Imre and Peter got up at 2 am as planned but the wind was blowing at 15-20 mph so they delayed the start until 9 am.
“It was a scary 2.5 cycles into the wind and waves, the nose of the canoe often buried under the water. We stopped on an island to wait until better weather before entering Devil’s elbow 15 miles down river. The river is dangerous here, especially on a heavy canoe, we have to steal every mile from Goddess Yukon” – Imre wrote.
Peter got a box of Pringles in Russian Mission, had a few, and placed it next to the bear box. (The package is relatively big, and the bear box was full right after they stocked up on food.) In the morning they saw many lynx foot prints around the Pringles box, the box it was wet and smelled suspiciously… Peter had to forgo the treat.
Imre is still munching on his smoked salmon, “best superfood for the Yukon: protein, fish oil and salt. This is food that one can get only as a present; local Indians do not sell any after 5 years of king salmon fishing stop” – he explained.
They saw the largest wolf prints so far on this trip, larger than human hands. As for bear prints they have a new rule: You are not at a good camping site if grizzly prints are larger than a medium sized dinner plate.
Imre’s back went bad after lifting the canoe out of water, “hoping for improvement, until then Unicum shall ease the pain.”
They plan to leave tomorrow at 3 am to use a potentially good weather window. It usually takes about an hour and a half to get ready in the morning: break down the tents, fill up the thermoses with hot soup and hot chocolate or coffee, and secure everything into the canoe. They will need to wake up at 1 am.
From: recreation.gov, until we receive real photos from Peter and Imre
Yukon Gold 