Category: Alaska Yukon 2017

August 2^nd , where has the summer gone? We’re approaching 10 weeks on the road now and we’re still loving it! I think about the people who pack everything up into storage, and hit the road full time Rving. While it holds a certain appeal, and North America is big enough that you wouldn’t run out of places to see, we both know we would miss being with family.

Another nice day – warming up a bit more and still lots of sun and blue sky. Beautiful morning with the sun shining through our campsite.

Shortly after we left our campground, as we rounded the end of Kluane Lake, we saw a grizzly bear walking along the ditch on the opposite side of the road. Another vehicle had stopped for pictures and Paul was able to quickly pull of to the side so we could have a good look. He didn’t stick around long before he was out of view.

We made a stop at the Visitor Centre for Kluane National Park where we had a chance to see an excellent film about the park. We also decided to head for the only campground in the park at Kathleen Lake. More mountain peaks and lakes – and we arrived at the park and found a nice campsite. After setting up we took off for a nice hike up a bit of a hill and with a few views of the lake; finally found the trail down to the water so we could see more of what we came for. No bears encountered!

We ate supper out by the campfire, and then at 8 pm headed over to the campfire circle where one of the park staff was giving a talk on mountaineering – then and now. It was a good talk; well attended. With it being light so long, it is different from many of the presentations I remember as a kid – no films or slide presentations – just talking but he had lots of real equipment along for props. Tomorrow we will leave here, drive through BC and back to Alaska to the port of Haines.

Another beautiful day with blue skies and fluffy white clouds. We lost an hour when we crossed the border into the Yukon because they are in a different time zone. We had more beautiful views today of mountain ranges, lakes and rivers. We made a quick stop at Pickhandle Lake for some pictures and were treated to a mother duck and her 5 babies on the bank of the lake, just on the edge of the parking lot.

We arrived at our destination – camping at the edge of Kluane Lake across the road from Kluane National Park. Since we aren’t in National Park land, my Yukon fishing licence is valid so maybe we’ll have to try our hand at it. We’ll see what the edge of the lake is like.

The lakefront campsites were all taken since we were a bit later getting in with the time change. We found a nice site in the trees and enjoyed a nice campfire.

The next morning we got up and after breakfast went down to check the campsites at the waterfront. We found a nice one and moved the trailer. We can see the lakeshore right from our campsite.

We walked a short trail right from the campground, returning along the water’s edge to our campsite. Along the way we met a man fishing – he lives in Whitehorse, but was out camping and told us there are some large lake trout that he has caught right from the shore – up to 20 pounds. After a bit of a rest at our campsite, I dug out the fishing pole and headed down to the point to try my luck casting from shore. Although I had one hit on my lure, we came back to the campsite without any fish for supper. It is a good lake to fish from shore – it drops quickly and I didn’t have any problems with weeds or large rocks to lose my lure.

Tomorrow on to Haines Junction and Kluane National Park to camp.