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I woke early that morning on my island sanctuary
facing the village of Atlin. After my dehydrated breakfast and
packing and placing everything in my kayak, I set out across the
lake in search of Graham Channel, which would take me to Tagish
Lake. That morning there was no wind and the sky was a deep blue
with only a few scattered clouds. The lake was calm. From a previous
trip in 1999, I recalled that a large boulder marks the entrance
to Graham Channel. I found that easily after crossing the lake.
The water from Lake Atlin surged up the boulder almost washing
over the top of it. That was a clear sign that I was in the right
place.
Before starting out from the village of Atlin, I had been told
that Graham Channel had a series of rough rapids. So, before entering
the channel, I checked the sprayskirt, raised the rudder and cinched
the deck bag a little tighter. The kayak and I did just fine. In
fact, the rapids did not seem to be too difficult. By my estimate,
Class I or possibly Class II. Nevertheless, it was not the rapids
that gave me a scare, but an encounter with a moose.
As I entered a quiet but fast part of the channel, where it broadened
and became shallower near the banks, I saw a moose kneeling in
the shallows apparently feeding (I am quite sure that it wasn’t
praying). Soon it noticed my approach and gazed steadily at me.
Then it rose to all fours and I could see that it was a young moose.
It was not content to watch me pass. The moose began to walk toward
me in the shallow water. I began to frantically blow my safety
whistle in the hope that somehow that would stop the moose. It
did not. The critter broke into a trot, still coming in my direction.
I found the fastest part of the current and began to churn the
water with my paddle all the time making screeching noises with
the whistle. As the moose neared me, I screamed that there was
not enough room in the kayak for both of us. Advancing, the moose
began to make whimpering sounds. I glanced down into the water
and was relieved to see that the bottom of the channel had dropped
steeply where I was. Even the long legs of the moose were not long
enough to allow it to run at me. It began to swim but could not
keep up with me. I kept glancing back to see what it was doing
and saw that it finally gave up the chase and turned toward the
bank.
Just when I thought that I was safe, I came upon a cow moose and
her calf. Even though blowing the whistle had not worked earlier,
I tried again. I think that the only good thing it did was to alert
the animals and give the cow time enough to herd the calf into
the shrubs on the bank.
It had taken me 1-1/2 hours to reach the mouth of the channel and
about 30 minutes to get through the rapids. The rest of the channel
was a wide expanse of water and was calm. That made for easy paddling.
I was headed to the cabins of Jim and Marion Brook, whom I had
met on my trip in 1999. Jim owns a flight touring business on Golden
Arm of Tagish Lake. His place is accessible only by floatplane
or by truck in the winter if the lake freezes over. When I pulled
up, Jim was working on his plane. His mother, Marion, met me at
the hangar. It was good to see them again. While Jim finished working
on the engine of the plane, Marion took me to the cabin, made me
some coffee and gave me some cookies. When Jim came in, we talked
for some time until I had to leave. They invited me to spend the
night, but it was still early and I wanted to paddle for six or
seven hours. Before leaving, Marion gave me a couple of steaks
that I planned to have for breakfast the next morning.
On my first trip down the Yukon in 1999, I developed a routine
that I continued to use on this trip. I began to look for a tent
site at about 8:00 pm. When I found the "perfect" campsite,
I took my can of bear spray and inspected the site looking for
bear tracks (I did this while singing in a terrible voice and making
lots of noise). If there were bear tracks, I continued on for a
while until I found a site with no bear tracks. Next, I started
a big fire. Once that was going, I set up my tent and put my gear
into it. In the morning, I had my big meal of the day and made
a couple of sandwiches for lunch. At around 4:00 pm I stopped and
had a light meal and then paddled for another three or four hours.
I never cooked in the camp where I stayed for the night unless
it was in one of the villages. Due to my precautions, I never had
problems with bears in camp either on the first trip or on this
trip. As I paddled down the river, I did meet people who had bears
come into camp looking for food because the animal had smelled
good stuff cooking and had come uninvited to share the bounty of
the land.
So, after my breakfast steak, I set out again. The second morning
I saw a caribou trotting along the shore of Tagish Lake. Later
that day, as I paddled along, I watched a mother black bear walking
along the shore trying to keep a couple of cubs in line. She headed
up the slope into the forest and emerged a few minutes later by
a rock outcropping. The two cubs were some distance behind goofing
around, jumping on each other and rolling around in the grass and
the bushes. Then they dashed after their mother until they caught
her and would then resume the wrestling match. I watched their
antics from the safety of the kayak until I lost sight of the threesome.
After the bears, but some time later, a beaver swam out from the
shore to inspect me. When it was about 20 feet from me, it turned
in the same direction that I was going and kept pace with me for
a while. When it decided that I would continue down the lake and
would not hang around its neighborhood, it slapped its tail and
disappeared under the surface of the water.
As I paddled along that day, there were several places where there
were snow banks along the shore. Even though it was June, the temperature
during the day was not high enough to have melted the snow. A lot
of it was in the shadow of the forest but there was also much snow
out in the open in the bright sunshine. I could see those snow
banks from great distances. At one of those snow banks grazed a
cow moose and her calf. I had a small pair of binoculars along
and that gave me a chance to get a close-up view of them both without
being close up and personal.
By the end of the third day I had reached the village of Tagish.
I planned to stop by the marina there to see a couple I had met
on the first trip: Dave and Alyssa.
Ray Zvirbulis
Show Low, Arizona
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