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Yukon River 🛶 🇨🇦 🇺🇸: Arrived in Whitehorse, but where is my canoe?

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I felt more sad than usual saying goodbye to Alexander. I even cried for a moment. After five weeks together in May and June it will be almost three month without seeing him – an unusually long time. Gonna miss his presence and his positive attitude. What am i gonna do without having to answer all his football questions like whether Messi or Ronaldo is the better player or if Neuer is the best goalkeeper or in fact de Gea. Football dominates his thinking. And why not. My little goalkeeper – just like papa used to be.

We left London with 90min delay due to some mechanical problem. That left me only 1:15min to get through immigration and make my connecting flight to Whitehorse. Will my luggage make the connection?

In that context my worry was not getting delayed by a day or two, it was that Harry would expect to meet me the following day in Bennett and i was in charge of buying the food. Harry would arrive by ferry in Skagway and next day hop on a train to bennett. He would, in fact, have to wait two days given only sporadic transport to the deserted town. Well, maybe i can still text him.

The plane wasn’t busy and the middle seat remained empty in most rows. In the aisle sat Gill. Originally British, she moved to Canada 25y ago following her mum. Still, she visits England and more specifically her sister in Devon every year. Time went past quickly as we chatted about her life and my trip on the Yukon.

The flight to Vancouver is surprisingly short. Just 9h more or less, as the plane crosses into the arctic via Iceland, Greenland and Northern Canada. Given the city is located on the shores of the pacific i expected more. Well, the earth is round i guess.

Flying over ice packed Greenland was an amazing sight. Most certainly a place I should like to visit one day. Even Northern Canada remained snowwhite (and I mean not only the high mountain tops) as we passed over places like Yellowknife, Reliance etc. I wonder if there is ever proper summer here 🤔

I didn’t sleep much and entertained myself with a German movie (“25kmh”, two brothers realising a childhood dream riding through Germany on a moped) and started reading my first Jack London book (“The call of the wild” starring dog Buck).

Arrived. We touched down and things went really smoothly as I rushed through immigration to catch my connection. I must have looked hungry, as Gill overed me a shortbread from Marks & Spencer. Thanks again! Very tasty indeed.

The flight to Whitehorse was only slightly delayed yet overbooked. They offered meal vouchers and CAD400 for the person taking the evening flight instead. It didnt take a minute for a young fellow, seemingly a hiker, to step forward.

Sadly, in Whitehorse i realised that my canoe had not made the journey from Vancouver. I wss promised it will come on the 10pm flight (like 90%). Fingers crossed… If not, same issue with Harry waiting for me and my bus to get me to Bennett leaves 8am. No time to wait for another flight… But lets think positive.

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The check into the Beez Kneez hostel was super smooth and soon i found myself hiking 2.5km to the shopping area. Admittedly, Whitehorse has huge dimensions for a city of just 30,000 people (well, they have cars).

First stop at Canadian Tire for some outdoor gear. You’ll find everything here incuding a huge range of fishing rods and lures. Sadly noone that could tell me which set i should get. I left with a pretty strong rod (6-15kg) and a number of different bait for trout, puke, greyling and salmon. Let’s give it a try!

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Walmart next door was a little disappointing. Their homepage had suggested they sell drones (since Amazon blew the delivery in London), but no. The hostel host (whi in gereral was like superhelpful) offered to get one put aside in another shop. Lets see when i pass through Whitehorse in a few days.

Now quickly food for the coming few days and all done. It was still bright as day outside and so my natural tiredness after almost 24h non stop was supressed. I enjoyed a single pint and informed Harry (also in a pub in Skagway) about the canoe issue. We decided to go ahead as planned and meet in Bennett.

I was already in bed when my host informed that the canoe had ideed arrived. A big sigh of relief! The quest was on and Harry wouldn’t have to starve in Bennett. 😂🤣

Time to sleep… Oh no, who is snorring!!! Who cares. Too tired. Nite, nite…

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