TRAVELLING BLOG

 Akansh sharma 

22/4/22

Travelling diaries

Big River« is what the Athabascan Indians call the Yukon. It’s one of the mightiest rivers on the planet. In this episode, Dirk Rohrbach travels the river all the way to the Bering Sea in a self-made canoe.

To this day, it serves as the main artery for the villages in the heart of Alaska with no access to roads. The river became legendary during the gold rush in the nineteenth century, and it gained a mythical status through the novels of Jack London, Robert Service and Pierre Berton. This is my third journey to the Bering Sea along the Big River, and once again I’m back in the birch bark canoe I made for my solo trip a couple of years ago. But this time, instead of starting my journey at the Yukon’s headlakes in Canada, I’m setting off from a colossal structure in the heart of Alaska. 

All packed and ready to go, I push my canoe into the water. Rain from the mountains has caused the water level in the Yukon to rise substantially. And it looks like the weather’s about to take a turn for the worse – according to the forecast, the mid-summer heat of the past few days is due to be followed by cool temperatures and some stormy conditions.

want to camp on river islands whenever I can on this trip. These islands offer the best protection against mosquitoes and bears. They’re usually too windy for the former and too uninteresting for the latter, or so canoeists naively believe.

I can most definitely say I have no desire to encounter members of either species. A nice bear photo would be great – with a telephoto lens, of course.

But what I really want to focus on are the villages along the river. I’m fascinated by the lifestyle and I want to document how the villagers live. So on I go, and three days later, I find myself at an important intersection in the remote Nordic wilderness.

indigenous peoples used to do their trading here, where Alaska’s two biggest rivers meet: the Yukon and Tanana River. Like many other villages, the one that exists here today was only founded in the nineteenth century, when it started out as a trading post and fort. Although there are just 250 people living in Tanana, it’s regarded as the hub of the Interior Alaska’s bush. That’s because of its strategic riverside location and its close proximity to the Elliott Highway, which is currently being extended. When it’s complete, the highway will connect Tanana to Alaska’s meager road network so that people can finally travel to the metropolis of Fairbanks by car. A lot of the locals reckon this will benefit them and make life a little more affordable, which includes lower prices for the store managed by Dale and Cynthia Erickson on the riverbank.

THE TRAVEL EPISODES

ALASKA – CANOEING TO THE BERING SEA

BIG RIVER

»Big River« is what the Athabascan Indians call the Yukon. It’s one of the mightiest rivers on the planet. In this episode, Dirk Rohrbach travels the river all the way to the Bering Sea in a self-made canoe.

To this day, it serves as the main artery for the villages in the heart of Alaska with no access to roads. The river became legendary during the gold rush in the nineteenth century, and it gained a mythical status through the novels of Jack London, Robert Service and Pierre Berton. This is my third journey to the Bering Sea along the Big River, and once again I’m back in the birch bark canoe I made for my solo trip a couple of years ago. But this time, instead of starting my journey at the Yukon’s headlakes in Canada, I’m setting off from a colossal structure in the heart of Alaska. 

 

All packed and ready to go, I push my canoe into the water. Rain from the mountains has caused the water level in the Yukon to rise substantially. And it looks like the weather’s about to take a turn for the worse – according to the forecast, the mid-summer heat of the past few days is due to be followed by cool temperatures and some stormy conditions.

I want to camp on river islands whenever I can on this trip. These islands offer the best protection against mosquitoes and bears. They’re usually too windy for the former and too uninteresting for the latter, or so canoeists naively believe.

I can most definitely say I have no desire to encounter members of either species. A nice bear photo would be great – with a telephoto lens, of course.

But what I really want to focus on are the villages along the river. I’m fascinated by the lifestyle and I want to document how the villagers live. So on I go, and three days later, I find myself at an important intersection in the remote Nordic wilderness.

The indigenous peoples used to do their trading here, where Alaska’s two biggest rivers meet: the Yukon and Tanana River. Like many other villages, the one that exists here today was only founded in the nineteenth century, when it started out as a trading post and fort. Although there are just 250 people living in Tanana, it’s regarded as the hub of the Interior Alaska’s bush. That’s because of its strategic riverside location and its close proximity to the Elliott Highway, which is currently being extended. When it’s complete, the highway will connect Tanana to Alaska’s meager road network so that people can finally travel to the metropolis of Fairbanks by car. A lot of the locals reckon this will benefit them and make life a little more affordable, which includes lower prices for the store managed by Dale and Cynthia Erickson on the riverbank.

 Life in the city is a lot easier than living in the village,” says Cynthia, explaining why so many people have left the bush. “Housing is cheaper and you don’t have to cut wood or haul water.” She’s thrilled about the new highway. “It’s gonna open up a whole other world for us. Cheaper supplies, fuel and maybe some tourism.” Until now, most of the goods are flown in by plane. That’s expensive, of course, and the flights are often cancelled when the weather’s bad, meaning no fresh food supplies for days.