Last Day on the Snake - Aug 12

View of Peel River from Taco Bar

Our last campsite was only a few kilometers from the mouth of the Snake River, and when we reached the Peel River it was in flood and backing up into the Snake.  Large trees were drifting down the Peel.  

Our takeout, where the plane was scheduled to pick us up the next day, was Taco Bar, a large gravelbar 1.5 km downriver from the Snake on river left.  We ferried across and followed the left bank so we wouldn't miss it.  What we didn't realize was the bar was flooded so that all that remained was a small treed island with a flooded channel between it and the shore.  As we floated past the island looking for a gravelbar, we heard shouting from under the trees.  

"Where's Taco Bar," we asked.  "This is it,"  they answered.  Another group of paddlers was on the island waiting for their pickup.  We had to line the boats back up the shore to paddle over to the island.  If they hadn't seen us we would have missed our pickup and would have had to paddle all the way to Fort McPherson, 4-5 days away.

The other paddlers were a guided group from Switzerland who'd been on the Wind River.  The previous day their campsite upstream on the Peel had flooded out overnight an they'd had to pack up at 5:30 in the morning when their beach disappeared.

Their plane had been unable to land because of all the debris coming down the river, so they'd stayed overnight on Taco Bar, and the plane was due in a few minutes to pick them up.

The pilot suggested he return in the evening and take us out today rather than wait till the next day.  The airline had a busy day tomorrow, as a third group of paddlers who'd been on the Bonnet Plume River were stranded above the Peel River canyon, which was running so high they were not able to paddle it. Blacksheep Air was going to send in a helicopter to fly them into a lake where a plane would pick them up.

Waiting for our flight on Taco Bar

We unloaded the boats and deflated the raft in preparation for the flight. When the plane returned we had to ferry the gear out in our kayak, as there was no landing spot for the plane on the island.  The channel was chest deep, so the ladies were also ferried out in style.

Ferrying out the gear

And then we were off.

Mouth of the Snake River from the air

Thumbs up for our pilot

We got into Mayo in time for supper at Mayo's only restaurant, Tony's Pizza, which also had a decent special of chicken with roasted potatoes, and much appreciated fresh vegetables.

Then a 2.5  hour drive to the Coalmine Campsite in Carmacks, where we slept in a cabin on the Yukon River.

Yukon River in the morning

The next day we drove to Whitehorse, lunched together, and Leo and I drove all the way to Boya Lake Provincial Park.  The next day we drove Hwy 37 to Smithers, and finally saw a our first bears of the trip.