YUKON RIVER DAY 5

On day 5 we left Carmacks at about noon. Everyone was so exhausted from the long day before that a more leisurely morning was deemed necessary. It proved to be a great decision as it started to rain during the night and we wanted to dry out our tents as much as possible before packing them up. So, once again Rachel made us an amazing breakfast. Complete with 3 pounds of bacon - it had to be used up. We ate a LOT of bacon, then packed up the rest and took it with us. We had planned to borrow bikes from the campground and bike to the store in the morning, but it was raining so hard we decided just to stop by the store when we canoed past.

Here we are heading off for the day.
While we were in Carmacks we met a group from Switzerland - 2 couples and 2 kids. They built this raft, complete with blue water barrels for flotation, a wood stove and a steering rudder. They plan to take the raft all the way along the Yukon River to the Bering Sea, a journey of approx. 3000 km.
The bridge in Carmacks.
It poured rain all afternoon, but in spite of this we were still in good spirits.
Taking a much needed break on this miserable day.

When the rain let up it was such a relief. Everyone began to smile and laugh again.
This is approaching the 5 finger rapids. You can see the stairway that leads down to the viewpoint overlooking the rapids. This is the part of the journey that had me the most terrified. I have never been through rapids before and it was with great trepidation that I faced this part of the trip. The river was fairly high so they were not as bad as they could have been, but even so, the waves were 2-4 feet - enough for a rookie like me. I made sure that everything was tethered into the canoe and I was well protected in case of immersion. Then I yelled at Brian most of the way through until I realized that it wasn't that bad and I was actually enjoying it. In fact when we got to the Rink rapids 8km later we wanted to shoot the rapids in the middle, but we ended up too far to the right and missed most of the excitement there. Here is a video from youtube of someone going through the rapids. It's taken by someone watching from the bluff and gives an idea of what we were in.

Brian and Phil looking a little wet after the rapids.
Yes, I was very wet too. That's what happens when you are in the front.Kendra and Phil's canoe - everything was floating. I think they hit the rapids more to the right hand side and ended up getting into rougher water.
We managed to find this fantastic high water camp that night. The rain had stopped so we were able to dry things out before we went to bed.
I think the site was an old NWMP site. There were a couple old buildings still standing.
Rachel getting the chili ready for supper. It was a big hit on such a rainy day.

Ray rigged up this contraption for drying out his shoes, etc.
All in all it was a fantastic day even with the rain. However, at this point we didn't realize that the rain would continue for another 4 days.