Day 19 Yukon River

A slow morning followed a late night lying in the bunks at a rural cabin within the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. Jere, Scott and Jackson and I spent the previous night shooting the shit and telling stories into the early morning hours. After coffee Scott cooked up eggs with cheddar cheese and fried spam for breakfast as Jack and I packed up all of our gear. The plan was to put in a solid days worth of paddling in hopes of reaching somewhere near Circle, Alaska.

As we packed up Scott walked down to the main cabin to ask Jormah, the Ranger stationed at Slavens Roadhouse, if we could use the quad to haul our gear down the quarter mile hill to the river's edge. Without hesitation Jormah pulled up to the cabin towing a small flatbed trailer behind his quad. As we got to talking while throwing our bags into the trailer, Scott and Jormah delved into a fairly deep political discussion regarding the current state of Alaska. Jormah was of the belief that the Native Alaskan population needed more job opportunities in the local area. He thought that the park service could do a better job of maintaining some of the public use cabins, trails and properties within Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, but that the park service would rather let the cabins deteriorate so that less people will visit the park and stay in the public use cabins, in an effort the keep the wilderness free of human impact. Jormah struggled with towing the line between his job with the park service, and what he and many in his community see as the government overstepping their bounds and taking away hunting, fishing and trapping land from the native people, all while alienating the community in the process. He seemed to think that the goal of the park service was to offer pristine wilderness without human coexistence, an idea that he believed was counterintuitive to a natural state. As he explained, humans are part of nature, and specifically in this region, have lived among the wild for thousands of years.

Once on the water we faced a solid headwind and small whitecaps for much of the day. A few small, isolated wildfires burned on the rivers shore. A Joe Rogan Podcast and two Isaiah Rashad albums helped pass the time.

By evening the wind had died and made way for a gorgeous night. We passed Circle, AK and saw our first Alaskan fish wheel in action, as the salmon run is now in full swing. Native fish camps dotted the shoreline as the odd motor boat zoomed back and forth, setting up gill nets to catch the King Salmon that will feed their families and friends for the rest of the year.

Late into the night we found a suitable gravel bar and set up camp. As we cooked dinner we heard a splashing sound ring out not far from our tents. As we turned to look, a massive mama moose and her young calf began fording the river, about 30 yards from us. I got up from my camp chair to try and get a bit closer for a picture, as the pair swam across a small channel toward the next island. As mama watched me walk toward her, she slowed down just enough to position herself between me and her calf. I backed off and let them be, watching as the pair swam across the current.
A solid day making miles and leaving the mountains behind for the braided channels of the Yukon Flats. We knocked out 65 or so miles today, our biggest milage day yet, and personally my largest milage day ever in a canoe. Not bad, not bad.

4th of July tomorrow. Yeehaw.

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Day 19 of a 70 day expedition canoeing the length of the Yukon River, Source to Sea, Summer of 2018 #buffaloroamer @ Yukon-Charley Rivers National Park