In order to use the Send to a Friend facility you must be logged in.
Please either log in above, or register if you are not already a friend of Nature & Kind.
Tour Overview
Kusawa Lake is a northern sea kayaking gem located in the southern region of the Yukon, only a short distance from Whitehorse. It is a favorite destination for locals, but seldomly visitied by travellers. To the south the lake is flanked by glaciers and mountains line its scenic shores. On this 5-day kayaking adventure we will gain a real appreication of this 75 km long mountain-lined lake, both from within the cockpit of our kayaks, and from the deck of our custom 34-foot support vessel, "The Yukon Rose". Our support vessel allows us to bring a touch of extra comfort to our backcountry camps, while providing a great margin of safety, and the ability for people of different paddling abilities to travel together.
What's Included:
•Transportation from Whitehorse to Kusawa Lake on Day 1 •Transportation to Whitehorse from Kusawa Lake on Day 5 •Meals starting lunch Day 1, ending lunch Day 5 •Eating utensils, bowls, and mug, and group kitchen equipment •Tents, sea kayaks, paddles, personal flotation device •Services of a CFA guide •transportation and support of our 34-foot custom support vessel "The Yukon Rose" •All necessary safety equipment
Kusawa Lake is a prized wilderness vacation destination for Yukoners and visitors alike. This long, thin lake snakes it way south through the Coastal Mountains. With a length of 70 km, yet only an average width of 2 km (1.2miles), it has a lot of shoreline to explore. Anglers enjoy catching the lake trout, northern pike, whitefish, and arctic grayling that are bountiful in this watershed. Paddlers and boaters enjoy the spectacular views, clean sandy beaches and the serenity of being nestled among mountains. As you travel southwest down the lake, the shoreline transitions from gentle peaks and large grassy uplands to the snowcapped peaks and glacier-filled valleys of the Costal Range. Glaciation sculpted this lake-valley and laid down the terraces and ridges visible near the mouth of the out-flowing Takhini River. At the south end of the lake, a hike up the steep mountain slopes will give you a glimpse of the glaciers that still remain in the higher elevations to this day..
Kusawa is known for its wildlife diversity. The higher elevations support habitat critical for large ungulates and carnivores. It provides habitat for Dall sheep, mountain goats, raptors and grizzly bears. The unique ecology of the area features impressive sand dunes and extensive boreal grasslands. In fact, Kusawa Lake is so impressive that there is an active proposal to preserve 3113 km2 of land surrounding the lake within a territorial park. This proposal is waiting for the completion of local First Nations' land claims settlements.
The word Kusawa is Tlingit for “long narrow lake”. The Chilkat Indians name for the lake meant “windy water”. Kusawa lake and the surrounding land is in the traditional territory of the Champagne Ashika First Nation, and the Carcross/Tagish First Nation.
Reviews
No reviews available yet...
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.
Please Note: Often our guests choose to come to the Yukon several days early, or to 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. Participants need to have finished their breakfast by this time. Any final details will be dealt with and we will depart Whitehorse by 8:00 am. Anyone who wishes to fish during the trip and has not purchased a Yukon fishing license will be given the opportunity to do so at this time. (There will be many opportunities to fish during this trip.) After taking care of any final details we will drive a short two-hour shuttle west of Whitehorse to Kusawa Lake, where our adventure unfolds.
Here we will launch our support vessel, "The Yukon Rose" after loading it with our sea kayaks and camping gear. Next we commence our adventure with a 3-hour sight-seeing boat cruise towards the southern end of Kusawa Lake, enjoying a floating picnic lunch along the way. Once we select our wildeness campsite near the inflow of the Takhini River, we can set camp and then enjoy fishing and kayaking in the aqua-blue glacial waters. A campfire and delicious meal will round out our first willderness day.
Day 2: (B, L, D)
Today we will awake to the mountain grandeur of Kusawa Lake. Typically the winds will be giving us a gentle push from the south, so our destination today is a beautiful peninsula to the north. Our captain will follow us with "The Yukon Rose" to ensure that we are doing well and then go ahead to start setting up our camp. Through VHF radios, we can request assistance of the support vessel if the lake gets too rough or if we are too tired to continue and wish a lif. Once at camp, we can enjoy our peninsula campsite, a fine meal, and tales of our our day on the majestic waters of Kusawa Lake.
Day 3: (B, L, D)
Today after a delcious breakfast in camp, we once again point our kayaks north, our destination for the end of the day being a sandy campsite on the edge of the Primrose River, a glacially fed steream the flows down from the mountains to the east. Here we will set a comfortable camp which will be our home for not only this night, but the next.
Day 4: (B, L, D) Layover Day
Today we have many options of how to spend our day of rest. A beautiful ridge on the opposite shore tempts us to put on our hiking boots and set off on a 1000 ft (330 m) wilderness ridge hike to gain a 360 degree view of the surrounding landscape. For those that are interested in staying closer to camp, there is oppotunity to fish at the inflow of the Primrose River, read a book, or just sit in camp and enjoy a coffee.
Day 5: (B, L)
Today is our last day to enjoy the stunning beauty of Kusawa Lake. After another delicious breakfast, we will point our kayaks north for the last time and begin our final paddle towards the Kusawa Lake Campground. Along the way, we will stop for one last lunch in the wilderness, a last cast of the fishing rod, before reaching our take-out by mid-afternoon. Once we have loaded "The Yukon Rose" upon its trailer we depart towards Whitehorse for an approximately 6:00 pm arrival.
cost from USD 2125+ 5% GST (double occupancy) or 2195 + 5% GST (single occupancy)
Discounts available for group bookings of 6 or more
5
£1302.00
Kind Points:292
Accepted Payment Types
• American Express
• Cheque
• Diners Card
• JCB
• Mastercard
• Visa
• Maestro
• Electron
• Carte Blue
• Bank Transfer
• Paypal
• Cash
Nature & Kind Factor
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!
Fresh Water Wilderness Kayaking : Kusawa Lake Sea Kayaking at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)
Fresh Water Wilderness Kayaking
Sunset : Kusawa Lake Sea Kayaking at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)
Sunset
Expert Instruction - Learn to Control Your Boat : Kusawa Lake Sea Kayaking at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)
Expert Instruction - Learn to Control Your Boat
Mountain-lined Splendor : Kusawa Lake Sea Kayaking at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)
Mountain-lined Splendor
The Mountains Invite Us on Day-Hikes : Kusawa Lake Sea Kayaking at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)
The Mountains Invite Us on Day-Hikes
Wildlife Sightings are Often Part of A Yukon Vacation : Kusawa Lake Sea Kayaking at www.NatureandKind.com (THE.NATURAL.CHOICE)
Wildlife Sightings are Often Part of A Yukon Vacation
In order to use the Send to a Friend facility you must be logged in.
Please either log in above, or register if you are not already a friend of Nature & Kind.
