Yukon trip report - Dena Cho trail

[adelorenzo]

Two of us did a quick weekend trip on the Dena Cho Trail last weekend. It was an interesting time to go as water levels are extremely high right now and we would be the first ones through.

Most of the pics are actually of me courtesy of my friend Paul.

Day 1
 
We started out in the town of Faro, Yukon at 9PM on Friday. It's about a 17 km ride on an old mining road to hit the actual trail. The road was officially closed as one of the creeks it crosses was nearly coming up over the bridge. Getting in to the first cabin, approx 10km from the turn-off, proved to be quite an adventure. Section of the trail were quite flooded and involved some waist-deep and occasionally deeper wading. One section was flooded so deep we had to blow up packrafts to make it through. After that came sections of trail so choked with fallen trees (from heavy snow load) that it probably took us two hours to cover a couple of km.

We hit Cabin 1 at about 1 am, thankfully in the Yukon summer no lights are needed.

[adelorenzo]

Day 2

Day two we traveled most of the rest of the trail, about 30 km to the last cabin. We started out with the same slow progress on bush-choked trails but later on opened up to some amazing ridgelines over the Pelly River. Lots of climbing and descending, over 1800 m climbing during the day including some insane grades. Some soft swampy sections to keep us honest.

Earlier in the morning we had to cross a RAGING river that was in full flood and the bridge had been totally washed out. Super sketchy, even with packrafts. I ended up missing an eddy and going for a swim, fortunately I managed to eventually get my, my raft, paddle, bike and pack all to shore.

We got into camp around 5 PM and decided to take advantage of the cabin and hang out there. After our late night on Friday I ended up sleeping for almost 12 hours. (PS - packrafts make an AMAZING bed)

 

[adelorenzo]

Day 3

Last day was a fast 11 km run into Ross River, Yukon. A horseback outfitter uses this end of the trail quite a bit so it was in pretty good shape overall other than some wet sections. Lots of nice-looking singletrack we wanted to explore. After visiting the marble carving of Dena Cho we blew up our rafts and put in to the Pelly River.

The Pelly is in full flood this year (some people in Ross River have had to leave their homes) so we got a fast ride back to Faro. About 6 hours of leisurely paddling to cover about 60km on the river. This section of the river would normally be dead flat and quite slow but due to the high water had some waves and stuff going on. We spent some time to enjoy the novelty of paddling through the forest. Got back to the truck around 4:30 PM on Sunday.

[s8tannorm]

Great looking trip ... you got any bigger pictures?

[Yukoner]

All that water looks Photoshopped in.............   Everyone knows thats a dry part of the Yukon......

[adelorenzo]

Sorry about the pictures. I thought that the forum would re-size them somehow, most of them do.

[jbphilly]

You could just put them into an imgur album and link for easier viewing.

[wisaunders]

Great looking trip, do you have a gpx file of the route?  Probably wouldn't ever be able to get up there, but would love to see it! 

Happy bikerafting!
Will

[bicyclehobo]

wow...quite an adventure. How does the alpaca raft handle with the bike in it?

[wisaunders]

wow...quite an adventure. How does the alpaca raft handle with the bike in it?

They handle great!  Blue parts of the map go from obstacles to destinations.  The rafts can hold up to 400 lbs of man and gear.  I've not done anything over Class III water but so far they've handled way better than I had imagined.  Not the cheapest things in the world though.

[adelorenzo]

Alpackas are amazing and they handle just fine with a bike. The biggest thing is figuring out a way to rig it up where it doesn't interfere with your paddle stroke.

[Mark_BC]

Awesome! I'm planning to try to complete my Callaghan Valley / Squamish Valley circle route next weekend that I tried last March but failed because the snow was too deep. I ride up / snowshoe over the pass, then go down to the Squamish River on the other side and then packraft down that.

The raft works great with a bike. But I found I have to put some other weight on the back of the raft, otherwise the thing goes vertical with the bike on the front and me not in it. I did some pretty hairy water on the Squamish last time, maybe up to Class III, but I'm not well versed on how they rate these things. The one issue is that when you go over gravelly / bouldery riffles, you can scrape your ass on them which isn't fun. You have to lean way back and lift your ass up. So the more padding you have down there on the floor the better, the floor is otherwise just an unprotected thin sheet of fabric.