Yukon Sam

Well the story continues as everyone must wonder where I am and what I have been up to, just living life to the fullest ,from one adventure to another, digging for Gold to fishing for Salmon.  It has been 3 months since leaving Nelson, living in my 11′ Scamper Trailer wherever I happen to go.
I have just come down from the Gold fields in the Yukon (arriving there in early May) arriving in Kitimat for the Salmon fishing.  The Yukon is an alluring place full of wonders and surprises, it is teaming with life, countless butterflies, birds, foxes, the list goes on.  One has to get used to the land of the midnight sun, with 24 hours of light you can suntan at 11:00 pm.  The climate in the Yukon is like Mexico, hot and humid so even when it rained I could be out working just with shorts on, so it is a little shocking to be here where I have to bundle up due to the wet & damp conditions. (as it has been raining since I arrived last Mon.)  I will post more about the Yukon later.
I just got back from a fishing trip (camping overnight at a trappers cabin)  down Douglas Channel by Gill Island (2-1/2 hr trip from Kitimat in a 16′ boat) where we fished around sleeping humpback whales (see pics from last years trip).  As soon as we put our lines down it wasn’t long before we started getting hit after hit from large Coho.  I was kept busy on my feet in rough water pulling  in fish, setting down-riggers, cleaning fish, so by the end of the trip my legs felt like rubber.

Now after canning some fish we are planning the next trip which may be the last here as I feel the need to get back home for awhile to catch up with friends and rest before the next adventure starts.

Sept 27

Here I am back south, it’s 4:50 am as I get ready to travel the last bit of the leg back home, waiting for my coffee to finish perking.  Boy it sure is warm here, (time to take the long johns off and put on the shorts) a big difference from up north.

Going north was a journey that needs to continue.  (There is so much to see such a huge area) There were many reasons that the trip wasn’t longer:  When I got into the Yukon the flue bug I was carrying hit hard, the north was closing , a big storm front was coming in (snow) and I missed all my friends back home.  Like climbing a mountain and not reaching the top, (there’s always next year) the  journey was amazing, (and it never ends, what’s around the next corner?) now onto the next adventure.  Where will the winds of time take me, what will happen next, who will I meet, all the unanswered questions.  The adventures of life changing day to day, are we afraid to let change take us where it may, let go and experience where ever that may be.

A nice hot bath awaits me at home, it’s been over two months without some of these luxuries.

Yukon Sam

Mon. Sept 20

Yes I finally made it to Dawson City just in time to freeze my butt off.  It’s a beautiful little city all the old buildings (a lot are being restored and some standing just as they were 100 years ago.  The streets are gravel and the old boardwalks raised above the street level.  There wasn’t much time to do all I wanted to do as the weather is closing in fast, I spent a couple days sight seeing, panning and then left on Wed and had a bit of snow on the way to Whitehorse and snow overnight in Whitehorse.  It’s time to go home somewhere warm and sit in hot bath for a couple hours.  Will update this leg a bit better when it’s warmer and I have time to download pictures.  My feet are getting cold and I have to get moving try to back to the warmer areas before I get snowed in and the roads get treacherous.

Yukon Sam

Yukon

My story is not the real story as I type this it is 11:00 Sept 18 / 2010 and I am on top of the world, up Stewards Gulch on top of the mountain 60 plus km from the nearest place in the Yukon, near Keno and my fingers are getting cold as I don’t have heat in my little 11’ Scamper trailer and it’s around -6 right now.

The real story is about an 83 year old prospector named Walter Malicky whose placer claim I am on.  He was going to come with me but had a bum Knee and his whole body is broken from mining.  He has worked in 25 mines and has been in the Yukon for 65 years prospecting.  I said that I had a small trailer and he said that’s okay he will sleep outside on the ground (at 83 and the shape he is in, wow these old-timers were the real men.  What stories they have)

Around here you have to watch out for the Taklac, there are a mix of the Kodiak and the  Brown Bear and they are not two picky on their meals.

I will have to continue later as my feet are getting cold and I will have to craw into my bed to warm up.

With the wind coming down the gulch my trailer turns into a freezer and I don’t want to craw out of my bed until the sun comes out and starts to warm things up a bit.  I quickly get up and put the stove on for coffee and to warm things up.

During the day it is beautiful up at the top of the world, the vivid colors of late fall, the cool crisp air, the flowing water trickeling down the mountain stream which is half frozen, hiking up the mountain on perma frost ground……

It’s getting two cold sitting here writing, must get moving.

Yukon Sam

Just a quick note, I’m in Whitehorse and it’s 11:30 pm.  Going to head north for a ways to camp.  It’s cold up here and I’m going to head into the bush, only limited internet access, so I don’t know when I will get a chance to write.  Rik will know where I’m at if he checks the spot messages that I will be sending.  Will hit Dawson City in a day or two and will be in the bush until it gets two cold (-40) and the water freezes.

See you all later

Yukon Sam

Sun Sept 12:

Finally the job is done and it’s time to roll along.  I finished everything I had to do on John’s house (what a relief) and I got my Trailer ready to go.  I decided to join in the Dragon Boat races yesterday as The Tragically Quick (John’s team) were short paddlers.  This was a big event with teams from as far away as Prince George.  There were 9 boats and we had to race 4 times 250 meters each race and we had a final Guts and Glory race of 1000 meters.  We came in first place in the top division, it was a long day and a lot of fun.  We then camped at the lake where the races were and celebrated the day and the end of the season for Dragon racing until next year.  In the wee hours of the morning I wrote a little verse.

Dragons

Morning comes, they arise, fire glowing from their eyes.
Hustle and bustle and there they wait.
Race on they say as the boats fly forth.
Excitement builds as the day wears on, we will win they say.
Dragons leap forward amongst the spray, faster, faster they go, explosive energy shooting them across the line.
Victors they are as the day draws to an end. The party starts as adrenaline pumps, into the wee hours the celebration goes.
People fade as the evening grows long, disappearing as shadows in the night.
Glowing embers of the receding fire fading as darkness closes in, flickering light dancing among the billowing canvas top.
Intense rain hammering over the tent, feeling safe and warm, will call it a good day as the light fades away.

Aug 26:

After the last fishing trip I have been working in  the rain, it feels like summer is over.  Now I sometimes feel homesick and I’m also starting to feel restless, time for a change, time for a new adventure, What’s around the corner?   Change is sometimes a scary feeling, a wondering of what’s next, what will I run into, all of the unknowns.  We as humans get cosy in our surroundings and feel reluctant to let go of what we know and take the step into the unknown.  It’s a lot easier to hang onto what we  know.  Life away from home is somewhat like survival, I’ve been living in my trailer since I left Nelson in July, I always manage to have a shower every night and to have clean clothes.

Today is Sat. Sept 4th, unbelievable the sun came out, yesterday I  completed the framing and insulation of the skirt around the house.  Now I can see an end to this job, a few days to strap the outside and to put the siding on and I’m on my way by weeks end.  I’ve been at this steady since the last fishing trip I went on.  I haven’t written much as Ive been putting in long days and have to keep the mental thoughts positive in order to see this through. (the more that I get done in a day the less  there is to do the next day and before you know it I will be on the road again.

I will sign off now as I want to get a good start and get as mush done before the rain comes back.

Aug 20: I skipped a week of writing as I was just working on John’s house and there’s nothing exciting about that, trust me, unless you like dirt and filth.  I don’t know how much more I can take of this but I always keep my spirits up, well enough of this on to more exciting things.

Life's wonderful moments

We launched at 8:00 and this time we went down Devastation Channel (saw two massive Sea Lions relaxing in the water around Dorothy Island, got some up close pictures) and on to Verney Passage where we stopped  at Fish Trap Bay to fish.  There were other boats there and after an hour trolling without a strike we decided to wind up and head down further to Money Point (on the way there I spotted a hump Back Whale — we watched it blow a few times before it dove).

Seals basking on a reaf

We got to Money Point around around noon and dropped our lines. We were the only ones there as it is about 50 miles from kitimat.  We started getting strike after strike but for some reason they would get off before we could land them.  We lost 8 big ones before I changed hoochies and started landing them one after another — 9 to 11.5 lbs cohos. My arms were getting tired from playing all those fish in.  We landed 7 Coho and 2 Pinks before we headed across Douglas Channel to Hartley Bay to camp for the night.

Nighttime

This time I thought I had planned things better. I brought 6mm poly (reasoning  that the dew would not make it through it as it does with a tarp) and extra foam for comfort on the dock.  I set up my bedding looking forward to a good night’s sleep and settled into my cosy sleeping bag with the ploy pulled over me.  Not long afterwards I started to feel drips of water.

“What’s happening?” I was thinking, “it’s not raining, where’s the water coming from?”  I soon realized that along with the heavy dew there was condensation, which was just as bad — another sleepless night trying to stay dry.  Nature has beat me again.

Morning in Hartley Bay

When dawn broke I was up and got my coffee on, this time with a percolator. My, did that taste good!  After a couple cups of Joe I set out with my camera to take some pictures of the fishing village Hartley Bay.  The morning mist hung down over the water; the fishing boats lined up down the docks; and the boardwalk ran along from house to house, crossing creeks, winding it’s way along the shore.

I cooked breakfast on the boat with my camp stove and then we headed back across the Channel to Money Point, set our lines out and relaxed in the morning sun trolling along the rugged shoreline and finally out into the open waters, watching Hump Back whales blowing in the distance. With the smell of ocean and the gulls circling overhead, I enjoyed the rest of the coffee I had in my thermos.  Finally I caught a Pink and kept it — it’s nice to eat fresh. We went further out and wham! what a strike! The fish took off and the line raced out. It was a huge fight and I landed what I thought would be a massive Coho but it was only 11 lbs.

A beautiful afternoon

A Big Humpback

We trolled back to the point heading along about 80 feet from shore and suddenly I saw movement by shore,  what was that it had looked like a humongous tail. I kept watching and then it blew: an enormous Hump Back! It cruised along slowly about 15′ feet from the rocky shore.  It was deep there and the whales like to rub up against the rocks.  We still had the lines in the water but I didn’t care about fishing in the moment so we cut the boat around hard and started paralleling the Whale.  The whale was relaxed, blowing, dolphining along the shore. We got to about 40′ of it and cruised along with it, taking pictures as it’s body came out of the water and back under arching it’s tail in the air.  Finally after about 20 min. the whale did a few good blows and dove into the deep blue (the huge tail arching in the air, water dripping from it, shimmering in the sun, disappearing below the surface).   What an experience to see such an amazing massive animal out in the wilds. Seeing these creatures is worth the trip out in the deep blue sea.

This seemed like a perfect ending to this part of the trip, so we took are lines in and headed back. This time we went back up Douglas Channel as we wanted to stop at Kitkiata Inlet to get some crabs.  We got there and set the crab net then went on shore for a bit of exploring. What a nice Bay.  I could spend months exploring all the beautiful Inlets and creeks out here.  But we needed to get back so we got our crab net and headed home (only a couple of keepers as there were a few boats crabbing already).

We set off up Douglas channel and it was getting quite rough so we went up Sue Channel when we got there, hugging the shoreline of Maitland Island, up through Loretta Channel and across to Amos Passage, then along the inside of Coste Island past Brentzen Rock and on to Kitimat.  We came in around 6:00, had a good tide for taking the boat out and took her home.  By the time we cleaned out the boat it was time for some rest.  I felt myself swaying from Boat Rock the whole time since being on shore so I was careful not to fall when I showered and then off to bed.

PS  for more pictures see my link to Picasa

Aug 10:

After a week of working on John’s house we decided that we needed a fishing trip out on the Ocean.  We  launched the boat at about 1:00  as the tide was rising,  if it was t00 low you can’t launch (t00 shallow, mud flats)  We were packed to the gills on a 16′ Alum Boat carrying extra gas because of the distance we were going.  We set out down Douglas channel and the waves were coming at us about 1 to 2 meters high, too rough for me to sit down so I stood and drove the boat, smashing through the waves towards our destination.  It was about 30 degrees out and the scenery was amazing, passing Jesse Falls where a lake flowed over the falls into the ocean, then passing Miskatla Inlet and Gilttoyees Inlet stopping at Emilia Island where we took some pictures of seals lazing on the rocks in the hot sun.  We then went on past Foch Lagoon, Drumlummon Bay and Paisley Pt. continuing down Douglas Channel passing Kitkiata Inlet, Helen Point, Kiskosh Inlet, and Hartley Bay then we crossed the channel to money point.  After 2-1/2 hours of breathtaking scenery (humongous bowls that the glaciers had craved out of the mountains) and about 50 miles on the water, the boat smashing into the waves, we had finally reached Money Point where we started fishing.  (Where we were fishing we could see Gill Island and ferries passing once a day, this is where the Queen of the North sank).  It was about 4:00 when we finally set our lines out and not too long later caught 2 Coho’s and a  Pink salmon, the biggest about 7lbs.  We cleaned the fish put them in the cooler and headed across the channel to Hartley Bay where we were going to stay for the night.  (Hartley Bay is the Indian Village where the people went out in the middle of the night to rescue the passengers of the Queen of the North when the ferry hit Gill Island and sank.)

We tied to the end of one of the docks and set up for the night.  John put up his tent on the dock and I wasn’t going to sleep anywhere near him due to his snoring so I sleep under a tarp on a foamy down the dock.  What a night, if you ever slept by the ocean you would know how much dew happens overnight.  Well another sleepless night everything was soaking wet and I was quite cold.  I was glad to see the light of morn and didn’t waste anytime getting my camp coffee boiling away as I forgot to bring the percolator.  After a couple hot cups of coffee I packed up and we headed back across to money point where we fished for several hours catching another 4 Coho and 1 Pink (through several Pinks away as we prefer Coho for canning).

After lunch we headed back towards home taking a different path we headed up Verney Passage were I saw a humpback Whale blow and dive then we  passed Jenkinson Point, Amy Point stopping at fish trap Bay where I got a large strike but didn’t hook the fish.  After a bit we headed out passing Mary Point, Danube Bay, Eva Point, up Devastation Channel past Kitsaway and Dorothy Islands to Weewanie Hot Springs where wew set a crab net out at Weewanie Creek while going into the hot springs for a soak.  We then pulled up crab net only one keeper (had it set in wrong place) but we had to get back so headed back up Channel past Loretta Island and then up Amos Passage around Coste Island past Gobeil Island and Brentzen rock into Kitimat Arm to the boat Launch where we just made it out with the boat as the tide was dropping and the mud flats were appearing.  When we took the boat out after 2 days on the water I felt the ground swaying, even hours later having a shower I had to hang on as I kept feeling that the ground was moving (boat rock).  Boy my bed felt good when I finally hit the hay.  Being out on the Ocean is living life, feeling the breeze, words do not do it justice, it’s so unreal you feel like your a part of it when you are there.

Thur Aug 12:

Spent the whole day cleaning and canning the Coho we caught.  I feel like a native going out to catch and preserve my food for the winter.

To see some of the pictures of this trip check out my link to Picasa.  Also I will try to do catch up and tell you all about the amazing 2nd fishing trip that I went on.

Enough for now Yukon Sam

Tue Aug 3rd:  Left Begg’s Creek and stopped by Barkerville to pick up my mail before driving to this side of Prince George where I camped for the night.  The next day I drove on to Kitimat to see my brother John and I set up my little scamper trailer in his front yard.  The next 5 days were spent helping John clean up his place and started a project he needed to get done.  The job I got wrangled into is the dream job where I had to remove all the siding up to 2′ around his house and tear out the rotted skirting which was very laborious.  Then I had to craw in a dusty craw space raking all the rocks level and taking garbage out, next was to roll down UV Ploy and tape all seams and around all the foundation posts.  All of this work was done in temperatures of up to 35 degrees and in a 2′ average crawl space.  I thought I would never have to do this type of work again, oh well there are worse things in life.  I  will be here for another few weeks finishing up this job.  I now have to rebuild new framing, insulate, and reside the house.  The good part is the adventures I will have on my days off going fishing out in the ocean, next post.