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if you have ever been tempted to do a longer up north trip, the Yukon River is likely the easiest to do logistically.
I drove up and back, the 2600 miles to Whitehorse, as a part of the trip. Muncho Lake area of the Alaska Highway was the best part. I had good weather for the drive up, and mostly for the river. The final two nights I spent in a campground in Dawson, it rained, and it rained almost the entire way back, so I didn't see much but clouds in Jasper and Banff and Glacier parks - it snowed on me the one day I spent in Yellowstone. Had a rock almost come thru my windshield on the way back - glass splinters everywhere - the first 300 miles or so of the Alaska Highway had hundreds of oil and gas service trucks, which were a PITA - it was one of them that threw me the rock.
I did Whitehorse to Dawson this August 5th thru the 19th - it was a great trip. I actually started about 20 miles upstream of Whitehorse at "mile 7", so did 460 miles. That in 12 1/2 days. The 430 miles from Whitehorse to Dawson is recommended as a 12 to 14 day trip. THe Yukon Quest racers do it in 48 hours. Starting upstream from Whitehorse requires one portage around the Whitehorse power dam. Most parties start in town below that, so no portaging at all. Lots of trip length options, with various starts in other tributaries - a lot of parties start down the Teslin R and take that to the Yukon - some parties take out at Carmacks, which is about halfway to Dawson. There were at least 4 outfitters running trips in Whitehorse, and at least 2 that rent canoes and gear.
Not a true wilderness, but near enough - spectacular scenery all along the way. I did the trip solo, but saw other canoes almost every day. Several were large guided groups, and only one other solo paddler. The advantage to starting on the Teslin or other tributary river is not chanceing the weather on Lake Laberge. Disadvantage is you miss a beautiful lake and the "30 mile" section below it that is the prettiest part of the river. Paddling the lake was fairly intense, with a constant pushy SW quartering wind and waves that were up to 4 feet high, and the chance of a big storm whipping up at any time. Those 4 foot waves came in sets, every half minute or so, in beteen the 3 footers. Just once, the wind and waves shoved me sideways to the waves, and the next wave coming at me was higher than my head - talking with the other solo paddler I saw, he had tipped over in the lake and had to swim to shore - his rented boat had gotten beat up on the rocks from that. The 2014 Yukon Quest race, they had to rescue a half a dozen boats from the lake when a storm blew in, so its not always pleasant. I wound up spending 2 nights on the big lake - mostly due to threatening skies. All the advice says get off the lake it it looks like a storm is approaching (one steamboat that sunk reportedly did so in 12' waves). Eventurally, I got used to the big waves and whitecaps and it got more casual, but I couldn't have paddled upwind against them - good thing it was more or less a tailwind.
The river had good current almost the whole way, and I probably averaged 7mph on the river - more than 10mph in the faster sections. I did a 65 mile day followed by 48 mi day to make up for time lost on the lake, but mostly after that I did about 40 miles a day without too much effort, and that seems to be about normal. The river is flanked by high sandy banks, often times 500 or more feet high. About 2/3 of the way, that changes to high rock cliffs.
There were quite a few "developed" campsites along the way with picnic tables and outhouses. Others had no amenities but the normal campfire ring and logs to sit on, and the latter part of the river, I camped on gravel bar islands (if they didn't have bear tracks) which were ok, but not as nice. The river is very silt laden, so mostly got my water from side streams - would fill up a 2.5 gal jug and carried that so I didn't need to get water every day. Mid-trip, I stayed ar a regular campground in Carmacks, to take advantage of the hot shower there. Another developed campground was at Fort Selkirk, a nice stop at an old restored settlement (1898 or so to 1933) with lots of log buildings - that was free, and you could wander around the place and check out the buildings and interpretive signs. There were other similar stops, but the log cabins weren't restored. One neat stop was at an old dry-docked paddle wheel steamboat. Lots of history to check out along the way if you wanted to take the time.
I didn't see too much wildlife: Moose swinning twice, one Caribou, a few eagles (I think the water was too thick for them to see fish) several Peregrine Falcons, including one that dive bombed me when I checked out its island for camping, one beaver and two bears. One was a Black Bear across the river from my camp, and the other was a Grizzly Bear, across the river from a different camp - the river was 500 yards wide or so on both occasions. Only hung my food once, mostly just kept it away from the tent, in a dry bag and smell-proofed as much as I could. I did have 6 days food in a Bear Resistent Cannister, so would not have been out of food if a varmint did get into it. I was likely the only person on the river to be carrying a shotgun, and I had a can of bear spray also. I tried to keep one or both handy. Other people said they saw "lots" of bears, whatever that meant, and one guy told me he saw five the morning I passed him, including two that swam the river ahead of him.
The river is said to be suitable for beginners, but I wouldn't say that - there were a lot of strainers in the lower half, and the whole length of the river, there were lots of upwellings and counter currents that would try to throw you around, and some really hard eddy lines that could flip your boat if you weren't prepared for them. On the other hand, it does not take whitewater experience - you just need to be able to control your boat. Some of the other tributaries may require more skill. Most of the other boats I saw were a mix of Rx trippers and mostly the rentals were 17' Kevlar trippers.
Fishing - hah! save your money. $37 non-resident license divided by the number of fish I cought = 1 $37 Grayling. but that was Ok, as I'd never caught one before. One guy I asked said he'd caught one Shefish, and another said he'd only caught one Northern - not worth the bother unless you can time your trip to Grayling spawning, or Salmon spawning. The King/Chinook salmon run was so amall this year that both Alaska and Yukon cancelled all fishing, including native subsistence fishing for them. Mostly, the river was too thick for fish to see lures in any case.
Navigation was easy with the river guide/map book I used. You could tell right where you were at any time once you had a starting point.
Relatively cheap trip for me. About $2200 most of which was gas money. The shuttel up top was $100, and return to my truck for me and my boat via bus was $164 (333 miles). I was totally self outfitted, and only used an outfitter for the shuttle at the start.
I used my Pakboat 150 set up solo - I was impressed with the way it bobbed up and down on the lake, and it wad fairly decent for speed on teh river, though I couldn't keep up with 17' tandems (if I ever name it, it will be "Slow Boat from China"
I enjoyed the trip so much, I'm thinking I may do it again in a few years. If you are interested, I can give you more details.
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Yukon River (Read 5867 times)
