Yukon river

[Glenn MacGrady]

Having never paddled the Yukon, I'm certainly not in a position to settle a sediment "settling" debate. However, everyone who has posted thus far has admitted they settled water at some point—at least below the White and at least overnight.

Don't chemicals just accelerate the settling process? I can understand that a big war canoe crew, which only has a few hours to stop and sleep each day, has to have a lot more clear water and a lot faster than a two person tandem canoe, and that a big crew probably can't wait overnight. So, settling chemicals make sense to me.

In fact, listening to this interesting exchange, if I were planning to paddle the Yukon in a lone canoe for many days/weeks, I wouldn't trust anyone's prediction as to how sedimented the water would be or where, and I would bring along as much bottled water as possible as well as redundant mechanical and chemical purifying and settling solutions. Why not? If I don't need them, I don't use them. But if I do, I have them. It's not like I need to worry about portaging redundant gear on the Yukon.

 

[yknpdlr]

What I "settled" on was a product I found made by Pur, meant for purifying nasty polluted muddy water in 3rd world countries. it coagualtes and settles the silt into a bottom heavy goo as well as disinfecting the clarified clear water above it. Tasted terrilbe, but you get used to it. Not necessary to do for the relatively short Yukon River Quest, but used it every day on the 1000 mile race. I would prepare two 5 gallon buckets during each of our mandatory 6-hour random camping location "nights" for my 7 member voyageur team to get sufficient and plenty of drinking water to last the entire next sweaty hard paddling day.

P&G purifier of water packets - a simple way to clean water

The P&G water purification technology is an amazing innovation that quickly turns 10 liters of dirty, potentially deadly water into clean and drinkable water.

csdw.org

Otherwise for my personal use in the Adirondacks, i have forever and still today only use PolarPur iodine crystals for my drinking water. I get used to that taste too.

 

[PaddlingPitt]

How is it that you felt safe drinking from the 30 mile, which is a direct drain from Lake Laberge?

We felt safe for the following reasons. Some articles said don’t drink from Lake Laberge. Some said don’t drink until you’re half way down Lake Laberge. Others said don’t drink until you’re a third of the way down Lake Laberge. No articles ever said don’t drink below Lake Laberge.

We paddled 950 km on the Thelon River in 1993. It was geese nesting and moulting season. There were several times on shallow, calm water next to shore that I had to sweep goose poop out of the way to fill our water bottles or pots. Didn’t bother us. Didn’t filter or purify. Just drank or used. Never got sick. Kathleen and I were not squeamish then. Still aren’t.

 

[yknpdlr]

As my final word on the water topic, I know plenty of people who have no issues with taking a drink drirectly out of a body of water of questionable quality or not. But I am often traveling solo in wilderness settings and do not wish to be rendered helpless with chance of severe sickness. By the same token, if I am with a team of racers who have trained for many months and spent thousands of dollars on a racing expedition where we all depend upon each other being totally healthy on the top of our game, none of us want any of us to risk that either.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Don't fret too much over water quality..Sure it can vary but side streams often are very clear.. Even below the White we found clear water in them

 

[ppine]

Great to read about experiences on the Yukon R. I have wanted to float it for decades. It is far away and that has always stopped me. I have been to the Yukon Territory and it is one of the most beautiful places in the world, especially in the fall.

The use of the Yukon R as a water highway makes for an intriguing trip. I have always liked the idea of stopping for tea with local Natives going up and down the river. Plenty of history. I have always heard about some of the wind driven waves on the river and how rough it can get. When I was younger the thought of a large canoe seemed reasonable. Now I would take a drift boat with a small outboard on the transom. It would be relaxing with plenty of room for gear and space to move around.

 

[lowangle al]

I did a trip (not the Yukon) with a retired Ak. State Trooper who patrolled a large part of the Yukon. He said not all villages are welcoming.

 

[yknpdlr]

I did a trip (not the Yukon) with a retired Ak. State Trooper who patrolled a large part of the Yukon. He said not all villages are welcoming.

During the Yukon river canoe races, in particular the 1000 mile, wich below Dawson passes by many lesser known villages or temporary encampments (fish camps), we were briefed to avoid stopping if at all possible unless we had a dire emergency. Many of the villages are legally designated as "dry", meaning no alcohol at all is allowed in the village. Of course that does not mean that it does not exist or is not brought in from other places regularly by boat or bushplane. Presumably the reason for the caution to us.

On the other hand, in the midst of paddling through the thousands of islands in the region known as the Yukon Flats near Circle, AK, we had a very friendly experience from a First Nation fisherman. We heard elsewhere that they had heard about this, the first ever such race and the big black boat with 7 paddlers coming through. We noted a fish wheel catching salmon in the distance with a couple of men in a small jon boat tending it just ahead of us. Before we got there, suddenly one of them hopped in the boat and came quickly motoring toward us. I was concerned that we were doing something wrong to offend and were in trouble, but then he held up his hands separated by about 3 feet and in very broken English he offered us two large freshly caught king salmon for free. Unfortunately, us being in a race and with no way or time to prepare and cook them, we had to as politely as we could turn down the offer and not waste the fish.

Days later, as we approached the Dalton Bridge finish line, a number of covered jon boats approached us upstream in the river before we made the final turn for the 3 mile straight stretch to the finish. They waved friendily at us, as they kept their distance to avoid making a large wake. At the finish line one such self proclaimed "bushman", well armed with a .44mag, causing gasps from my wife and pit crew friend the night before when he walked into the restaurant. He seemed particularly friendly and willing to help load our big boat on our vehicle. His wife, Dorothy had a tented shop selling hand made trinkets in the parking lot and my wife made friends with her while waiting for us to come in. The river Jon boats reported we were close. Dorothy had a purse made from an entire wolverine skin that she liked to show off. My team did not race this race again the following year, but we did again the year after. Dorothy found my wife again and gave her photos that she had taken of us previously. She said her husband waited and waited for us with the photos the second year, but we did not appear. He sadly passed away before we returned a year later. Nice people.

 

[Claude]

Claude,

Kathleen and I paddled the Yukon River from Whitehorse to Dawson City in 2019. You can access our trip report on page 3 of Canadian Trip Reports on this forum. We did it on our own, without guides. I believe that’s the case for most people paddling the Yukon River. We came across two guided trips, and many paddlers on their own.

We left our gear with friends in Whitehorse, and then drove our vehicle to Dawson City, where we left it in secure parking. We then took the Husky Bus back to our friend’s house in Whitehorse, who drove us to the put-in.

I don’t mean to exaggerate, but we saved the Yukon River for when we got old. There are only two rapids, both of which were straight forward. Of course, that depends on your experience. To put it in our perspective, we paddled the South Nahanni River in 1990, including the Rock Gardens, which were 2.5 days of essentially continuous whitewater up to class 3 and 4. The Yukon River was not nearly as challenging, but we did it in fairly low water. What trips have you already completed?

Hope this helps.

Michael

Thank you, I don’t have that much experience but I’m planning to go there not before 2025 or later, so I’ll train as much as possible

 

[Gamma1214]

...so I’ll train as much as possible

Not that any of us need (another) one, but that sounds like a great reason to take as many canoe trips as possible. Lots of good practice in Quebec from what I hear... we'll be watching for trip reports to see how many you can squeeze into the next 2 years.

 

[lowangle al]

Here is a story I found interesting. It's not about the Yukon, but it happened on it. A friend of a friend was on a motorboat trip up there. He anchored up in a fresh water slough and jumped overboard for a swim. He was in his 70's and wasn't able to pull himself back into the boat. He had to dive down and pick up the anchor and start walking it toward shore. He eventually made it, but things could have gone really badly.

 

[VernAK]

I did a trip (not the Yukon) with a retired Ak. State Trooper who patrolled a large part of the Yukon. He said not all villages are welcoming.

Yes, this can be the case. Do not camp near the villages or leave your canoe and camp unattended.

 

[yknpdlr]

Thank you, I don’t have that much experience but I’m planning to go there not before 2025 or later, so I’ll train as much as possible

Time on the water and getting to know your boat is important, especially when it is fully loaded. Will you take your own boat, or rent from one of the two primary outfitters in Whitehorse?

As mentioned above, there is no real white water below Whitehorse, but below Carmacks there are two very short but significant segments of standing waves that could be challenging if you are not prepared with where and how to navigate through them. The current everywhere, except on Lake Laberge rushes right along often at 6mph or more in places. I have never paddled the length of Lake Laberge without expreriencing at least two complete changes of weather and wind, and we traverse the whole 35 mile long lake in just about 7-8 hours. Learn to read surface clue "tells" about river current. Conflicting subsurface currents at different depth levels collide and cause surface boils and eddies randomly across the channel. You can be paddling along happily at a good clip, but if you alter parallel by only a canoe length, you can often change your speed up or down by as much as 2mph, or even more. Surface riffles and edge lines will let you know where that happens. The overall current is often higher where the river travels in deep water channels next to sharply walled cliffs. Often these appear alternately on opposite sides of the river, and you can't go bopping back and forth across the wide river width every couple of miles. So make the choice.

When approaching a distant island or large gravel bar, the current will split to go on both sides of the obstacle. You want to be in current on one side or the other, likely the shortest distance side. But you must make your choice before where the current splits up to a half mile prior to the island. If you get caught in current going on the wrong side of where it splits, you many not be able to paddle hard enough to get to the other side of the more desired current flow. Eventually, beyond the island the currents will rejoin, but it may have added a mile or more to your distance traveled, and not necessarily in the overall faster current.

Taking althernate path shortcuts and cutoffs between islands, or cutting the distance that the main channel flows and bends is often tempting. Fast flow is often diverted into narrow entrance cut channels out of the main longer distance channel and it can initially look like a good fast choice to follow. But if the opening then widens much or becomes shallow the current will slow, sometimes becoming dead water with practically no forward flow at all, or depositing and trapping you on a gravel bar to drag across. I have used the best of these places strategically to save tens of minutes or to end up well ahead of other competing racers at the down river current rejoin, but you need to have map studied each in advance to know if it will be worth the risk. Make the wrong choice and you will lose significant time.

Unless and until you get far below Dawson there are few deep water wide sweeping bends in the river where something called surface helicoidal flow becomes a large wasted time and distance trap issue if you get caught in them. Again, the most efficient way round such a bend is for the bow paddler to read the surface riffles and cut lines (appearing similar to the eddy line seen in the approach to Five Fingers Rapids photo posted above) and then guide steerage in forward flow around the bend for your best unwasted travel time.

Practice, preplan, and study well, it is all good fun.

 

[ppine]

lowangle al is right. Dealing with Natives takes some experience and awareness. Just like the US. I have enjoyed my time watching salmon with Tlingit and Haida people. The Athabascans I met in the Yukon were very hospitable. Some do not like white people, and you better respect that when you run into it.

 

[yknpdlr]

People are different everywhere even within and regardless of culture. Whle we were cautioned about potential bad experiences if we wanderd into First Nation villages along the river, we had very positive experiences elsewhere.

After one of our Yukon 1000 mile races my team visited Haines, AK. There is an old army base there with a circle of what once was officer housing that we drove through. We noticed something going on with a woodworking going on on a large porch of one of the homes, so we stopped to investigate. Turns out it was a Tlingit tribe member with the English version of his native name as "Wayne Price" who was directing a class of young teens carving out a dugout canoe from a large cedar log. He runs a program for potentially troubled youth to get them off the streets and keep them away from drinking and drugs. At first he was hesitant with us, thinking we were just a group of average nosy tourists from the tour boat in town. But when we described we had just completed 1000 miles on the Yukon, he opened up completely to us. We spent a good amount of time pleasantly discussing things with him and his youth program as we observed chips of wood flying out of the the canoe from swinging adzes.

Back at Whitehorse a couple of years later for another race, there was a tented demonstration set up outside of the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre museum. It was Wayne with his youth group carving another canoe. He immediately recognized us and he and his students autographed a picture book we had just bought telling their story with photos of them working on building canoes. That was a nice surprise.

https://kwanlindunculturalcentre.com/​

 

[yellowcanoe]

Yes, this can be the case. Do not camp near the villages or leave your canoe and camp unattended.

true. A kid from Ft Selkirk swiped all our granola bars. He left the freeze dried stuff.. Apparently there is a lack of sweet goodies there.

 

[ppine]

In communal cultures, theft is hard to define.