This denotes the day or days spent in Whitehorse before the listed start date of the trip.

After breakfast, we will be picked up by our driver and taken to our destination, Minto, about 3 hours from Whitehorse. Here we will load canoes, review paddling safety and technique, and begin our paddle to historic Dawson.

We will paddle approximately 50 km/31 mi per day, at an easy pace being carried downstream by the river. Our plan is to establish camp on the many islands and sandbars which characterize this stretch of river. This will lessen the remote possibility of bear encounters as well as reduce our contact with those pesky mosquitoes. The following, highlight some of the more interesting features of this stretch of river:

Fort Selkirk (125 km from Carmacks)

The sight of Fort Selkirk (125 km from Carmacks) on a high bank remains one of the trip’s highlights. The Hudson’s Bay Company established it in 1848. Only accessible by water, Fort Selkirk includes a campsite with well water, tent sites, kitchen shelter with cook stove, bear-proof garbage containers, and a warming cabin. Our trip down the Yukon River normally includes an overnight and layover day at Fort Selkirk.

Fort Selkirk has long been a gathering place for First Nation peoples. Stone tools discovered near this site have been dated to 10,000 years old. In 1848, John Campbell descended the Pelly River to establish a Hudson’s Bay Company trading post at the junction of the Yukon and Pelly River. In 1852 the coastal Chilkats, who had previously maintained a monopoly on trade with the local First Nation peoples, reacted to this challenge by looting and then burning the trading post. Campbell fled for his life and it was thirty years before white men returned to the region. In 1889, Arthur Harper re-established a trading post here, calling it Harper’s Landing.

In 1894 Bishop Bompass erected a mission house and school. In 1899 the North West Mounted Police built a station here and a post office was opened. With the opening of the Klondike Highway, and the subsequent demise of riverboat traffic, Fort Selkirk was abandoned in 1950. Today the Canadian Heritage Branch has restored the settlement with the Taylor & Drury store, Mounted Police building, Protestant and Catholic Churches, and schoolhouse among the more than 30 buildings that are open to the public.

The White River (120 km from Dawson)

Once past Fort Selkirk, the surrounding country is at least as impressive as ever. Certainly, there is no shortage of historic sites along the banks.

The White River (120 km from Dawson) sees a dramatic difference in the color (and the sound) of the Yukon River. The colour is the result of a combination of glacial silt and ash from a volcanic eruption about 1,250 years ago. The ash layer now makes a convenient dating tool for archaeologists at sites throughout most of the south and central Yukon.

At Stewart City (100 km from Dawson) the river is slowly reclaiming the site. The Stewart River, which joins the Yukon near Stewart City, was one of the earliest of the Yukon’s placer mining areas.

Stewart City (100 km from Dawson)

Prospectors were probably working on the river by 1880, and in 1885, several fairly rich bars were discovered. Arthur Harper soon set up a post at the mouth of the river to serve these miners. However, when much richer deposits of gold were discovered near Fortymile in 1886, everybody moved there. The Stewart didn’t attract much attention again until the Klondike rush; a fair-sized town was built, with a sternwheeler dock, a NWMP post, a large warehouse, two hotels, a large number of cabins, and an even larger number of tents. The population may have reached 1,000 over the winter of 1898-1899. Although the boom ended, the island maintained a population of between 25 and 50 into the late 1930s. Several buildings have been moved back from the river’s edge in recent years.

Approaching Dawson

As we get closer to Dawson, a number of old wood camps and homesteads have been taken over by new owners and new cabins have been built to replace the old ones. The relatively fertile islands were particularly popular spots for combined wood-cutting/farming operations. Little or nothing remains at most of these sites. Some have been lost to river erosion or were moved to new locations when the original site was no longer viable.

The anticipation heightens with each bend in the river as we near Dawson City. This same thrill and anticipation must have been present with the Klondike gold-rushers after their long journey. Finally, the Dome, Dawson’s well-known landmark, can be seen in the distance. One more bend and we have arrived.

We will arrive in Dawson City on Day 8 or early on Day 9 depending on our pace. We will stay at a hotel in Dawson City for 2 nights. We have scheduled at least one complete day in Dawson to allow you time on your own to visit the sites that are of most interest to you. We will also drive to visit the original goldfields and the lookout (the Dome).

We will leave Dawson after breakfast on the last day and return to Whitehorse, arriving late afternoon. Along the way we will stop at Braeburn Lodge, a.k.a. Cinnamon Bun Airstrip, for the largest, and best, cinnamon bun around.