Outdoors with Don Q: Sightseeing and fishing adventures in the Far North

This is the first of a short series of weekly articles about a fabulous, first-time-ever, 11-day, sightseeing and fishing trip that Elaine and I took in late June to the Yukon in Canada.
Getting there:
We left Carson City early on the morning of June 18, were driven to Reno by Lynda McCulloch, and then flew via Alaska /Horizon Airlines to Seattle and from there to Vancouver, British Columbia.
From Vancouver, we flew on Air Canada to our final destination of Whitehorse, Yukon, arriving there at about 9:30 p.m.
We were met by our long time, good friends, Barry and Susan Drury, who live in Watson Lake, also in the Yukon.

Our trip:
Our arrival in Whitehorse was the beginning of an epic trip that included:
Enjoying cocktails and telling stories with the Drurys that first night at “The Deck” of the High Country Inn Hotel, and staying overnight at the hotel.
The next day, the Drurys ran errands while Elaine and I took a tour bus from Whitehorse to Carcross and then on to Fraser for an unforgettable train ride.
From Fraser, we took an awesome ride to Skagway via the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad, where you climb nearly 3,000 feet in just 20 miles.
If you ever take this train ride, remember to sit on the right hand side, so you can look way down into the deep gorges and steep canyons along the way.
We returned by bus to Whitehorse for more cocktails, stories and dinner with the Drurys, and another overnight stay at the hotel.
The next morning, we picked up our pre-reserved, 19-foot-long motor home to accompany the Drurys in their camper pickup on an epic, 6-day, 1,309 kilometers (813 miles) sightseeing and fishing trip.
We drove on paved roadways with a zillion nasty potholes, extremely dusty gravel roads, very rough dirt roads and a God Awful charade of a major highway named the Robert Campbell Highway (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 two nights with the Drurys at their very comfortable home in Watson Lake.

What we saw:
Moose, black bears, Dall sheep, snowshoe rabbits and lots of birds.
Endless vistas of thick black spruce and alder forests.
Small lakes, medium lakes, large lakes and gigantic mind boggling lakes (they made Lake Tahoe look wimpy!).
Small rivers, medium rivers, large rivers and gigantic rivers (the Yukon River is monstrous in size).
Small creeks, medium creeks and large creeks (many of them much bigger than the Truckee River!).
We did not see very many vehicles or people on the entire trip. In fact, when we finished driving the length of the Robert Campbell Highway, we had seen a grand total of five other vehicles, traveling in either direction.

Mosquitoes:
There were mosquitoes, mosquitoes and more mosquitoes!
There were huge swarms of those large, fierce, blood sucking critters, everywhere we went, day and night (for what passes for night up there!).
On one occasion, when I smacked a swarm of mosquitoes on the back of my right hand, I killed eight of them with my left hand.
When they bit and you slapped them, they would leave a spot of blood that they had been busy drawing out of your face, arms or hands.
Elaine and I went through two complete cans of Avon Skin So Soft on that 6-day adventure out in the “Bush.”

Daylight:
The summer daylight was absolutely unbelievable in that part of the world, especially for the two of us from the State of Nevada. It never got dark!
The sun would set at 11:15 p.m., it would stay light behind the mountains and then sunrise was a short three hours later at 2:15 a.m.
That’s 21 hours of daylight! It was hard for us to sleep every “night.”

Fishing:
We caught and released Mackinaw (Lake) Trout, Rainbow Trout and countless Arctic Grayling.
Fishing was especially spectacular at Finlayson Creek for the Grayling.
It is a very large creek (larger than the Truckee River) that crosses under the Robert Campbell Highway through two monster-sized culverts.
The creek seems to be jam packed from bank to bank with Grayling. I quit fishing because I got tired of catching and releasing so many of them, on cast after cast after cast.
We were spincasting with small Mepps spinners from the bank of the creek, and Elaine and I would have a double hook-up, time after time after time.
However, fishing the lakes was another story.
Trolling from the boat was slow in all of the lakes we fished, due to high, muddy water caused by torrential rains the week before we arrived.
We trolled at a number of giant sized lakes, hoping to catch a monster Northern Pike or Mackinaw (Lake) Trout.
We caught some, they were respectable in size, but nothing to brag about compared to the 30+ pound Pike and 50+ pound Lake Trout that we had been told that they contained.

Some of our trip’s highlights included:
Adding a home-made Carson City sign with our two names to the thousands of other signs at “The Signpost Forest” in Watson Lake.
Eating great tasting breakfast pastries at Tim Horton’s in Whitehorse.
Eating dinners and roasting marshmallows at our campsite at 10:00-10:30 p.m., and squinting because the sun was in our eyes.
Paying $85 at the Vancouver airport for four drinks and two hamburgers.
Paying $115 at a gas station to fill up our motorhome’s gas tank, which was only half empty!
Photographing numerous black bears next to the highways.
Watching countless people in the different airports, all busy on their I-Phones, I-Pads, laptop computers and cell phones.
Watching the start of the Yukon River Quest, a race for canoes from Whitehorse to Dawson City, where the winner usually takes about 55 hours to complete the trip.

Finally:
Would we go back to the Yukon? Yes!
Will we? No, at least not until after the Robert Campbell Highway is paved.

— Don Quilici is the Outdoor editor for Carson Now and www.SouthTahoeNow.com. He can be reached at donquilici@hotmail.com