Yukon Territory - North/Black/Liard River Canoe Trip, Trip Costs

The way we do our wilderness trips, even most of the longer ones, usually makes them end up being quite inexpensive. Especially if you compare it to the typical week at Disneyland or on Maui. Of course, our final costs as given below should be tempered by the fact that we already own all of the equipment that we use on these expeditions, and we amortize the cost of most of the the individual gear items over several trips. For instance, we have two to three thousand dollars worth of boats, paddles, packs, tents, sleeping bags, tarps, and water purifying filters that we have used on many, many trips, so we simply do not figure them into any trip cost.

Finances for this trip are complicated by the fact that we did two different river trips before heading home, and I'm trying to separate the amounts for each. Dennis, our trip banker, supplied some figures which I've interpreted to what's below.

All dollar figures have been converted to US$, unless specified as Canadian, and probably rounded off somewhat. Also, amounts are what we paid in 1997.

   $350      Auto gasoline (Portland, OR up, and then back to Portland)
   $850      Air shuttle into North Lake
    $17      Cab to get from the take-out to the car 
   $250      Trip food (though you do have to eat, where ever you are!)
   $110      River topographical maps
   $170      Lots of miscellaneous small expenses

  $1747      Total

There were four of us, so that's $436.75 each person. That does not include the car travel food. We spent 5 days total (actually a bit less) driving up and back, so figure your car travel food on that basis, plus how much farther away you might be from Watson Lake, or your particular destination river. The miscellaneous expenses does include campground fees on the way up and back. Figure more if you want to stay at motels, instead.

That is less than $35(US) a day per person. Yup, that's pretty cheap. Many people spend more than that in two weeks at home.

Of course, the above also doesn't include lots of little incidental personal items like:

• camera film
• fishing licenses
• souvenir money
• rental costs for equipment you do not already own
• last minute items you forgot to bring with you -- you'll need to buy them somewhere on the way up

The expenses that will run trip cost totals up significantly are plane tickets and gear rental. Flying up could save you three to six days of driving if time is more of a factor than money. Please let me know how it goes.

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