Yukon River trip Beta...

[Rob Stokes]

Alright, heading to the Yukon next week to paddle Whitehorse-Dawson and in need of some Beta.

We are a group of pretty in-experienced canoeists, I mean I can handle a canoe from childhood river trips and such, we have all done a few over nights we are all outdoors people (climbers, ski tour etc) so we can look after our self's in the wild (hopefully) but none have done anything like a 700km wilderness river trip.

Ok, so we are going late in the season, Sept 14th until whenever we finish, how long does it take? We figure we can make the last-of-the-season Dawson to Whitehorse bus on the 29th Sept no problem?

Are we gonna' get eaten by bears?

Can we catch Fish? How?

Five finger rapids.....stay right, right?

Anything cool to see on the drive up/down from Whistler?

How much alcohol can a canoe take without it sinking?

Do we need a spray deck for the Five finger rapids?

I guess the river will be low in late Sept....does this mean more rapids? I guess so....?

Cheers.

[L7]

Ha, I paddled this 35 years ago (that's fucking scary). I was thinking right on the five fingers rapids. You don't need a spray deck but it doesn't hurt either. You'll have some fucking cold nights this time of year. We had no problems buying big fillets of smoked salmon from the native camps along the way. Also caught some grayling. There's probably booths set up to sell it now. Should see some specfucking tacular norther lights. Remember seeing a native dude on a dock with his pet bear cub chasing after him. You'll see a surprising number of people on the river. Natives, people going up and down as their major transport route and quite a few other tourists.

Don't forget the Rink Rapids. They're longer but smaller waves. This time of year it will probably be about finding the channel for enough water to get through. 10 days is kind of standard but we pushed and got it done in 7 or 8 I think. Made no sense to me but for some reason going up there and then rushing is what my Father had in mind. I was 16 and my 18 year old sister was on it too plus a buddy of mine. Watch the winds on Lake Laberge. If they're coming down at you it is going to be a long brutal day. It is essential to recite the 'Cremation of Sam McGee' through that whole day. The 'Shooting of Dan McGrew' should be recited upon arrival in Dawson.

We drank the river water most the way down. (You could do that back then not sure now). Didn't drink it until down Lake Laberge thanks to Whitehorse raw sewage. Once the white river comes in about 70kms before Dawson it is too silty to drink again. Cross the highway at Carcross(?) so you can stock up on beer there. Stewart Crossing (?) about 110km out had an outpost that you could pay dearly for some stuff. We saw one bear and some prints but it was hot as shit mostly so they were mostly up high.

[Rob Stokes]

Nice, some good advice there. Cheers.

I am sure we are gonna see some cold night, been looking at the past 10years or so weather and it will prob be hovering about -4ish at night. Not too bad, bad enough to make it hard to get out of the bag's in the morning though!

I had no idea that there would be places to buy fish/beer en route apart from Camaraks, makes it a bit easier. Interesting on the river water too....We figured we would prob not drink from the river, but from little tributerys that aren't big enough to pick up silt etc.

[wendigo]

Some good info at the Yukon River Quest page.
I believe that Rink Rapids can be avoided by going river right, condition dependent.

No bugs, northern lights, cool clear fall days - great time to go!

"Anything cool to see on the drive up/down from Whistler" ummm yeah, plenty. Take a mountain bike if you have room...

[BFD]

I just got back from a canoe trip in the Yukon last Sunday. Two weeks on the Wind River ,Peel River drainage. Great time. Like Wendigo mentioned sunny skis warm temps no bugs. Stopped and looked at 5 finger rapid. looked pretty straight forward staying far river right. The wildlife was a little underwhelming. Saw only two black bears. My opinion if you are not seeing allot of bear signs such as fresh tracks on all the river bars don't worry about them. We left our food in the dry bags on the beach at night. Fort Selkirk is supposed to be really cool. Apparently the Klukwans from down by haines came up and attacked the place. It was pretty much full on fall when we came through last week. We drank straight from the river however we had rain and it got silty the last two days on the Peel. I imagine same will be true on the Yukon. I than got water out of pools on the gravel bars. Alchocol we went with a box of wine and a fith of rum for two people was about right. But probably not to TGR standards. Here is a picture from about two weeks ago. Easy greyling fishing.

Great area am thinking this is a trip I want to plan for the near future. I guess it is very popular float when the dawson music festival is happening. I just read the Wendigo link. The lakes are big and the waves can get big. My friend I went with has paddled allot up there. Always uses a sea kayak on the big lakes. Probably should have a spray skirt for the lake.

[Arno]

I have no useful info but please take lots of pics and post the good ones. Yukon is rad

[Schemeboat]

Hey I did a similar trip, however, started in Teslin. I also have also spent extensive time around the dawson and minto areas. (BTW camp at the river side of the minto airstrip, beauty.)
It is going to take you at least 10 days door to door (from whitehorse), but it could take a lot more if weather gets you down.
It is going to be quite cold at night and in the morning, but should heat up significantly during the day. Build large fires out of driftwood.
Most of the weather will be hard to decipher as a lot of the river has high banks.
Pay attention to your depth, you are running at the lowest of the year and it is a very silty river, people ground out on the reg, you will likely see someone who is stuck. Its also running at its slowest. You will find rocks.
You will run into: Canoes, Jet Boats, Barges (sometimes homemade) and other assorted smallcraft.
Carmacks is pretty much your only stop for booze, and the grub at the hotel isn't bad either. Save your money for Gerties (before its closed). Stewart has stuff if you need it. Minto has some stuff as well.
You will catch greyling by trolling or casting with a small spinner, black panther-y.
Dawson is a great town. Eat your first meal at the Drunken Goat and order the Paidakia. Watch the sunset and northern lights from the top of the dome. Hopefully Klondike Kates isn't closed down yet, also a great restaurant.
Start early and paddle hard during sunlight, as it will be a sketchy paddle in the dark and you will be enjoying some dark.
Bring Bear Scare
Bring a good swede saw and axe.

[ak_powder_monkey]

dry flies and nymphs in clear water will do the trick

[herr_stoiber]

I have no useful info but please take lots of pics and post the good ones. Yukon is rad

I second that. Have fun!

Sent from my U8860 using TGR Forums

[Schemeboat]

How did it go?!

[Rob Stokes]

Hey,

Yeah we had an awesome time! The time of year was perfect....not too cold (apart from one day where everything started to freeze) no bugs, no tourists. The only people we saw was a handful of hunters.

We saw moose, eagles, bear, wolf tracks (around my tent) shit loads of Bever, porcupines, loads of shit.

It took us 10days, including one day pinned on Labarge due to winds, so pretty standard. Doing it any faster would have been a bit shitty. We had some longer days, and some shorter ones but were off the river well before dark every day chilling by the fire.

No swimmer, 5 fingers was a massive anti-climax, but we were shitting it all morning on approch. hahaha.

We missed the last but from Dawson by a day, and had to hitch back to Whistehorse....hard with 2 boats and 2 weeks worth of gear.



I was gonna' put some pictures up but the shitty uploader only lets me upload one image at a time, not got time for that so here is the link to my fb album....its public.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...0774837&type=3

[Rob Stokes]

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