Outdoors with Don Q: Two special friends in the Far North

This week's outdoor article is about two special friends in the Far North, Barry and Susan Drury who live in Watson Lake in the Yukon.

Elaine and I first met them a number of years ago in downtown Anchorage, Alaska as a result of Barry and I both being active members of an outdoor website, Modernsportsman.

Since that initial, get-acquainted, Anchorage lunch, Barry has visited us at our home in Carson City and at our cabin near Davis Lake, Calif.

We, in turn, have spent enjoyable time with Barry and Susan at Homer Alaska, Valdez Alaska, Whitehorse Yukon and Watson Lake Yukon.

Sightseeing and fishing in the Yukon:
We also traveled together with them on an epic, 6-day, 1,309 kilometers (813 miles) sightseeing and fishing trip.
On that trip, we drove on paved roadways with a zillion nasty potholes, extremely dusty gravel roads, very rough dirt roads and several hundred miles on an unforgettable, God Awful charade of a major Yukon highway named the Robert Campbell Highway (AKA Yukon Highway No. 4).

That 6-day sightseeing and fishing trip included traveling from Whitehorse to Carmacks, Faro, Ross River, Watson Lake (via the Robert Campbell Highway from Ross River), Teslin and then returning to Whitehorse.

We spent one night at a Yukon Government campground at Frenchman Lake, another night camped out in the “Boonies” at Whiskers Lake, two nights at another Government Campground at Frances Lake and the last two nights with the Drurys at their very comfortable home in Watson Lake, where they have lived since 2007.

On that trip, Barry introduced Elaine and I to fishing for Arctic Grayling in Finlayson Creek which flows under the Robert Campbell Highway.

It was unreal, on every cast we caught and released a Grayling, many of which were up to 18 inches in length. It was one of a very few times, that I finally quit fishing because I got tired of catching fish.

Watson Lake:
For those unfamiliar with Watson Lake, it is in southeastern Yukon at Mile Marker 635 on the Alaskan Highway and has a population of about 800.
Watson Lake is world-famous for its Signpost Forest which was started in 1942 by a homesick G.I., who was working on the Alaska Highway, and who put up a sign with the name of his hometown and the distance to it.
Today, there are about 75,000 signs from all over the world (including our very own crude, homemade sign for Carson City).

Old Crow:
Prior to living in Watson Lake, Barry and Susan lived for 1.5 years in remote Old Crow, Yukon, where he worked for the local tribal council.

That small village is located in the Far North at the confluence of the Crow River and the Porcupine River, it is the only Yukon community north of the Arctic Circle, has about 300 residents (mostly Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation Natives) and can only be reached from the outside by airplane.

Caribou:
The residents of Old Crow are dependent on the twice-a-year migration of the Porcupine Caribou herd (about 150,000-180,000 animals) for much of their food and clothing. That giant herd of Caribou migrates across the Porcupine River to travel north in the spring (April-May) to reach the coastal plain in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to give birth to their calves and then return south in the far-north fall (August-September).

Barry Drury: Barry is the Regional Manager for the Public Management Division, Eastern Region of the Yukon Government with responsibility for the care and maintenance of all kinds of public buildings, including the government liquor store in Watson Lake. A government liquor store!

He has a passion for hunting and fishing, which keeps his two freezers full of all kinds of tasty meals for most of each year.

His freezers contain fish such as arctic grayling, halibut, king salmon and silver salmon; and meat from bear, caribou, moose and whitetail deer.

In late April, he is scheduled for his first-ever musk ox hunt in the High Arctic, and to reach that hunting area, he and his guide will have to travel the last 90 miles on snowmobiles. How about that for a hunt in the "boonies!"

Susan Drury: Susan is retired and is kept busy, nowadays, as a professional bird watcher, outdoor photographer , gardener, cross country skier, snowshoer, and creating stained glass pieces.

She has traveled in Germany, the Czech Republic, Romania, Italy, Switzerland, Chile and in Canada and the United States (where she was born in San Jose, Calif.).

She and Barry enjoy exploring the Yukon, British Columbia and Alaska in their camper pickup, usually towing a trailer with their two ATV's, canoe, kayak, or zodiac raft.

Their two adult children (both married):
Caroline: Caroline is a professional opera singer with a Masters Degree in Classical Vocal Performance, and has traveled and sung in major opera houses all over the world.
She is the Public Relations and Media Manager for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the personal assistant to Maestro Bramwell Tovey and Secretarial Assistant to CEO & President Jeff Alexander.
Jason: Jason works in the summer months as a sport fishing guide at the Queen Charlotte Fishing Lodge and in the winter months as a guide for snowmobile tours at the Whistler Ski Resort.

Bet Your Favorite Pigeon
Bet your favorite pigeon that he can't tell you the most frequent way that Barry and I stay in touch with one another.

If he grins and says, "Heck that's easy, they use Skype daily to see and talk to each other," he could have been in on one of those conversations.

— Don Quilici is the Outdoor editor of Carson Now. Don's wife, Elaine, is the official Outdoor photographer for Carson Now. They live in Carson City, Nev. They can be reached at donquilici@hotmail.com.