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We just got back yesterday from a 8 days Yukon river trip leaving from our front door(2km from it) in Whitehorse Yukon to Carmacks, 300km total including the entire length of lake Laberge that is just over 50 km. We left on monday the 22nd with an other family so four adults and four kids... So aged 4yo to 44yo...
I'm not the best at trip reports, but I'll do my best.
We were paddling 2 Esquif Miramichi, 20 feet Royalex prospector type canoe, slow and heavy, never again I will use that canoe...
So leaving from town, we did 35km before stoping to a good well used camp site. We just a few km from the lake.
The next day we made it to the lake and did a total of 25km, lake travel is slow... slower than on the river, but the lake was nice a calm. found a great camp site in a bay well sheltered from the wind. That lake is a huge lake and can go from smooth and calm to ugly and carry in a matter of minutes. So all paddlers are encouraged to follow the east side and stay fairly close to shore. Even in the warmest of summer the water stay well bellow 10 degrees celsius. so a capsize far from shore can be, well, disastrous!!
On wednesday we left our bay at 10 am, we were up at around 7 every day( some a bit later) and manage to get going by 10 or 10:30 after having a good breakfast and relaxing morning. The lake is still quite calm. The weather is nice and we have a bit of a tale wind/breeze. Still lots of smoke from the different forest fires that have hit the Yukon since the spring. Nous parcourons 26 km. We are off the water to a great camp site by a rock cliff by 5pm. Today is the start of the Yukon River quest, a 700km canoe/Kayak/voyageur race the racer go all the way to Dawson city in about 50hrs, they race around the clock other than a 8hrs layover in Carmacks. So that night at 7pm the first two boats are passing in front of our camp, the kids are really excited, they were only 7 hrs into the race, #1 was a tandem kayak followed close by a tandem canoe. We saw all 56 teams before we got to bed a 11ish pm.
Thursday was our last day on the lake and we had only 6km to do before entering the section of the Yukon river known as the 30 miles. The wind was up we had some whitecaps, but the waves stayed under 2 feet with a good tale wind we manage to use the umbrella to sail to the end reaching 7-8km/hr. We entered the 30 miles and stopped for a short break at lower Laberge, a cabine and a few other artifact are still visible from the Stern Paddle ships era doing the trip from Whitehorse to Dawson and back from 1899 to 1956-58.... Short day on the water, we ddi only 37km...
We camped one night on the 30 miles before we reached where the Teslin river meet the Yukon. On Friday , we stopped at Hootalinqua where there use to be a road house and trading post. There is still a lot of artifact that remain. We then went a bit further dow street to an Island where the SS Evelyne was stored for winer but never went back into the water, so we can see what is left of it and the big wooden winch that where used to bring boats up on the island for the winter. We also saw the remains of the SS Klondike 1 in a bent on the river where you can see only the deck above the water. We did 51 km today!!
Saturday, we had quite a bit of head wind, the river gets quite a bit bigger, but not much faster... Super hot day!! We manage 57km and got off the water a 4:45 pm. There is more people on the water to since the Teslin came in the Yukon. The Teslin is a really popular trip and more people do it since you don't have to deal with the Lake. We saw 3 black bears, the first one was swimming across the river and aiming for a camp site just above where the Big Salmon river get into the Yukon. The bear was ferrying nicely to a couple of tourists that were getting ready to put in when we yelled at them of the bear destination.... As soon as the bear heard our voice, he started to swim harder and got off a bit higher than the camp site. we ferried across to make sure the bear wasn't coming into camp wile the couple finished packing there canoe. We then kept going Below the Big Salmon river to Big Salmon village where there use to be a first nation fishing/hunting camp and trading post. there is still some old cabines standing. The Yukon river was at one time the Highway to the Dawson city gold rush and for many years after until the Alaska Hwy was built So lots of great history is all along its banks.
We had lunch at Laurent Cyre's Dredge, that was built in the 40's from scraps, an old Cat angine and car angine and drive train. They floated it for 20 days and managed to dredge 72 onces of gold "flour" they brought it on shore and left w/o returning the next season...........
The kids Jumped off the canoe to cool of in the afternoon before we reach Twin Creek for the night. We built some wooden boats with them and raced them down the creek, it was a lot of fun!!
Sunday, we only did 46km and camped on a gravel/sandy bar 24km out of Carmacks. it was so hot we had to set up the tarp to stay out of the sun... We all have a dip in the cold water to cool off so we could sleep that night.
Our last day on the river started with a really easy morning of cooking bannok, pancake and eggs, drinking coffee and letting the kids play in the sand by the river! We left at lunch and we mainly floated to our last stop before being picked up by Karine's sister and her husband.
A great trip with great people in the land of the midnight sun that I call home!!
Interesting... the picture didn't load in the good order... Ho well.
I'm not the best at trip reports, but I'll do my best.
We were paddling 2 Esquif Miramichi, 20 feet Royalex prospector type canoe, slow and heavy, never again I will use that canoe...
So leaving from town, we did 35km before stoping to a good well used camp site. We just a few km from the lake.
The next day we made it to the lake and did a total of 25km, lake travel is slow... slower than on the river, but the lake was nice a calm. found a great camp site in a bay well sheltered from the wind. That lake is a huge lake and can go from smooth and calm to ugly and carry in a matter of minutes. So all paddlers are encouraged to follow the east side and stay fairly close to shore. Even in the warmest of summer the water stay well bellow 10 degrees celsius. so a capsize far from shore can be, well, disastrous!!
On wednesday we left our bay at 10 am, we were up at around 7 every day( some a bit later) and manage to get going by 10 or 10:30 after having a good breakfast and relaxing morning. The lake is still quite calm. The weather is nice and we have a bit of a tale wind/breeze. Still lots of smoke from the different forest fires that have hit the Yukon since the spring. Nous parcourons 26 km. We are off the water to a great camp site by a rock cliff by 5pm. Today is the start of the Yukon River quest, a 700km canoe/Kayak/voyageur race the racer go all the way to Dawson city in about 50hrs, they race around the clock other than a 8hrs layover in Carmacks. So that night at 7pm the first two boats are passing in front of our camp, the kids are really excited, they were only 7 hrs into the race, #1 was a tandem kayak followed close by a tandem canoe. We saw all 56 teams before we got to bed a 11ish pm.
Thursday was our last day on the lake and we had only 6km to do before entering the section of the Yukon river known as the 30 miles. The wind was up we had some whitecaps, but the waves stayed under 2 feet with a good tale wind we manage to use the umbrella to sail to the end reaching 7-8km/hr. We entered the 30 miles and stopped for a short break at lower Laberge, a cabine and a few other artifact are still visible from the Stern Paddle ships era doing the trip from Whitehorse to Dawson and back from 1899 to 1956-58.... Short day on the water, we ddi only 37km...
We camped one night on the 30 miles before we reached where the Teslin river meet the Yukon. On Friday , we stopped at Hootalinqua where there use to be a road house and trading post. There is still a lot of artifact that remain. We then went a bit further dow street to an Island where the SS Evelyne was stored for winer but never went back into the water, so we can see what is left of it and the big wooden winch that where used to bring boats up on the island for the winter. We also saw the remains of the SS Klondike 1 in a bent on the river where you can see only the deck above the water. We did 51 km today!!
Saturday, we had quite a bit of head wind, the river gets quite a bit bigger, but not much faster... Super hot day!! We manage 57km and got off the water a 4:45 pm. There is more people on the water to since the Teslin came in the Yukon. The Teslin is a really popular trip and more people do it since you don't have to deal with the Lake. We saw 3 black bears, the first one was swimming across the river and aiming for a camp site just above where the Big Salmon river get into the Yukon. The bear was ferrying nicely to a couple of tourists that were getting ready to put in when we yelled at them of the bear destination.... As soon as the bear heard our voice, he started to swim harder and got off a bit higher than the camp site. we ferried across to make sure the bear wasn't coming into camp wile the couple finished packing there canoe. We then kept going Below the Big Salmon river to Big Salmon village where there use to be a first nation fishing/hunting camp and trading post. there is still some old cabines standing. The Yukon river was at one time the Highway to the Dawson city gold rush and for many years after until the Alaska Hwy was built So lots of great history is all along its banks.
We had lunch at Laurent Cyre's Dredge, that was built in the 40's from scraps, an old Cat angine and car angine and drive train. They floated it for 20 days and managed to dredge 72 onces of gold "flour" they brought it on shore and left w/o returning the next season...........
The kids Jumped off the canoe to cool of in the afternoon before we reach Twin Creek for the night. We built some wooden boats with them and raced them down the creek, it was a lot of fun!!
Sunday, we only did 46km and camped on a gravel/sandy bar 24km out of Carmacks. it was so hot we had to set up the tarp to stay out of the sun... We all have a dip in the cold water to cool off so we could sleep that night.
Our last day on the river started with a really easy morning of cooking bannok, pancake and eggs, drinking coffee and letting the kids play in the sand by the river! We left at lunch and we mainly floated to our last stop before being picked up by Karine's sister and her husband.
A great trip with great people in the land of the midnight sun that I call home!!
Interesting... the picture didn't load in the good order... Ho well.
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