The Porcupine River

[Paddlinhal]

Folks might getting sick of all my trip plans, jumping from one trip to another. It started as the Idaa Trail between Great Slave and Great Bear Lakes in NWT, then because of the travel expense it became the Colville on the North Slope of Alaska. Then because of the uncertainties of Polar Bears near the coast, we have switched again. This time we have flights and shuttle all paid for so I guess it's the Porcupine! We have a 14 hour shuttle from Whitehorse to the bridge over the Eagle River along the Dempster Highway. Then the Eagle, Bell, Porcupine and finally the Yukon River down to the Dalton Highway. 33 days of paddling...

 

[VernAK]

My buddy and his son did that same trip a few years back. Interesting for sure except for Yukon Flats.

 

[Black_Fly]

Outstanding trip. Good luck getting it all set up.

 

[yknpdlr]

My buddy and his son did that same trip a few years back. Interesting for sure except for Yukon Flats.

I love the Yukon flats. A navigator's dream challenge to plan and paddle the most efficient route between islands and gravel shoals.

 

[Pringles]

I did from the bridge at Eagle River to Fort Yukon 10 years ago. About 5 minutes after the bridge fades from sight, things feel really lonely. Enjoy your trip!

 

[PaddlingPitt]

Someone on this CT site, don't remember who, has a sign off that says something like "No one is interested in what you haven't done," which is probably true.

Nevertheless, In 1988, Kathleen and I saw a presentation of people dragging 140 km (85 miles) up the Rat River, in the Northwest Territories, to get over the height of land to reach the Bell and Porcupine Rivers in the Yukon. They spent a lot of time struggling in deep water and clambering through dense, riverside brush.

“That’s an interesting trip, Kathleen,” I said afterwards. “Maybe we should do that someday. We could paddle all the way to the Yukon River. Wouldn't that be great?”

“I’m not going up the Rat,” she replied. She didn’t even think about it. She was very definite. Every once in a while I would suggest the Rat River trip again, just to get Kathleen’s reaction, which never changed.

“I’m not going up the Rat.”

I still think it would have been a great trip. Did you go alone, Pringles? How did you get picked up at Fort Yukon?

 

[Guest]

In 1988, Kathleen and I saw a presentation of people dragging 140 km (85 miles) up the Rat River, in the Northwest Territories, to get over the height of land to reach the Bell and Porcupine Rivers in the Yukon. They spent a lot of time struggling in deep water and clambering through dense, riverside brush.

“That’s an interesting trip, Kathleen,” I said afterwards. “Maybe we should do that someday. We could paddle all the way to the Yukon River. Wouldn't that be great?”

“I’m not going up the Rat,” she replied. She didn’t even think about it. She was very definite. Every once in a while I would suggest the Rat River trip again, just to get Kathleen’s reaction, which never changed.

“I’m not going up the Rat.”

I appreciate Kathleen’s lack of equivocation. Instantaneous, definitive answers are good, even if self-affirmative.

“I am never building a stripper”
“I will never buy another tandem canoe”
“I will never again rebuild/refurbish a canoe as a 3-seater solo/tandem”
“I will never again carry a canoe that weighs more than 60 lbs further than rack to truck”
“I will never drink Scotch again”

I may fudge on a small sip of that last one from time to time, but the rest are set in stone.

 

[yknpdlr]

Beginning in the spring of 2013, Robert (aka BeaV) Vollhaber paddled 5,000 miles for 6 months from WA "to, through, and around Alaska" on an unsupported solo trip that could be followed online in near real-time. He paddled from WA state through the inside passage to Skagway, then portaged over the Chilkoot pass in spring snows to the headwaters of the Yukon. From there he paddled 900 miles to the Chandalar River, upstream to its source, thence a portage over tundra to the Koyukuk River to a cabin he built years before (unfortunately he found that it had been burned to the ground), then returning to the Yukon River continuing to the Bering Sea. No one in modern times had ever canoed this windy shallow coastal water route (with lots of waves) on the Bering Sea around Alaska, finally ending his trip paddling into Anchorage.

There was and is an extensive video series available of his trip still, but he has asked that it not be linked or shared on other web sites or forums from where it currently resides. It is on a publicly accessible forum that can probably be found with the right search.

 

[Pringles]

PaddlingPitt, I did not. I’m a chicken. But I’m a chicken that likes to go on adventures. There is an outfitter out of Minneapolis that did a 3 week trip on the Porcupine, and I did that. There were 8 of us. It was one of the neatest experiences of my life, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. The Porcupine empties into the Yukon just below Fort Yukon—maybe a mile below, maybe half a mile below. We hugged the shore and paddled up the Yukon that distance, to Fort Yukon. It may not be much, but I’ve paddled UP the Yukon. Dang that’s a strong river, even on the edge! Once at Fort Yukon, we took a “regularly scheduled bush flight” back to Fairbanks. They have maybe 8-10 seat flights in everyday/often. We found someone with a pick up that we could hire to shuttle our stuff from the riverbank to the airport. There, they were kind enough to allow us to camp at the edge of the tarmack. (My spell check says tarmac—I don’t know, so now I’ve used both.) At about 10 pm, a plane came in with tourists from the bus companies and cruise companies. They had signed up for an “Arctic Circle” excursion. Fort Yukon is on the line, and so these folks flew to Ft. Yukon late in the evening, got a bus tour of town, got a box lunch (they were rather cranky when they arrived, I think they were expecting to eat earlier), and then just after midnight, flew back to Fairbanks. For $10 I took the bus tour with them. (It’s all part of the adventure.). I imagine that even if you didn’t schedule a flight, there’d be a way to get on either the regular plane or one of those tour planes, just to get to Fairbanks. We were using Pakboat canoes, which just folded up and went in the plane with the luggage. If you had a problem, you coul also get a flight out from Old Crow, Yukon.

Thanks for asking. I don’t get to talk about it much. Pringles

 

[PaddlingPitt]

Pringles,

In addition to the slide show that we saw, I was interested in going up the Rat River to reach the Bell/Porcupine because of a book we had read: Vyvyan, Clara C. 1961. Arctic Adventure. Owen, London, Eng. 172 pp. It is more recently titled: The Ladies, the Gwich'in, and the Rat: Travels on the Athabasca, Mackenzie, Rat, Porcupine, and Yukon Rivers in 1926.

Vyvyan was an upper class British woman who travelled Great Slave Lake with her female companion, Gwen, in 1925. From there, these two adventurers descended the Mackenzie River to Aklavik, hired two guides to lead them up the Rat River to the height of land, and then descended the Porcupine River by themselves, past Old Crow, to the Yukon River. Their daring and courage, particularly for two women in the 1920s, far exceeds anything Kathleen and I have done.

Vyvyan's book is a pleasure to read. Her description of Great Slave Lake simply, yet eloquently captured the grandeur and majesty of these lakes at rest.

"I was alone again with that stillness emanating from sky and water, that magic stillness of the north, which is not the quiet of a little thing too weak to strive or cry, but the breath of a power brooding over all."

Vyvyan and Gwen returned home eager to share their experiences. But pretty much the only thing their friends and families wanted to know was how and where did they go to the bathroom. She seldom talked about about her adventure again.

I am still interested in this particular trip, but perhaps starting where you did, on the Eagle River. But we are mentally committed, though, to paddle the Yukon this summer from Whitehorse to Dawson. We love Dawson City, and at our age, it is getting close to the last opportunity.

 

[Pringles]

The Rat sounds like an interesting trip. I remember reading about the Mad Trapper of Rat River in my dad’s Fur Fish and Game, when I was a kid. I was stunned to learn we were paddling through where he had been caught. I looked up what I could about the man, but there wasn’t much. One of the books has pictures of the body. He’d been out in the cold for quite a while, and the pictures were haunting. I looked up the book you mentioned (I’m a librarian, after all). We have it available in one of our online databases. Somewhere, in something about that book, probably the Foreward, I read magical words—“An onlooker’s life is no life at all.” That one is going to become one of my guiding principles—not that it hasn’t been for a few decades. I also think of Abby, describing something incredibly beautiful, and the next sentence was simply, “Routine stuff.” I’m envious of some of the trips you’ve written about (ok, ALL of them), but I have my own memories to call up. I spent years living at the eastern end of Lake Superior, and I spent more nights than I can count at backcountry campsites, listening to the big lake lull me to sleep, or throw a hissy fit of amazing proportions. As to starting a trip at the Eagle, it was pretty easy. We were shuttled from Whitehorse by one of the canoe outfitters. Not Kanoe People, but I can’t remember the outfitters’ name. The drive up the Dempster Highway is pretty wonderful. If you’ve watched The Big Year, a movie about bird watching (I believe one acter is Owen Wilson, another maybe Chris Rock, and the third is Steve Somebody-famous (I’m not too into movies, sorry., part of that movie was filmed along the Dempster Highway, and I replay that segment 15 times in a row just to look at the scenery. It’s expansive. The signs recommend that you take two spare tires when driving the Dempster. We didn’t get a flat, but a rock broke the back window of the van. We saw a number of moose and a grizzly. Just south of the Eagle River is Eagle Plains, which has a gas station, auto repair place, motel and a campground. We stayed at the campground the night before we launched. The next day we drove about 12 miles to the bridge, where we put together the Pakboats (17 footers) and loaded things. There were 8 people in four boats, with food and gear for 3 weeks. There wasn’t much freeboard. The river was muddy and fairly narrow. Thinking back to your reports, you can handle rapids. We had some splashy spots in one spot on one river. That was it. Otherwise, it was just paddling. We went between 21 and 48 miles per day on that trip. We stopped at Old Crow, Rampart House, the old Rampart House (forgot it’s name), and some other little abandoned town, as well as Fort Yukon. The thing I remember most was getting to the top of the little bench above the river, and looking out at nothing but bush. Nothing. There were no phone poles, no buildings, no tin cans—nothing. I love the north.

 

[PaddlingPitt]

There have been many books written about the Mad Trapper, among them by Dick North and Rudy Wiebe. There are several others, and as you might expect, they offer different perspectives. There have also been several movies made, including one starring Lee Marvin, IIRC.

The Trapper (Albert Johnson) had been poaching from Native traps, and the Mounties came to pay him a visit. This initiated a five-week man hunt in January/February before Johnson was finally caught and killed somewhere on the Eagle River. An extraordinary epic if stamina and wilderness skill on Johnson’s part.

PaddlinHal, if you don’t already know about this story, you might find it an interesting side note to your trip.

Pringles, Kathleen and I love the North too. Ideally above the Arctic Circle, but at least 60 degrees.

 

[Pringles]

I’ve read a number of the Mad Trapper books, but not looked around for movies. I did see the Lee Marvin one. I‘lol have to go looking for more. I can’t imagine running around in that area in the winter, for days on end.

 

[VernAK]

It was often thought that Albert Johnson was a Swede from North Dakota and IIRC they recently dug up a supposed family member to check DNA.....it didn't pan out. At least that's in the back of my mind some place.

If traveling through Regina, go through the little Mountie Museum and view Albert Johnson's rifle and gear.

 

[PaddlingPitt]

Thanks for the information Vern. I don’t get to Regina very often, but next time will be sure to stop by the museum. I have been to Aklavik twice, and stopped by Johnson’s grave. His is a compelling story.