The Full Yukon River Quest - Day 5 - Whitehorse to Lake Laberge

This is one of 14 Wikiloc Trails in a series that recounts an 855 kilometer (531 statute mile, 461 nautical mile) journey by kayak from Bennett, British Columbia to Dawson City, Yukon Territories from June 30 to July 13, 2018.

A team of four Canadian kayakers from British Columbia completed this paddle in celebration of and homage to the roughly 100,000 gold prospectors who sought their fortune by attempting this route during the Yukon Gold Rush of 1897 to 1899. Fewer than a third actually completed the route, which began with a 53 kilometer hike and climb over Chilkoot Pass from the Southeastern Alaska panhandle coast at Dyea to a high mountain lake at Bennett, British Columbia. One member of the kayak expedition had completed this four-day hike and climb several years earlier with his two sons. This journey by boat would complement and complete that first stage in the re-enactment of this historic journey: traveling from the Pacific Ocean to the Yukon Gold Fields.

Robert Service Campground is pleasant, popular, reasonably close to town, and right on the river. And the showers are hot! A stop-over back where we were four days earlier and where we left our car helped us to dump gear we did not need, and pick up a few things we did. The most fun in this campground was learning where everyone had come from; we talk with several Japanese, Swedes, Australians, Americans, etc. Lots of stories!

Day 5 would be on the course of the Yukon River Quest Race, which starts in Whitehorse and continues to Dawson City. The race had finished just about as we started our journey. It usually happens toward the end of June, just after the ice breaks up on the lakes above Whitehorse. The current is fastest at this time. This ulta-marathon paddling race is 715 kilometers long, and won in times between 40 and 50 hours. That's a brutal race pace, and involves all-day/all-night paddling.

We'll take 10 days, thank you. After all, we are carrying all of our gear, and we have sights to see.

The river out of Whitehorse has a current of 4 to 7 kilometers per hour, a nice boost...but it doesn't last. Four hours later it's back to lake paddling. Lake Laberge is the largest lake on our route at over 50 kilometers/30 statute miles/26 nautical miles in length. And it's famous for storms blowing up on it.

We pushed hard in good weather to a daily total of 57 kilometers/36 statute miles/31 nautical miles, and made it almost half-way across Lake Laberge to a camp on a big island along the west bank.