"Richard Ferguson" wrote in message
...
How does that trip work? How many months? I am not familiar with the
Rat or the Bell, where are they?

That goes through the country traced by the original Hudson Bay Company
route into Alaska to Fort Yukon in the 1840s and was one of the very
low-success-rate routes to the Klondike 50 years later. Sooner or later,
most of it will be traced with a gas pipeline.

The Rat runs maybe 60 miles from the Peel (between Fort MacPherson and
Aklavik) up to the summit of the pass through the Richardson mountains -
only about 1000' feet above sea level, most of the gain in the 35 or so
miles between Destruction City and the summit. The books I have (more about
that later) say the trip up the Rat takes a minimum of ten days.

If I came down the MacKenzie, I'd certainly want to get a local guide to get
me around the delta.

The summit portages don't seem to be too excruciating - fractions of miles
between ponds and lakes over open country.

The trip on the Bell/Porcupine from Summit Lake on the Bell is 300 mile to
Old Crow, another 300 to Fort Yukon. There's no road to Fort Yukon, so
you'd probably continue on the Yukon to take-out at the pipeline crossing.
The

The route has a fair literature to it, some occasionally in print, some
other stuff readily available in the out-of-print or used sections of
powells, bn, or amazon. The most amazing book (still in print, I think)
tells of the most amazing traverse of the route by a pair of Victorian
ladies from England in 1926 - "The Ladies, the Gwich'in, and the Rat" by
Clara Vyvyan. Some of Eric Morse's books are available too, though I
haven't gotten around to tracking them down. Maybe a late Christmas present
for myself?

Cabin fever dreaming in Connecticut,
Fred Klingener