Exploring the Yukon

I remember as a young child exploring the fascinating pages of the family collection of World Book encyclopaedias. Those were the days well before the Internet and looking at the clean, smooth pages of those mission brown books was the only way I could explore far away places. One such place that was engraved into my thoughts even back then is a place called the Yukon.

I was fascinated with how far away it seemed, and how wild it looked. I remember seeing images of lots of nothing, except for nature; trees, lakes, mountains, and animals all roaming free. It was always somewhere I dreamed of visiting but in reality something I never thought would happen.

Fast forward some many, many years and the world of mountain biking gave me the opportunity of a lifetime to not only visit that dreamland, but combine it with my love of riding. Last year, I bypassed the masses who were flocking like lemmings to the annual Crankworx festival in Whistler and instead I went directly north on an adventure into the unknown.

Even though it had always been a dream I really didn’t know what to expect, especially from a mountain biking perspective. The 2 ½ hour flight from Vancouver to Whitehorse (the capital of the Yukon) is an amazing journey in itself and the views are simply incredible as you fly over endless alpine peaked mountains and glacial valleys. However, as you get closer to Whitehorse the mountains mellow a little (only just) and open fields, green plains, and vast rivers fill the landscape.

The Yukon is one of the three northern territories of Canada and is so far north that the sun doesn’t set for a small portion of summer – which makes for very extended days on the trails. The Yukon is about the size of California, USA but only has a population of around 35,000 people. That simple statistic shows just how much emptiness there is in the Yukon. However, I soon learnt that the lack of population hasn’t put a dent on access to, or the building of, world-class singletrack. Seemingly in the middle of nowhere I found some of the best trails I have ever ridden.

SADDLING UP IN WHITEHORSE

When I arrived into Whitehorse I was met at the airport by my hosts and guides for next couple of days, the crew from Boréale Mountain Biking. This was my first time taking a hosted adventure and I was actually a little hesitant as to the experience I would receive. I like to think I am a hard-core mountain biker who loves the trails more than anyone else; I especially like technically hard trails, love long days and thrills on epic rides, and have always thought some tour company would give me a much diluted version of what I like. That misguided thought was proven wrong though as that first night around the campfire, with local beer in hand, I was given the brief of the riding and experience and how Boréale would make the trip whatever I wanted. Perfect.

Up early the next morning we headed to the small township of Carcross (about 75 km from Whitehorse) and I was given my first introduction to mountain biking Yukon style and how good it is. Carcross is literally a close-your-eyes-and-miss-it town and the 280 or so residents really are the luckiest people in the world with Montana Mountain and all the mountain bike gold it has to offer right in their backyard. This first day we rode the Lower Montana Mountain, which is a well-made network of trails for all levels of riders. Built as a community project to help local youth, Lower Montana was an unexpected jewel. A steep access road up a firetail gets you to the top and from there you have the choice of easy to advanced trails. Dave, my guide, knew what I was looking for and took me to the best the mountain had to offer. Super loam for hero traction (which is exactly what we expect in Canada), super steep loose sections where you really have to just hold on, fast trails to give you buzz, and all-in-all super fun. I loved it and would be back later in the week to experience the whole mountain as I had only scratched the surface on that first day.

BAGGING MONEY SHOTS

My next adventure was Grey Mountain, which stands tall behind the township of Whitehorse. I decided to do this one solo and as I began the epic fire-road climb to the top of the mountain I was thinking that my choice in the solo adventure wasn’t the best as I had no one to share the epic views with. There’s no point shouting, “look at that”, every 5 minutes if there’s no one there to hear it. And the ride was literally like that – you have to stop every 5 minutes to take it all in. The effort of the climb was soon forgotten as I arrived at the most stunning 360 degree views in the world. Even more epic though was the super long singletrack descent back down the mountain. There’s a trail on the descent called “money shot” and I can guarantee the trail is named by a photographer. As the sun was setting (it was around 10.30pm) the golden hour and views meant a million money shots and I just wanted to ride the trail more and more. Grey Mountain is an epic ride from top to bottom, but so, so, so worth it.

THE MIGHTY YUKON

The next day I was off to explore the famous Yukon River – both in a canoe and on bike. The Yukon River starts from a glacier in British Columbia, Canada and ends over 3,000km later into the seas next to Alaska, USA. The Yukon Tourism folks have coined the phrase “Larger Than Life” to describe the Yukon and being right in the middle of the emerald green waters of the mighty Yukon River you really do get that perspective. The landscape is larger than life and that afternoon as I swapped the canoe for my bike and rode amazing singletrack along the banks the Yukon River, I felt a little humbled by the larger than life nature I was surrounded by. There are not many places in the world where you can be so remote, so away from it all, and still be riding amazing singletrack.

The following day we were heading back to Carcross and Montana Mountain. Yes, I had been there a couple of days before, but this time we were going to ride the whole mountain – along the 28kms of trail called Mountain Hero. Joined by a group to riders from Vermont, USA the long, and at times hard, 1400m climb up Mountain Hero was made less painful as we got to know each other and share our mountain bike stories. The climb was mainly fire road and double-track (some technically difficult) and every look over our shoulders reminded us of how remote we were. But it was that remoteness that for my part kept me going. It’s times like that where I am glad the sport of mountain biking was invented and we can get to such amazing places. At the top of the climb we regrouped just near what was a reminder of times past and the mining history of the region. Back in those days they weren’t on the exposed mountain far, far way from their friends and family, just for fun like we were. Times sure have changed.

The seemingly endless descent from the top on the Mountain Hero trail was truly worth those couple of hours of climbing though. From exposed scree fields, open trails across grassy fields, to epic singletrack in the dense trees, it had it all. I had to stop numerous times to let my arms and brakes have a rest. The Mountain Hero descent was really a super thick and rich icing on the cake and the whole trail has been recognised as one of the best in the world and sits on the IMBA Epic trail list. It truly was another epic day and yet another example of why it is more than worth travelling all the way to the Yukon to ride.

True to the Boréale experience that evening was spent eating an amazing fresh and healthy feast and enjoying fine local beers around the fire. We all had our own stories to tell from the day and even our tired and weary bodies couldn’t stop us from being up until the wee hours reliving the day.

My last day of riding in the Yukon was a more relaxing affair with a much shorter and easier sunset ride across a ridgeline above the township of Whitehorse. As the very late sun set across the small township I was enjoying the warm glow of a week of riding in a dream location. I had spent 5 days riding the various trails in and around Whitehorse. Some were close to town, some a little further away, and all were memorable for their own reasons. From epic all day climbs to the most amazing and long descents I was totally blown away by the whole experience.

Whistler isn’t the only mountain biking destination in Canada and there are probably thousands more than I have yet to explore. But if I was going to go back to that part of Canada again, I will definitely make the short hop up to the Yukon to ride again.

Damian travelled to the Yukon as a guest of Boréale Mountain Biking and Air North airlines.