The Peel River in YT
Some data on the River
The Peel River collects the waters of the Blackstone in the west, the Ogilvie, the Hard, the Wind, the Bonnet Plume and the Snake rivers in the Yukon-Territory, and flows east and then up north and empties in the Mackenzie. It is still in an area that is free of industry, and there are almost no outposts of civilization to be seen there, except near Fort McPherson. It flows still thru pure wilderness in a deep valley. No alpine area, no hiking.
- Rapids: standing waves in the magnificient canyon just below the Bonnet Plume River. The river narrows between high walls to 50m. The canyon is approx. 3km long.
- Remarks: They result from a wall descending from the left side into the river, changing it's direction, and they produce waves up to 1m height, with very strong eddies and huge whirlpools and pillows spanning the whole width of the river. They cannot be checked out before, so be prepared. We had low water, and no standing waves there. However, if there are, the swim could be serious. From there on there are no major difficulties to be expected. The river braids.
- Distance: 290km approx to Fort McPherson.
- Speed: pretty good, but last 80km before Fort McPherson very slow.
- Maps:1:500.000 TPC C-9C for overview
- 106E - Wind River
- 106F - Snake River
- 106L - Trail River
- 106K - Martin House
- 106M - Fort Mc Pherson
- scale 1:250.000; 1:50,000 maps are not required for river
recreation trips. Check for the proper map datum before using a
GPS-unit!
Aug 15 - Entering the Peel River: The Peel had extremely low water level. We were careful paddling in the canyon (7_34)
, always looking for the big waves and whirlpools, so we could take actions well
before it. There were none.(7_36)
Not even big waves. But we still could
identify the area of the most turmoil: there would be a strong change
of direction of the flow from the wall on the left side with strong
eddies behind it, then a pretty huge pillow on the wall which would be
hit by the river on the far right side, and many whirlpools in between:(7_37)
Then the canyon opened into a wide valley (7_38).
No dangers no more. The weather was excellent, and we simply relaxed
and did nothing, except looking at natures best. At least one wall,
even if far away, is a steep wall (8_2..6)
. Among balded
eagles we have seen a grizzly, which decided to swim to the other side.
If you look closely, you can see him (very small dot!!!) in the middle
of the picture below. (8_7..9) It was extremely shy, and sped away
immediately after reaching ground again.
Our
campsite (8_10,11)
was well suited to take a swim and relax in
the hot (32°C in shadow) sun. This hot weather was not to remain
stable, in the evening the sky became cloudy again.
Aug 16 - passing the Snake river:The morning was pretty cold (13°C), the sky overcast, and it was windy. The river is still resonably fast, so we paddled to correct for the headwind. The river is wide here. As always we used the boat like it were a car, and promptly we hit, in an area of about half a squarekilometer, the only spot where enough turmoil was, which could rock our boat. This style of paddling, using only the minimum of strokes and guessing the current is sometimes nervewracking for me, but as long as there is no danger, I paddle his way to reduce friction. Anyway, Berts guesswork did not work out, and we started to turn the boat and do a ferry. Much too late, we hit the waves, and did some surfing in them. Nothing much happened except us being dynamic. Soon it started to rain, and it kept raining for the rest of the day. The Snake confluence, made easy to locate with GPS, was hardly noticably.(8_17)
I suggested a rest opposite to it, and then asked Bert, whether this
spot would be familiar anyhow. It was not - and yet, 4 years ago we
did paddle the Snake-River
together, and had been here. But back then, there was a lot more water
in the rivers than this year. Since it was rainy, windy and cold, we
decided to look for a campsite. We found a wonderful place (8_18..20)
with plenty wood for a big fire to keep us warm and protect from the
wind.
Aug 17: It kept raining the whole night and well into the morning. We were in no hurry to get moving again. It kept raining, and it was cold enough to finally take out my gloves. After reaching the campsite which proved to have excellent mushrooms, excellent view and no mosquitoes 4 years ago, we stopped there. Due to the extremely low water the site looked completely different.(8_22...25)
The
view was very mediocre due to rain and fog. There was no fresh water
due to low water levels. Finally, there were neither berries nor
mushrooms to collect. There were however beartracks, wolftracks.
However, we were lucky, and for a short moment, we were rewarded by
the sun with a great view: (8_25)
4 years
ago, we did see here an rainbow:
It seems to
be a good spot for a photographer like me ;-) Also, 4 years ago there
were no gravel banks visible. The water was just half meter below
gravel then, now it was 3m or more lower.
Aug 18: Grizzly It did stop raining, but it was cold, the wind strong, and a tiny bit of blue sky was visible in our direction. The current is still going strong here. 10km downriver, we could watch a bold grizzly for some time.((8_26..28) This bear was the only one, which did not run away after noticing us.
We took camp at a nice spot with a great view upriver, and enough
wind protection and no mosquitoes. (8_29..33)
And plenty
wood for a big fire. Fishing here was not successful - which was true
for the Pelly as a whole.
Aug 19: The weather has markedly improved, and next morning was clear but cold (picture above). The day became warm and sunny, and since the river was still pretty fast, we did not need to paddle hard. The river did change it's appearance a lot. However, care had to be taken, since now and then lots of forest were in the water. We found a nice campsite at a creek without water.(8_38, 9_1...6)
Before
lunch we went to explore the area and if possible collect berries and
mushrooms. What we found were tracks of a femal grizzly with a cub -
among other tracks. Good to know and be careful. Fishing did not bring
the desired results - however, there were fish going for insects. We
obviously did something wrong here. As always, with changing light
there are different views (9_6).
Aug 20: Zralri-Island At first it looked, as if some clouds would again provide bad weather, but somehow we were lucky, and the clouds dissolved completely. Today we did not make a great distance. For one, there is a lake below Zralri (9_7..10), were we would go fishing for pike, and then we did not want to be too early in Fort McPherson. Since it becomes more and more difficult to find decent campsites from here on, we decided to camp early, and relax in the sun. We did find some edible mushrooms, but they would give trouble with alcohol. So we did not eat them.
Aug 21: pike-lake Next morning we paddled to the lake where we did catch some pikes 4 years ago. This year we knew how to walk thru the bushes, and within short time had located the pool with the pikes. It took Bert only a few minutes to hook the first one, but then there were no more. I lost a lure in some twigs below water and could not retrieve it. Somewhat dissapointed, we left, and paddled on. On the left side, there was an empty fishing camp, and shortly below we saw a shy black bear on the right side. We found a nice campsite, and since there are not too many down here, and we had paddled enough distance, we took it. (9_11..15)
Aug 22: In the night, which was clear and cold, we could watch a phantastic display of polar light, which I had never seen in such a beauty in all my trips before. The early morning presented some fog: (9_15)
It was very dynamic and colorful. Breakfeast
consisted of lots of pancakes. (9_16) That was a highlight for the
day, since strong headwinds made paddling a very dissappointing
experience, and later in the day I decided to pull the boat, since is
was pointless to paddle. The inflatable gives a lot of sailing-area,
and plenty drag. A combination, which makes it a lesser boat for slow
waters. Pulling the boat is possible only, when the shore is hard
enough. For long stretches it is muddy, and since the river is fairly
wide, it is often not very useful, to cross it for only a short
stretch of hard ground to pull. Fastening the rope 3/4 to the front
and then walking briskly, makes the boat keep a proper distance from
the shore, and is yet fairly easy to do. Finally Bert did locate a
possible campsite on the other side, and we checked it out. It was
good enough for a camp, and there we stayed. (9_19..23) It is here
always good to take a good site, since the next one could be far away.
For us there is no point in hurrying downriver, so we stop after a
certain distance has been paddled.
Aug 23: just before Fort McPherson: The day was nice again, warm and sunny. Traces of civilization started to show up, and people with boats came upriver (to greet us ;-). We did stop at a relatively new Community-Site, which had been in the process of building 4 years ago. We had a nice chat with the man keeping things tidy there, he told us some bear stories and other stuff. This is a really nice place. Our campsite was next to Shiltee Rock, where we did prepare things as good as possible for the transport the next day by car. It is always a little difficult to phase out of such an experience, and so we did not talk a lot. Bert was not really happy, since we would have 4 more days of holiday, and he judged only 2 days for the way back to Whitehorse. I always like to have some leeway, and it was me who insisted on this somewhat tighter schedule. My idea always is, to get into the next possible car and try to reach Whitehorse as fast as possible. As a compromise, we agreed to camp at this site instead of the ferry-crossing at Fort McPherson.
Aug 24: End of River-Trip: Next morning we were up at 5:00 and soon later paddling against strong headwinds to the ferry. It was foggy, and rainy. After distributing the stuff properly, we hauled it to the stop at the ferry (9_26,27)
, and
started waiting for traffic, which would take us back into
civilization.
We knew from earlier experience, that people
in a campingvan would not give a hike. They seemed always frightened
and quite often tried to look away from us and ignore us altogether.
This proved to be true again this morning. Plan A was to travel
together. After a few cars who were full enough, we decided to split
and go seperately. The luggage was divided, Bert got the tent, I the
plastic sheets, which also contained the shotgun, he kept the cooking
utensils and the boat, me the other things. Since Bert was not as
eager to leave this spot as I was, I would go first.
Finally I got a lift with a nice german couple. Today we went to Eagle Creek Motel. There I had my first hot shower since a few weeks and later some beers together with this fine couple and another canadian couple.
Aug 25: The couple picked me up at my campsite (9_31)
and on we went to Dawson Junction, and a short time
after arrivel there, Chris gave me a lift to Whitehorse Robert Service
Campsite. Later we had some beer at his hotel.
Aug 26:Bert arrived at Robert Service Campground in the evening. He did need 3 days - and it was good to have some spare time left to do some shopping the next day.
Aug 27: shopping and packing stuff for the airplane.
Aug 28: getting up early and heading to the airport. End of Canada-Trip.
Summary: We had spent 9 days on the Peel River after spending 17 days on the Bonnet Plume River, seen 6 balded eagles, 2 grizzlies, 3 black bears and catched 1 northern pike. My GPS3 from Garmin did need only one pack of rechargable batteries. Our equipment proofed to be working satisfactorily, and as always, we had a little too much food with us. The chocolate was almost used up, the spiritual drinks were emptied at the last campsite. It was a great experience again.