BigandSmall
Paddler
Yukon Trip Report, July 24 - August 06 2015
This summer my wife and I along with our two kids (13 & 11) paddled the Yukon River from Whitehorse to Dawson city. It took us two weeks and was a great family trip. We each had our own kayak and the tow lines we brought did not get used. My wife should get extra credit here because she paddled my big SOT to help carry all of our extra gear. We drove to Whitehorse with our boats but there are outfitters there allowing you to fly in and rent a boat right at the rivers edge. We also saw a rack at the Coal Mine Campground in Carmacks that you could leave your rental boat on when you catch the bus back to Whitehorse.
We had The Yukon River book by Mike Rourke, Marsh lake to Dawson City ISBN 978-0-920655214. This book was a must for this trip. It is a detailed map book of the river showing all the camp sites, islands, gravel bars, current paths etc. It also has some history of the sites you see along the way. We picked up our copy at Kanoe People in Whitehorse the day before we left after touring the Klondike Steamship. We also did most of our planning for this trip from this very detailed trip report on Canadian Canoe Routes. http://www.myccr.com/phpbbforum/viewtop ... 22&t=38855 A big thank you to that forum's e2holmes for posting such a great trip report that made planning so much easier for us.
Day 1: It poured rain on us all way to Whitehorse while driving in from Marsh lake where we were staying. We launched from the boat launch just a little down stream from the Klondike paddlewheeler. Even though we were leaving later than planned we were in good spirits since it wasn't raining when we loaded the boats and set off. We were fortunate to have family members see us off and then shuttle our car up to Dawson city for our arrival in two weeks time. A note for others making this trip, make sure your water bottles are filled ahead of time since the town's septic outfall isn't too far downstream. We hadn't made it too far when the kids started asking about lunch. We pulled out into some slow water on the right and dug out our lunch. It would have been nice to have stayed in the current but it ended up working out well stopping where we did. There were about 10 Golden eagles along the bank where we ate. We didn't get too far today as it was tough getting some people into the habit of actually paddling... This is why river tripping works well with kids, even if they don't paddle you still move along with the current and at least cover some ground. As we neared lake LaBerge the afternoon winds really picked up, it was raining and we could see dark clouds out over the lake. If we continued on to the lake the map book showed we would have to go a fair ways to get to a good camp. Considering our lack of progress thus far we decided to stop early instead. We camped on an island just before LaBerge next to “Steamboat Slough”. There was a really nice, established campsite there and as we set up camp, the sun came out and we enjoyed our evening, even if we didn't get very far that day. We had seen some other paddlers on the water that day and had a group of Czech guys join us at camp to cook and eat their dinner before they continued on. The evening sun will let you paddle well into the night if you so choose.
This summer my wife and I along with our two kids (13 & 11) paddled the Yukon River from Whitehorse to Dawson city. It took us two weeks and was a great family trip. We each had our own kayak and the tow lines we brought did not get used. My wife should get extra credit here because she paddled my big SOT to help carry all of our extra gear. We drove to Whitehorse with our boats but there are outfitters there allowing you to fly in and rent a boat right at the rivers edge. We also saw a rack at the Coal Mine Campground in Carmacks that you could leave your rental boat on when you catch the bus back to Whitehorse.
We had The Yukon River book by Mike Rourke, Marsh lake to Dawson City ISBN 978-0-920655214. This book was a must for this trip. It is a detailed map book of the river showing all the camp sites, islands, gravel bars, current paths etc. It also has some history of the sites you see along the way. We picked up our copy at Kanoe People in Whitehorse the day before we left after touring the Klondike Steamship. We also did most of our planning for this trip from this very detailed trip report on Canadian Canoe Routes. http://www.myccr.com/phpbbforum/viewtop ... 22&t=38855 A big thank you to that forum's e2holmes for posting such a great trip report that made planning so much easier for us.
Day 1: It poured rain on us all way to Whitehorse while driving in from Marsh lake where we were staying. We launched from the boat launch just a little down stream from the Klondike paddlewheeler. Even though we were leaving later than planned we were in good spirits since it wasn't raining when we loaded the boats and set off. We were fortunate to have family members see us off and then shuttle our car up to Dawson city for our arrival in two weeks time. A note for others making this trip, make sure your water bottles are filled ahead of time since the town's septic outfall isn't too far downstream. We hadn't made it too far when the kids started asking about lunch. We pulled out into some slow water on the right and dug out our lunch. It would have been nice to have stayed in the current but it ended up working out well stopping where we did. There were about 10 Golden eagles along the bank where we ate. We didn't get too far today as it was tough getting some people into the habit of actually paddling... This is why river tripping works well with kids, even if they don't paddle you still move along with the current and at least cover some ground. As we neared lake LaBerge the afternoon winds really picked up, it was raining and we could see dark clouds out over the lake. If we continued on to the lake the map book showed we would have to go a fair ways to get to a good camp. Considering our lack of progress thus far we decided to stop early instead. We camped on an island just before LaBerge next to “Steamboat Slough”. There was a really nice, established campsite there and as we set up camp, the sun came out and we enjoyed our evening, even if we didn't get very far that day. We had seen some other paddlers on the water that day and had a group of Czech guys join us at camp to cook and eat their dinner before they continued on. The evening sun will let you paddle well into the night if you so choose.