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Yukon Bridge - Ruby

05.07

David brought fresh coffee in the morning. We sat by the Yukon for a while and chatted.

The weather is good, but the wind is very strong. I will wait until the late afternoon. There is no point in fighting the wind, then I would have to sail under motor and I want to do that as little as possible from now on.

David gave me a deposit for the boat, it is now agreed that David will be the new owner of the trimaran.

I went back to the restaurant and had a hamburger.After the meal I said goodbye to everyone and started towards Rampart.

It is very, very windy with high waves. Just after the bridge I saw the helicopter, stopped, got out of the boat and with a splash I sank into the quicksand. I really should have known better. ....

I battled the wind and waves all day. Shortly after Hess Creek I camped on a sandy island. I struggled to pitch my tent. I cooked pasta and tea.

The wind was slow to die down. But around 23:00 there was no wind at all. I heard water splashing on the other side of the river. There were two moose taking a cooling dip in the Yukon.

Yukon River Trimaran Expedition © Copyright by Ch. Breier

For hours it went through wind and waves

06.07.
The night had been calm. Towards morning there was extremely strong wind again. I waited until noon, but the wind did not die down. After taking down the tent, I continued towards Rampart.

The waves were very high and the wind whipped the spray in my face. To make matters worse, it started to thunder and lightning. It was pouring down. I drove through the waves for hours.

Around 9pm I camped on an island about 40 km from Ramparts Rapids. I quickly put up the tent and disappeared into it.

Around 11pm I was woken up by the rain pattering on my tent. In front of the tent, the sun was just disappearing behind a mountain and shrouding the landscape in golden light. Behind my tent I saw a huge rainbow. I quickly got my camera and took some shots of the rainbow and the sunset. Finally, around 2:00am, I fell asleep....
Suddenly I was woken up by a noise. Something was wrong. I cautiously looked out of the tent and saw, not 2 metres in front of me, a grizzly. My heart started to race like crazy. The bear looked at me, puzzled.

What could I do? I had no weapon with me. I waited and watched the bear and he watched me. He came closer, so close I could smell him. Man, he's got some bad breath. The blood was pounding in my temples. I had to do something. I mustered up all the pitiful courage I had left and shouted, "Hey, hey bear," the bear stopped and turned to the side and started to huff. A clear sign of stress. It didn't help, the situation could escalate any minute. I jumped out of the tent. The bear ran as if he had seen the devil towards the water. There he stopped and stood on his hind legs. I grabbed my mini axe and a cooking pot and made a hell of a racket. That finished the bear, who ran into the Yukon and swam as fast as he could to the other side. I could see him disappearing into the bushes. In my excitement I didn't notice that it was raining all the time. I was soaking wet and to make matters worse I had forgotten to close the tent. Now it was full of mosquitoes and gnats. Great, what a night. I was completely exhausted.

Thanks to my guardian angel or sixth sense or whatever you want to call it. If I hadn't woken up, the bear would have come to my tent to check out who was in his territory...

Oh damn, I don't even have a photo of the bears ....

Beautiful rainbow, but then the bear came...

07.07.

In the morning I packed my things a little quicker than usual and headed for Tanana. The weather was mixed. Lots of clouds and wind. Just before Ramparts Rapids I stopped at Chugny's fish camp. Carry was there with two guests. Chuck was not there. One of the guests at the fish camp had a homemade folding motorboat, it was about 7.50 metres long, really cool.

Carry offered me to spend the night at the fish camp, but I declined as I didn't want to disturb her with her guests. I said goodbye and drove on. After the first bend after the fish camp, before the rapids, I saw two men on the bank. I tried to pass them, but one of them waved at me. So I turned the boat around and towards them. They were two Germans,

Dr Gerd von Szadowski and Rainer Kessel. They are from Krefeld and have been here for a few weeks. We talked for a while and I got the last of my red wine. Meanwhile, Rainer lit a fire and brought out his delicious home-made bannock. I learnt that the two Swedes were having problems with their boat, the motor mount had torn out, not an easy thing to fix on an aluminium canoe. Gerd gave them an address in Tanana where they might be able to get it fixed.

Gerd had travelled all over the world and had a lot of interesting stories to tell. The evening passed with red wine, bannock and roast elk. We sat around the fire until late into the night and had a great time.

We would never have met in Germany!

Beautiful home made boat !

Dr. Gerd von Szadowski and Rainer Kessel

08.07.

I said goodbye to both of them around midday and set off for Tanana. Only reluctantly, as I would have liked to spend a few more days with them, but I did not want to disturb their Alaskan peace.

The rapids were above water. Just a pile of big stones. The weather was not very good, cloudy with a lot of wind and big waves. I could not enjoy the scenery because I had to be damn careful when driving.

19:00 I arrived in Tanana. The store and gas station were already closed. However, it was kindly opened again for me. I filled my canisters and bought a coke and some chocolate bars. Somehow I was not tired enough to spend the night in Tanana. I continued on towards Ruby.

The wind had died down a bit but there were very dark clouds on the horizon. I passed Kallands and headed towards Pallisades. It got darker and windier there.

I drove on to a sandy island and pitched my tent. But there were thousands of bloodthirsty mosquitoes. I had to pay a toll. Even in the tent I had to kill a few dozen of them. Oh man, what a day...

Somehow the encounter with the bear is still in my bones....

The Store in Tanana

09.07.

When I woke up in the morning, my tent was full of fine sand that the wind had blown into my tent overnight. Everything was covered with a fine layer of powdery sand....
The sky was dark and it looked like it was going to rain. The two Americans in the Ally drove by and I waved to them.

Around 11:00 I decided to drive on. Past Birches of which nothing is left.

At the Kokrin Hills I passed the Bible Summer Camp. Just behind the camp I saw a huge bull moose with antlers. Unfortunately I could not get my camera out quickly enough. So the photo is nothing special, I just managed to get a picture of him before he disappeared into the bush.

I drove on to the Nowitna River and then up the river for about 10 km. The weather was getting worse. As I could not find a suitable place to camp due to the high water, I just tied my boat to a tree in the middle of the river. I pitched my tent on the boat and went to sleep.

It stormed and rained all night....

My Anker...

10.07.
In the morning it was still raining. I decided to take a day off and stayed in my tent.

Unfortunately the floor of my Salewa tent is not 100% waterproof. So the rain got under the floor and into the tent. The sleeping bag was wet too, good thing I have a synthetic one!

It rained and thundered all day. I didn't want to take the risk of cooking in the tent, so I stayed hungry.

The mosquitoes were doing a real dance of joy between the inner and outer tents. Weren't they singing "we're going to get you, we're going to get you"? It's a good thing the tent is at least mosquito-proof.

I hope the weather improves tomorrow. A motorboat with two men has just stopped. They just wanted to see if I was OK. One of them said I had chosen a dangerous anchorage. I hadn't even thought about it. If the water continues to rise with the rain, it's possible that the tree will float downstream with my boat in tow.

I thanked him for the food for thought. All night long it rained, rained, rained...

At the Nowitna River

11.07.
When I woke up it was still raining. The tree to which I anchored was already moving slightly. A sure sign to disappear hurriedly from here.

Actually I wanted to go further up the river, but that makes no sense with the rain and high water level. Too bad !
I packed the wet tent and went on in the direction of Ruby. In the small river everything was still ok, however, at the Yukon arrived big waves piled up.

Passing Kokrines the waves became higher and higher. So it went on for hours.

About 10Km before Ruby I met the New Zealanders I had already met at the Yukon Bridge at the start. They were Steff, Angeline, Adrian and the American Corey. They also want to go to the coast.
I drove on in the direction of Ruby. Shortly before Ruby I had to cross the Yukon. The waves were extremely high in the middle of the river. What I noticed unfortunately only too late. In the wave trough they reached me up to over the roof, so they were about 1.80-2.00m high. My boat was pounding through the waves. They came over my boat and I was soaking wet. The nasty thing was that the waves were coming from different directions. For a few moments I thought I wasn't going to make it. Believe me friends, it was close. If the boat hadn't been so stable on the water then I wouldn't be now....
On the shore in Ruby some people were watching. After what seemed like endless minutes I finally made it, I was in Ruby. When I was unloading my boat a man on a 4-wheeler came by and said that he had seen me crossing the Yukon. He wanted to see the boat that could handle such waves and the fool who was steering it. Right he is !

He said I had chosen exactly the worst spot. They would not dare to cross the river in such waves even with their big boats with 100hp. At this place the swell would be highest with strong wind. Great to know...
It's a pity that I don't have any pictures or videos of such situations, I really have to buy a waterproof camera.
After some time the New Zealanders arrived, they were lucky and crossed the Yukon a bit before Ruby. They also caught high waves but not as big as I had. You have to be lucky...
I set up my tent and cooked myself a pot of noodles, the first meal I've had in two days. Then a kettle of hot tea to warm me up again. My boots were full of water, just good that I had my Gore Tex suit on, it kept most of it off, but due to the still missing waterproofing not all. I changed clothes and hung them up to dry.

The New Zealanders did the same. After they had eaten and their thing were dry again they drove on again at night, because the weather had calmed down a bit.

I met another German couple, Sabine and David with a small self-built wooden sailboat the Yukon in several stages for years drove.

In the night a barge came, I jumped out of my sleeping bag and ran to the shore.

I was lucky and did not have to move my boat. The captain of the barge did millimeter work.

David came too, he took some pictures of the barge. He watched the unloading of the beer pallets for his host, the store owner in Ruby.

We chatted for some time about our experiences on the Yukon. When I looked at the clock it was already after three o'clock....

Sabine and David in their selfmade boat

12.07.

Around noon my friend Wolf Hebel woke me up. He had already heard from Lech and the Americans that I was on my way to Ruby.

Horst, the Austrian I had met on my first Yukon River Exp. in 1998, had also been in Ruby until a few days ago, I had only missed him by a few days.

Wolf told me that they broke into the store in Ruby again and stole the alcohol. Oh, so that's what the new shipment was yesterday. ....

We went to Wolf's cabin and had a few cups of coffee. We caught up on the latest news and talked about all sorts of things.

Wolf cooked us a nice soup and a great tasting hamburger. In the evening I said goodbye to Wolf and went back to the campground.

Sabine and David loaded their boat. It is really well built and has an enormous loading capacity. I talked to them for a long time. They offered me to travel with them. Too bad I have to wait for my package, otherwise I would have accepted their invitation right away.

The weather is mixed. Clouds and rain showers. But the wind has died down a bit and the big waves are gone. We talked until 4:00 in the morning.

My friend Wolf Hebel carving in Ruby

R.I.P Buddy

Miss you so much, hope to see you on the other side again!

13.07.

Around noon David and Sabine woke me up, they wanted to leave.

Wolf came by as well, we watched them put down their dogs. After that Wolf and I went to the post office. On the way we met the Japanese. He was camped on the beach in front of Ruby.

Wolf came back from the post office with a package for me, but not from Germany, but from my friend Dan Pahman from Michigan/USA.

We went to Wolf's cabin together. There I opened the package. It was full of delicious things I could use, even two cigars for Wolf. I called Dan right away and thanked him for the package.

Wolf made coffee and showed the Japanese his album with pictures of his carvings and paintings.

Then we had spaghetti with bacon and eggs. We talked about everything for several hours.

Around 20:00 we left for the beach. The Japanese said goodbye and went to his camp, which was a bit ahead of Ruby. Wolf accompanied me to the camp.

There we met Mike and Tom from Michigan, whom I had already met at the Yukon Bridge. They are on their way from Whitehorse with an Ally canoe and wanted to go to the Bering Sea, but will end their trip here in Ruby.

They asked Wolf if they could fly out of Ruby. Wolf invited them to his home. He wanted to take care of everything from there. Typical Wolf, always willing to help.

I stayed at the campground and reorganized my gear. Then I made myself a cup of tea. The Americans returned a few hours later. I helped them to unload the boat. We talked about the Yukon for a couple of hours. Around 1:00 a.m. we all went to our tents. I went on the computer again ....

Tom in Ruby

14.07.

Not much happened today. Had a long talk with the Americans. In the late afternoon Wolf came. We went to the post office together. Again no package for me. In the store I bought minced meat. Wolf prepared a great hamburger for us. The evening passed quickly. Wolf and I always have a lot to talk about....

15.07.
Around 7:00 I got up. Mike and Tom were packing. I prepared my breakfast. A pot full of pasta with ketchup, parmesan and lots of garlic.

Around 2:00 p.m. Wolf arrived. We waited for Mike and Tom to be picked up. They are now flying to Fairbanks. The Japanese had also packed up and left for Galena.

After we said goodbye we went to the post office again, but again nothing, no package from Germany. Man, that package has been on the road for 3 weeks now. Now I am stuck for the weekend anyway, because there is no mail here on Saturdays. But what the hell, I have enough time. We went to Wolf's house and drank a cup of coffee. Wolf cooked noodles with mushrooms and minced meat, delicious. The evening passed as usual with long conversations....
When I arrived back at the campground, the various stinging animals were already there and in huge numbers. I immediately crawled into my tent. Until 2:00 o'clock in the morning I was disturbed by all kinds of music from a cabin. Around 3:00 o'clock I could listen to a beautiful marriage quarrelWehen it was over, I heard a truck stop next to my tent and then a rifle shot. Tires spinning and then silence. I crawled out of the tent and was relieved to see that no one had used my boat as a target.

Well, a normal weekend in the bush...

Mike und Wolf at the Campground in Ruby

16.07.

Around noon Wolf picked me up, we went to his cabin and drank coffee and talked shop about photography and writing books. Outside it started to rain again. Wolf is in the process of putting his life into book form. It's sure to be a bestseller, because his life up to now has been anything but boring. This year in August Wolf will be 70 years old just like my mother.

Wolf prepared us a steak with potatoes, carrots and onions, delicious as everything at Wolf. We chatted for a while after the meal and watched a DVD. After the movie Wolf accompanied me with his dog to the campground.

It had stopped raining in the meantime. I dismantled the bimini top and the wooden panels on my boat and straightened the slipped tube. One of the tension straps had come loose. It was a quick fix. The only thing that really p....... me off were the tons of little biting flies that were pestering me the whole time.

Completely sweaty, I disappeared into my tent. There was, after some carnage, at least insect free zone. As much as I like it in Ruby, I also hope that my package will arrive on Monday so that I can start again on Tuesday or Wednesday. Sebastien still hasn't caught up with me. He will probably be stuck somewhere, just like me.

Around 00:51 again shots, well this time I did not go out of the tent. Couldn't do anything either way if my boat was the target....

Then, again shots from an automatic weapon, but this time "only" .22 caliber, but again and again....

Boy, boy the eternal banging is really getting on my nerves.

Then finally against approx. 3:00 o'clock in the morning a woman takes pity and made an end of all that shooting. Now half the night is over again...

Smoke of fires rises in Ruby

17.07.

Around noon, Wolf picked me up and we went to his cabin. Then our daily ritual began. Coffee, then to the post office, again no parcel for me. Then we talked about all the world and his wife and then Wolf prepared the meal. Today we had bread with sausage and cheese and a glass of red wine. Yes, yes, life at the Yukon River is hard, especially as a guest at Wolf's...

In the evening we watched two DVDs. A funny thing happened. Wolf has a little fat mouse in his house. In the evening you can sometimes see it running around and while we were watching TV I saw the mouse.

I ran into the kitchen and grabbed it by the neck. Wolf said I should just drop it, the dog would take care of it. He did, he grabbed the mouse and threw it in the air. Right in my face.

If I had my mouth open, it would have been my next meal. But as it was, it bounced off my lips, fell to the floor and got away...

We both had a good laugh about this little episode. Around 22:30 I went back to the campground. I hope this night will be quieter than the last two...

My bait for the mouse.

18.07.

The night had been wonderfully quiet, the weekend is over...

In the morning I tinkered still something at the boat. Around 14:00 Wolf came with his dog. We went to the post office like every day. But, again no package for me....

I bought some chicken bulbs and some corn on the cob at the store. Wolf prepared them for us. Suddenly a call from the post office. My package had arrived late in the afternoon. I hurried to the post office, there was indeed a 20 kg package for me.

My mother had packed it full of all kinds of goodies. Also a spare chip for my digital camera and my digital barometer were there.

I immediately went to the campground with the package , sorted all my food and supplemented it with the contents of the package.

From all duplicate I packed in each case something into the now empty post package. When this was again abundantly filled, I marched to Wolf. He was happily surprised about all the goodies. Now I could finally return the favor for his hospitality...

In the evening we watched two DVD's and snacked on chocolate from Germany...

The little fat mouse was also back and snacked on an apple. Tomorrow I will take my tripod and try photograph the mouse at the apple...

Outside it is raining heavily again. Is already a strange year, so much rain I had not for a long time on a Yukon tour. Tomorrow I will wash my clothes, re-waterproof my Gore Tex suit and try to update my website in the library. Hopefully this will work...

Around 24:00 I heard a splash. It sounded like a canoe. I thought it was Sebastien, but instead it was Bodo von der Trenck from Weinheim. A German who taught German at a high school in Hartford Wisconsin over this year and is now paddling down the Yukon. He set up his tent and we talked for a while. He has also had extremely bad weather since he started his trip, rain, wind and high waves. So I'm not the only one. We disappeared into our tents as the little flies were swarming all over us in monstrous droves....

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19.07.
Bodo and I went to wash our clothes. He told me that he met Sebastien at the Yukon Bridge. He is waiting there for a friend who wants to paddle with him on the Yukon. So he should arrive in Ruby in the next few days.
We marched to the library, but it was closed today of all days, bad luck again no update on the website.

In the store I bought something chopped and we went to Wolf. He was happy to have new visitors. We drank coffee and talked until the evening. Then I set up my camera and tried to take a picture of the mouse. There was a delicious meal again. We watched some videos. Of course the mouse didn't show up...
Back at the campground the horror was waiting for us. The little flies were around us by the thousands. I immediately disappeared into the tent and ignited a mosquito spiral and began with the slaughter of the flies.

I lent Bodo afterwards my mosquito spiral, also he organized a fly slaughter in the tent.

It is really unbearable with the insects. Every minute that you now spend outside the tent, you are annoyed by the pests ...

Front Street Ruby

20.07

Bodo left for Galena around noon. I went to Wolf. Around 15:00 I went to the library. This time it was open, but the internet was down. All attempts of the librarian to get online failed. Apparently her software had been deleted. Great, no update again. I'll try again tomorrow. At the store I bought potatoes and chicken buns. When we opened the package at Wolf's, we soon felt sick. It was barely usable as dog food. Thorak, Wolf's dog, also tried it. Wolf still had a few pieces of real chicken, which he prepared for us with the potatoes. Towards evening I set up the camera again to finally photograph the damn mouse. We watched a video and drank a few cups of cocoa. Frustrated, I took the camera down after a few hours and what happened? Of course, the mouse came out...

Back in the tent, the same procedure as the night before, again the fight with the flies. The inflammation on my legs is getting worse, it itches like crazy. I think I have to go to the clinic in Ruby tomorrow and see if they can help me. If not, I may have to cancel the trip in a few weeks because it is no longer bearable. This really does not seem to be my year ...

21.07.
Around noon I re-impregnated my Gore-Tex suit.

I met Wolf in the laundry. He was just about to do his laundry.

My leg still itches like crazy. I went to the clinic and asked if they could help me. Unfortunately, they don't have doctors here, but they do have medically trained staff. The two women were very, very kind and helped me right away. They couldn't figure out exactly what I had, but they gave me a lot of medicine to help me. Let's see. I asked them how much I owed them, and they said, "Nothing. Great, that's nice. I went back to the campground and got some chocolate bars and some bags of wine gum from Germany. I took them to the two women in the clinic and they were very happy.

After that I went back to Wolf, he had just hung up his laundry to dry.

Like every day, we went to the post office around 2:00 p.m. and Wolf checked his mailbox.

In the meantime I went to the campground with his dog. Since it is very windy today, I had already thought that my Gore suit was no longer hanging on the hook to dry, but lying on the ground. Since it was already dry, I packed it. Now everything was in the green range again ...

I went to the shop where I wanted to meet Wolf. He was already there, I gave him the dog and went into the store and bought two steaks for us. Wow, US$18, that was expensive....

Back at the cabin, Wolf called the library to see if the internet was working again, but it wasn't, so nothing with the website update.

Around 16:00h my friend Dan Pahman called me at Wolf. Dan and I are planning to do the Mackenzie Exp. together next year, if he can get away for that long. He had a lot of information for me.

After this long talk Wolf cooked us a nice meal. The steaks were well worth the money.

The mouse did not show up today.

Outside it suddenly got very dark. Forest fire, everything was covered in thick smoke, you could hardly see the other side of the Yukon River. It seems to be burning somewhere towards Galena. Man, what a year....

One good thing about the smoke though, when I arrived at the tent there were only a few of those annoying little flies. Since I don't want to arrive in Galena on Friday or Saturday (there's a bar there), I won't leave until Monday morning. I want to avoid any trouble with the drunks in Galena, and I still have plenty of time.

Not to mention all the good talks with Wolf. I wish I had his knowledge of life in the bush....

The Campground in Ruby

22.07.

Around noon I took a shower, because I had followed the scent of a polecat again. Showering with warm water, at home of course, here a luxury.

Afterwards I went to the store and bought some canned milk, because I destroyed Wolf's supply. My coffee is almost white.

In the afternoon another German and an Austrian arrived. Ralf Brandenburg and Paul Ulrich, both in the Klepper folding boat, Ralf in the new Langeiner with 4.90 meters, which I like much better than the old one.

Paul had bite marks from a grizzly in the boat. In the evening Rolf Jahn from Cologne arrived in his canoe. He also had some bear bite marks in his seat.

All three had been with Wolf for a short time.

Arrived at the campground the small flies were hardly bearable, only when we put on our head nets or bug shirts they were to be tolerated.

The smoke from the fires fogged everything again. Unfortunately not the small flies, they were not bothered by the smoke today.

We boiled tea and added rum to it. It turned into an amusing evening. Around 2:00 in the morning we went to our tents....

Ralf with one of his newly acquired wood carvings by Wolf Hebel.

23.07.

I went to Wolf with Ralf and Rolf at 11:00 am.

Ralf wants to buy some more carvings from Wolf.

Paul was already at Wolf's, he will fly out from Galena. His aunt is in a coma in Austria. It was a hard decision to stop the tour so close to the coast. But I would have done the same.

Ralf bought two very nice elk antlers. Wolf will pack them well and send them to him in Germany.

Since Ralf has to travel alone now, we will probably travel together from Galena. Since Rolf has left for Galena as well, I think he will probably continue on with Rolf.

I will leave Monday at noon. Wolf and I have been talking all afternoon. Wolf has such an enormous amount of knowledge, you can talk to him about anything. He reads as much as I do.

Back at the campground everything was full of little biting flies again. The first few days with the critters were a plague, but now they start to bite, and worse than the mosquitoes. It feels like someone is pulling out a piece of flesh with a small pair of pliers. After that, you will have a red bruise that will itch like crazy for a couple of days

Rolf Jahn from Cologne

Rolf's canoe was also gnawed on by a grizzly....

24.07.

Around noon I went to Wolf's place. In the afternoon his neighbor Tim came by, I knew him from my 2004 trip. Tomorrow in the afternoon I will start my trip in the direction of Galena. Hopefully the weather will be better then. Around 23:00h I am back at the campground. Everything is full of smoke again and from time to time it rains. I hope it will not rain again while I am on my way. I really had enough rain on this trip. Well, at least my Gore suit is now properly waterproofed again. At least there was no stupid shootings this weekend ...

Head net worn by Paul Ulrich from Austria. Even with all the smoke from the fires, it was hard to stand the insects...

Paul Klepper was punctured by the claws of a grizzly on the side!

Continue with: Ruby Emmonak

Only those who risk going too far, will discover how far they can go!

Expedition in USA, Alaska & Canada, Scandinavia with folding boat, motorboat, catamaran, motorcycle, off-road vehicle, bicycle ...