Customer Reviews

Yukon Wild: The Adventures of Four Women Who Paddled 2,000 Miles Through America's Last Frontier

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Before reading this book, you must decide if you really want to tag along with these four women, the first all female group to canoe down the entire Yukon River . . . because once you pick it up, you will not want to put it down! The well-written narrative takes you from the earliest glimmer of desire, through the detailed planning, and then down seemingly every mile of way from Canada across Alaska to the Bering Sea. This is a MUST READ for anyone thinking about floating the Yukon River, and it will be enjoyed by avid canoeists, armchair adventurers, and everyone in between. Beth Johnson spares us no detail of the hardships (both physical and mental), adventures, and final triumph of this unique journey.

What does it take to paddle 2,000 miles in unfamiliar territory? I found out by reading this book. It takes a lot of planning and dedication, but one of the most obvious requirements is a good sense of humor. This is obviously vital when you must share a tent with someone for over 70 days. Too many wildnerness books seem to stretch the truth - overestimating the size of the waves and the nature of the real dangers. Yukon Wild has the ring of truth, and it's a a lot of fun to read!

I lived in the Yukon in the eighties and have just gotten around to reading Yukon Wild. I found it to be a very good read. The historical facts that Beth included were right on the mark and helps the reader get a feel for the communities that these women were visiting in.These women should be commended for such an undertaking. Beth never understated the relationship problems encountered and quite clearly showed the love for life that they all shared.I know what the Yukon and Alaska was like in the eighties - these gals had guts!!!

As the brother of Jude Hammett and friend of Sue Sherrod in the book, I was truly fascinated with the trials and ordeals Beth vividly described of the grand adventure. Right from the start you can identify with many of the participants and their anxieties while planning for the trip of their lives. Beth does a wonderful job intermixing segments of famous book passages which so inspired many travelers like themselves. Beth's unique viewpoint of the trip was enlightening and made you want to be there.

Fueled by a passion for canoeing and the great outdoors Beth Johnson and three female friends paddled 2,000 miles on the Yukon River through Canada's Yukon Territory, across the breath of Alaska, to the Bering Sea. "Yukon Wild" Beth's book about the all female crew's three-month adventure is beautifully written, thoughtful and very funny. My favorite humorous passages include Beth's description of the campsite David, another Yukon canoeist, selected for the group.
"Garden spot, David," we smirked sarcastically, sinking to mid-shin in the mud at the water's edge and tossing gear up the four-foot cutbank.
"That's nothing," he laughed, "wait till you get up here." The entire bank was like Jello that had just been taken out of the refrigerator. Within minutes, the circle we had tromped around the fire was a slurping mud-hole, seemingly bottomless."
I also laughed out loud at Beth's description of Evelyn's difficulty finding villages along the bank as the mile wide river distorted things. Beth wrote, "Today, she (Evelyn) steered us right into a sandbar-talking all the while about how the big building in the center must be the community hall-before she realized she was looking at three gulls and a swan."
Beth reports the inevitable relationship friction such as the "War of the Zipper" with wisdom and humor.
Her descriptions of the people, terrain and the wildlife are so vivid I felt as if I was with them. Her book also rekindled my own wonderful memories of past canoe-camping adventures.
"Yukon Wild" chronicles the history of the Yukon River and its tributaries such as the 1890s gold rush along the Bonanza and Klondike and the present lives of the people who live along the river.
The Bering Sea and the book's end come way too soon.

The trip down the Yukon is a dream and to find out more about what it would "take" to do such a trip I purchased this book.
I have done better with chat groups that folks have done this trip recently.
Of course, women, and people from Texas would endorse this as Beth and her co-harts are from Texas. To much sexual diggings and la-la-la chats between hunger and wet/muddy camps.
The planing was creative enough to make it real. But 20 something years ago, this book may have been a primer. But it is way to out dated to be of any good today.
Search on the internet on "Canoes" and "Yukon River". Thousands have done this and the commercialism today is not the same as the wilderness of yesterday's.
I'm to old now to enjoy Las Vagas Yukon style....

I have read most books on the yukon and this was by far the hardest one for me to get through.

First off the author really doesnt experience the wilds of the yUkon or alaska for that matter. If you want to read a book that experiences the wilds of alaska read - Riding the Wild Side of Denali - by Miki and Julie Collins. These two sister live off the land and have truly experienced the "wild side."

Yukon Wild is the type of book you might enjoy when you are a teenager and trying to prove to the world you are just so much more "cool" than everyone else. That tempo continues through the book and wears thin within the first several chapters - especially when you compare it to the Collins sisters. Yukon Wild is really more like a trip of an adolescent tourist - unfortunately the author was in her early thirites when she wrote it.

Better choices would include Coming in to the COuntry by Mcphee, wild rivers of alaska - weber, Reading the River A voyage Down the YUkon Hildebrand etc.

I can't recommned this book

It surprises me that Bershire Traveler ever considered this "BOOK" for publication. A sort of egotistical and anecdotal diatribe filled with the requisite historical inserts, Johnson's book is a lot more about unrestrained, self aggrandizing feminine machismo than it is about the Yukon wild...There's a great deal of gossipy prattle and genuine misadventure borne of inexperience...one woman injures herself in an alcoholic adventure, another gets a hook stuck in her ear, one breaks her fishing pole, their boats and equipment are blown away (sure, it can happen to anybody--but look--one of the prerequisites to preparing for the trip was to see how much alcohol they could pack)..They dump garbage in the river--they exhibit little if anything in the way of woods savvy.Also,oddly enough there is a lot of juvenile bathroom humor and sex jokes, believe it or not. It's not that it's outdated--fine river books are timeless--it's just that it's badly conceived and executed.
You have to give credit where credit is due, however--This book demonstrates on no uncertain terms that almost ANYBODY can float the Yukon.

I have read most books on the yukon and this was by far the hardest one for me to get through.

First off the author really doesnt experience the wilds of the yUkon or alaska for that matter. If you want to read a book that experiences the wilds of alaska read - Riding the Wild Side of Denali - by Miki and Julie Collins. These two sister live off the land and have truly experienced the "wild side."

Yukon Wild is the type of book you might enjoy when you are a teenager and trying to prove to the world you are just so much more "cool" than everyone else. That tempo continues through the book and wears thin within the first several chapters - especially when you compare it to the Collins sisters. Yukon Wild is really more like a trip of an adolescent tourist - unfortunately the author was in her early thirites when she wrote it.

Better choices would include Coming in to the COuntry by Mcphee, wild rivers of alaska - weber, Reading the River A voyage Down the YUkon Hildebrand etc.

I can't recommned this book