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Wilderness Canoe Tripping
Yukon Territory - North/Black/Liard River Canoe Trip, Trip Report - Text-OnlyIf anyone is interested in a .TXT file (no HTML tags, no links, etc.), let me know via e-mail and I'll put one up. Use your browser's 'Back' button, not links on other pages, to get back to this text-only page as most links from other pages will take you to the Trip Report version with the pictures in it, not this one. Chapter One -- An Introduction (Trip Report version with pictures) First, the Participants:John Snively teaches biology, geology, and some general interest environmental type courses at Clackamas Community College south of Portland, Oregon. He's been wilderness canoe tripping for more than 30 years now, and about six of those years have been spent doing some whitewater rivers. John is our gadget freak, and also takes most of the pictures on our runs. Dennis Deck grew up in Alaska, but is now a manager for an educational research firm in Portland, Oregon. He's been wilderness canoe tripping for at least 20 years, and also been paddling whitewater for at least that long. Dennis and John are the fishermen of the group, and both are also avid birders, hikers and wilderness lovers. Hank and Laurie Hays own Lightning Paddles, a small kayak and canoe paddle manufacturing business based a few miles southeast of Portland, Oregon. They have been wilderness canoeing for over 30 years, and paddling whitewater for most of that time. Hank is the one writing most of what you read here, with some input from the others. Laurie takes some pictures to supplement John's, and sees the birds that John and Dennis miss. They also hike a lot and appreciate wilderness solitude. And Why This Particular Trip?We originally picked this North and Black River trip off of the brochure of an outfitter that is no longer in business. When talking about the trip with the guide in 1992, the run sounded nice (don't they all!?!), so it went onto the "check it out in a few years" list. It got chosen this year because we needed a medium length river trip with easy shuttle logistics in northern B.C. or southern Yukon. We wanted an interesting filler run (preferrably with some white water, but nothing too hard) as the immediate predecessor to a separate flat water canoe trip on the Big Salmon River near Whitehorse. Dennis remembered the North/Black run and proposed it to the group. A short time later it looked to be the best choice of the few rivers on our list that fit all the requirements, so in early March we started doing some serious research as we knew absolutely nothing about it.... Soon, some of how we did our research will be in the Wilderness Tripping "How To" section. Actually, checking out the pages included in this North/Black/Liard trip section will give you a pretty good indicator of most of the things you'd like to know before going on a trip like this.
In case you missed it: River Background Info Notes on pictures: There are links to pictures in the text below. A size in kilobytes (??kb) is given for each one to give you a hint as to download time required. There is also 1 to 4kb of additional HTML and explaining text along with most or all of the images. Be warned, there are a lot of pictures in the Photo Gallery, slow internet connections will be waiting a bit. There are lots of little thumbnail images as an indicator of what you'll see in the big pictures in the regular Photo Gallery section. Part One -- Getting ThereFri/Sat/Sun, 27-29 June, 1997
We all met and started driving from John's house
early the morning of Friday, 27 June, 1997.
Loading the floatplane (30kb)
We sorted and repacked some gear. Loaded half the packs and
equipment into the Cessna 185 float plane, and tied John's canoe
to the pontoon struts. Dennis and John took off
from Watson Lake at 3:15 pm, and landed on North Lake at 4:10 pm.
Black River from the air (34kb) John and Dennis were the "checkout flight" and got to fly the whole river route pretty low, looking for impediments to navigation. Among us we decided that they got to pick the put-in lake -- "Go as high up the river system as you dare!" They noted two major potential trouble spots; what looked like a big drop of some kind after the island below Waters Creek, and the rapids marked on the topo maps below Fire Lake, both on the North River. Hank and Laurie only got to see the Liard and then the North River from the top of the Braids up, and were usually high enough that river detail was lost. The rapids/falls below Fire Lake looked very white: Ominous to everyone. Chilly, windy, and some rain after landing. The storms made it a very bumpy trip. Neither Laurie or Hank felt very good during the flight, or for a while after landing. John and Dennis had a campsite picked out with their tents up already. Hank and Laurie joined the tent row. Spaghetti for dinner, but Hank wasn't feeling well enough to care what it was.... Plane landing on North Lake (21kb)
We were on one of several small
lakes, collectively called North
Lakes, about 110 air miles (177 km) north and east of Watson Lake,
Yukon. Chapter Two -- On North LakeDay 2. Monday, 30 June, 1997 A view of our North Lake campsite (39kb) Up at 6:00, still cold, threatening skies, but it warmed up later. Scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast. John noticed a yearling moose bedded down 100 yards (100 m) behind camp. Our campsite is an old hunter's camp at the extreme south end of the lake, closer to the tiny creek coming in there than to the North River outlet. Some 'sportsman' type trash laying about. There were two small, roofless, cabin frameworks, one of which John's rain tarp happened to fit perfectly. Plywood sides and a closable door made a good place to get out of the wind and rain. The other we used as a place to hang our solar shower. This is the only easily usable campsite on the lake that we saw. Anywhere else would probably require chopping tent sites out of the brush.
A view of our North Lake kitchen shack
(31kb) We decided to explore the lake a bit and paddled into a light wind to the north end, then up the creek about a quarter mile (400 m) to where the rapids stopped us. Back to the lake and then hiked up a half mile (800 m) to the west to a distant view of two of the upstream lakes. We could also see a small mining operation on the ridge line to the west. Claim posts, survey stakes, and some cleared grid lines over the whole area. Scared up lots of willow and rock ptarmigan while walking.
The North River above North Lake, looking upstream
(23kb) On the way back down the lake we stopped at the large alluvial fan on the east shore for lunch. A bent rowboat, not used in a long time, was on the beach. Took a leisurely two hour hike up the creek there, went maybe a mile or more (1½ km). Still some snow in shady spots of the stream bed. Saw a yearling bull moose on the west shore while slowly paddling back to camp. It was a relatively nice day despite the cloudy sky earlier this morning. Beans, rice, and ham for dinner. A night view looking out over the lake from our campsite (12kb) Day 3. Tuesday, 1 July, 1997 Frost at night, but warmer after we got up, nice and clear, warmer later in the day. Eggs and toast for breakfast again. Few mosquitoes at our camp yet -- very surprising to us. We can wander around without headnets and usually without bug repellent. Sitting still would often generate a bite or two, but the mosquitoes were much worse on the drive up here. We prepped for a hike up to a glacial cirque on the mountain across the lake to the southeast. Started walking at about 9 am, and took our time, watching for birds and other wildlife. Climbed up about 750 feet (230 m) through brush and small trees to the lower cirque rim by 11 am. This mountain peaks out another 2,000 feet (610 m) over our heads. Lots of mosquitoes, flowers, and birds here. Dennis discovered that a weird sounding bird call was actually a ground squirrel whistling. Unfortunately, we are facing the wrong direction to see much of our route downstream. What Hank could see of it was a large pond, then a wide, bouldery stretch without much water about 1½ miles from us (2.4 km).
View southwest, downstream from in the
cirque(32kb) Pictures, then lunch up top, and back down by 1:30 pm. We all stayed in the boats on the lake to avoid mosquitoes as we figured the better weather must have finally brought them out. Hank and Laurie read, John and Dennis fished. Saw a willow ptarmigan family on the point north of camp. The sky clouded up lightly, but no danger of rain. John kept for dinner one of the lake trout he caught. Back at camp, we found that the mosquitoes still weren't there for some reason, conditions the same as yesterday. This campsite seemed to have way less mosquitoes than other places around the lake that we visited. We don't know why. Plenty of vegetation around, but not swampy here that I see. Some of the other places we visited were swampy, and everywhere else had lots more mosquitoes. Later, we watched a moose and calf swim across the lake a quarter mile (400 m) north of us. At 5:30 pm we saw seven caribou through binoculars on a snow field high across lake. Scalloped potatoes and lake trout for dinner. Chilly, later, with the sun behind clouds and not out to warm us. Chapter Three -- On to Fire LakeDay 4. Wednesday, 2 July, 1997 Up at 7:00 am, frost again this morning. Breakfast of the rest of last night's potato supper. Our first downriver traveling day, on the water at 9:20. John and Dennis on the North River just below Lake (34kb) The river started small, very fast, narrow, and rocky. Steep, but no problems. A short distance to a large pond, then more of the steep, fast, rocky stuff. Very soon it split into at least three very narrow, low banked, brushy channels. We chose the first and right-most which averaged about six feet wide (2 m). The water was deep enough, current very fast, steep, twisty -- no rapids, just a couple of rocks to avoid. Probably an eighth to a quarter mile long (200-400 m), like paddling a long water slide. A very different experience. Overhanging brush and the crooked water course made it very difficult to see much more than about a boat length, and we wondered if we were going to crash into a moose or bear, possibly in, or straddling the channel. The conditions in the other two channels are unknown to us, maybe better, but ice-out floods may change them all periodically. John and Dennis on the North River just above the sieve (28kb) Out onto the typically rocky stream, which almost immediately turned into very wide shallows at a small creek coming in from the right. This is what Hank saw from the top of the cirque climb yesterday (and had thought, "Uh oh..." -- but didn't tell the others!). Some snow right at water level on the bank at that confluence. The shallows continued for about a quarter mile (400 m), and we alternated paddling short sections of barely sufficient depth with pulling the boats over and through wide rock sieves. We could paddle a long stretch of slow meanders below that. Reached them at 10:40.
Dennis's first view of the North River sieve
(33kb) In this slow stretch somewhere is where we went into a low treed area and Hank started to worry about the possibilities of log jams in a high gradient section, but the steepness and spring ice must sweep it all out. Wouldn't hurt to watch for wood though. We had no log or sweeper problems until we hit the Braids 20 miles (32 km) downstream, just between the Falls and Black Lake. Before lunch, John's seven year old ABS Mad River Explorer 17 sustained it's first good crunch in the bow. It collected another significant one later that day. Neither leaked, or were even a structural or hydrodynamic problem, but as a builder of cedar strip canoes they were a real blow to his aesthetic sense. Hank and Laurie in some North River "flatwater" (29kb) After lunch, a short, light rain shower, then Hank and Laurie pinned their boat briefly on a midstream rock, their first pin in almost 25 years of paddling together. Put the first small wrinkles in middle of both sides of their five year old ABS Dagger Venture. The entire pin, unpin, then empty the boat sequence took maybe a minute, and no problem except for wet feet, though Laurie did lose her light canoe paddle in the process of emptying the boat. We all looked, but didn't find the paddle again. The stream was still very narrow, but so busy that watching for it was difficult, plus the sun reflection was in our eyes at the time. There are a total of three main long, narrow, steep, rocky sections separated by lengthy areas of lower gradient, all evident on the 50k topo map series. Big rocks between high banks at one spot with one huge boulder at a narrow place. The rapids are long and very continuous sets, eddies are small and seem to tilt steeply down hill. Stopping is not easy. The scenery doesn't matter much because you do not have time to look when in the rapids. Except in the wide sieve mentioned above, the stream bed is usually two boat lengths wide or less (10 m). Much tight, technical class 3 white water maneuvering. At our water flow, I would consider this about the limit for tandem loaded open canoeing in long tripping boats. A little more water may make it a little easier, but very much more will make it really pushy.
Our campsite on the North River
(31kb)
The river slowed and started meandering as
we approached Fire Lake. We pulled over at 2:30 pm to camp on a
big open gravel bar about 1¼ miles (2 km) above Fire Lake.
Chapter Four -- Fire Lake to the FallsDay 5. Thursday, 3 July, 1997 Up at 7 am again, cloudy, so no frost last night. Breakfast of the last of our eggs and toast. River gauge just above Fire Lake (30kb)
Pushed off at 8:45 and paddled
slowly, so as to check for birds and mammals. A big creek came
in on the right just below camp, then the meter stick on a
recording gauge above the river emptying into the lake indicated
a water level of 0.46 meters. I need to try and see who keeps
the records for the gauge, and if the data is available. We
reached Fire Lake about 9:20.
Our first view Fire Lake (21kb) We stopped on the sand spit at the mouth of the river to peruse the area. This lake is also three miles long (5 km), but about twice as wide as North Lake (2/3rds of a mile, 1 km). The base camp for the exploratory mining going on in the area is visible on left shore, half way down the lake. We had seen it flying in. These are probably the folks maintaining the river gauge. While at the river outlet, one of the mining helicopters looked to us as if it was chasing 6-8 caribou on a ridge to the north east. Could have been just on its route and the pilot didn't even see the animals. Good lake trout fishing directly out from the stream mouth. The mining camp on Fire Lake (??kb) We slowly traveled along the east shore towards the other end of the lake. The mining camp consists of several buildings with stacks of lumber for what looks like more. Could be for use in constructing remote buildings at drilling sites, also. There was a big generator going, a sauna building, two satellite dishes, motorized Zodiac boat, canoe, folding boat, ATV, and a helicopter or two (one seen earlier was still away), plus a Single Otter aircraft we had seen flying around that also wasn't there at the time. A large "Welcome" sign was spray painted on a sheet of plywood. We waved at some people as we paddled by, but didn't stop. I decided later that we should have stopped and asked about future mining plans, river gauge info, how much and what kind of recreational river and lake use they see, and other area info. The vacation cabins on Fire Lake (16kb) In the bay on the east shore, just north of the lake outlet, is a very nice hunting/fishing or vacation camp of some kind. Four well maintained log cabins, horse corrals (but how do they get horses in???), a small floatplane dock, two outhouses, and a remote bear cache for food storage. The cabin doors were all nailed shut so we didn't enter them, though we could see in a window of one. Most windows were also heavily boarded over for bear exclusion. Shortly after leaving the lake was another river gauge on the left bank, but no recorder. The meter stick indicated .35 meters, and Hank guessed a thousand or so cfs (28 m³/s). A little less than a mile from the outlet (1½ km), through several easy rapids, we came close to the first of several drops we didn't want to run. This section had looked pretty serious from the plane, and the first big drop puts paddlers into a narrow steep-walled canyon that might make it hard to scout and portage at river level. At least some drops might be runnable in suitable boats (and traveling empty), but one of them is a steep slide into a large hole. It may have been sneakable, but others also looked very marginal from our high above water level scouting vantage points.
North River looking upstream from the
beginning of our portage (35kb) We did our scouting hike on the right bank as it was the inside of the bend, and also easy to get out of boats on that side of the river. Hiked downstream after scouting and found a suitable reentry point, then went back and started portaging boats and gear. Some light rain as we started the portage at 12:30 pm. We followed animal trails, which is tough when carrying a canoe, as such trails are always narrow and usually discontinuous. The walk was about a half mile long (800 m) with very little climbing, and the last little bit to the river was a downhill bushwhack. John's GPS said the line of sight distance was about .35 miles (563 m). Three trips for everyone except two for John, who took some pictures of the rapids. Finished at 2:30 pm and ate some lunch. After repacking the boats, we only paddled a little over another mile (maybe 2 km) on very fast current, then camped at 3:30 pm on the left river bank. Distance paddled today was short, only about 7½ miles (12 km), and almost half of it was easy lake. The day was quite warm. It rained again about 5 pm while some of us rinsed portage dirt off with river water, which made us scramble to get a tarp up and things under cover. The rain was intermittent and not hard, just light thunder showers, which were the normal precipitation for us the whole run. Spaghetti for dinner. Mosquitoes bad enough that everyone was in their tents about 8 pm. Chapter Five -- The Falls to Black LakeDay 6. Friday, 4 July, 1997 Foggy and cloudy, but it cleared off and warmed up quickly. Oatmeal for breakfast. On the water at 9:30.
Dennis and John on the North River below
the portage (20kb)
Fast current helped us cover distance quickly,
but the
gradient picked up to the 50+ fpm (10 m/km) range about 2½
miles (4 km) before
Waters Creek. Not long before the Waters Creek confluence,
John and Dennis swamped totally in one
rapids with big, hard to avoid waves. They had also mentioned
seeing what looked to
them from the airplane as a possible big drop of some kind
immediately after an island below Waters Creek.
The North River falls (26kb) Running the left channel down to near that wide roller might be possible, but I don't recommend that. You would have to stay near the left river bank. Any swim would probably put you or some gear over the lip. The portage may be easier and shorter on that side, but we did not look for possibilities over there. What we did was pretty easy. First, we found a usable reentry point, which was not a real good one, as it did put us in the canyon. There is a slightly better reentry point about another quarter mile hike (400m) down from the one we used. It does avoid another of the bigger rapids. Going all the way to the end of the canyon would be a tough hike, requiring significant climbing. Checking downstream by hiking along the canyon rim indicated no more falls for the next mile, but there were definitely more big rapids with holes and big waves. Back up to the boats. We then ran what we could, and lined what we couldn't, down the smaller channel to the right of the island -- a real pinball course with very little water. We stopped in a small eddy just above the end of the island, and portaged gear from there. It's easy to get out of the boats to an animal trail at that place, and less than a quarter mile walk (400 m) to where we were reentering the river. At our put-in below the falls (30kb) Like yesterday, it started raining during the portage. Ate lunch afterwards in a harder than normal rain than we've had up to now, then pushed off. John and Dennis lined the second rapids below our reentry as the waves were pretty big. Laurie's and my Dagger Venture is a drier boat than their Mad River Explorer, and we did okay. We were in a very pretty, steep walled canyon, but the usually hard rain prevented pictures. Sheer rock walls are a couple hundred or more feet (60+ m) high in spots. Logs in the braids above the Black River confluence (37kb)
The braids started immediately after leaving
the canyon, a mile (1.6 km)
below the falls.
We saw four beaver in this braided section before we pulled over at 5:30 to camp on a small right bank gravel bar. It was about a quarter mile (400 m) above the actual Black River confluence, though we didn't know that until the next morning. We thought we were already a short ways below the junction, as we had passed a good sized channel we called the Black River coming in a bit before. It's easy to get 'lost' in braided areas as they often change every year and the newest channels are not shown on maps accurately. Distance paddled today was a only little over 12 miles (19 km), not far, but tough work when scouting, on the portage, and in the log jams. There was intermittent rain after the portage, and bad mosquitoes all day -- especially when sitting still and no wind. A smoky fire helped in camp, but a breeze was better, and both was best. Macaroni and cheese with chicken and corn for dinner. More light rain off and on all evening. No caribou on the hillsides, but there were recent wolf tracks on our beach, again. To bed at 9:30 pm. Mosquitoes on Dennis's pants (13kb) Day 7. Saturday, 5 July, 1997 45°F degrees (7°C) at 7 am, and the rain yesterday brought the river level up a couple inches (5 cm), judging from a small island that was a sandy spit last night. Breakfast of pancakes, and no hurry getting on the river, knowing we were not going to travel far today. Temperature up to 70°F (21°C) when we pushed off at 10:30. At the North/Black River confluence (34kb) The fish were not biting at the Black River junction, which surprised John and Dennis, but there was a very good campsite there, and more at other gravel bars immediately downstream. All much better than the one used last night. We slowly worked down river on 2500 or so cfs (71 m³/s), poking about, watching for wildlife. Still some wood in the river but no more impeding log jams, which all seemed to be behind us. The water was still very clear, but a little bit of suspended sediment was evident. Usually decent current despite the under 10 fpm gradient (2 m/km) though this whole area. The sweepers and deadheads were no problem unless you weren't watching where you were going. Chapter Six -- On Black LakeDay 7 (continued). Saturday, 5 July, 1997 Dennis and one of his lake trout (28kb)
We reached Black Lake at 12:30, just after it started sprinkling
a little rain.
A Black Lake view from the air (24kb) We ate lunch (hot Ramen noodles) on that beach during another typically short thundershower, but it's not a spot suitable to us for camping. Hank and Laurie paddled down to the outlet of the lake. They noticed on the way that an island indicated on the map is a shallow spot with one large rock sticking about 6 inches above the surface at this water level. John in front of Jim Botti's cabin (49kb) Hank and Laurie paddled back up to the north end of the lake to check what was seen through binoculars to be an aluminum canoe upside down on the lake shore. It's at a trapper's cabin with a bronze plaque on a tree nearby that said, "In loving memory of James Botti, 1936-1989." Much trash all over the place. The cabin is not locked. Traps hanging all over the outside, an old dog sled on the roof, lots of paper back books on shelves inside (a real Louis L'amour fan!), plus evidence of squirrels and mice all over. Two bald eagles roosting nearby, but no suitable tent sites here. Our Black Lake campsite from the water (15kb) We found the fishermen, who pointed us to a long, narrow beach just east of the river mouth for camping. At the same time we pointed out a moose browsing on shore at the mouth of the river. It heard us and ran off upstream along the river bank. We set up camp on the beach and put up a rain fly. More wolf tracks at the east end of the beach. Later, Hank was sitting in his chair on the beach and a mink ran up the shoreline to within four feet of him (1.2 m) before it noticed and turned into the brush. After that, we heard and saw another moose running in the shallow water in front of the trapper's cabin. It's 6:20 pm. Distance paddled today was only a little over five miles (8 km) from our campsite last night to this one, but we put in lots more time on the lake poking around. Hank's and Laurie's tent space at our Black Lake campsite (20kb) Through binoculars John saw six caribou on a snowfield, then a bear (probably a grizzly) crossing a different snowfield, which interrupted our fish supper a bit. This animal action was all over two miles away (3.2 km) and 1400 feet (425 m) above us. Not much danger from that grizzly, anyway. A total of 24 caribou seen on the trip, so far, and our first bear on the river (we had seen two blackies near the road while driving the Cassiar). A day in paradise, despite the typically short midday rain showers. Macaroni and cheese with lake trout for supper. Day 8. Sunday, 6 July, 1997 John and one of his lake trout (25kb) 65°F degrees at 8:30 (18.5°C). A layover day on Black Lake, no travel. Hashbrown potatoes with cheese and corn for breakfast. The sky is mostly clear with a few thin, high clouds. Sun very bright, and the caribou are moving around on the snow. John wanted a "lunker trout" picture so he and Dennis went out and got a fish for a photo, then released it (see Salmonella). They were back for lunch and a sponge bath while it was warm and sunny.
John, his canoe, and a Black Lake scenic
view (22kb) Cloudiness slowly increased and a breeze appeared with some sprinkles about 12:30, though still very warm. Mosquitoes were bad under the tarp during the rain. The rain fly seems to collect the mosquitoes, and we postulate whether they do any "rough sensing" for blood by infrared, like our body temperature, or heated air under the dark awning, then home in on scent or CO2 concentration when they get closer. The rain didn't last for long. About 2:00 pm, John went back out fishing alone, and as he left, pointed out a moose splashing across the river delta to the west. It swam across the bay to a point south of the trappers cabin, shook water off, and disappeared into the brush there. 80°F+ degrees (26.5°C) on Dennis's thermometer which was in the sun. A very pleasant day and evening. On and off cloudy, but very warm. Noodles, broccoli and fish supper. John also celebrated the day with a "Mountain Man Margarita" (Shudder -- don't ask!). There was a light sprinkle for a short time immediately after crawling into bed at 9:45 pm. Chapter Seven -- To the Liard RiverDay 9. Monday, 7 July, 1997 A warm night, and heavy clouds when we got up. Granola for breakfast. Time to get back on the water and head on downstream. There was a light sprinkle for a couple of minutes about 7:50, then a cow moose walked up the east lake shore, saw us, and turned into the woods. John and Dennis caught three lake trout on a slow troll of the 1¼ miles (2 km) to the Black Lake outlet, which we reached at 10:20. A five mph current (8 km/hr), and few easy rapids before crossing the 2900 foot topo map contour (maps below Black Lake are the older, non-metric versions). A view of the Black River and intermittant canyon walls (28kb) There's a good campsite after the second dark cut-bank on the left, but it's too soon for us stop. It's a big gravel bar on the right with grayling fishing in the large eddy. This is the first campable place we remember seeing since leaving the lake nine miles back (15 km), despite several gravel bars indicated above here on the topo map. There might have also been a usable site soon after the lake outlet. It started raining at 12:40, while Dennis was fishing, and got progressively harder. Bigger rapids started just below the potential campsite, and persisted for about five miles (8 km). Still some good rapids after that, but much more occasional. A small hanging snowfield on a right bank cliff about 50 feet (15 m) above the river was interesting. High dark cliffs were pretty, but the rain and current speed again precluded pictures. We started looking for a campsite, and finally found one about 2:45 pm. It was immediately after a left bend where the topo map indicates a sand bar. Immediately below is a very sharp right bend in the river with another sandbar indicated just below it. Checking the next morning showed this second bar was not usable as a campsite. This first camp was plenty good enough for us. It was still raining pretty hard, and there was plenty of firewood here. John's GPS said 4.1 miles (6,597 m), line of sight to the mouth of the Black. Distance paddled today was just a bit over 19 miles (31 km). Our Black River campsite in the rain (46kb) Tarp up, fire built, hot chocolate, hot soup, and your choice of a hot or cold lunch. The air temperature is not really cold, but very damp, with some breeze. Dennis hauled in a few small grayling after the rain slowed down. After it quit, Hank and Dennis modeled John's spray deck next to the rapids in front of camp. Instead of cooking a real supper we just ate more lunch type stuff at 8:00 pm. We kept a smoky fire going to discourage mosquitoes, which were very thick. Rain started again about 9:30, so off to bed. Day 10. Tuesday, 8 July, 1997 Up at 7:00, cloudy, and threat of rain again. Pancakes for breakfast. Pushed off at 10:00. John and Dennis with the spray deck on their canoe (31kb)
John and Dennis still have the
spray deck on so Laurie took a couple of "action" pictures of
them. Later in the day they decided that they should have put it
on earlier in the trip. We finally got some pictures of the
canyon walls, and now we think we know why it's called the Black
River -- a lot of oily black bedrock. Downstream a bit, a potentially
bad rapids John had
noted from the plane turned out to be no problem, the river is wide
enough for us to easily miss the rock wall. After reaching the
Liard River at 11:15, we decided that the lower Black River course had
changed a bit, putting us into the Liard a couple miles (3.2 km)
downstream of where it's indicated on the map.
A view from the air of the Black/Liard River confluence (25kb) The current is fast on the Liard, and the river has cleared up a lot since we flew over it over a week ago. It had looked real milky from the air then. We arrived at Hasselberg Creek at 1:00 pm, and ate lunch there. There is an old cabin on the high bank across the river, and we saw another more recent one upstream of here. Our first Liard River campsite (46kb) We paddled over another hour, then started looking for a campsite. The first potential site checked was rejected, but several subsequent ones were much worse. We finally found another at 4 pm several miles/km downstream, this one almost as good as the first. Patches of blue earlier had closed up and given us some light sprinkles. Tarp up, tents up, and a fire going. John was hitting the bottle of Yukon Jack, which was getting pretty low. Few rapids on the Black today. Just some waves and rocks to dodge. Several rock sieves to avoid, even some on the much bigger Liard. The Black looked to be about ¼ of the flow of the Liard which was about 10,000 cfs (280 m³/s) below the confluence. Distance paddled was about 28 miles (45 km). It's easy to make miles on the big Liard with few obstacles and good current. Chapter Eight -- More Liard River and on to WhitehorseDay 11. Wednesday, 9 July, 1997 Up at 7:00 and had oatmeal for breakfast. While eating, Dennis found the source of a cheeping sound we have been hearing. A solitary baby bird under a bush on the ground. Multiple sound sources indicate there were probably others, though we didn't look for more. Dennis thought we might have been hearing frogs, of which we have actually seen a few. We didn't know amphibians came this far north. On the river about 9:45. John and Dennis on the lazy Liard River (41kb) Allan Creek was about 12 miles (19 km), we passed it about 10:15. John had hit it right on with the GPS coordinates. Several braided stretches of river don't agree with the map. We ate lunch on a sandbar a couple miles (3 km) before Sambo Creek, another 12 miles down (19 km), then saw a black bear along the river just below Sambo. There was also a river bank in that area (on the right) that started muddying the river a bit. Not bad, but no longer as clear as before. We had a head wind all day, some generated by our own speed and the river current. We sometimes hit 10 mph (16.6 kph), and averaged over 6.5 (11 kph). Several high cut banks were pretty and contained lots of bank swallow holes. There was much low land, and wet mud on some sand and gravel bars indicated the river level was dropping quickly. The cliffs across from our Meister River campsite (31kb)
We decided to go on towards the Meister River
confluence and arrived about 3:00 pm.
Distance paddled today was just over 31 miles (50 km). We have 43 more river miles (69 km) to go. We wanted to reach the take-out before noon on Friday, so planned for about 30 miles (50 km) tomorrow, then the rest the next day. In bed by 10 pm. Day 12. Thursday, 10 July, 1997 Up by 7:00, Hashbrown potatoes and ham for breakfast. Mostly cloudy, but broke to mostly sun by the time we pushed off at 9:40. As we left, we took pictures of the holes used by a large bank swallow colony in the cliff across and downstream from camp. The holes in the cliff where a bank swallow colony makes it's home (27kb)
We reached the Frances River at 11:30 (13 miles,
21 km below the Meister) and had a short rest stop
there.
We seemed to be right under a major flight path for jets to Whitehorse, Fairbanks, or Anchorage. We were only about 8 miles (13 km) line of sight from the Watson Lake airport. Must have been a flying club with about seven or eight small planes in quick succession that went overhead not long after we set up camp. Hank and Laurie beside a Liard River log jam (24kb) The Liard was now 40kcfs (1130 m³/s) or so, the Frances had contributed at least 2/3rds of the flow. The Rancheria River was little, maybe 5kcfs (142 m³/s), lots smaller than I thought it would be. We were along it occasionally as we drove to Whitehorse the next day. All other side streams except the Meister contributed very little water. Current on the Liard was very fast, seven mph (11.6 kph) or a bit less, though the last ten miles (16 km) before the Frances came in was slower. Lots of bank erosion both before and after the Frances. Some wood in the river, which probably came down the Frances. No floating logs the next day, so it might have just been one log jam breaking up. The river didn't seem to be fluctuating. It's 6:25 pm, a really nice day. 75°F degrees or so (24°C), and sunny, with some clouds. A storm is building to the northeast, though. Still had missed us at 9:30 pm. Chicken stroganoff over mashed potatoes for supper. This was our last night on the river. Distance paddled today was 27 miles (43 km). Only about 13 miles (21 km) to the take-out bridge now. A light sprinkle for about 15 minutes after going to bed at 10:30 pm. On to WhitehorseDay 13. Friday, 11 July, 1997 Up at 6:30, granola for breakfast as we wanted to get on the water quickly. Light overcast, but the sun came out occasionally. We pushed off at 8:00 for our last couple hours on the big river. Some wind, some sun, and good current. We started seeing river bank houses then reached the Alaska Highway bridge just after 10 am, 13 miles (21 km) below our campsite. A shot of the river at our Upper Liard Village take out (43kb)
The take out is a steep bank on the right
(west shore) maybe 75 feet (25 m) upstream
of the bridge where a gravel road comes near the water.
On the road again towards Whitehorse about 1:00 pm. Got to town about 5:30 pm, and found the Robert Service campground where we were to meet Bauer's before our run with them on the Big Salmon River. We left them a note on the bulletin board, took showers, then headed off into town for supper at a restaurant. We were back and in bed by 10 PM. Bauer's had not arrived yet. Continuation... This trip continues on in the Big Salmon and Yukon River section. You can read it now or check it out later after checking out more here in the North/Black/Liard section. Back to previous page or North/Black Contents List
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