The Yukon Territory and Haines

Haines

Yesterday I talked with a youngish couple from Germany. They are traveling through Canada and Alaska for a year, driving a van and tent-camping. They were planning a three-day hike to the toe of Kaskawulsh glacier near Sheep mountain in the Yukon. The woman was worried about bears. “We’ve gotten some conflicting information,” said the man. “Here in the Yukon they tell you to wear bells to scare off the bears. In BC they tell you not to wear bear bells. It just arouses the bears’ curiosity.” They planned to make noise and had bear spray with them.
A couple days ago a man was killed by a grizzly bear in Yellowstone when he and his wife were on a hike. “Only three people a year are killed by bears in North America, so it’s rare,” said the man.

We saw our first grizzly bear of the trip a few days ago. It was foraging up on an embankment beside the road. We were in the truck. “That’s how I want to see a bear,” said David.
The kind of hikes we take generally last an hour or two and are usually no more than four miles. I try to pick hikes labeled “easy” because I’ve discovered that the people (professional hikers?) who label the hikes don’t share my definition of “easy”. “If this is ‘easy’,” I say as I trudge uphill, “I don’t want to do a ‘moderate’ hike, and I’m certainly not going on a ‘difficult’ hike.”
I really liked the Miles Canyon trail in Whitehorse. You cross a suspension bridge and then follow a narrow, at times precarious path above sheer volcanic walls of a steep canyon. Brilliant, jade-green water shimmers at the bottom. It’s pretty spectacular when the sun is out, which fortunately it was when we were there. After a mile or so you arrive at the site of Canyon City where Klondike stampeders had their goods portaged around rapids that have since been displaced by a dam. There’s nothing to see except piles of old rusted tin cans and a tram car replica.

In Whitehorse we also visited the SS Klondike II National Historic site, a sternwheeler from the late 1930’s. Besides just walking around the boat, the best thing about it is an excellent video with actual vintage footage of the boat and superb (rare) narration.

We turned off the Alaska highway and headed southwest on the Haines Road to the small town of Haines, Alaska. This is a spectacular drive. Pink flowers lined the highway, and the Kluane mountain range towered to the west.

Along the way we hiked a short trail uphill to a rock glacier and were rewarded with fabulous views of a lake and mountains.

Haines

In Haines we went to a cannery where they process salmon and bought our first wild Alaskan salmon in Alaska ($8/pound for Sockeye, $10/pound for King). Through windows you can watch the workers process the salmon from whole fish to vacuum-sealed package. Plaques outside the windows explain the steps.

The following morning, we walked the Seduction Point trail through a lush forest with big trees and huge tropical-looking plants for about two hours until we arrived at Moose Meadow. We didn’t see any moose or other wildlife, but I did spy a little fairy resting in a tree along the way.

That afternoon we hiked another two hours on the Battery Point trail. At first it was a bit rainy and cold, but then it was clear and warm. The weather can change quite quickly here. This hike took us up and down over rough roots until it got to a beach, where it was flat and easy through tall grasses and into a cool, dark forest. We saw no moose, bears or fairies.

We left Haines the following day and retraced our route 160 miles back to the Alaska Highway. On the way we stopped at the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve where over 3,500 bald eagles congregate in late fall for a salmon feeding frenzy. They cram themselves in cottonwood trees lining the Chilkat river.

The rest of the year there are only a few hundred. We walked a short boardwalk to an observation point. I looked through a scope and saw a bald eagle sitting in a tree on the opposite side of the bank. We’ve seen several bald eagles.

Across the Canadian border and back in the Yukon, we stopped at the Million Dollar Falls campground and walked down a steep, narrow boardwalk and several sets of stairs to see the falls. Several other people were there as well including a young woman with loud jangling bells on her legs.
After seeing the falls, we went to another part of the campground, where a trail goes down and around a small lake. This trail was deserted. We followed the ill-defined trail down to the lake, but the underbrush started to get thick. We wouldn’t be able to see the bear or him us until we were right on top of each other. Where was the bell girl when you needed her? Then the trail disappeared into a particularly dark, dense patch of woods. Right in front of it was a big pile of fresh bear scat. Nope, don’t want to crawl through the underbrush and meet its owner. We turned around.

brown-colored Black Bear

That night we boondocked by a river. I dreamt about bears.

Plato sees the bear.

There are many turnouts and viewpoints on the Alaska highway. Some have informative plaques or short trails. We try to stop at as many as possible. We learned how the spruce beetle attacks and kills spruce trees as we walked the Spruce Beetle Interpretive Trail. Usually only a limited number of trees are affected but recently it’s been an epidemic. Scientists are trying to figure out why.

Soldier's Summit

Just around the corner from the Sheep Mountain visitor’s center is Soldier’s Summit, where, on a cold day in November 1942, the Alcan highway was officially opened with pomp and ceremony. We hiked a short, steep trail to the spot, read informative panels and gazed out on expansive Kluane lake.

miniature people

At the visitor’s center itself, we looked through scopes to see Dall sheep perched high on the ridge of the mountaintop, barely visible with the naked eye.

Up until this point we’ve encountered little roadwork on the highway, just a few potholes, gravelly areas and short stretches of road construction. That all changes after Destruction Bay, where permafrost wreaks havoc on roads, causing frost heaves (dips) and breakups. It’s slow going for over 100 miles along very rough roads until the US border.

Sometimes you wait for a pilot car to follow. After you cross the border, the road improves for awhile, then it’s back to the undulations. So we took it slow and easy, enjoyed the views and arrived in Tok, Alaska around 5 pm. David rotated all four tires on the truck and replugged the tire that he had plugged previously because it was leaking badly. It seems fine now.