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Yukon River, Whitehorse to Dawson City

BigandSmall

BigandSmall

Paddler
Joined
Mar 2, 2012
Messages
433
Location
Northern BC
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.
 
Day 2: We got out on the water at the crack of 11:00. We paddled down to the headwaters of the lake and stopped to adjust our seats/back bands on a sand bar. Immediately we saw the gold flakes in the black sand. Unlike the fools gold we normally see we assumed this was the real deal. Right away the kids were out of their boats and some time was spent here picking gold flakes. This scene would be repeated on many sand bars all the way down the river. We paddled up the East (right) side of the lake in very calm conditions without much wind. The other side of the lake was a different story. Storm front after storm front rolled in over there and we could see the rain dump and hear the thunder roll most of the day. Around dinner time some of that weather finally made it to our side. We found a nice sheltered spot, set up the tarp and waited out the storm with some re-hydrated squash & bean burritos. After dinner things had calmed so we continued on until late in the evening and found a great spot to camp with a large pebble beach (great skipping rocks too). We were a few kilometers north of Richtofen Island almost at the halfway point on the lake.
 
Day 3: My wife woke me up at 3:00 AM to help her move the boats higher up the beach. Our lovely pebble beach had turned into a small surf break during the night. We had a lie in in the morning listening to the pounding surf hoping that the winds would change. I couldn't help but think how much the sound reminded me of camping at Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island. Later in the morning we could see a change in the clouds coming on the horizon and slowly got packed up. We loaded the boats, put on all our immersion gear and waited for a break. Eventually it calmed enough that we felt it was acceptable to venture out. We launched the kids into a small surf and paddled straight out two hundred yards before turning right and getting blown down the lake with a huge tail wind. The kids learned how much fun surfing is and we caught as many waves as we could. My daughter's Scorpio LV was the clear winner among our boats at catching waves and she led the pack. Eventually we stopped for a late lunch on a sheltered beach. It was a steep pebble beach that had a small cave at one end and a great tent site higher up. It would have made for a great spot to stay had it not been so early. When we got back on the water it had calmed significantly. The wind was coming in at more of an angle now rather than at our backs. We saw some canoes venture out at this point. By the end of the day the angled wind had turned to a west-east side wind and waves, not so nice paddling. It was particularly ugly for my wife's boat, wind was not her friend unless it was behind us. We did a poor job packing so she brought my Tarpon 160 with two 100 liter dry bags strapped to the back deck. The map book showed an “excellent camp” we eventually found our way to. It was a great pebble beach camp on Lower LaBerge (Miller Location) right near the end of the lake. There were swarms of bugs in the tent sites so we set up right on the beach instead. A walk in the trees found an old cabin, deep moss and discarded cans from the past. Very nice spot.
 
Day 4: Watched Five loons together this morning while we made breakfast. After getting out on the water I see we should have finished the lake the night before. We thought the end of the lake/mouth of the river was just around the corner from our camp. It turns out it was a little further than that and the waves were a lot bigger than they looked from shore. They were up to 2.5 feet high and not spaced evenly. With fully loaded boats this didn't make for easy paddling. My son thought it was great, my daughter handled it without issue. My wife and I were still very nervous. We hadn't worn our immersion gear since “we were only going just over there”, that was a mistake. It didn't take too long to reach the end of the lake and the start of the "Thirty Mile". There are some cabins here and a nice camp site complete with an old truck. The wreck of the Casca was supposed to be near here but we must have missed it. The 30 mile started out slow and then picked up speed. There was one section that was particularly quick with a lot of current that made it difficult to keep the boats straight. We had a few tears of frustration and some anxiety. Once we finally managed to get everyone into some slow water we stopped to have a rest and a snack and that took the edge off. We paddled down to Hootalinqua where the Teslin River joins the Yukon. Here we had a nice developed camp site/Historic site all to ourselves. We moved a picnic table out from under a shelter to set up our tent under. Good thing since the rain started just after that.
 
Day 5: Our map book showed a paddle wheeler on the other side of the river so we paddled up an eddy and ferry glided over to the far shore. Once there we spotted the ship on the island in the middle. We worked our way back up the shore line and ferry glided back over to the island. Here the Steamer Evelyn Norcom sits on blocks on the island allowing nature to take its course. There were a few Parks Canada signs but other than that she's all original from when it was dry docked and stripped years ago. They took the running gear out of the Norcom and put it into the Keno for its final voyage from Whitehorse to Dawson City. This was one of the highlights of the trip. We paddled through some biblical rain today and eventually found sun again. We camped just before the Big Salmon river. The take out was steep and faster than I would have liked, but the camp was great. Lots of squirrels and gophers here as well as an old cabin complete with some old chairs. I noticed a few old grizzly excavations here but no fresh sign. No table to cook on tonight, how spoiled we have been.
 
Day 6: We got out today at 10:30, decent weather with only a little rain and head winds. A wrong turn down a promising looking channel had us dodging sweepers and paddling hard. We saw a large group of paddlers hiking a ridge overlooking the river. At lunch we stopped at Cyr's dredge, the river is taking it and what is left is sunk into the mud. It still made for a good lunch spot and a place to pick more gold flakes. We arrived at the first camp on the left after the Little Salmon river. It had a high bank that I didn't want to drag the heavy boats up. We elected to go to the next camp on our map. We arrived at that one to find it occupied (whoops). Since no one likes company we continued on. Eventually we found a great camp at the site of the Columbian wreck. It was complete with a cable spool table to cook on as well as a rack to hang our gear on. (The kids were strangely excited by the “Hawaiian Breeze” air freshener in the outhouse) Spoiled again after a 75km day.




Day 7: We stopped early today at the Coal Mine Camp ground in Carmacks. You can't miss it, it's on the right a ways before the bridge with large signs ahead of time preparing you. There are two docks to land at here, well suited to canoes. We tucked our kayaks in between them and dragged them up the bank. We rented a cabin for the night and wheeled our boats over to it. I remembered the Wheelez cart but forgot the straps. Fortunately the SOT's thigh straps worked in a pinch. We treated ourselves to hot showers and cooked food from the cafe (not rehydrated). We did some laundry and sent out a few texts to let everyone now we were still alive and had reached the halfway point.
 
Day 8: We had a slow start today after having breakfast from the cafe and chatting with other travellers. We didn't see anyone other than other paddlers from the Thirty mile to Carmacks. From Carmacks down there seems to be more activity and cabins. Headwind again all day today. We stopped on a sand bar for lunch and to put on our immersion gear for Five Fingers. Five Fingers were gorgeous, the afternoon sun on the rocks made it look like Moab. The rapids themselves were nothing compared to the waves of Laberge and we had put on our costumes for nothing. We followed the suggested line and stayed to the right. Next time I'd consider taking the center channel, stick left and make camp on the fingers. The riffle just after the Fingers is actually much stronger. Rink rapids is not far past the Fingers. From a distance it looks ominous, rapids spanning the whole river and you can hear it from way back. We again followed the suggested line and stayed right. This allowed us to pass without so much as even a wave. We continued down to "Sam Magee's ashes" and then stopped for spaghetti on an island. We continued paddling after dinner and had a great camp at Merrice Creek with a bunch of old cabin remains.
 
Day 9: 10:30 start time, headwinds all day. Passed though Minto today, saw a ferry/barge than runs shore to shore. Slow going today. We stopped on another bar for a break from the extreme winds and picked gold flakes. We were aiming for Fort Selkirk tonight where the Pelly River meets the Yukon. We arrived late and ready for bed, most developed campground we've seen yet. We spent a lot of time trying to make sure we were in the right channel and watching the shore so we didn't miss it as there are a lot of islands and channels on this part of the river. Turns out it would have been pretty hard to miss with the flag poles, boat launch and welcome signs.
 
Day 10: Fort Selkirk was awesome. Picture a town abandoned when the stern wheelers stopped running and there it sits. The First Nations in the area keep it up partnered with Parks Canada. There is a great camp site there with a cabin cooking area, fire rings, picnic tables and a bear cache. We had the place to ourselves and spent the morning exploring all the old buildings. We reluctantly left at lunch time and ate on the river. Unfortunately people were expecting us to arrive in Dawson otherwise we would have stayed longer. Another day of tough headwinds, very slow going. We arrived at Selwyn River at 7:00 and made camp. More cabin remains here and it was a beautiful spot, but lots of roots make for tough tenting.




Day 11: While packing up this morning the squirrels alerted me to a very large bear less than 50 yards away walking past in the trees. I called the kids over and we kept a close eye on things while continuing to pack up. We got out late today because I spent too much time watching the trees. We had decent weather today and had to stop a few times to take layers off. We ended up camping on a nice little island not far after Coffee creek. Coffee creek ended up looking like just that. Not entirely sure what gave it it's colour.
 
Day 12: We started the day with a tail wind. It unfortunately died off quickly but as long as we didn't have a headwind we were happy. We arrived at the confluence of the Yukon and the White river in the late afternoon. Here the river really changes, it gets big, much faster and has quite a few more hazards. It now fills the valley the floor and keeping in the main channel is tough. It's also very dirty making it hard to gauge depth (you want to avoid slow water). We started looking for a camp around 5:30. We had an island picked out and were planning to land when we spotted a young bear on our island. We decided that since he was there first we would find another spot. We ferry glided across the river and tried to work our way up to a sandy looking spot. There was a big splash right beside my wife's boat. With the silty water she couldn't see the beaver until she hit it with her paddle and even then she thought I had splashed her since we were all laughing. We couldn't get to the sandy spot, we bottomed out in the mud and had to fight our way back out. We made our way across another channel to a less than ideal camp. There we camped in the mud with the bugs and roasted marshmallows... It's funny, I remember it as the muddy campsite with the bugs, the kids remember the campfire and the smores.




Day 13: We were all tired today except my wife. None of us wanted to paddle and we had to resort to interval paddling of 5 minutes on, 2 minutes off to get going. We had been reading The 100 Year Old Man That Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared each night in the tent. We rafted up and read a couple of chapters today on the water due to a lack of interest in paddling. Did I mention the fizzing sound of the Yukon? The silt makes a noise as it runs down river. You'd have to hear it to believe it. We stopped at 5:30 tonight and set up on a island. It was a nice sandy bar and we set up the footprint and fly for some shade, too much sun today. My son got out his slingshot and we had a beach fire. Eventually the kids roasted marshmallows when the fire died down. It was sure nice to stop early for a change.
 
Day 14: We were woken today by the sound of a large machine. A huge barge with a tall pilot house went by at 7:00. When we got out on the water today we had a big tailwind. What a nice change, it makes paddling so much easier. We caught up to and passed a raft contraption made from canoes and logs lashed together with what looked like a wall tent cabin frame on the outside. They could roll tarps down to make walls. Very cool if not very manoeuvrable. We passed them just before Dawson city. Upon arrival in Dawson we could see the ferry making it's crossing until it blew it's whistle at us and we realized it was a paddle wheeler and not the ferry. We pulled over to the mouth of the Klondike River to get out of the way and got hung up in the muddy Yukon shallows at the edge of the clean water of the Klondike. As we were crossing the Klondike we saw the raft contraption getting pushed by the river straight towards the paddle wheeler with all hands on deck paddling like mad and the paddle wheeler blowing it's whistle. We landed our boats and then caught the line for the raft contraption when they came in. From there we went and found our car and rented a cabin.



Day 15: We spent the day wandering around Dawson city being tourists and seeing the sites. We toured the Keno and found my Grandfathers picture in the 1938 crew photo. We spoke to other tourists and had ice cream in the park. We met a colourful Austrian there who was a member of the raft contraption crew. English being his second language he didn't realize that the F word is not one to say in front of kids. The kids therefore really enjoyed his version of the paddle wheeler story.


This trip was such an amazing journey through history and nature. It was a great bonding experience for our family and a source of pride for our kids, having paddled it themselves. We had every campground to ourselves (except The Coalmine Campground) so we really were out there on our own for the most part. We didn't see a lot of wildlife, but we saw enough to know that it was there even if it wasn't visible. We gave ourselves 12 -14 days to complete the trip and we used all 14 of those days. I am pretty sure we could have completed the trip faster if we weren't hampered by the head-winds, but we probably would have taken extra time to explore if we had it; so I think we would have been 14 days anyway. It really was a great trip that wasn't too difficult that I would recommend to many.
 
Nicely done. :big_thumb Now will you consider joining us in the Yukon River Quest race on that route next June
www.yukonriverquest.com ? Our backyard has much to offer and as you found out, is easily accessed....after a very long drive mind you to get here.
 
Looks like a great trip and your family is a bunch of troopers :big_thumb

Nicely documented with words and images, and the landscape looks beautiful.

Gero
 
Thank you GeroV. When we were planning our trip and talking about it with friends and family I was surprised how many people wanted to join us. It seems this trip is one on a lot of people's list. We tried to pass on enough information for others to plan from as we did with E2Holmes's report. (Theirs is far more detailed)
 
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