CANOEING IN THE YUKON AND HIKING ON THE COAST
By Neil
In the blink of an eye, it seems that another summer has come and gone! Two highlights of my summer were trips to the Yukon and the West Coast of Vancouver Island.
In mid-July, I travelled with 4 friends to Whitehorse. From there, we travelled by bus to the town of Carmacks where we began our canoeing adventure down the mighty Yukon River. Our destination was the northern city of Dawson, and we would be covering roughly 415km in 5 nights. While canoeing 75km per day may sound quite laborious, in fact, the combination of very long, warm days, and a steady current that flows between 8-12km/hour, made for fairly easy paddling on the river.
The scenery is beautiful and diverse along the route. Being the third longest river in North America, the Yukon is so wide in sections that you get the sensation you are floating on a lake. In other parts, the River tapers down to very narrow passages that cut through the rocky landscape and you are fenced in by sheer rock walls.
For the most part, the weather was quite pleasant throughout the trip. However, we did run into pockets of bad weather. For example, thirty minutes after leaving the shore at Carmacks, the skies abruptly turned dark and we were welcomed onto the Yukon by thunder and lighting. Luckily, any rain we experienced on the river was short-lived, and for most part was a welcome reprieve from the warm sun.
Along the river, there are dozens of small islands the size of one or two football fields. The islands are perfect for setting up camp for the night as they provide a measure of protection against some of the local wildlife (black bears, grizzlies, moose and wolves). In addition, the islands are fairly flat and allow you to paddle your canoe and gear right up onto sandy beaches, rather than haul them up the tall, steep embankments of the shoreline.
We typically would paddle for 6-8 hours and set up camp for the evening around 7pm. The weather was kind to us and the rain stayed away when it was time to set up and take down camp, allowing us to keep our gear dry – and we brought a lot of gear! Each canoe was able to carry roughly 1,600lbs and so we did not hesitate to bring luxury items (ex. steak, chocolate, a large stove, and even a solar powered shower), that we would not have brought if required to haul them on our backs!
We spent a couple of days in Dawson at the end our canoe trip. Dawson was at the center of the Klondike Gold Rush, and thousands of tourists come through the town every summer to get a taste of its history. The city has taken great care to preserve its 19th century appearance with elevated boardwalks and wooden buildings built on stilts with “false front” facades. Walking around Dawson, you might feel that you were on the set of an old Western film.
It was a great trip, and I would highly recommend the trip to both experienced and novice canoers.
Three weeks after returning from the Yukon, I travelled to Sooke on the southwest tip of Vancouver Island to hike a part of the Juan de Fuca Trail (“the Trail”) with my girlfriend. We had discussed doing the Trail for over a year but never formally set a date. Unlike the longer, more well-known West Coast Trail (WCT), the 47km Juan de Fuca Trail does not require a reservation, which allows the flexibility to hike the trail in part, as a day hike, or in its entirety (which would take 4 to 6 days). Our schedules did not permit us to tackle the whole trail, but we able to do a challenging “in-and-out” hike.
The Trail, which is within the Juan de Fuca Provincial Park, begins 35km west of Sooke and winds its way up to Botanical Beach, just outside of Port Renfrew. Like the WCT, the Trail is exceptionally muddy when it rains, and makes the hike exponentially more difficult to traverse. With very little rainfall, we thought early August would be an optimal time to do the hike.
I hiked the WCT in the summer of 2016, and the scenery on the Trail was very similar; however, the conditions and terrain are different. While we only hiked the southern half of the Trail, my observation is that the Trail is more travelled and better groomed than the WCT. Although not as rugged, the elevation changes on the Trail were steeper and more frequent than the WCT, which made it just as challenging. For example, on the WCT ravines/gorges, were crossed with the assistance of ladders and cable cars; however, the Trail path would snake up and down the ravines which made for short, but demanding climbs with a heavy pack on your back.
While we did not complete the trail, being outside and enjoying a challenging trek on the beautiful Pacific Coast was well worth the commute from Vancouver! I look forward to completing the entire Trail in the near future.
Neil
|