Imre and Peter tried to use a good weather window, they started paddling around 8 pm, continued all night and all morning until early afternoon. The evening started calm. As they travel further and further south, it actually gets dark for about two hours each night (1:30-3:30 or so). “Eery silent dark forest around the abandoned village of Paimut, the Yukon and the forest around it is like a forest scene from the Lord of the Rings at night” – Imre wrote.
They arrived into a huge storm cell in the night, got soaked and were freezing. “We had a 30 minute scare, strange winds and currents generated large waves, the shore was also very unsafe to land (high banks and strong current with fallen-in trees, and other bank a mile away). We got lucky to work our way out eventually.” They decided to try to paddle outside of darker hours and to make sure a safe shore is always in sight.
The morning brought sounds of nature, even the howling of wolves from the banks was welcome.
Father and son met wonderful people in Russian Mission. A man named Jim gave Imre a big load of smoked king salmon from his supply, “no better superfood for paddling 16 hours in storms”. Too bad that Peter is a vegetarian…
The only village they did not stop at was Holy Cross, otherwise they landed in every small place along their way. A storm hit them just before entering a slew before Holy Cross, plus they suspected that natives would be similarly unfriendly as in Anvik two days ago.
Tonight they are camping on good island. Peter picked up the massive lower jaw of a moose, next to medium dinner plate sized grizzly prints. It will be a great addition to Peter’s man-cave once he has one. They joked: “Moose’s mistake is grizzly’s moist steak.”
The alarm is set to 2am and the next task to tackle is Devil’s Elbow.
“We are closer to the finish but every mile is a challenge to steal it from Goddess Yukon, so we are still feeling far from finishing” – Imre wrote.
Below are a few pictures of Russian Mission downloaded from the internet – until we receive actual photos from our adventurers.
Yukon Gold 