Training for Yukon Canoe Adventure

Marty and I have a new line on the map. A friend asked if we would be interested and we jumped at the opportunity. We have decided that we ARE going to do this- with or without a group. Researched showed us that many couples do this together (some with their dogs). We won’t be bringing Ghost on this trip.

Next year we plan to paddle from Quiet Lake to Carmacks in the Yukon — about 350 kilometers / 220 miles from the headwaters of the Big Salmon River down through three mountain lakes, then the river itself, then the Yukon River into Carmacks. Most groups take seven to twelve days. We are aiming at a ten-day trip so we can camp well, fish a little, and not race the current.

This is not the same kind of water as the Appalachian Trail. The AT taught us how to live out of a pack for days. The Yukon will ask us to live out of a canoe: load it, unload it, read current, miss sweepers, and sleep on gravel bars with no road behind us until Carmacks.

How we get there

We will fly into Whitehorse with most of our own gear and food. Years of ultralight backpacking are the reason that is even possible! Tent, sleep system, kitchen (minus fuel), clothes, and freeze-dried meals already have to earn their weight on the trail. If it can go to Katahdin, it can go in a duffel to the Yukon.

What we will not haul from North Carolina is the boat. We bought a used 1989 Dagger Reflection that has been well cared for and refurbished — that canoe is our trainer. We will leave it at home and rent a canoe and a bear barrel from an outfitter in Whitehorse. The barrel is the Yukon version of a bear hang: food and smellables stay locked down on gravel bars where a tree hang is not always practical.

We will buy bear spray after we land. You cannot fly with it, and you cannot drive it into Canada either. Pepper sprays are tightly regulated north of the border. Spray sold for use on people is illegal to import. Wilderness bear spray is legal to buy in Canada, but it is a restricted product: canisters carry serial numbers, and the sale is recorded to the purchaser. A U.S. can in the truck or the suitcase will find you on the wrong side of the law. Outfitters and outdoor shops in Whitehorse sell the Canadian-labeled version. Same rule as stove fuel for the airlines: leave the pressurized cans at home and buy them there.

The rest of the trip is a shuttle out the Canol Road to Quiet Lake, ten days of current, and a pickup in Carmacks.

The practice boat

We purchased a used, 1989 Dagger Reflection canoe. The Reflection is how we get ready. Yesterday we took it out on Salem Lake. Today we are heading to another Greensboro lake. Next Friday we have paddling lessons on Oak Hollow Lake. After that, the plan is more lake time, then some river trips with canoe camping so we learn how a boat feels loaded, how we pack, and how we move around camp without a trailhead parking lot. We will take a few more lessons in the coming months to make sure we know what we are doing. We’ve logged hundreds of hours in our kayaks, so we know rivers and paddling; we just need to learn the nuances of paddling a canoe together. I can say that my arms are a bit sore from paddling on the lake yesterday. It is a different paddle stroke than in a kayak.

We are not trying to make the rental canoe feel like the Dagger. We are trying to make us feel like a tandem crew before the gravel road ends and we hop on Quiet Lake.

What the route actually is

Quiet Lake sits on the Canol Road, a few hours of mostly gravel from Whitehorse. From the territorial campground you paddle the lake, then Sandy Lake, then Big Salmon Lake. The first days are relatively gentle — a good place to settle into a rented boat that is not the one we practice in at home.

Then the Big Salmon starts for real: a narrower river with current, log jams you may have to portage, and sweepers hanging off undercut banks. Outfitters are honest about this stretch. It is not a beginner river, especially at high water. There are only a few short Class II spots, but you have to be able to put the boat where you want it.

At the old Big Salmon Village site the river meets the Yukon. From there it is another seventy-five miles or so to Carmacks. Wildlife is the other half of the trip: moose, eagles, and grizzly bears, and later in the season the salmon that gave the river its name. Once you leave Quiet Lake, the only way out is downstream.

The book on the way

I ordered Mike Rourke’s Big Salmon River guide from Yukon Books (ISBN 9780920655511). It covers Quiet Lake to Carmacks with maps, camps, history, and the hazards that change year to year. Until it arrives, local water is school.

How we are training

1. Lake miles in the Reflection until tandem strokes feel automatic.
2. Formal lessons at Oak Hollow so bad habits do not harden.
3. Overnight canoe-camp trips on moving water closer to home.
4. Pack systems that work wet and fly: dry bags that double as luggage, meals we already know, a kitchen that does not fight the boat.
5. A Whitehorse shopping list that is short on purpose: rental canoe, bear barrel, bear spray, stove fuel.

We already know how to camp light. The new skills are tandem paddling, a loaded canoe, and a border-and-airport packing list that does not include the things Canada will not let across.

What this trip is for us

We finished the 100-Mile Wilderness and Katahdin this summer. That trip had a finish line you could stand on. This one is a current you follow until a small town appears on the bank. Same partnership. Different rhythm. Same rule we use on the trail: carry what you need, buy the few things you’ll need for the adventure and practice before the real water starts.

I will write more as the guide arrives, as the lessons happen, and as we lock in the outfitter and the shuttle. For now the work is local: Salem Lake yesterday, a Greensboro lake today, Oak Hollow next Friday, and a 1989 Dagger that is teaching us how to get ready for a river we have not seen yet!