Yukon Crossing to Tanana After our five-day ordeal in the Flats and the constant wind and rain, we made the tough decision that we were going to end our trip short in the town of Galena, which was on river mile 1300. It was a hard decision, but after enduring more than two weeks of rain and wind, we realized that we were behind schedule and did not want to spend the entire month of august on the river as well, for we both had commitments to attend to at home. That being said, from the bridge we still had 300 miles of river to tackle, and after the addition of the Porcupine River in the flats, the Yukon was getting massive. No longer could we go from side to side to shorten our miles, we had to pick a side and stick to it, for it would take up to an hour in spots to cross the river, and that type of exposure is not recommended on this part of the river. We left the bridge in moderate winds and slogged it out for 20 miles to a nice island camp. The Yukon Flats had 1,000s of islands that were absolutely ideal for camping. They were sandy, free of vegetation, (which meant no bugs), and had stunning panoramic views of the river. This section had very few island and a steep shoreline, however, which meant camp sites were at a minimum. While it remained rainy, the wind did die down for the next few days and we were able to make great time. We stopped and camped at the beautiful town of Rampart and were invited to a family dinner of moose soup! This was the first time I had eaten moose, and I must say that I understand its importance to the local people now. A moose kill can give one over 700lbs of meat that tastes exactly like steak, for free. Moose are essential to everyone in the far north. The campsite in Rampart, AK. We camped just below the town’s airport, which actually provided some nice privacy. There was only one scheduled flight per week.

Our Stevens Village friend Jamey had tipped us off that at this certain point after Rampart, there would be a big estate with cabins that was owned by a man who is featured on the show ‘Yukon Men.’ This made sense, for I knew that ‘Yukon Men’ was based out of Tanana, which was just 70 miles away. With low winds, we canoed through a stunning canyon that featured high, forested rock bluffs uncommon to this section of river. In Canada, the river was small and surrounded by these high rocky bluffs, however the river was so big now that the shoreline was generally much calmer and the mountains more like hills. It was a nice change, if only for a few miles. We made it through the Rampart ‘rapids,’ and located the camp that Jamey was talking about. In the lower 48 it might seem odd, if not rude, to walk up to someone’s door and basically ask for shelter, but here in remote , it is a common practice. We pulled over and located the owner who was dicing up fish to be dried. His name was Stan and he was really friendly, and he just happened to have an extra cabin that we could stay in. We stayed up late that night talking to Stan, and it turned out he was a scientist who had a fish wheel set up nearby used to count the fish population.

Our cabin for the night at Stan’s estate. It was pouring when I took this picture. Of course. He was a very passionate man, and loved to talk about anything Yukon fish related. I learned a lot from him about fish politics and the state of the Yukon fisheries. Yukon salmon are dying, especially the prized king salmon. Commercial fisheries fish the lower river for other fish, and claim that the King Salmon they catch is the byproduct of their fishing nets. Because of this, they don’t have to count those King Salmon in their catch and can more or less catch as many as they please. This has decimated the King Salmon numbers. Stan told us that usually the cabins we had been seeing would be filled with activity as people fished the river for their years worth of salmon, but that this year they were all abandoned because the government had shut down sustenance fishing for the season, but not commercial. So basically, the salmon could be caught for people in big cities to eat, but the people who relied on these fish for life were not able to legally fish. It was shocking and horrifying to hear this. Stan continued to show us very troubling graphs and figures about the declining population of the Yukon salmon population. Environmental disasters seem to be common and newsworthy these days, but the plight of the Yukon salmon gets little to no press outside Alaska. It seems the world’s largest salmon river and the associated way of life are disappearing. Sad indeed. Stan also showed us his discovery channel episodes, which featured Stan and his family hunting and trapping for a living. It turns out that we had missed the camera crew by a day. We asked him questions about what reality TV is like and he was happy to talk about it. That was a very interesting night to say the least. Stan will go down as one of our best friends made on the trip. It was definitely a memorable night. We woke up the next morning and canoed all day through the rain, again, and made it to the town of Tanana! We only had about 150 miles to go to Galena. A sobering thought. My time on the river was dwindling fast.

A typical river view during this section. You can see that the sky is low and grey, which lasted for weeks. The river was getting to be very large.