Getting Ready to Paddle the Yukon

20 July 2010

Thanks to our connection with the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, we are thrilled to have five people join us for the paddle from Whitehorse to Carmacks.  They will get here in a few days and we can’t wait to get on the water with them!  In the meantime, they went for a paddle on the Chicago River and provided us with a great blog entry:

The team is preparing to travel to Whitehorse, YT, Canada to paddle 200 miles down the Yukon River. We are all excited to see one of the premiere wilderness spaces in the world, and to explore it in a low impact way. To prepare for our trip we decided to canoe the Chicago River a little closer to home. As we rode the bus to our destination, Kelsey noticed the temperature in Chicago was a steamy 89 degrees, with 53% humidity – like a sauna. In comparison, the temperature in Whitehorse today was 68 degrees, but it was raining, so it felt much colder – about 48 degrees! Quite a difference, and most of us are pretty happy to be taking a long paddling trip in the wilderness with more cooler temps.

As we arrived at the Chicago River canoe launch, we noticed a strong unpleasant odor of sewage. The Chicago River is, after all, in the middle of one of the largest cities in the U.S., and lots of people means lots of waste. The Yukon, in contrast, is located in one of the least populated parts of North America. Whitehorse's population is only 35,000. We think the smell will be much different!

One thing that we think the rivers will have in common is the abundance of wildlife. We were pleasantly surprised to find lots of water birds, including three different kinds of herons (green, night, and great blue), two kinds of turtles and a groundhog/woodchuck.  

We don't think we'll see those same animals – it's too cold that far north for many reptiles to live, but we're looking forward to raptors, like bald eagles and water birds. We're all hoping to see caribou. It might be a bit harder to find animals along the trip, as the Yukon River is much wider than the Chicago River (ranging from 400 ft to just over a mile), and we're not sure how close we'll get to the banks.

We also hope while we're in the Yukon we don't find much of what we found in the Chicago River – trash. In fact, there are signs all along the river banks warning you about not getting into contact with the river water.

We saw beer bottles, plastic bags, fast food wrappers, milk cartons, coffee cups, aerosol cans, and pool toys. It was a great reminder to us to think carefully about what kind of packaging we purchase, and how we can properly dispose and recycle of garbage. We think that once we leave the Whitehorse area, we won't see much trash. However, even though we won't see garbage, there are plenty of things to watch out for that we can't see – especially if we are going to be eating fresh fish! PCBs and other pollutants from industry, mining and boat transportation are in many of the world's waterways. That's one unfortunate thing the Yukon River and the Chicago River have in common.

The evidence of human habitation will probably be a lot different. On the Chicago River, we passed houses, boat docks, electric plants, train tracks, people walking their dogs, etc. As we researched the Yukon history, we learned about the Gold Rush time during the late 1800's, and the numerous abandoned mines, homes and towns that dot the banks of the River. We did see a shipwreck in the Chicago River. We expect to see more shipwrecks on the Yukon, as it was a very important and busy transportation corridor before the Alaska Highway was built. Also, Chicago is a great patchwork of different cultural heritages, as is the Yukon Territory. There are a lot of First Nations tribes that live in the Yukon Territory. There is evidence of human habitation in the Yukon that indicates First Nations peoples have used that area for thousands of years. In the 19^th century additional settlers of the area include Russian, American and British fur traders. We expect that the cultural influences combined with modern day life will be different in such a sparsely populated territory. We hope to visit the museums and walk around Whitehorse before we start our trip to better understand the city. We're also looking forward to trying some regional food dishes, like salmon and Northern game, such as bison, caribou or musk ox!

After our Chicago River canoe trip everyone was even more excited about our Yukon River trip, which leaves next week! We're all finishing packing and getting ready to be on the river for almost two weeks. Who knows what new discoveries we will make?!