Canoeing and Swimming in the Yukon

Canoeing on the Yukon River.

Barb in the very cool waters of Hidden Lake.

Saturday, August 26^th.

This morning we did a couple of errands, including buying a Yukon toque, before heading to the Canoe People and renting a canoe to paddle the Yukon River for $85 each for the day. The river here in Whitehorse is very swift, flowing at about six kilometres per hour. You can see the current, eddies and whorls in the water as it follows the shore and flows over the features of the bottom. Paddling was easier because of the current but steering was more challenging. I was in the stern and paddled some but mostly it was my job to steer the canoe as we navigated the 15 miles of the river that we paddled. The scenery was beautiful with forests, mountains and clay cliffs, and we saw dozens of bald eagles on the cliffs and soaring overhead as they seemed to be checking us out. We saw two eagles do the spiral move where they grasp each other’s claws and spin several times in the air. We also saw several take fish from the river. Photographing the birds from the canoe was very challenging with the current, the bobbing up and down of the canoe and the position of the bird, either beside or ahead. I was wary at first of bringing my phone and good camera into the canoe even in a dry bag, but I wanted to get shots of the birds. The camera was out of the bag most of the time. We arrived at the haul out landing spot 4 hours later. We were picked up with several other paddlers by the Canoe People in a van for the ride back to town as it is impossible to paddle back. On the way back our driver who was Japanese gave us a guided ride back. He told us that people in the Yukon and Alaska should be happy that Japan bombed Pearl Harbour! Why? Well, he preceded to explain that after the attack the Americans were worried that Japan would attack the continent and might try to invade in a very uninhabited area… Alaska. They needed to be able to move troops, supplies, and weapons north. As a result, the Americans with the help of Canada worked overtime to build the Alaska Highway. It begins at the junction with several Canadian highways in Dawson Creek, BC and ends in Delta Junction, Alaska via Whitehorse. It was completed in 1942 and was about 2,700 kilometres (1,700 mi) long. They used lots of people from the American south and cleared the land and built the highway in record time, a matter of months. It was originally a very rough unpaved road but has been much improved and pave since. It was a very warm day here. The temperature was 26 degrees and was warmer than Toronto and twice as warm as the cottage at that time. After that we went to Long Lake where we were yesterday for a swim, but there were dozens of cars there and too many people, so Barb drove us to one of the Hidden Lakes where we found only two other people. She got in straight away, but I stood in the water acclimatizing for a bit, before I got in. It was very cool, but when will I ever get the chance to swim in the Yukon again? Eventually I got used to it and swam around using the breaststroke for about 20 minutes. Then we had dinner at a local restaurant before going for a short walk through a forest and then heading back to the townhouse for the remainder of the evening.