Teslin River and Yukon River Canoe Trip, July 2024

Here is our photo album from the canoe trip: https://photos.app.goo.gl/XTPCv47XWvG1RF3u8

Trip participants: Karrie, Bryan, Ralph P., Jim M., Wes D., and Nala the dog.

Start: Teslin River, Johnsons Crossing

End: Yukon River, Carmacks

Total trip distance (as recorded on GPS watch): 371.5 km

Trip length: 9 mostly easy days - July 1 to July 9, 2024

Current speed: 8-12 km/hr, from day 2 onward, perhaps a little slower earlier in the trip. Day 1 was low current initially but the speed was noticeable by 10 km in, or so.

River level: Seemed to be moderately high, not flooding but little bank exposed, landings were generally fast with a moderately steep bank to contend with. At the launch site there is a grassy bank that was covered by a vertical foot or more of water. That entire grass area was exposed when we stopped back at the same spot almost 3 weeks later. Note regarding the water level, it can be several meters higher than what it was when we were on the rivers - there was mud indicating recent past water levels in the tree branches that were at chest height up on the bank which itself was at least a meter up above the river level. It was clear that when the Teslin floods, it REALLY floods. When I say it was "moderately high", I mean compared to what appears to be "normal" for the Teslin based on bank erosion, etc. The water metering station on the Yukon River at Carmacks reported a fairly steady level at about 4.07 m during the time we were on the Teslin and Yukon Rivers. 

Guide book and maps: We used the download version of the Teslin River Guide Book written by Len Webster sold by Dan Driedeger of GoTrekkers - https://gotrekkers.com/teslin-river-guide-book/. We found the guide valuable and it is really a set of annotated topographic maps. Three copies, one for each canoe, were printed and brought with us. These maps were adequate, but we also had a couple copies of 1:250 000 topographic maps with us and that was also useful. The level of detail of the 1:250 000 maps was not always adequate in my opinion and having the guidebook maps was very useful for locating places of interest and camp spots. Note that the scale of the maps from the guidebook sometimes varies by section so pay attention the size of the squares on the maps. 

 

Shuttle logistics: We stayed at the campground at Johnson's Crossing Lodge the night prior to starting and did the shuttle on the morning we launched by taking 2 vehicles to Whitehorse and parking at the airport, which is a pretty inexpensive place to park and feels reasonably secure. The 3rd vehicle was then brought back to be left at the Johnson's Crossing campground and we launched from under the highway bridge. In Carmacks we were picked up by Up North and delivered to our vehicles at the Whitehorse airport. From here 2 of us (Karrie and I, with Nala the dog) continued on our Yukon and Alaska roadtrip while Jim, Ralph and Wes hopped into Jim's van and headed towards home, dropping Wes off at his vehicle at the Johnsons Crossing campground en route. Note, our original plan was to do the starting shuttle on June 30th in order to launch earlier on the morning of July 1st. However, we held off doing that shuttle do to finding out that there was a new fire along the Teslin that started on June 29th and we needed to figure out if that was going to be a problem for us or not, and whether we might go find somewhere else to paddle instead. After talking to Up North and Mike at the the Yukon Wildfire Services, we decided that we should be safe to paddle past the fire (and we were). 

Campsites: Most campsites we stayed at were quite nice and could accommodate additional tents. See the linked photo album for some examples. They often had a bit of steep bank to access the site, something that was made a bit more tricky in the fast current. At lower water levels I expect that landing would be easier. The sites were as described in the guide maps. There were an adequate number of campsites available that we never had to share a campsite with another of the groups we were leapfrogging down the river, though we were happy to do so and there would have been enough space. Solo paddlers like Harry or parties with one or two tents could find additional sites that were not listed in the guide book easily enough, especially in portions of the trip where it was fairly open pine forest on the benches up above the river. 

Notes on the trip:

• We were worried about the forest fire along the Teslin and considered changing our plans on account of it. In the end, we paddled past it on day 2 and it was a surreal and interesting experience, but was a non-issue with respect to safety. However, some time later that same fire blew up to a much larger beast so in that case it could have been problematic to get through it.
• The current pushing us along made for a very relaxing pace and we could knock off substantial distances each day. We only had several hours or so of head wind to deal with, so that could have made a big difference. Even with a headwind, we had enough current behind us to push us along at a good pace, the wind just made it such that we had to work a bit more for our distance.
• We saw one distant black bear and one young grizzly bear. The black bear was seen from camp across the river and up a hill and never would have been noticed had I not been scanning the hill through binoculars for just such a sighting. The grizzly bear was seen briefly on the river bank as we drifted past and it did not seem to notice us. Bear poop was present at numerous places long the trip. 
• We saw lots of eagles on the Teslin River, but very few on the Yukon River.
• The song of the Swainson's thrush was heard almost everywhere we went. 
• One moose was seen across the river from one of our campsites. 
• Three red-throated loons were seen (a first for me) on the river just downstream from the junction with the Big Salmon. 
• We caught several grayling (Jim especially, but I caught one) at a creek that joined the river near where we camped at the end of day 3.
• We caught a few jack one day on the Teslin River, but otherwise we were skunked for fish. Those jack became our fish-fry supper that night which ended up being our only meal of fish for the trip. 
• Ralph and Wes took responsibility for the first 4 days of food (with some of the meat provided by Jim) and Karrie and I took care of the second 4 days. The latter included dehydrated chili, dehydrated spaghetti sauce, dehydrated shredded chicken with coleslaw, lazy cabbage rolls, brownies cooked in a dutch oven, etc.
• The Teslin River water was a brown colour with silt whereas the Yukon river was a blue green colour. At the confluence it took a few kilometers for the waters to blend and you could see the brown water along the river right bank and the blue-green water along the river left bank. Throughout the trip the water was easy enough to filter without clogging our filters. 
• We saw hardly any mosquitoes, and just a few other biting insects. I brought bug jackets and a lot of repellant, and only used a bit of repellant a couple of times in the evening. 
• Our weather was mostly good - often overcast or under the haze of smoke from fires (such as fires near Lake Laberge), moderate temperatures that had me in long sleeves in the morning and short sleeves by mid to late morning. It was often cool, but never cold. I think I wore shorts maybe once, the rest of the time it was long pants. We had a couple of times where it rained a bit overnight and one morning where we delayed getting on the water for less than an hour while we waited out the light rain under Wes' tarp. On our 4th day it drizzled a bit while we paddled. There were a couple of days where we had periods of head winds, but for the most part the winds were not an issue. I wore long sleeves most evenings and a couple of times wore a light- or mid-weight sweater. Much of the warm clothing I brought went unused. 
• There were no real rapids on the trip, but there were boils and turbulence, as well as a few sets of riffles in sections of the river. Initially I aimed for some of these riffles and almost rapids, but I found them to be quite unpredictable due to the volume of water in these rivers being more than I am used to and the turbulence pushed us around a bit if we weren't ready for it. Wes in his solo canoe was easily pushed around by the boils and whirlpools that appeared in the current so was constantly correcting for them. The tandem canoes were not affected to such a degree.