Week 2

From Carmacks onward, the current was generally swifter (when paddling, we make anywhere from 5 to 9 miles an hour; the current here varies from 5 to 7 miles an hour - it will be slower further along). We've had an incredible range of weather already, and the conditions seem to change constantly - within a few minutes - from one extreme to another. We had our first patch of unpleasant weather this past week, with several days of overcast skies and cold, paddling in and out of rain in our warm jackets and hats. Happily it cleared in time for our final push to Dawson last night - we arrived around midnight in time for a nice sunset.

We had several big mileage days this week, trying to get a bit ahead of schedule if we can (in anticipation of much slower going on the lower river). One day we did 69 miles, and yesterday was something like 72 miles. But it varies a lot; earlier this week, wind grounded us on shore for much of a day, and the day we passed through Five Finger Rapids (better than expected) was very tough going in the wind as well. Those days we did more like 35 miles. But we've had a couple days of beautiful sunshine too, and our hands and faces are rapidly browning. My fingers have toughened up in the last couple weeks - I think I now have the hands of a Klondiker. We're working on cutting down the time we take packing up in the mornings - it's usually about 2 hours. We're much busier than we thought we'd be in this section; so far, lazy afternoons of reading in the sun have not materialized. But we're still working out the kinks and trying to get into a routine that works for us.

Wildlife highlights: 2 brown bears on a cutbank; a fox on a bank at sunset; what I believe to be a (lone) Pacific loon; moose(s) with calves; butterflies; and many many mosquitoes (I try not to think about that), mergansers, and swallows everywhere.