Tuesday, 5 September 2000. Whitehorse, YT. Mileage: 77,598.
I woke up to Eddy barking at someone walking down the hotel corridor. We packed up the gear, packed the truck, headed out for breakfast. We had the best latte in months, at the Midnight Sun Coffee Roasters, on 4th St. The foam was just right, the bitterness, flavour, and smoothness playful. Incredible! I considered checking my email, but since no one expects me to read it, I figured there wouldn't anything interesting anyways.
Tasks for Whitehorse: buy a replacement nut for my wheel axle, and buy a copy of the Paddling in the Yukon book. We went to two bicycle stores, and neither had the part I needed. Turns out it's rather specialized (no pun intended), and it has a metric thread. We went to the import stores (Nissan, Honda) and they didn't have those parts either. Finally I bought a 5/16" 5" long carriage bolt at the lumber store, nuts and washers, and that'll have to do.
On the east side of town there is a bicycle repair shop -- we called the owner to see if he'd have the part we needed, but we got the answering machine. "I will be out until September 7th, hunting moose. Hope I'll get one!"
Today we plan to drive slightly over our planned daily mileage. There seem to be no good daily paddles along our road, and we need to make up for the past few days. We had lunch at Tetlin Junction, about 60 miles after we left Whitehorse. Truck stop: salad and burgers. Wrote some postcards. Tracy has been asking me all summer to kiss a moose for her -- so I kissed one in the parking lot. I called work, while Shelly and Eddy were on a walk, no messages, no one wants me.
Animal sightings: over four foxes, a moose, and an owl.
I drove after lunch, and Shelly looked at the paddling guidebook. Turns out I missed a river near the road -- the Rancheria. It's class III+, in a little canyon, and the shuttle would only take about five miles of biking. And, best of all, it's on our way!
Forget the plans to drive a lot. Let's paddle. The day is sunny, with a little bit of rain, our gear is dry, and the river could have a lot of play.
We passed the Continental Divide! We're on the Salida side now. Thus we also left the Yukon watershed, and are now on the Liard side.
Kayak: Rancheria River (Bridge to Falls)
The put-in is at a bridge near highway marker 1162. We drove to the take out, at the Rancheria Falls recreation site, and took a look at the falls. I thought they were challenging, but would be runnable. Shelly didn't think so. We would take a closer look later, from the river. We followed a path above the falls, to recognize the take out -- the falls are not visible or audible from the river.
We dropped off all the gear at the put-in, and I stayed with it while Shelly ran the shuttle. Today she was going to hitchhike -- that would save us time on unloading the bicycle, and we wouldn't have to drive back up to get it. She didn't have an easy time getting a ride -- no cars were going her way. So finally she accosted some people in the recreation area, and they gave her a ride. All in all, it took a fraction of the time it would take us to bike back, with 3 miles of steep uphill.
At the put-in the Rancheria was bony, but moving. Within half a mile we entered the canyon, and got out of our kayaks to scout it. But there was no need for scouting at this water level. All we could see were a few waves, a few eddies, and a large rock-hole in the middle. Flat-water afterwards, and then more drops. It was a fun fun paddle, class III-, lots of turns. The canyon walls weren't very high, but rocky and forested, the canyon turned back and forth. Lots of fun waves, and best of all, we had sun!
After the canyon the river turned flat again, and we paddled about a mile to our take-out. We went to look at the falls, since I considered running them. The bigger falls were very big. Didn't seem a good idea anymore. Shelly rated them a solid class V. We picked our would-be runs through it, and threw thick tree branches into the water to test them. My stick hit the middle hole where I wanted to be, got pulled underwater, and remained underneath the foam and water surface until roughly 30 feet after the whole waterfall. And then it got sucked into the eddy, and circulated there until we left. I guess it wasn't a great line.
Shelly picked a line closer to the rock, tossed her stick in, and it was a clear run, with the stick only getting lost for a short time when it hit the middle hole. Whoo-hooo for Shelly!
I was still considering running the smaller falls, but there were some possible complications. The bunch of rocks above the upper drop would force me to enter the fall at water speed, possible bury my nose in the hole (and it looked like there was a rock there), and therefore miss the line for the second drop. We played with sticks again, decided it wasn't worth the risk.
Cassiar Junction, YT
Dinner at Cassiar Junction. Fran's Restaurant, called "The Cafe," is incredible -- today was, by far, the best day for food on this trip. In the cafe, they bake their own bread, and it is great. Shelly had chilli con carne with homemade toast, and I had Salisbury steak. Salads, beer, what an awesome day! We talked to a couple from California, part of a six rig caravan, who are driving their RV's over the Cassiar. Another group came in after we were done with dinner -- they are driving an old school bus, with a backhoe on a trailer. They had a lot of stuff! They were very happy to have made it so far. Their bus was nicknamed Speed, after a western with Jack Nicholson. Going uphill, they just prayed "Please, Speed, please make it up there!"
We slept five miles down the road, in a little clearing.