave the steam ships lots of trouble. The more I hear about how “easy” this rapid is, the more nervous I get. My heart is pounding when we reach the rapid. Several Huge Stone pillars rising from the middle of the river in front of us. Before you know, we are through, and it really was easy. Fear is a strange thing for sure. Later today we saw Sam McGee ‘s ashes on the riverbank. You know, the guy who was cremated at Lake LaBerge. If you’re wondering, read the book “Tales of the Yukon” by Robert Service, you’ll be glad you did. Fort Selkirk is a really cool place that we enjoyed snooping around the old buildings and reading about the history here.
We have seen several bears the past few days, saw another young black bear today and at lunch break we saw big bear tracks. Saw some more bear scat near our camp. We had a fun time playing guitars tonight but with all this bear business we’re all a little spooked. Mat is well armed, I have bear spray and a hatchet, ha ha! Not much sleep last night -every little sound… Calm this smoky morning. We have had lots of smoky days. Many wildfires all over Canada this summer. Saw beaver before we took off then a few miles down saw a young black bear foraging near shore. Then a big moose. What a day! Soon we see a Caribou on the side of the river where the mountain slopes into the river. It ran down the river bank for several hundred yards, then it decides to swim across the half mile wide Yukon River. I really wasn’t chasing it, really, I just wanted a closer look and perhaps a photo and to see how fast a Caribou can swim. We both aimed for the same spot on the shore across the river, the Caribou swimming 90 degrees across the current, I paddling 45 degrees across and downriver. I have the advantage but that Caribou is a long way off swims fast! I got pretty close, close enough that the thought crossed my mind” watcha gonna do if ya catch it?” He made it to shore, turned to me with a dirty stare, then disappeared into the woods, that was a cool experience! A little later we saw a grizzly foraging. We were going to camp nearby but decided to paddle a few more miles down into a tough headwind. We stopped at Sparkling Creek to camp, and we’re all exhausted from fighting the wind all afternoon. While relaxing in camp a smallish 200 pound black bear walks up to the edge of the clearing we had set up camp in. He and Mat were so close they nearly became pals. We yelled and waved at him to scare him off. He slowly walked up the hillside above our camp stopping every 20 feet or so to look us over then finally disappeared into the woods. He seemed more perturbed with us than scared. Before bedtime we saw another or perhaps the same bear come down to the river 100 yards up from us to get a drink. We stayed up for a while watching for it to return. Another sleepless night. A few miles down and ho-hum, another black bear. At the confluence of the Yukon and White River, we hiked up the mountain for a great view of the big flat delta where the White comes in. There’s so much sediment coming down the White River that the Yukon has now turned from a light shade of green to chocolate milk. Several more miles down at the confluence of the Stewart River, the Yukon becomes huge, wide, flat, shallow and nasty with lots of wood debris floating in this chocolate mess. 52 miles paddle today.
It’s 50 miles to Dawson City. We passed the Klondike River just at the edge of Dawson, and arrived at our takeout. We made it! We set up camp at the hostel on river left across from Dawson City –The Hostel is an eclectic collection of cool junk and buildings that haven’t been maintained for years – yet somehow quite peaceful, so we feel right at home. Lots of personal records for Janet and me on this trip; our longest paddle – 482 miles, most miles paddled in a day – 52, most days for one trip – 15, farthest trip north at 64 degree N. We took the ferry across the river into town for dinner.
We had our much-anticipated Sour Toe Cocktail at the Downtown Hotel. Kind of a weird and disgusting tradition, for 16 bucks they put a preserved human toe in a shot glass of Yukon Jack and down the hatch, just the whiskey, big fine if you swallow the toe! But the toe must touch the lips, or it doesn’t count. Then on to the Midnight Sun Bar for some good music and dancing. Saturday Matt and Judy took the bus back to Whitehorse to get the vans. Janet and I walked Dawson and saw the Robert Service cabin and the Jack London cabin. As we walked around town, we kept running into people we had met somewhere on the river, weird. Wouldn’t take long to become a local here. Could become a goal. Pretty quiet town on Saturday night so we went to Diamond Tooth Gerties. Had a good time watching can-can girls dancing and the fat couple singing was fantastic. Mat and Judy got back Sunday morning with the vans and this part of our adventure was over. Next up, Alaska, border guards, Bowron Lakes, and Canada on fire.
