Tanana-Yukon Trip Log & Journal, 1972
Yukon Journal logo sp50.gif - 47 BytesMay flights of cranes carry you homeward now that winter's come.   Grus canadensis
the Kayaker himself

a true and faithful copy
Aug 24 thru Sep 6, 1972

 
 
The following journal is rendered as it was written while on the trip, complete even as to all strike outs and insertions. All additions made since the trip are in italics or in the form of notes. pjw 10/4/2000
 
 
contents:
 
     Part1: Jul 31 Fairbanks, departure; Aug 1-4 Tanana R.; Aug 5 mosquitos; Aug 6 more mosquitos; Aug 7 Tanana Village, Sandhill Cranes;
 
     Part2: Aug 8 day in camp; Aug 9-10 Yukon R.; Aug 11 Ruby; Aug 12-14 rain; Aug 15 Koyukuk, "Last Chance"; Aug 16 Nulato, ½ way;
 
     Part3: Aug 17 Moose; Aug 18 depressing weather; Aug 19 Kaltag; Aug 20-21 more rain; Aug 22 a good day, Sandhill Cranes; Aug 23 a small Black Bear;
 
     Part4: Aug 24 Anvik, some interesting water; Aug 25 Bonasila Slough, American widgeon; Aug 26 Holy Cross; Aug 27 hint of autumn; Aug 28 a curious animal; Aug 29 Russian Mission; Aug 30 The Raft;
 
     Part5: Aug 31 Pilot Landing; Sep 1 a strange phenomenon, another Klepper; Sep 2-4 Ste Mary's; Sep 5 Mountain Village; Sep 6 I prophetize.
 
top of page | notes | maps | the Appendices | links
 
 
 

Thurs, Aug 24th:      I'm safely in my tent after a full day's paddling. I left my camp this morning under a clouded sky heading for Anvik where I was going to mail some cards & a letter to my parents along with the rolls of film I have exposed. After about 6 or 7 hours & 30 miles I reach Anvik only to find both the post office & the store closed, Drat! So I headed on down stream toward Holy Cross. I made another 8 miles of the 45 between A & HC. Tomarrow I go almost to H.C. So that in the following day I [can] be sure things [are] open.
     Today just after passing Grayling I hit a stretch of water a mile wide & 5 long [like a giant bathtub] over which a squall had justpassed an hour ago [...a squall had passed an hour previously]. The water was extreamly choppy with a series of waves sieching4 [seiche traveling] from side to side and a larger series of waves seiching [seiche traveling] the length. there were no sand bars to break the waves & they just kept going. Occasionally a series of 3-6 waves reinforced waves 3-4' high would come preceded by a stretch of almost flat water of about 50' or more. Great fun to build up and go smashing into them. And then there were times two sets of reinforced waves at right angles would bear down on you. The only thing to do is to head for the vee. Very interesting water.
 
     Another interesting thing happened today. Anvik isn't on the Yukon proper, it's on a slough into which the Anvik River runs.[empties.] And strange as it may seem you can actually see through it, it's actually transparent not opaque like decent water. Also it tastes flat! But I liked it anyway. As you drive a paddle into it you can actually see the paddle under the water and the air bubbles. [...see the blade under the surface with air bubbles streaming upward.] It sparkles as it spashes.
     Identified a Harléquin Duck today   saw a couple two days ago but wasn't sure   today I am. Also as I made for camp tonite a flight of what sounded like jet planes flew low right over my head, teal I guess.

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Fri, Aug 25th:      Took a detour this morning through the Bonasila Slough, a 7 mile slough into ^the beginning of wh the Bonasila River empties. The water of the B. River is a clear brown like tea (probably flows through peat) wh is immediately clouded by the waters of the Yukon. There was almost no current.
     I took the detour to fish, no luck. Another wasted morning but for one thing. Near the end of the slough I saw some American Widgeon.
     I was paddling along heading for the mouth when I glanced out of the corner of my eye. There on near the bank were six brown ducks. Ah ha, a chance to to identify a new duck says I. They were about 30yds so I get out my book & binocs. But they ^DUCKS didn't fit. I needed to see more. Get them to move. I quacked they looked up stream (I was down) then returned to their preening. I started to paddle toward them, nothing. They tucked their heads in & went to sleep. I yelled, they looked around then settled down again. Hardly skittish. So I paddled toward them    got [up] a good head of steam, picked up my binocs & almost ran them down. If I had used my head I probably could have gotten one for my dinner with the paddle. They finally took off when the nose of the kayak was upon them. I must have been within 20'. [about 12' of that was kayak] But they flew & I got a wing pattern & an ident: American Widgeon, immature (just dumb kids).


     Saw also a couple of Pintails.

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Sat, Aug 26th:      Sitting in camp in front of the breakfast fire enjoying the sun & my pipe.
     Last night I discovered a rare thing on this trip, a good camp site. On a high sand bar (25' above the river level and still under water [earlier] this year). With a good north wind to keep the insects away & plenty of fire wood I enjoyed a fire, made beans, fried some meat & dried & warmed my feet.
     Another rare thing phenomenon last night, stars. Lots of them; big & little bear, northstar etc. And the full moon. First time since the Tanana I saw either. They didn't last long but long enough to make me feel good.
     This morn' having sated my appetite I am sitting by the fire enjoying the Sun. Good ol' Sol. Beautiful.
     Spent about twenty minutes taking my own picture. On the first attempt I turned on the timer but forgot the shutter. There I am posing wondering when the damn thing would go off. The 2nd attempt was an inadvertant candid photo of myself getting into position. The third seem to go ok, I hope so.
     Time to get packing if I don't want to miss the post office at Holy Cross too.


     Well I made Holy Cross ok but the P.O. was closed anyway. Seems it's Sat (I had lost track) & it's closed. Fellow at the Trading Co. said they will open if nec. I said no, & left the letters & some money w/ him. He said he would mail them tomarrow when the P.O. was open 1/2 day prior to the mail going out.
     H.C. is an eskimo village. It is a lot neater than the Indian villages. The beach is clean & ship-shape. the fuel dump is in one place & clean. No garbage broken glass etc. Same for village wh. is inland away from the ephemeral beach about ¼ mi. Here modern construction out numbers log cabins. There is a sewer system & electric lights.

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Sun, Aug 27th:      A day of rest. Stopped at a deserted fish camp which was on a creek. Got some clear water & looked around. Found a historical noval wh I read as I drifted most of the day. Beautiful weather. Partly cloudy w/ warm sun. No rain or high winds. Made about 20 miles.
     There's a hint of autumn in the air. Nights are getting quite chilly & during the day when the sun goes behind a cloud it is instantly cool. I am constantly putting on off my jacket, redoing the buttons on my shirt. Also, very significantly the birch leaves are beginning to turn yellow at the ends of the branches. Am.[?]

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Mon, Aug 28th:     Last night I camped on the usual sand bar. After I had been asleep awhile a very strong wind came up. The tent was flapping around my ears, sand was blowing right thru, & I began to worry about my kayak not too far from the water's edge. Would it be blown into the river? would the sand be eroded from beneath it?
     Finally nothing would do but that I go hot-footing it down to the water in skivies, boot laces flapping around my ankles.
     It was fine but I drove another stake into the clay and added another mooring line just to ease my sleep.
     On the way back to the tent I noticed what the wind was doing to the sky. All the clouds were were being driven off, exposing once more the full moon and a myriad of bright glistening stars. Worth getting out of the sack to see.


     This morning it was difficult getting out of the sack. I awoke to a rosy dawn & the same howling wind. After sticking my head out, feeling the snap to the air, and seeing all that sand blowing around (my sleeping bag was covered) I pulled my head right back inside my warm downy cocoon.
     I finally made it up. After a cold breakfast beside my kayak I plunged into the foaming sea. Wind & sand swerling around me, waves breaking over my bow. Onward toward Russian Mission.

     Made camp early today. Saw a good spot w/ plenty of wood, fresh water, & soft spot for my tent. I've been out of bread for a day and beans are low. So need to do some cooking.

sketch of animal seen - 7544 Bytes
     As I was sitting by the fire the above animal came hopping out of a great tangle of trees and other drift wood.
     He looks some thing like a cross between a mink & a squirrel. Longer than a mink, tho slim, face more fore-shortened, brown above and white below w/ black tip to his tail.5
     He hops or jumps around like a chipmunk, fore feet together & hind together, chirping with each bound.
     Not very shy, He came up to within 10' feet of me looking around then dashing back. Back & forth he came, trying to figure out this strange creature.

     Hope this bread (about 9 ¼lb loafs) will last until the end as I'm out of rye flour. This is ½ rye & ½ whole wheat.

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Tues, Aug 29th:      Another glorious day. Eskimo Summer?
     Just stopped at Russian Mission. Two young white boys showed me around. P.O., TWO stores, & the Russian church.
     They as others before them told me of all the others going down the Y this year. Last week another fellow in a Klepper(?) past[ed]. and just yesterday 2 guys on a raft left RM after a week's stay.They have been going down the river from Fairbanks for 10 weeks. I hope to overtake them. Also another fellow on a raft from Whitehorse. seven weeks (good time).

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Wed, Aug 30th:      Just Shortly after I wrote the [above] I did overtake the raft, or fairy house, or what ever.
     Dan & Rick had started out from Fairbanks with seven other guys & 2 girls on a fairly standard barrel raft (3 rows of 7). It had a floor, benches along the sides, 2 sweeps, & a steering oar, & that's about all, except a mound of provisions ,& stores in the center. People kept dropping out & refinements kept being added until now there is a roof over the whole thing, ^(spare 6 barrel raft, row boat & canoe) a captain's office, 4 bunks, a fire place, a crow's nest, & a hugh collection of junk, materials, wood ^(drift & fire) goodies & what-nots nailed, propped, stored, stowed, hung on, about, along side of the original raft.The resault is a carneval or fairyland afloat & the kids at every village they stop at are enchanted as I was.
     Dan is an old river rat from Cleaveland, the organizer of the raft trip. ^He was justifiably proud of his creation as he gave me the grand tour. Rick was from England ^university & is just traveling around Canada, Alaska & who knows. Both were very hospitable, immediatly inviting me aboard to share their breakfast of pancakes, whitefish & cranberry tea. ¶ They had been traveling all night, then had gotten blown upon a sand bar in the morning [so] had gone to sleep waiting for the wind to shift or stop. Travel by raft is very much at the whim of wind & current.
     After breakfast I got the grand tour.
     But even more worrisome than sand bars are the sweepers and snags on the outside of turns [bends]. Sweepers are tree that are in the process of falling into the river. They stick out from the bank at a near perpendicular angle [to it] & sweep the decks of boats & rafts passing too close. One of these claimed the port side bench last night.
     I was invited to travel along w/ them as long as I liked. I elected to stay for the night. One of the clinchers was the announced moose steaks for dinner.
     They had recieved the whitefish & a fore leg of moose from Eskimos at RM where they had stayed a week.
     They ate three gargantuan meals a day. For dinner (around 2am) we had moose steaks, baked potatoes, onions, corn, corn bread & jello. Then another meal just before I left of moose meat, pan cakes & a mountain of home fries. They work off all this food by cutting wood for the continuous fire, fending off shore, rowing (the sweeps are about 15' spruce logs [poles actually] w/ blades, & one each stroke will move the raft about a foot) & prying the thing off sand bars.Definately more work than pushing my kayak down river.
     I stay all night on the raft as they negotiate the Devil's Elbow. Constant worry about my kayak being crushed between the raft and shore or a snag kept me awake. Once I had to shift the kayak as we went crashing into shore.
     Being up all night gave me a chance to see the full dawn, which was a treat.
     They insisted I stay for breakfast but after, I got into my kayak and headed for Marshall.
     Before I left they gave me 6-8lbs of moose meat. Part of wh is for some ^3 guys in a raft a couple of days ahead if I should catch up w/ them.

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Thurs, Aug 31th:      Windy weather, difficult progress. But for the fact that I took an unplanned short-cut I wouldn't have made it to Pilot Landing [my] where I had intended to camp. Made 28 mi having saved 4..

 

Fri, Sept 1st:      Last night as I was sleeping or more exactly this morning when I was half asleep a strange phenomenon occured. It has occured before.
     I was camped quite close to the water. In the morning the wind came up causing waves against the shore. I would hear them in my half sleep and imagine I'm curled up in my kayak going down the river. Then I would notice the tent around me and instead of recognizing the truth I would imagine that I had set the tent up in my kayak. very strong & persistant.


     As I neared Ste. Mary's I heard voices from the opposite shore. I couldn't see anything, but I had been told th 2 guys were about 10 mi behind me when I was 10 mi above Pilot Station (in a canoe). I picked up my binocs & sure enough it was another Klepper (Blue Whale) w/ two white guys. So I paddled over.
     Tom & Steve are from Anchorage & started at Skagway, about 2000 mi. They have elected to end their trip at Ste. Mary's. I have decided to share camp w/ them, eat the moose meat & see what comes.

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Sat & Sun, Sept 2-3:      The three of us have set up camp just above Ste Mary's on the Andreyeskí River, about 5 mi from the Y.
     Much food has been consumed: moose, fresh bread & biscuits, blueberry pie, cranberry sauce, baked potatoes.
     More berries have been picked, pictures of the tundra, hikes to airport (6 mi), a movie at the Cold Storage, talking w/ the people & the female lay teachers at the Mission High School.
     Tom & Steve left for Anchorage about 4:30. I will see them on my way out.
     An Eskimo, Brothe[?], laid 2 ducks on me & I refused a salmon complete w/ roe (dumb) for fear it would spoil before I could eat it.

Mon, Sept 4th:      Left Ste Mary's today, Labor Day & store was closed so no expected canned ham or post cards. I regret the salmon now. On to Mountain Village where I will cook the ducks.

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Tues, Sept 5th:      Made camp last nite in a slough just below MV. It rain all nite but not hard. Sleeping bags wet again at foot. Both this time.
     Saw 2 swan last nite but couldn't identify as it was too dark.
     Tues morn as I was making breakfast an eskimo, Johnson from M V came by. He had just emptied his nets & was going back to the village. Catch was about 30 Whitefish, a few Ling Cod & 1 Northern.
     He gave me my pick of the whitefish. I took a small one which filleted out to at least 2lbs. There was enough meat on the dicarded bones to make a good rich fish soup. But as I have a whole pot of duck stew w/ dumplings & beans, I made an offering to the wild beasts.
     Breakfast consisted of ½ the w.fish, a piece of duck, cereal w/ fresh Blueberry syrup, & stick bread. Eating like this I don't know if I'll be able to paddle.


     Just went thru a bad slough. no current, head wind, & not enough water. I took it because I thought it looked would be more protected (it was) & I could make better time (I didn't).
     Just saw an eskimo who said that there was a seal in these waters. He was going after it but lack of gas made him turn back wh I saw him. He also had a wounded Hawk in his boat. Said he would probably let it go as soon as its wing healed.

     Just saw a Snowy Owl. I was paddling along when I noticed what I took to be one of the constant gulls swooping in for a look. I gave it the old greeting "Kee-ew". It remained quiet & just kept coming. Then I noticed it looked kind of wierd for a gull. When Then he he was directly over & in front of me looking me in the eye with his 2 yellow orbs & I saw that he was an owl. He made about 5 or 6 passes coming w/i 10-15' of me. When he was satisfied he flew off.

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Wed, Sept 6th:      Gloomy morn. overcast but no rain. Dry during the nite as well. Had breakfast in kayak to get away from mosquitos, also little wood in camp. Breakfast of 3 c. of blueberries & milk & sugar & cheese w/ sourdough pumpernickel w/ bacon drippings salt & cheese.


     Weather clears to a warm sunny day w/ scattered clouds. Just found a good landing. Stopped, took pictures of tundra, eat moss berries, whitefish & coffee.
     Many flights of cranes & geese passing overhead, heading south & southwest. But w/ weather like this I'm in no hurry. Tomorrow will probably be hell & I'll curse myself for not making time when I could.

      [With these prophetic words the Journal ends. ]

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    notes:
  1.      I misused the word seiche as a verb when it is a noun. I also misspelled it.
    seiche n.
    [French dialectal exposed lake bottom, probably from French sèche, feminine of sec, dry.]
    A stationary wave usually caused by strong winds and/or changes in barometric pressure. It is found in lakes, semi enclosed bodies of water, and in areas of the open ocean. The period of a seiche in an enclosed rectangular body of water is usually represented by the formula:
         Period (T) = 2L / square root(gd)
    in which L is the length, d the average depth of the body of water, and g the acceleration of gravity. See standing wave.
    (Thanks to Coastal Engineering Research Center)     return
     
  2.      The animal is some kind of weasel: Sable I first thought because of the black tipped tail, Martin I later concluded after studying pictures of Alaskan mammals. return
     
     
maps:
     The following links lead to maps of my route. To follow the route from city to city click on the river at the down stream edge of the map.
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large scale route map
 
links:
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transcribed by Peter J Wait, 9/29/00
edited by Peter J Wait, 10/5/00 10:19:31 AM
copywrite © by Peter J Wait 10/2/00