Th 26th May, 2011
First sunshine day in Whitehorse! Perfect weather for getting on the river! Leaving the Backpackers early in the morning with tons of stuff and starting to load our boats. Alex had a kayak and I rented a canoe, which was pretty convenient, so we could take a couple of things more and as it turned out to be, the canoe was even more helpful than expected. After a last sub from Subway and chocolate bar loading (60 snickers+10 mars... ) we finally left the shore and joined the current of the Yukon. It was an amazing feeling to leave the town behind and very soon we couldn't see any human traces any more. The white sandy cliffs were quite frequent beneath the river and we could observe nesting swallows and ravens. Bigger and snow-covered mountains were usually around in the distance.
Our first camp was on Egg Island and I got used to setting up our tent and learned the basics of making good warming fires and cooking fires. It was great fun! :) We had spaghetti and tomato sauce and a river-cooled Yukon Gold. In the evening a beaver was marking its territory. It got pretty cold during the night, although it heated up very nicely during the day.
Overall we had a decent divison of work: Alex was responsible for the cooking and I did the cutting, collecting and sawing firewood, washing up and whistling. :) So in the mornings Alex would get up, start a fire to cook green tea and to prepare the porridge which we enjoyed with fresh apples and maple syrup. Perfect start in the day. Not to mention the incredible view and atmosphere these chilly, sunny mornings used to have.
Fr 27th June
Changing boats - Alex had the canoe and I had the kayak. So much more comfortable and nicer. Closer to the water, a lot faster and easier to navigate.
In the afternoon we had reached Lake Laberge, the big challenge during the first 320km on the Yukon.This 63km long Lake isn't only dreaded because of the lack of current and hence exhausting and slow paddling, but mostly for its microclimates and quickly changing weather which can bring paddlers into trouble with agitated waters. However, we were lucky with the winds, when we got on the lack the water was glassy. Wonderful atmosphere - the wideness, sunshine, calm waters and remaining sheets of ice which were clanking. We paddled for a couple of hours covering around 15 kilometers. During that distance the lake suddenly changed its colour when most of the withcarried sediments settled down on the ground and the lake got a crystal clear bluish colour! Amazing! We had to crush through tiny bits of ice which was pretty easy with the canoe (which we were both on by the way). When we got to an ice sheet which was too big to get through we went to the shore, built a sail to benefit from the upcoming tailwind and continued close to the shore, where there was a relatively ice-free canal. Unfortunately the wind slowed down so we had to get back to paddling ;). However, it was great fun, the weather and the whole scenery was just so stunning and wonderful and the rhythmic activity of paddling was wonderful.
We observed these amazing four bears - a bear mother with three differently coloured cubs! Wow! We could see them eating, standing up to reach for the leaves.
On our camping spot - a wonderful long bay - we stayed for one and a half days. The first day voluntarily to relax and enjoy the wonderful scenery, get organized, do some hiking, baking bread, swimming with the ice ... and the second day rather enforcedly because our bay was full with ice and we couldn't keep going. However, after another wonderful morning, a fabolous lunch and more baked bread, a wind came up pushing the ice out of the bay within half an hour. Amazing! So we got ready and headed out! :) Full with energy and eager to get through the lake which showed us that out there things go the way they go and you have to adjust and correctly judge them to be safe.
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| evening at Lake Laberg |
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| baking bread :) |
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| enclosed by ice - impossible to keep going |
It was another wonderful day for paddling with some tailwind and sunshine of course ;). After a while we were confronted with another huge sheet of ice but after detailed inspection we saw that the ice was flowing so we could get through. Quite relieved and happy we kept going until midnight, paddling the whole lake. It was wonderful to paddle again, and to paddle during a stunning sunset... The clear water, the vastness, the wildness - simply the whole scenery is something so beautiful, peaceful and overwhelming I can hardly remember having ever seen before... Since the water was so clear you could see your boat flying over the ground and the wonderful smell of the spring evening filled the air. After midnight we got to Lower Laberge, an abandoned village and put up our tent there, enjoying our well-deserved night's rest.
So 29th June
After a long sleep-in, breakfast and enjoying the warming sun, we wandered through the abandoned village where still houses were to be seen as if the owner just went out for a walk and was to return within every minute. The Yukon River (and so the Lake Laberge) was an important transport path from Whitehorse to Dawson, which was exactly the way of the gold rush. People would use the frozen river for transporting goods with sled dogs and during summer time they had steamwheelers. With its rapids and high speed the Yukon wasn't easy to get through so much history along the way is about accidents, broken ships, and the end of dreams. Jack London's literature is placed in this area following exactly the same route in the Call of the Wild. It also used to be an important area for Natives, which used to live and fish there, especially in summer time. Some families still return when the salmon comes back.
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| Casca II - shipwreck at Lower Laberge |
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| random |
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| wonderful 30 mile river... |
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| our tent :) |
This day we only paddled three hours, enjoying one of the most beautiful section of the Yukon - the 30 miles river. It's pretty fast with several fun rapids and the crystal clear water is extraordinary. In the evening it rained for five minutes - the two of us acutally pretty happy about that (cooling down, time to read/write), but it didn't last long... Soon it was hot again, so I took my usual refreshing evening bath in the chilly Yukon. During diner we remarked a cloudy atmosphere and when we saw ash falling down on our camp we realized that a forest fire was around. Exciting! It's been very dry the past weeks and a lightening had elicited the fire as we got to know later.
Mo
This is the cloud we could see during lunchtime! Like an exploding volcano! Lightening and thunder developed within the cloud which was an amazing scenery! We weren't surprised when the helicopter landed right next to the river signaling us to come to them. How exciting and fascinating, getting news from the helicopter! The firefighters informed us about the ongoing fire and told us that they expected the fire to jump over the river within the next couple of hours so they recommended us not to go through the fire in the afternoon. It already was several thousand hectars large (to date ended up having burned 15 000 hectars) but it is a natural process, so there was nothing to be done about it, since it didn't endanger any villages. Completely different thoughts running through my head, thinking about forest fires, my former perception and accumulating new experiences and knowledge. Overall fascinating in a way since it shows once more how huge this country is and how small and tiny humans are and nature just going the way it does.
We were hungry anyways and had caught three greylings on the way, so we cooked lunch at Hootalinqua, where the Teslin river joins the Yukon. I gathered dandelion to have with onions and we had the fish. Everything just from nature. So good.
Tu 31st June
We got up really early to make sure that we would get through the fire before it lightend up too much again. I could hardly imagine the huge fire actually stopping during the night but it did. The whole cloud in which thunderstorms were going on the evening before, was away and it was just slightly foggy in the distance. So we paddled into the day, curious and excited how it would be like. And it was impressive. We could see little fires lightening up again, the wind encouraging it. Burned areas created a weird atmosphere and I felt like paddling down Styx on the way to Hades... The smoke got pretty bad and it was hard to breathe, eyes were itching and this remained for tens of kilometers. However, it was an amazing experience! This atmosphere was so unreal, so cineastic, so new - it was overwhelming.
The next days were rather calm, just enjoying our wonderful trip through untouched wild nature. We saw all different sorts of animals, many bears, some moose, deer, porcupine, bald eagle, ... The current velocity of the Yukon is pretty fast so we made good progress during our long paddle days. In between we caught our lunch and dinner, Alex made fabulous catches - pikes. They were easy to catch being really hungry and when you know the right spots it's a matter of minutes. It was really interesting for me to observe everything and to experience the process of fishing your actual food.
The weather remained good, even though not as good as during the first days, which was acutally a relief, since it had been too hot during the afternoons with the sun. So we enjoyed the cloudy, slightly sunny atmosphere and everything in general. We had our routine, we got along really well and we were both so happy and all around satisfied to be outside. 24 hours. just perfect. The way of life out there was perfect. Well, the mosquitoes at my last camp tried to help me making the good-bye easier with being really aweful. They bite through your fleece... Well, it was still supposed to be nothing compared to what is expecting you within the next months. Anyways, the days flew by and sooner than I wanted we arrived at the campground in Carmacks. Hard to leave. Alex continues paddling all the way down to the Bering Sea (3500km). Now since I know what it is like, I am even more impressed by his plan. Goodbyes and then standing at the street for hitchhiking. A Canadian couple took me with them back to Whitehorse. Back in civilization. Weird. A feeling of displacement, which hasn't gone yet. It just seems so natural and so right and so normal to live the way we did. Fresh air all the time. Being occupied with basic living things, making fire, cooking, gathering wood & food, sleeping, moving. ... gives your mind so much satisfaction, so much freedom,... to think and be. just incredibly relaxing and fulfilling. Time to review the last year - so many wonderful memories having shaped me forever.
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| campground carmacks... |
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| old forest burn (1995) |
This paddling trip was the perfect ending of my whole year in Canada and my four weeks of traveling! And the questions keep running: do all good things come to an end? or don't you have the opportunity to shape your life so good things occur more or less frequently? how to integrate the things I experienced into my life? We'll see. It's gonna remain interesting & challenging, that's for sure :)
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I wanted the gold, and I sought it,
I scrabbled and mucked like a slave.
Was it famine or scurvy — I fought it;
I hurled my youth into a grave.
I wanted the gold, and I got it —
Came out with a fortune last fall, —
Yet somehow life’s not what I thought it,
And somehow the gold isn't all.
No! There’s the land. (Have you seen it?)
It’s the cussedest land that I know,
From the big, dizzy mountains that screen it
To the deep, deathlike valleys below.
Some say God was tired when He made it;
Some say it’s a fine land to shun;
Maybe; but there’s some as would trade it
For no land on earth — and I'm one. You come to get rich (damned good reason);
You feel like an exile at first;
You hate it like hell for a season,
And then you are worse than the worst.
It grips you like some kinds of sinning;
It twists you from foe to a friend;
It seems it’s been since the beginning;
It seems it will be to the end. I've stood in some mighty-mouthed hollow
That’s plumb-full of hush to the brim;
I've watched the big, husky sun wallow
In crimson and gold, and grow dim,
Till the moon set the pearly peaks gleaming,
And the stars tumbled out, neck and crop;
And I've thought that I surely was dreaming,
With the peace o' the world piled on top. The summer — no sweeter was ever;
The sunshiny woods all athrill;
The grayling aleap in the river,
The bighorn asleep on the hill.
The strong life that never knows harness;
The wilds where the caribou call;
The freshness, the freedom, the farness —
O God! how I'm stuck on it all. The winter! the brightness that blinds you,
The white land locked tight as a drum,
The cold fear that follows and finds you,
The silence that bludgeons you dumb.
The snows that are older than history,
The woods where the weird shadows slant;
The stillness, the moonlight, the mystery,
I've bade 'em good-by — but I can't. There’s a land where the mountains are nameless,
And the rivers all run God knows where;
There are lives that are erring and aimless,
And deaths that just hang by a hair;
There are hardships that nobody reckons;
There are valleys unpeopled and still;
There’s a land — oh, it beckons and beckons,
And I want to go back — and I will. They're making my money diminish;
I'm sick of the taste of champagne.
Thank God! when I'm skinned to a finish
I'll pike to the Yukon again.
I'll fight — and you bet it’s no sham-fight;
It’s hell! — but I've been there before;
And it’s better than this by a damsite —
So me for the Yukon once more. There’s gold, and it’s haunting and haunting;
It’s luring me on as of old;
Yet it isn't the gold that I'm wanting
So much as just finding the gold.
It’s the great, big, broad land 'way up yonder,
It’s the forests where silence has lease;
It’s the beauty that thrills me with wonder,
It’s the stillness that fills me with peace.
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