Paddling the Hart River

In between working on the house and getting packed and ready to leave our home in Whitehorse for 9 months, we managed to fit in an 18 day canoe trip on the Hart River in the northern Yukon. For non-Yukoners, this involves a 4 hour drive north from Whitehorse to Mayo, then a 30 minute float plane trip north into Elliot Lake. The trip down the Hart to Canyon Creek on the Peel River is about 300 kms (mostly north), where a float plane takes you back to Mayo. By the time the float plane picks you up at Canyon Creek, you're not too far from the Arctic Circle.

Canoes are strapped on for the flight to Elliot Lake.

We paddled the Hart 8 years ago as our honeymoon trip and loved it, so we were looking forward to doing it again. It was great to paddle with our friend Kim and her friend David for much of the trip. Unfortunately, Gulliver was still under doctor's orders to take it easy, so he missed another adventure.

Ripley prepares for her first float plane trip.

The paddle down Elliot Creek to the Hart River can be a little painful. The creek is shallow, rocky and braided and requires paddlers to jump out of their canoe many times to drag them over the rocks. Water levels were lower this summer than in 2006 and we had to jump into the icy water dozens of times as our canoe scraped to a halt on the rocks.

The other difference was the traffic on the river. In the 2006 season we were one of only 2 groups to paddle the Hart. We didn't see another person until we reached the Peel River on day 18. The Hart is still very remote by almost any definition, but this year we saw several other groups, and our pilot estimated 8 to 10 parties had been down the river. We literally didn't even see a footprint back in 2006, but in 2014 there were well used campsites with fire rings and signs of other paddlers all the way down.

What hadn't changed was the beauty of the area. The Hart begins like a standard northern Yukon river. That means fast moving, clear water running through beautiful mountain scenery with alpine hiking tantalizingly close.

Just downstream from the Elliot Creek - Hart River
confluence.

Cyd hiking up from our campsite.

Once you finish with Elliot Creek, the paddling is mostly straightforward class 2 whitewater with the odd sweeper to keep you on your toes. Then you paddle through a flat and almost boring section before you enter the part of the river that makes the Hart special.

Ripley surveys a great ridge walk.

Cyd loves discovering fresh blueberries.

The mountains take on fantastic shapes and in several places plunge almost directly into the river in quasi-canyons. It's a short paddle between Mount Kinsey and Netro Mountain, but it's the highlight of the trip for me.

Just upstream from Netro Mountain.

Looking downstream at Netro Mountain.

The view from the top of Netro.

Once you pass Netro Mountain, the scenery goes slightly downhill, though not as quickly as the river. Ledge rapids start appearing and increase in difficulty until they culminate in a class 3/4 (depending on water levels) section on the Peel River. While water levels had been low on Elliot Creek at the start of the trip, rain on 15 days of our 18 day trip meant the rapids on the Peel were rocking. We managed fine with some careful scouting followed by sneak routes, lining and a couple of short portages.

It was great to get out on a longer Yukon river trip as house construction and other issues had limited us to shorter trips for several years.