The Hyland River is a great choice for the explorer who wants a wilderness canoe trip that offers intermediate whitewater mixed with sections of gentler river.
Duration: 9 Days
Grading:MODERATEMax Group Size: 10
Type:SMALL GROUPPrices from: £1178
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Tour Overview
The Hyland River is a great choice for the explorer who wants a wilderness canoe trip that offers intermediate whitewater mixed with sections of gentler river. The Hyland has truly excellent fishing opportunities, and is off the beaten track, only being paddled by a few groups each summer. The drive to the put-in is long ( 7hrs) but gives you a chance to experience more Yukon wilderness scenery. If you are looking for a little more whitewater excitement than the Big Salmon, but still an affordable experience, the Hyland River is a perfect choice.
What's Included:
•Transportation from Whitehorse to the Hyland River on Day 1 •Transportation to Whitehorse from the Hyland River on Day 9 •Meals starting lunch Day 1, ending lunch Day 9 •Eating utensils, bowls, and mug, and group kitchen equipment •Tents, canoes, paddles, personal flotation device •Services of a CFA guide •All necessary safety equipment
The Hyland River is one of only a handful of Yukon rivers that can call themselves children of the mighty Liard River. From its headwaters in the Logan and Selwyn Mountains, the upper reaches of the Hyland, above our put-in, is a spirited and technical river. As the river grows in size it slows and has sections of beautiful stress-free paddling, interspersed with shorter sections of exciting class II whitewater.
The river owes its name to Robert Hyland, and English prospector and trader who was the first recorded non-First Nation person to ascend the river in 1874. Robert Hyland lived out his life in the region, developing trading posts in direct competition with the Hudson Bay Company at Lower Post, Cassiar, and Dease Lake. He was known as a creative businessman: at one time printing his own money and having local miners and First Nations use it as currency at his trading posts.
The Liard basin, in which the highland flows, is known for its deep winter snowfalls, and richer, thicker vegetation cause by deeper soils and higher levels of precipitation. The biggest trees in the Yukon occur here in the Liard watershed.
We start our voyage just below the most advanced whitewater. In the upper reaches of the river, closer to the alpine, we may be lucky enough to spot a grizzly bear, a herd of mountain caribou or even wild sheep on the steeper terrain. As we descend the river we will stop on islands that are home to giant spruces (by Yukon standards). Many of these islands have not burned in a forest fire for a long time because of the protection of the river, allowing their trees to grow to an unusual size for this latitude. Wolves and moose populations are healthy in the Liard basin so we may hear or see signs of these magnificent creatures. Wolf tracks on the river’s gravel bars are a frequent sighting on the Hyland. The lower reaches of the Hyland flow into northern British Columbia, and shortly thereafter we will end our journey where the river reaches the Alaska Highway, a 20-minute drive southeast of the town of Watson Lake. Here, if we are lucky, we may see the Liard River Bison herd, British Columbia’s only remaining population of wood bison, a distinct forest-dwelling species that often can be seen grazing along the margins of the Alaska Highway.
If we had continued down the river we would have first paddled into the Liard River, known for its massive sections of whitewater and then eventually into the much more tranquil Mackenzie River, heading north to the Arctic Ocean. Perhaps another time!
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Tour Highlights
Itinerary
Day 0: Whitehorse, Yukon
Hopefully you enjoyed your travels and have arrived safely in Whitehorse, the Yukon’s capital city, nestled among the wilderness.
Please arrive in Whitehorse in time for an orientation meeting at 8:30 pm the night before our departure. Guests are responsible for accommodation and meals while in Whitehorse. Whitehorse is a splendid little city and we recommend booking some additional time at either the beginning or the end of your trip to see Whitehorse. If you wish to fish on your trip but, have not had a chance to purchase a Yukon fishing license, you should do so this evening. Your guides will let you know where they can be purchased.
Please Note: Often our guests choose to come to the Yukon several days early, or too depart several days after their wilderness vacation. Therefore we don't include accommodation in Whitehorse in order to provide flexibility for our guests. If you prefer, we can easily arrange your hotel accommodations in Whitehorse and add these details to your itinerary.
Day 1 (L, D)
Cabin Fever Adventures Staff will pick you up from your hotels starting at 7:00 am with a planned departure from Whitehorse by 8:00 am. Please have your breakfast (not included) finished by this time. We will drive southeast along the Alaska Highway until we arrive at Watson Lake, the most easterly community in the Yukon. Here we will turn northwest on to the Robert Campbell Highway for a short distance before veering northeast along the Nahanni Range Road that travels through remote wilderness with views of the Logan Mountains. By early evening we will reach our put in location for the Hyland River where we will camp for the night and prepare for an early morning launch on the river.
Day 2 - 8 (B, L, D) Except Day 8 dinner, which is not included
Over the next six days we will descend the Hyland River, known for its great fishing, sections of intermediate whitewater, and tranquil Yukon scenery. Along the way we might take one day off in camp, to enjoy a lazy day of fishing, baking over the fire and relaxing. On the morning of seventh day we will reach our take-out on the Alaska Highway in northern British Columbia, 20 minutes southeast of Watson Lake, Yukon. Cabin Fever Adventures staff will meet us there and drive us back to Whitehorse to your hotels (not included). Dinner not included.
Our Trusted Partner's Responsible and Sustainable Travel Policy
At Cabin Fever Adventures we don’t believe we can protect the planet by simply saying that we love wilderness and that we strive to protect wild places. Of course we love the wilderness, but the bigger question is does the day-to-day operation of our company demonstrate this commitment? At Cabin Fever Adventures we strive to be the Yukon’s industry leader in promoting a earth-friendly business model. We actively engage our company in the preservation of not only the wilderness here in the Yukon, but consider our company an economic vehicle to affect positive change around the planet.
Our Earth-Friendly initiatives are based on the following simple beliefs:
•One person’s happiness can not be build at the cost of another's •One person can change the world by doing things differently, daily •The needs of the earth’s natural systems are the basis for all sound economic decisions when judged over the long-term.
Based on the above stated beliefs, we have instituted the following business practices into the operations of Cabin Fever Adventures.
We Provide an Organic and Fair Trade Food Menu
•Our food menu is as close to 100% organic as possible and we support several Fair Trade organizations through our food purchases as well. To learn more about organic food products please visit our food distributors website www.horizondistributors.com •To learn more about Fair Trade products and benefits please visit www.transfairusa.org
We are a Member of One Percent for the Planet
•One Percent for the Planet is an organization of member companies who donate at least 1 % of their gross revenues to non-profit environmental protection agencies. We are proud to have made this commitment and hope you will check out their site. We Support-Best Practice Local and or Canadian Businesses Partnerships •We support businesses in the following order of priority when it comes to sourcing gear for our company. First we support companies that we feel are conducting best practices for eco-justice and earth-friendly business practices. Next, we support companies that are local to the Yukon, and thirdly we support Canadian manufactured products because as a voter we can at least work towards changes in our own country.
We Challenge the Status Quo Consumer Attitudes Through our Purchasing Decisions
•We maintain our gear very well and believe in using the entire life-span of a product through proper maintenance and repairs. CFA does not get rid of perfectly good gear to satiate the consumer demand to be outfttted in gear that appears to be brand-new. We can not pretend to be true environmental advocates if our concern for the environment is Yukon-specific rather that global in perspective. Unnecessary consumerism is the fundamental lifestyle problem which has placed human existence out of balance with the planet. We need to start operating within our needs, rather than our wants. When a piece of gear no longer does its job properly or will create a significant consequence if it fails in the backcountry than it is first repaired, and if it can not be properly repaired than it is replaced, but not before. We have become skilled in gear repair, and even make some one-of-a-kind items ourselves. We attempt to source gear for our company from like-minded companies who are making significant steps to reduce their global environmental impact.
We Support Agencies Dedicated to Protecting Wild Places and to Improving Transportation Technologies Vital to Tourism
•We donate to the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) and green technologies NGO’S. For more information on the work of CPAWS please visit www.cpaws.org •We donate to the Pembina Foundation. www.pembinafoundation.org The Pembina Foundation for Environmental Research and Education supports innovative environmental research and education initiatives that help people reduce their energy footprint.
We Practice Leave No Trace Camping Practices
•The owner of Cabin Fever Adventures is a certified Master Trainer for The Leave No Trace Centre for Outdoor Ethics. We travel as lightly upon the land as we can so as to leave for the enjoyment of future generations the landscape we hold dear today. To learn more about the principles of LNT backcountry travel please visit www.lnt.org
Day-to-Day Operation of our Physical Plant
We operate Cabin Fever Adventures from our wilderness base-camp and are pursuing numerous efforts to minimize our environmental footprint.
•We personally live a lower-than-average impact lifestyle at our cabin in the wilderness. We live with our family of three in a 480 square foot home (44.6 m2 ) that is also our office for CFA. We function on an average of 15 gallons (56.78 L) of water per day for our entire family, including laundry, cleaning, drinking etc. Our water consumption at home is about one-twentieth the national average for Canada. •We operate an almost paper-less office and we conduct near-paperless interactions with our clients. You will notice that we offer all our information digitally and encourage our customers to embrace communication that avoids the need for paper. •We will soon be investing in a solar energy system for our base camp. •We believe in making our equipment last as long as possible and invest in skills and equipment which allow us to utilize local building materials and waste materials, to operate and or repair our equipment. •We remove our solid human waste from the environment on our busier river routes and dispose of it in sanitation dumps •Our largest environmental impact is our use of fossil fuels for transportation. This is why we actively donate to foundations supporting advances in renewable energy, such as the Pembina Foundation and have chosen to carbon offset all of our tourism products. •We utilize green cleaning dish soaps, cleaning products, and laundry detergents.
About our Trusted Partner
Cabin Fever Adventures offers a variety of wilderness vacations in the Yukon, Southeast Alaska and Northern British Columbia. We operate by the doctrines of ecotourism and are industry leaders in decreasing our environmental impact, not just in the wilderness areas we travel through, but globally through our ethical business decisions. We offer an organic food menu, purchase carbon offsets for our transportation emissions and donate to grassroots environmental protection agencies. If you would like to see the stunning beauty of the Northwest while treading lightly on the planet, then Cabin Fever Adventures is for you. There is only one future and it is shared!
Sunset : Hyland River Canoe Trip at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)
Sunset
On the Water : Hyland River Canoe Trip at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)
On the Water
Sunrise : Hyland River Canoe Trip at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)
Sunrise
Campsite : Hyland River Canoe Trip at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)
Campsite
Canoeing : Hyland River Canoe Trip at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)
Canoeing
Scenery : Hyland River Canoe Trip at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)
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