"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

If the trip is well documented, how many weeks did previous parties take?

It sounds like there would be opportunities to take a wrong fork or
wrong turn, I would imagine that the maps are not that great in such an
uninhabited area.

There are some other interesting trips that involve portages between
drainages, I think some starting at yellowknife. Pretty amazing what
some of these people did in past centuries.

Richard



Fred Klingener wrote:

"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

"Richard Ferguson" wrote in message
...
If the [Rat/Bell/Porcupine] trip is well documented, how many weeks did
previous parties take?

The only book I have in front of me is the Vyvyan book I mentioned earlier.
Their itinerary went like this:

7-7-26 Aklavik - Water taxi up the Peel to Husky Channel, up the Husky
Channel to the Rat, up the Rat to first rapids at:
7-8-26 Destruction City - Up the Rat to:
7-18-26 Summit - Down Little Bell, Bell, Porcupine to:
7-21-26 Old Crow - Down Porcupine to
7-27-26 Fort Yukon

The two women trekked along the Rat while their two guides took the boat up
alongside. They paddled alone from the summit to Old Crow, where they
engaged another guide for the trip to FY.

From other reading, I conclude that this must be about the fastest you could
reasonably expect to make the trip, realizing that heavy rains at the pass
could make the Rat impassable for days at a time.

It sounds like there would be opportunities to take a wrong fork or
wrong turn, I would imagine that the maps are not that great in such an
uninhabited area.

Navigation among sloughs or forks is always more critical with uptripping.
My experience with Canadian maps though has been that they are great
GPS-friendly things - for me far easier to work with than the USGS
counterparts. I haven't seen maps of the Rat, but I would be surprised to
find they weren't great.

There are some other interesting trips that involve portages between
drainages, I think some starting at yellowknife. Pretty amazing what
some of these people did in past centuries.

For sure, and the amazing thing to me is that we're not talking about that
long ago. When my grandfather was a boy, when people wanted to get
somewhere in the North anyway, they either had to pole or line or track or
hire someone to do it for them. Now, anyone who traces any of those ancient
routes is considered crazy.

Fred Klingener

On Tue, 23 Dec 2003 15:25:46 GMT, "Fred Klingener"
wrote:

"Richard Ferguson" wrote in message
...
If the [Rat/Bell/Porcupine] trip ....
realizing that heavy rains at the pass
could make the Rat impassable for days at a time.

Verlen Kruger ascended the Rat during high water. Anyone
considering the Rat portage really should make an effort to see the
Verlen movie before trying it. Tom McCloud