My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing. ~Aldous Huxley
We are in Whitehorse. Hoping to meet up with a fellow hiker and drive out to Kluane Park to do the Donjek Glacier route (8-10 days of hiking in a trailless wilderness).
It has been awhile since we’ve been able to access the internet. What access we have now is sloooow.
Since leaving Hyder, (that all seems a long time ago now) we have had much sunshine. The Cassiar hwy was the most beautiful it has ever been for us. We passed many snow covered peaks, drove by many snow-filled avalanche chutes on the edge of the road, many incredible rivers and saw many lakes. It was almost too much beauty for the eyes, but great for our soul. However, we were in no hurry. As usual, we could drive for an hour or so w/o seeing another being, save for the occasional bear, porcupine and other various wildlife on the road.
We stayed one night at Kaniskan, just on the outskirts of Mt Edizza Provincial Park (another must see place the bucket list). While there we went for a short hike and met an elderly adventure gal named Phyllis. It just so happens that Phyliss used to live in Seattle and still visits there quite regularly. The interesting thing about Phyllis is the fact that she hiked the Donjek route solo with her dog 30 years ago!! In fact, she has solo’d many remote places. We look forward to hearing from her in the future.
We spent a subsequent night in Boya Lake and had a minor thunderstorm roll through, giving us a great rainbow spanning the lake. We happened to be hiking at 10 pm that evening and got some great pictures. Before arriving at Boya Lake, we came across some Stone Sheep grazing on the side of the road. They had come down the mountains to the mineral licks. We got some nice pictures and video of the small herd of Ewes.
As we approached the Yukon we were greeted by a very curious black bear (brown in color). This fellow was pretty friendly and would approach the camper w/o much fear. We got some great pictures and some amazing video of the bear as well. We noticed that he had a severe scar on his hind quarters. After a ½ hour or so, some motorcycles came screaming by and scared the bear off. We’ve never seen a bear run so fast. We could see it running flat out for 100 yards or so through the thin forest.
As we approached the Yukon Border, we drove through a huge burn area that seemed to go on for miles and miles. The folks at Watson Lake told us the fire had just been put out.
Yukon Border Guard.....
Please let me see your passports?
Hey there, got any food for me?
The large burn area as we approached the Yukon Border.
Yukon Johann at the border for the 3rd time!!
Teslin crossing, where the start of the main flow of the Yukon river begins.
A quick side trip up the Canol Hwy.
Enlarge to read aboput the first oil pipeline road in the north... long before the Alaskan pipeline was even planned. The remote road and littered with artifacts from the effort.
A view back towards Hyder on the pier before we departed.
The harbor at Hyder.
One last look at the Bear Glacier before we head north on the Cassiar.
Views like this were common place over the next 3 days.
Stone Sheep on the Cassiar hwy.
Big eaters.
Boya Lake park entrance.
All nestled in for the night.
Our 10:00 pm hike in a thunderstorm.
Rainbows.. and double rainbows.
Until next time...
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