Rafting the Dezaddeash – Afloat in the Wilderness

This is a rafting trip for softies…A gentle float down the icy Dezadeash River near Haines Junction, with Paddle Wheel Adventures, a creation of Lee and Tiffany Drummond, a young couple who have clearly fallen under the spell of the Yukon – see their website at www.paddlewheeladventures.com . We put in on a quiet bend of the river and for the next couple of hours we drifted gently down this spectacular river, guided expertly by our Guide Richard Anderson, a former Yorkshireman who prepares Yorkshire pud in his wilderness camps!

It’s an idyllic time, relaxing and enchanting in equal measure, with no sign of humanity anywhere at all. The sun is warm, the mountains of Kluane are bright on the skyline and nature seems close and benign. Although Richard has had close encounters here with grizzlies and moose, today we see only beaver dams, kingfishers and a bald eagle soaring against the backdrop of distant snowfields. There is a comfortable silence save for Richard’s occasional paddling and the riffles on the river.