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This trip was made with the <a href=http://www.rubyrange.com/>Ruby Range Adventure Company</a>

Yukon Canoe trip

Napajohnb
2006-01-03 20:11:24

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bacon and eggs.
Packed up our camp and onto the river. I took the helm today and Werner has agreed to trade spots every day. The advantage of the front is that you can place your wet bag as a backrest, not so in the back. It took me a while to get the hang of steering with much experimentation and some unexpected wide circles.
The wind is at our back today and all you have to do is raise a paddle to be sailing. Werner rigged a sail with two paddles and his jacket and we made pretty good time. Thor rigged a sail with a tarp that made him look like a long ship. Then it's just kick back and watch the forest slide by. Miles of burn here covered by young poplars and fireweed. pretty in a way but it seems a little forlorn.

Past the burn we saw a cow moose and her calf. We heard the calf first as it bounded up the slope bawling to it's mom about these strange creatures on the river. She shook her head wildly as the calf caught up to her. That's a lot of critter to have upset!.

Many more bald eagles and an osprey on the river and some Dahl Sheep on the hills today. The river has opened up here to broad forested vistas stretching off into the distant western mountains and high volcanic bluffs on the eastern side.
This is the setting for Fort Selkirk, which we visited. This had been a trading post for the Hudson Bay Company before the gold rush and an RCMP outpost.. During the gold rush it was a bustling river community and an army base, the Army being brought in, I think, to ensure that American miners remembered what country this was. The bluffs across the river have two holes blasted into them where the Army did their cannon practice every day. Selkirk was considered as the capitol of the territory but the new road from Whitehorse to Dawson bypassed it, the steamboat era ended and that was that!

Now there is a caretaker in the summer and a reconstruction crew. The caretaker was a very ...