Fantastic photos and story! Thanks for letting us in on it.
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11 days, 2 moose, big water, great weather....
- Thread starter Canotrouge
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Holly crap Robin, how did you do that? Tank you very much!!
So there you have it with the help of Robin you get the entire thing in one place and in order lol!!
Thank you again Robin!
It was an excellent trip, even if BIL is quite different in the way he thinks and do things, but I guess one doesn't choose his BIL but I know for sure a trip like that won't happen again with him.
The ww was quite big, the biggest(maybe not in volume but technically wile tripping with a full size(17'9" canoe) it was.) I've done so far on a trip.
So we landed on McNeil lake on September 15, after a lot of arguing with the float plane company owner regarding our weight and the length and weight of the canoe!! But after all was settled, BIL started his drive to the lake for the second p/u, they do this so we can use a smaller plane and drop the cost a bit. The drive is bout 4-5hrs, 1.5hrs on the Alaska hwy south and then up the South Canol rd to Quite lake!
We got on the plane shortly after lunch, after jamming our gear into the small 206, and then the canoe goes into a "sock" to limit drag and it's strapped to the float stanchions. We then taxi to the end of Shwatka lake that is the lake created after building the Hydro dang here in Whitehorse just below Miles Canyon. Before the dam, that section of the Yukon river was called the White Horse Rapids hence the name of the town!
1.5hrs of flight at 120miles an hour and it put us on a mountain lake. At our surprise, the trapper's cabine have smoke comping out of the stack... We knew there was a trapline and a cabine on the lake but no body told us that he spend every months of September there... ( the owner of the Float plane Company knew that really well) So we were a bit disappointed to not have the lake and the area to our self. Turned out the guy and his family are the best people I've met in a long time, they were the most hospitable people there is( they also were a bit pissed, no they were really pissed at Alpine Aviation for dropping a party of hunters on his lake in late september).... We had a chance to chat with them in many occasion, and when BIL shot his moose on Saturday night, it got dark quick and they even boated back out to the site in the dark to see if we were doing alright and if we needed a hand with anything. True Northerner spirit right there, the real thing, something that is getting more and more rare up here with the increase in population and people moving up here for the wrong reasons!
So on the 16th, me and Pat decided to go explore the head water of the McNeil, so in the morning after the morning hunt on the lake and a good breakfast, we set up to go for the day paddling and tracking up the river to see where it would bring us!! It was so awesome. It was a noce sunny day and a nice bit of river with some rock gardens and riffles, but mostly easy going. We got to the top, climb a small hill to have lunch and saw a moose 2km down the valley, so back down and in the canoe we go... find our way through the different harms of the lake to get to where we could no longer go forward and climbed an other hill to have a good view of the area.... The moose was a super large cow.... So no more pushing to get closer was made!
So around 4 pm, we started out way down the river, winning and paddling some section where the water was deep enough. Close to the end, we saw the trapper, is young daughter and his own BIL going up stream with his motor boat, pushing pulling to make there way up. we wish them luck and the way we went back to camp. I tried my hand at fly fishing, but since I suck at it I didn'T get nothing.... Meanwhile, Pat was getting supper ready and BIL was in is raft floating on the lake where he spent most of his day floating, glassing, napping.... Until we saw him rowing hard and harder and then stoped, calling.... and then rowing again... We looked at him thinking he was nuts... But he was onto a bull a km away from us.... we hear a first shot... Look up and sure enough there it was a bull moose in the water across the lake 800-900m away. So hell with supper, we packed our gear and met with him across the lake to find a medium size moose in 3 feet of water in the lake.
Work begins!! So 800lbs moose, dead in 3 feet of water just below a 18-20 inch hight bank, will take a bit of work to get that thing out... Come-along comes out, Dynema rope, poulies, prussiks, tubular webbing slings and a few minutes later a "Z" drag is set up and the moose is coming up the bank inch by inch... 1.5hrs later he's on shore nought to start the field dressing. A fire is going, and the headlamp are strapped to our heads and the fun start.... it was 8 pm when he shot... it was midnight when we got back to camp after crossing the lake in the dark wile a breeze made a few wave crossing our path!!!
The next morning we took care of the meat, sexting up a pole to hang it, opening the neck so it would cool down faster, treating the meat with a solution of citric acid to prevent spoilage.... We would start our way down the river the next day(Monday).
Lucky enough on Monday, the trapper stoped by our camp on his way back from there morning hunt and BIL was ready to go with the raft and all the meat and they offered him a tow to the end of the lake where he as his cabine!! We said yes and off he goes. We meet him there an hour or so later with the canoe and the rest of the gear. They offered us coffee, a second breakfast, a tour of his installation, showing us the home made wood fire hot tub and all!! We have a good discussion about Alpine Aviation and there lack of professionalism... And we made good friends!!!
A bit later, after being full of coffee, we set off down the river to our next camp, West Fork, halfway down to Moss lake! The river is really shallow and tight. lots of grinding on the canoe... We are big guys hahaha! BIL still had the rack on the raft, and I suggested that all the gear should be tied in... But BIL being BIL decided it wasn't needed... One tight bent, one hanging dead spruce in a tight bent, and off the foot of the raft goes the soft cooler, one of his shirt, and his insulated rubber boot(yeas only one... lucky him lol) the rack was the cause for all that so a bit lower on a gravel bar the rack ended up its journey with us!!
Nothing special happened there, first thing when we get in camp, is to set up a meat pole to hang the moose. then fire, wall tent, supper and relaxing....
We decided to carry on the next day to Moss lake where we would spend a few days relaxing and making a plan for the rest of the trip!
I'll jump ahead here to the ww day... So after Moss, we paddled the last section of the McNeil that brings us in the upper Nisutlin, we camp at the confluence of the Nisutlin and the McConnel river, just above the rapids, 10+km of them, mostly classII doted of many classIII and one class III-IV. Ho Yea, I have to say that the first moose got flown out from Moss so we didn't have to deal with it going down that stretch of water!!
The ww was quite big envy if the water level was low, a bit more water would have made them a bit easier, giving us more option on lines... But we didn't have those few more inches so it was time to get our back ferrying skills out and use them at the best of our ability. BIL did awesome in the raft, even if he had a few close call. And we did great in the canoe, way better than I thought since Pat doesn't paddle that kind of stuff really often or at all, but he is a natural and we paddle really well together usually so it went super well, we had one close call kind of, when almost done with one rapid, we lost track of all the boulders we had to dodge and we ended up bow up onto a popover boulder. Pat's first reaction was to grab the gunnels
but I told him to relax wile the current grated the stern and one rock spin later we are sliding right into the eddy below the rock... We were all good and it just made us more alert for the rest of the day!! I have to say, we had a few good hit on some really narrow chute but those Hellman canoes are really tough, as tough as RX for sure and much faster and lighter!!
Anyway, before the last RII, we find a great camp and the story for that section is just below one of the picture in the post above!
So after getting my moose, we do the same thing as with the first one, taking care of the meat is priority so cleaning, citric acid, bagging, hanging and tapping to keep it dry and out of the sun!!
Next day, we start the way out, we were planning to do it in 2 days since the river slows quite a bit down after the last RII and the few riffles section it pretty much slow down to half the speed of the previous days... Everything below the rapids get hit by hunters quite hard and this year isn't different. not far past where the Rose goes in, we saw 2 guys, in a canoe with a small 2.2 hp on the gunnels, I knew those guys, but didn't care to hang out. so we kept going... They past us a bit later to make sure we wouldn't spook anything before they could see it... Funny thing is, they were about a km a head of us and we saw a young bull by the side of the river that obviously they didn't see... Kind of made my day lol until we saw them at the last decent campsite before the take out then I was a bit unhappy
.... So we pushed on, switching from paddling the canoe to rowing the raft in between the 3 of us... It was a long day... Left camp at 10am that morning, and had a 30 minutes shore line lunch and got off the river in the dark at 9pm.... We still had to deal with the meat, set up camp, have supper etc etc. Lucky for us, my truck was already at the take out and in the truck was a few great large high % craft beer and a bag of chips that I had hidden in there 11 days earlier
.
The next morning it as cold but a nice day, so after breakfast, we broke camp, cleaned, deflated and rolled the raft, reorganized the meat in the truck and load up the entire kit in the truck and started our way back home.
Work is not done till it's done.... Still had to hang the meat, clean dry and organize gear, start butchering everything that wasn't going to the butcher shop( I only bring the 4 quarters the the butcher, at $1/pound of what goes in(that means bones in) it is quick to cost a lot of money! So me and Pat didi the Neck, the ribs and the back bone at home. we ended up with 19 8lbs bag of burger meat to get ground and lots of the good stuff and I brought the 360+lbs of quarters to the butcher shop. This moose should yield about 450lbs of meat.
Hope you enjoyed that short trip report!!
Holly crap Robin, how did you do that? Tank you very much!!
So there you have it with the help of Robin you get the entire thing in one place and in order lol!!
Thank you again Robin!
It was an excellent trip, even if BIL is quite different in the way he thinks and do things, but I guess one doesn't choose his BIL but I know for sure a trip like that won't happen again with him.
The ww was quite big, the biggest(maybe not in volume but technically wile tripping with a full size(17'9" canoe) it was.) I've done so far on a trip.
So we landed on McNeil lake on September 15, after a lot of arguing with the float plane company owner regarding our weight and the length and weight of the canoe!! But after all was settled, BIL started his drive to the lake for the second p/u, they do this so we can use a smaller plane and drop the cost a bit. The drive is bout 4-5hrs, 1.5hrs on the Alaska hwy south and then up the South Canol rd to Quite lake!
We got on the plane shortly after lunch, after jamming our gear into the small 206, and then the canoe goes into a "sock" to limit drag and it's strapped to the float stanchions. We then taxi to the end of Shwatka lake that is the lake created after building the Hydro dang here in Whitehorse just below Miles Canyon. Before the dam, that section of the Yukon river was called the White Horse Rapids hence the name of the town!
1.5hrs of flight at 120miles an hour and it put us on a mountain lake. At our surprise, the trapper's cabine have smoke comping out of the stack... We knew there was a trapline and a cabine on the lake but no body told us that he spend every months of September there... ( the owner of the Float plane Company knew that really well) So we were a bit disappointed to not have the lake and the area to our self. Turned out the guy and his family are the best people I've met in a long time, they were the most hospitable people there is( they also were a bit pissed, no they were really pissed at Alpine Aviation for dropping a party of hunters on his lake in late september).... We had a chance to chat with them in many occasion, and when BIL shot his moose on Saturday night, it got dark quick and they even boated back out to the site in the dark to see if we were doing alright and if we needed a hand with anything. True Northerner spirit right there, the real thing, something that is getting more and more rare up here with the increase in population and people moving up here for the wrong reasons!
So on the 16th, me and Pat decided to go explore the head water of the McNeil, so in the morning after the morning hunt on the lake and a good breakfast, we set up to go for the day paddling and tracking up the river to see where it would bring us!! It was so awesome. It was a noce sunny day and a nice bit of river with some rock gardens and riffles, but mostly easy going. We got to the top, climb a small hill to have lunch and saw a moose 2km down the valley, so back down and in the canoe we go... find our way through the different harms of the lake to get to where we could no longer go forward and climbed an other hill to have a good view of the area.... The moose was a super large cow.... So no more pushing to get closer was made!
So around 4 pm, we started out way down the river, winning and paddling some section where the water was deep enough. Close to the end, we saw the trapper, is young daughter and his own BIL going up stream with his motor boat, pushing pulling to make there way up. we wish them luck and the way we went back to camp. I tried my hand at fly fishing, but since I suck at it I didn'T get nothing.... Meanwhile, Pat was getting supper ready and BIL was in is raft floating on the lake where he spent most of his day floating, glassing, napping.... Until we saw him rowing hard and harder and then stoped, calling.... and then rowing again... We looked at him thinking he was nuts... But he was onto a bull a km away from us.... we hear a first shot... Look up and sure enough there it was a bull moose in the water across the lake 800-900m away. So hell with supper, we packed our gear and met with him across the lake to find a medium size moose in 3 feet of water in the lake.
Work begins!! So 800lbs moose, dead in 3 feet of water just below a 18-20 inch hight bank, will take a bit of work to get that thing out... Come-along comes out, Dynema rope, poulies, prussiks, tubular webbing slings and a few minutes later a "Z" drag is set up and the moose is coming up the bank inch by inch... 1.5hrs later he's on shore nought to start the field dressing. A fire is going, and the headlamp are strapped to our heads and the fun start.... it was 8 pm when he shot... it was midnight when we got back to camp after crossing the lake in the dark wile a breeze made a few wave crossing our path!!!
The next morning we took care of the meat, sexting up a pole to hang it, opening the neck so it would cool down faster, treating the meat with a solution of citric acid to prevent spoilage.... We would start our way down the river the next day(Monday).
Lucky enough on Monday, the trapper stoped by our camp on his way back from there morning hunt and BIL was ready to go with the raft and all the meat and they offered him a tow to the end of the lake where he as his cabine!! We said yes and off he goes. We meet him there an hour or so later with the canoe and the rest of the gear. They offered us coffee, a second breakfast, a tour of his installation, showing us the home made wood fire hot tub and all!! We have a good discussion about Alpine Aviation and there lack of professionalism... And we made good friends!!!
A bit later, after being full of coffee, we set off down the river to our next camp, West Fork, halfway down to Moss lake! The river is really shallow and tight. lots of grinding on the canoe... We are big guys hahaha! BIL still had the rack on the raft, and I suggested that all the gear should be tied in... But BIL being BIL decided it wasn't needed... One tight bent, one hanging dead spruce in a tight bent, and off the foot of the raft goes the soft cooler, one of his shirt, and his insulated rubber boot(yeas only one... lucky him lol) the rack was the cause for all that so a bit lower on a gravel bar the rack ended up its journey with us!!
Nothing special happened there, first thing when we get in camp, is to set up a meat pole to hang the moose. then fire, wall tent, supper and relaxing....
We decided to carry on the next day to Moss lake where we would spend a few days relaxing and making a plan for the rest of the trip!
I'll jump ahead here to the ww day... So after Moss, we paddled the last section of the McNeil that brings us in the upper Nisutlin, we camp at the confluence of the Nisutlin and the McConnel river, just above the rapids, 10+km of them, mostly classII doted of many classIII and one class III-IV. Ho Yea, I have to say that the first moose got flown out from Moss so we didn't have to deal with it going down that stretch of water!!
The ww was quite big envy if the water level was low, a bit more water would have made them a bit easier, giving us more option on lines... But we didn't have those few more inches so it was time to get our back ferrying skills out and use them at the best of our ability. BIL did awesome in the raft, even if he had a few close call. And we did great in the canoe, way better than I thought since Pat doesn't paddle that kind of stuff really often or at all, but he is a natural and we paddle really well together usually so it went super well, we had one close call kind of, when almost done with one rapid, we lost track of all the boulders we had to dodge and we ended up bow up onto a popover boulder. Pat's first reaction was to grab the gunnels
but I told him to relax wile the current grated the stern and one rock spin later we are sliding right into the eddy below the rock... We were all good and it just made us more alert for the rest of the day!! I have to say, we had a few good hit on some really narrow chute but those Hellman canoes are really tough, as tough as RX for sure and much faster and lighter!!Anyway, before the last RII, we find a great camp and the story for that section is just below one of the picture in the post above!
So after getting my moose, we do the same thing as with the first one, taking care of the meat is priority so cleaning, citric acid, bagging, hanging and tapping to keep it dry and out of the sun!!
Next day, we start the way out, we were planning to do it in 2 days since the river slows quite a bit down after the last RII and the few riffles section it pretty much slow down to half the speed of the previous days... Everything below the rapids get hit by hunters quite hard and this year isn't different. not far past where the Rose goes in, we saw 2 guys, in a canoe with a small 2.2 hp on the gunnels, I knew those guys, but didn't care to hang out. so we kept going... They past us a bit later to make sure we wouldn't spook anything before they could see it... Funny thing is, they were about a km a head of us and we saw a young bull by the side of the river that obviously they didn't see... Kind of made my day lol until we saw them at the last decent campsite before the take out then I was a bit unhappy
.... So we pushed on, switching from paddling the canoe to rowing the raft in between the 3 of us... It was a long day... Left camp at 10am that morning, and had a 30 minutes shore line lunch and got off the river in the dark at 9pm.... We still had to deal with the meat, set up camp, have supper etc etc. Lucky for us, my truck was already at the take out and in the truck was a few great large high % craft beer and a bag of chips that I had hidden in there 11 days earlier. The next morning it as cold but a nice day, so after breakfast, we broke camp, cleaned, deflated and rolled the raft, reorganized the meat in the truck and load up the entire kit in the truck and started our way back home.
Work is not done till it's done.... Still had to hang the meat, clean dry and organize gear, start butchering everything that wasn't going to the butcher shop( I only bring the 4 quarters the the butcher, at $1/pound of what goes in(that means bones in) it is quick to cost a lot of money! So me and Pat didi the Neck, the ribs and the back bone at home. we ended up with 19 8lbs bag of burger meat to get ground and lots of the good stuff and I brought the 360+lbs of quarters to the butcher shop. This moose should yield about 450lbs of meat.
Hope you enjoyed that short trip report!!
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[USER][/USER], thank you, but I thought people wouldn't be happy with the little text that I put with the photos, so I wrote some thing a bit more detailed!!
Hi Canotrouge, I have a Google Photos account and I think that had something to do with me being able to "copy and paste" each pic and each caption. It took a while this morning but those pictures and story where so good I enjoyed the extra time I got studying them.
Thanks for posting that "Outdoor Life" worthy story here, amazing trip. (I tried to "like" the pictures but a pop up told me I can't like my own post...haha)
My son in law has a bull permit in Maine next month and I shared your story with him and his buddies, should get him even more pumped for the hunt.
Thanks for posting that "Outdoor Life" worthy story here, amazing trip. (I tried to "like" the pictures but a pop up told me I can't like my own post...haha)
My son in law has a bull permit in Maine next month and I shared your story with him and his buddies, should get him even more pumped for the hunt.
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Thank you again Robin... Maybe I need to try that next time, copy and past one thing at the time!
I really appreciate you took the time!
Cheers
I really appreciate you took the time!
Cheers
Good story! In a week and a half, there will be approximately 3000 moose hunters in the area where I live, so the Yukon is still sounding pretty good. We hope to head in around Friday the 13th, which sounds pretty lucky.
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No gold nuggets, but my friend Pat is a Geologist and there was one spot he think it could be worth going in with some diving vacuum thingy and our chances would be alright!!
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Wow that is a lot of hunters... Up here they estimate the population of moose to be around 70 000.... and maybe 5-6 hundred hunters... But that number is increasing every year and not all good hunters, lots of them buy guns and go in the bush w/o a clue of what they have to do... Moose is different than deer or even caribou... But that is what it is!!
Photo of the Year
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Hahaha. I like that one too!!
But his one is also good! He got a face full on a few occasion!!
Photo of the Year
Hahaha. I like that one too!!
But his one is also good! He got a face full on a few occasion!!
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Wow!! Great trip Canot, thanks for the write up and fantastic photos!!!
That looks like good river for a float trip, and you got some great photos and your moose. That's hard to beat.
What a great trip report - man I wanna go !! Great story and trip - your pics are breath taking.
Bob.
Bob.
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Thank you Bob, I am grateful for the choices I made in life.... Making money is not one of them, but I manage alright!
You sure seem to manage ! Man! Those are some awesome photos! Thanks for sharing this trip.
Jason
Jason
I can't get enough of this story, Thanks again for sharing it here.
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Thank you guys for the generous comments( I always think my TR are a bit lame/broken english...) It was great trip, costly, but a great trip!
I ended up with about 500lbs of dressed meet in the freezer, meat for 2 years, but some will go to friends that don't hunt or that didn't get a chance to fill there tags!
I ended up with about 500lbs of dressed meet in the freezer, meat for 2 years, but some will go to friends that don't hunt or that didn't get a chance to fill there tags!
