July 24^th, 2001

The morning we spend with errands, shopping, e-mails and enjoy the advantages of civilization in Whitehorse (Tim Horton's, two of them, the only ones in Yukon Territories ;-)) We get some groceries for the next week as we plan for a 5 day paddling trip down the Yukon.

In the afternoon we unload the van completely to pack our gear and load the rented canoes. The Yukon flows with a velocity of about 10 to 15 kph and so we get about 20 km far and set up our camp on Egg island.

Here we meet Steve and Scott, who started their trip near Marsh lake ) about 40 km upstream from Whitehorse) and plan to paddle all the way to Dawson City.

We pitch out tents and prepare supper. The mosquitoes are numerous and make us curse them. With a bug net or some chemistry (95 % DEET) we can keep them out of our faces for a while. We stay up for little while and relax at the camp fire.

July 25^th, 2001

After a short, mosquito-rich breakfast we pack our stuff and paddle on.

We are still close to Whitehorse and so we can see some little cottages ashore. The average cottage owner in Yukon probably doesn't get to his ground by motorboat, but rather by water plane....

Scott und Steve left a bit ahead of us this morning, but we meet them again about 20 km downstream around noon, where the Yukon widens to lake Laberge.

We stop for having lunch while Steve and Scott reconstruct their canoe to a sailing ship. Lake Laberge, which stretches tube-like for over 60 km, is known to have high winds and adequate waves. We are lucky and have tail wind, which we can catch with our tarp.

The other two get started again and after we are done with lunch we start to work on our canoes as well. We fix our two canoes together in order to use a big, single sail, which shall not only increase safety, but is much nicer for chatting ;-)) From our experiences with former sailing experiments (Temagami) we know, that one should not fix the canoes hull to hull in order to avoid water levels to rise between the boats and get drowned this way. So we use to logs to keep some distance between the canoes and tie the tarp to the bow and two of the paddles respectively. 

The whole things works without any problem, so we just lean back and enjoy reading books, writing diary, relax. After a while we get almost bored and so Bine and I try to find out who is best in pulling faces ;-))

In the afternoon the wind increases a little. The waves on lake Laberge can become 2 meters high easily, a reason to stay close to shore. As we have a look back we where the wind comes from.

The weather stays comfortable for much longer than we first thought. Only as we steer to a campsite ashore it starts to rain slightly.

The site is situated in a nice bay, but mosquitoes are rather nerve-wrecking. We pitch the tents in dark clouds of mosquitoes and go back to the beach to prepare supper.

July 26^th, 2001

The morning it's overcast and after a short breakfast we sail on. Today the wind has increased another bit, waves have white caps and it rains the complete day. The waves are just at their maximum height in which we can manoeuvre the canoes safely, only from time to time some water swashes into the boats. Far away we see Steve and Scott who are lots faster with their sail as big as ours but mounted on only one canoe. But even we manage to pass some other groups of paddlers.

In the late afternoon we get onto the Yukon again and let us drift for some kilometers before we  head for the shore and set up our tents on an old wood camp out of gold rush times. During the last hour we have seen some bald eagles, which are still numerous here.

Two half-rotten log cabins make us imagine under which conditions wood was cut here to supply steamers on the Yukon between 1870 and 1900. But what we actually learn here is, that mosquitoes and rain don't necessarily exclude one another, an experience we would like rather not to gain. We passed Steve and Scott some time in the afternoon and now they show up to say hello. We have supper at the camp fire and shortly later we seek the mosquito-free space in our tents.

July 27^th, 2001

The mosquitoes are awake already by the time we break our camp. Quickly we pack our gear and postpone breakfast and brushing teeth to some time later in the canoes.

The whole morning we spend relaxing in the sun and letting us drift downstream.

A little bit of paddle technique can't hurt or one have to accept colliding with sudden obstacles or has to take care of trees that throw their branches onto passing canoes ;-))

At kilometer 137 of our Tour we reach Hootalinqua island, a place which now is a shipyard.

What was constructed to be a place for winter storage or repairs on steamers is deserted for a long time already, only steamer "Evelyn" rests here since the early 1930s. It was only thought to be a hibernation, but no one came back he following year.

The little bay we just stopped is nice and warm, with fine sand and without mosquitoes and so we go for a little swim in the Yukon which isn't quite as warm as one never actually expected it to be ;-))

As we stop later that day at the "Big Eddy Woodcamp" to dry our tents the sun still shines. We like it here and decide to stay for the night.

We spend the afternoon reading, fishing, wood chopping, cooking and backing cookies. In the evening we watch an awesome sunset with relatively few mosquitoes.

July 28^th, 2001

The morning greets us with some rain, a bit later the sun is up again. We let us drift most of the day, lunch we have aboard.

We only stop shortly for one of the numerous historic sites. Here an old gold dredge rusts for some time already which dug mud and gravel from the Yukon.

In the evening we reach "Little Salmon Village", which hosts an old Indian graveyard and some old log cabins which people  are still living in. The place isn't very inviting and so we go on for another 100 m where we find a good camp site.

After we pitched the tents and the tarp for rain protection we prepare supper. Today we have a lemon cake for desert, without baking (thanks to modern chemistry); uncle Simon's little baking show....

The mosquitoes are awful again and so we hide in the tents later that evening.

July 29^th, 2001

Today we paddle the remaining 30 km and have some more great sightings of bald eagles. Around 3pm we get to the "Coal Mine Campground", the place where we have to return the canoes. After a total of 320 km on the Yukon we finally reach Carmacks, where a highway leads back to Whitehorse (only 180 km away on the road).

After a shower I get onto the road trying to get a lift back to Whitehorse. An hour later a nice couple from Michigan gives me a ride all the way to our van. I buy some groceries for the next days, then meet Mar and her boyfriend Glyn. We spend the evening in Boston Pizza and have a great chat. We talk about a mountain bike trip we could do together by the time we come back from Alaska about 2-3 weeks later. Late in the evening I head back for Carmacks, on my way passing an area where a forest fire destroyed everything on ~900 square kilometers.

July 30^th, 2001

The next morning  we get up early and pass the Five Finger Rapids of the Yukon on our way to Dawson City.

We stop at a bakery which advertises for their European bread. 

An indeed we get some fresh baked German bread which we munch right away. Many other Europeans stop here as well, for example this couple from Holland who are going to spend five month in Canada and brought their own low-on-gas-RV from home.

Later we reach Dawson City und have a look around in the town of the great gold rush. The roads are unpaved and only wooden boardwalks help to avoid the mud. Bine and I try to get our tickets from the post office, but have to learn that the express shipment hasn't arrived in three weeks.  Ok, we say, why not spending some time in the Tombstone territorial park.

After about 80 km of gravel (Dempster) highway we pitch our tents on the official park campground and enjoy an almost mosquito-free evening.

July 31^st, 2001

After a short breakfast we head for the Grizzly Lake hiking trail. The park is still quite young, there are only few trails or better "routes" to take.

It rains lightly as we start our hike on the difficult trail. At the beginning the trail runs through deep woods, later it climbs above the tree line and we have a fantastic view across the area.

It is hard to follow the trail and after some time we figure that must have missed it somewhere. We climb across fields of rubble and then decide due to safety to go back.

On the way back to the van we kill the cookies supply we brought for the next days which cheers us up a lot ;-))

AS we reach the woods again we get just soaked. Back at the van we switch into dry cloth and switch on the heating.

Back in Dawson City we stop at a laundry and are still without luck with our tickets.

Finally we the ferry across the Yukon and set up camp just outside of town. We left an envelope at the post office and an address to send the tickets to. For the next day we plan to drive the top of the world highway into Alaska...