2026 Northern Canada – Ep. 6 – South Canol and Keno – Marta and Chester's Maleficent Adventures

The vegetation explodes as soon as this snowbank retreats. Afterall, we are close to August – winter is just around the corner.

In case the Yukon doesn’t have enough bog, there are giant rats damming the rivers.

Nahanni Park doesn’t have any public roads. We are relieved the gate is open and we can leave the area.

We meet a huge outfitting expedition. These cowboys are going into the mountains for 3 months. Rich customers fly in. I never imagined shooting a moose would cost a similar sum to climbing Mount Everest.

The company is called Backcountry BC and Beyond. We met the owner’s father. I had no idea that an outfitter business could scale so large. They have 45 employees. 100 horses were trailered from Cranbrook to the Yukon for this season. If you’ve got some cash burning a hole in your pocket, check out their website. Sold out for the next three years.

We arrive in Ross River, 970km since the last gas station. $2.10 per liter, expected higher.

I know what my next lawn ornament is going to be.

Some fellow in the Ross River area is looking for a woman. Pretty choosy, looking for 40-87 years old.

Along with the Alaska Highway in WWII, an oil pipeline was built from the Northwest Territories. The pipeline was abandoned almost immediately, but the Canol Road that built it remains

Yukoners are proud of their infrastructure, like there is a prize for largest sinkhole. So far, the gravel roads are not that bad, but we are making a point of avoiding the worst ones.

The mountains pop out in satellite view. I tediously scroll through all of the Yukon, zoomed right in, looking for old mining roads that will take us out of the valleys.

Occasionally we find a side road that gets up in the alpine, good for several days of hiking.

This poor Caribou has been running down the ridge ahead of us for 2 km.

This rock has been laying on the surface for so long that the shale has weathered down by about an inch.

The prospectors even made a little mine. And I think beavers are an industrious species. We soon learn this was a production mine, producing a truckload of lead zinc ore per day.

Mining is a brutal business. One big deposit with favorable logistics and regulations can wipe out every competing mine in the world. Zinc and lead have it particularly bad, since many other mines produce them as a byproduct when chasing silver.

Marmots are just very large gophers. They are wary when you want to take a photo, and concerningly curious when you ignore them.

Someone needs to do a YouTube channel about the thermodynamics of wild animals.

Rabbits go flat out year round, and never develop more body fat than a marathon runner. Marmots are furry meatloafs that eat grass for 2-3 months, fattening up and then going to sleep for 9 months. They’ve got it figured out.