Clunking Down the Cassier

Greetings All,

We left Whitehorse in the Yukon on July 14 in our rented camper van.  It didn't take us long to affectionately dub him Clunky.  We rattled and clanked down the Alaska Highway toward Teslin where we spent the night.  It would take us a few days to get accustomed to Clunky's charms.  The next day we left the Alaska Highway and headed south on the less traveled Cassier Highway.  Our next destination was Boya Lake with crystal clear blue water and forests of aspen and spruce along the shore.

Boya Lake

 

Many of our destinations were private or public campgrounds along the shore of a lake.  When we pulled up to the office of Mountain Shadow Campground Marc spotted a moose in the lake below and Bald Eagles were perched in the tall spruce trees.

Bald Eagle

 

As we were leaving the following morning a Cross Fox was posing nicely outside his den.

Cross Fox

 

Cross Foxes are a partially melanistic color variant of the more common Red Fox.  The name implies a hybrid between 2 fox species but actually refers to a long dark stripe running down the back intersecting with another stripe to form a cross on the shoulders (not evident in the above photo). There is another color variant of the Red Fox called the Silver Fox which is more uniformly dark and is even more rare than the Cross Fox.  We did see a very skinny Silver Fox hanging out by a dumpster a few days earlier.

Silver Fox

 

We arrived at our next campground early and spoke to the owner John about hiking possibilities in the area.  He drew us a map to the start of the Todagin Trail where we hoped to find Stone Sheep, a subspecies of Thinhorn Sheep.  We climbed steeply through spruce forest with Chuck in the lead clacking two stones together to ward off bears.  We arrived at an open alpine meadow where we stopped to admire the view and have lunch.

Todagin Plateau

 

I scanned the meadow and ridges above but there were no Stone Sheep in the vicinity.  We pushed our way through willow thickets to climb to a high point on the front ridge.  Just as we crested the top I spotted a sentry Stone Sheep keeping an eye out for predators.

Stone Sheep Sentry

 

He had spotted us long before we saw him and trotted off as we approached.  We never did see if he was part of a larger flock hidden below.  The next morning we checked with John to see if his grandiose hiking plan for us had come through.  He told us yesterday that a helicopter from the nearby mine was coming to pick up an employee and that the pilot could fly us to the top of the plateau on the other side of Tatogga Lake and drop us off.  All we had to do was find the trail down and text John on our satellite texting device to come pick us up in his boat and take us back across the lake.  It sounded great in theory with one major flaw, the pilot could not take us for insurance reasons.  We opted to do a hike to nearby Cascade Falls at the confluence of two rivers instead.

Cascade Falls

 

The next day we left the Cassier Highway and took a side trip to Stewart.  The draw here is the Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site where you can see bears fishing for salmon in Fish Creek just across the border in Hyder, Alaska.

Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site

When we got to the bear-viewing boardwalk along the creek, there were only a few chum salmon swimming upstream to spawn.

Spawning Salmon

 

We were content to do some birding and to read the information boards along the walkway.  One explained the life cycle of the chum salmon in detail which is amazing in itself.  Salmon that are hatched here will leave for the ocean and return in 3-5 years to spawn in the creek where they were born.



Life Cycle of Chum Salmon



With so few fish in the creek the chances of seeing bears was slim so we drove up the gravel road to see the Salmon Glacier.  The road was built to reach mines but today gives tourists the opportunity to drive along an immense glacier to a viewpoint of the snowfield that feeds it.  This morning the chances of seeing the glacier were more slim than seeing the bears due to the thick clouds.  We did get a glimpse of the toe of the glacier in the valley below on the way down.

Toe of Salmon Glacier

 

We returned to the Bear-viewing Boardwalk (BVB), still no bears.  The head ranger Eric gave us the number to the "Grizzly Hotline" so we could check later to see if the salmon or bears had arrived. We checked again that evening and again the following morning, still no bears.  We did a few errands in town, took a walk on the estuary boardwalk and returned to the BVB.  The salmon were just starting to trickle in.  Surely at some point all the splashing would attract the bears but not today.   We extended our stay in Stewart to give us one more day to see if the bears would make an appearance. The next morning we were the first to arrive at the boardwalk at 6AM.  Eric had broken up a beaver dam downstream and today there were many more salmon.  We waited until 9:30 and left disappointed.  We returned to Stewart and did a hike along a historic sluice box.  The remnants of the cylindrical sluice box made of wood and reinforced with coils of wire resembling a slinky were still evident.

Hiking the Sluice Box Trail

 

We returned to the BVB around 3:30 and as we headed to the boardwalk Marc remembered that he had forgotten his pass so returned to Clunky to get it.  Suddenly I heard someone shout "bear!".  I raced back to the parking lot and Marc exclaimed that a black bear had just run across the road right past a family with small kids.  He had disappeared into the forest so we headed for the boardwalk.  As we neared the ticket booth I saw a bear in the upper creek heading toward the BVB.  A ranger was there chatting with some folks and I interrupted their conversation to tell them "a bear is heading this way!".  Sure enough, a beautiful female grizzly bear emerged from the bushes and walked along the BVB just 20 feet from us!

1st Grizzly at Fish Creek!

 

She crossed under the boardwalk, entered the creek and almost immediately catches a salmon!

1st Catch!

 

She dragged it into the bushes and ate the unfortunate fish in private.  "Don't worry", Flint the ranger explained, "she'll be back in 15-20 minutes to catch another fish".  Sure enough in 20 minutes she re-emerged and started fishing for another salmon.
  

1st Grizzly Bear Re-Emerges

It took her a little longer to secure her second catch and we all got a better show.

2nd Catch!

 

She disappeared again to eat her meal and appeared a third time to catch another fish.

3rd Catch! (Check out those Claws!)

After this catch she disappeared into the forest and did not return.  A woman came up to thank me for alerting her and her husband to the bear's presence.  They were on their way out and would have missed this grand spectacle.  They had come to Hyder to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary and now had a more memorable experience.

Let's Find a Place to Eat!

 

At this point I wasn't going to leave the BVB until we had to at 10PM.  The time passed quickly with so many birds and salmon to watch.  The bears weren't the only ones fishing, a belted kingfisher was searching the creek for smaller pray.

Belted kingfisher

 

A female merganser with her chicks had hauled out of the creek to preen on a log.

Merganser and Chicks

 

By now a large crowd had gathered and most were hanging out at the downriver end of the boardwalk.  I was positioned on the upriver end where I could scan more of the creek.  Around 8:30 I spotted another grizzly coming upriver but the crowd at that end had not seen him yet.  Marc and I raced down and positioned ourselves on the railing and some in the crowd start asking "what's going on?".  "A bear is approaching! " I replied.  "Where, I don't see a bear?" the crowd responded dubiously.  Just then the bear emerged in the creek and the crowd erupted in excitement.

2nd Grizzly Bear, 1st Catch!

 

This bear not only fished in front of us but ate his first two catches on a tiny island across from the platform.

Dinner

 

He devoured his first two fish but left his third.  Flint explained that this fish didn't have any eggs so the bear just left it to catch another salmon hopefully laden with roe.

2nd Catch!

3rd Catch!

 

He caught a fourth salmon before disappearing into the forest having put on quite a show for all us thrilled onlookers.  We stayed until 10PM watching a beaver repairing his dam (not the one Eric had broken up) before calling it a very successful day!  We returned to the BVB early the next morning for a few hours.  There was a grizzly in the creek when we arrived but she ran off and didn't return.  It was time to leave Hyder and continue our journey southeast.  Here is a map showing our route from Whitehorse to Stewart.

Route Map (outlined in orange)

 

We made one last border crossing back into Canada (the border guards were getting to know us after 7 crossings) and rejoined the Cassier Highway.  "Clunky, take us to new places and more amazing experiences!" I implored.

We hope all is well back home.

Peggy and Marc

Along the Boreal Byway

Greetings All,

We are a week into our next adventure in the Yukon and Alaska.  We left home on June 11 and flew to Whitehorse in the Yukon by way of Chicago and Vancouver.  We rented a SUV in Whitehorse for the 1000-mile or so drive to Fairbanks, Alaska.  Here is a scene taken along the way to whet your appetite.



Boreal Forest

 

From Whitehorse, a city of with a population of about 30,000 and the capital of the Canadian province of the Yukon Territories, we headed north along a short stretch of the Alaska Highway before veering onto the North Klondike Highway.  Here is a map showing our route:

Our Route Shown in Yellow

 

Not far from Whitehorse is the Yukon Wildlife Preserve.  We stopped in to view some of the wildlife we were likely to encounter on this trip.  The Preserve is home to Wood Bison, Thinhorn Sheep, Mountain Goat, Canada Lynx, Arctic Fox and several more species.  We were able to spot all the wildlife species in the Preserve as they are confined in large enclosures.

Wood Bison

 

We also had some nice waterfowl viewing in ponds along our walk in the Preserve.

Horned Grebe

 

Now that we had seen the animals that inhabit the boreal forests of the Yukon and Alaska we were eager to seek out them out in the wild.  We spent our second night at Carmacks along the Yukon River and the next day continued our drive north toward Dawson City.  We decided to take a detour and explore a 25-mile stretch of the Robert Campbell Highway and the Tatchun/Frenchman Road.  This gravel road took us 26 miles past 3 lakes: Frenchman, Nuntuk and Tatchun.  We didn't encounter much wildlife but a female Spruce Grouse with 5 tiny chicks tucked under her feathers was a pleasant surprise.

Spruce Grouse with Chicks

 

We also saw 2 Bald Eagles at Tatchun Lake where they may have been nesting.

Bald Eagle

 

We rejoined the Klondike Highway and continued north to Dawson City, the terminus of the highway.  Dawson City was the center of the Klondike Gold Rush.  It began in 1896 and changed a fishing/hunting camp into a thriving city of 40,000 by 1898.  By 1899, the gold rush had ended and the town's population plummeted to 8,000 people.  Today most of Dawson's buildings have the 19th century construction appearance but draw tourists not gold seekers.

 

Dawson City

We had an extra day in Dawson City so we decided to explore part of the Dempster Highway.  This gravel road starts about 25 miles south of Dawson City and covers 457 miles to the village of Inuvik on the Mackenzie River Delta.  The highway traverses Tombstone Territorial Park and we stopped to hike to Mt. Monolith Lookout.  We were the first to arrive at the trailhead and I was a bit apprehensive hiking a trail by ourselves that was named the Grizzly Creek Trail.  We didn't have pepper spray so had to shout along the way to alert bears to our presence.  It was great finally getting into the boreal forest.  The boreal forest also known as the taiga is the worlds largest terrestrial biome and is characterized by coniferous forests of pine, spruce and larch.  

Boreal Forest

 

Once we climbed out of the forest and could see a little further, I relaxed about encountering a bear.  The only wildlife we hadn't scared away with our calls of "humans coming through, don't be alarmed!" were the Hoary Marmots and Arctic Ground Squirrels.

Hoary Marmot

We reached the first viewpoint and decided to continue along the ridge to a saddle from which we could get a view of Grizzly Lake.

 

Grizzly Lake

We turned back at this point and retraced our route back into the forest.  By this time other hikers were making the climb and our chances of scaring a grizzly bear were slim.  We safely returned to our vehicle and continued north along the Dempster Highway.  I spotted a dark black shape on a hillside about a quarter of a mile away.  When we stopped to investigate we saw that it was a Black Bear!

Black Bear

 

We ventured out 140 miles along the highway before turning back.  We needed to make sure we had enough gas to get back to Dawson City.  We didn't encounter much more wildlife except for 4 Dall Sheep spotted by a local family returning home to McPherson (another 5 hours north) and a porcupine ambling across the road.

Dall Sheep

Porcupine

 

We didn't get back to Dawson City until 9:00 PM but with the sun not setting until midnight it didn't really matter.  The next morning we had to cross the Yukon River by ferry.  We were the last to arrive but got on first because we were in a smaller vehicle.

 

Ferry Crossing at Dawson City

We were now on the Top of the World Highway, a gravel road that would take us across the border into Alaska.  We got stuck behind a large RV towing a jeep.  They signaled for us to pass and when we did, a cow moose with twin calves was on the road in front!

Moose and Calves on the Highway!

 

We didn't want to pass them but couldn't stop as the RV was on our tail.  We followed the moose family for about a half mile down the road before they veered off into the forest.  In the distance we could see the border station between Canada and the United States.  Would they confiscate our cheese and lemons?

Border Crossing

 

Our "detour of the day" was to the tiny outpost of Eagle at the end of a narrow, winding 65-mile gravel road called the Taylor Highway.  We dropped from a high ridge and re-entered the boreal forest.  An animal shoots across the road.  "Badger!" Marc shouts.  "No, a wolverine!" I exclaim.  It was too quick for a photo but it was definitely a wolverine, the largest member of the weasel family.  They are highly secretive and rarely seen.  How lucky for one to finally cross our path!  We encountered a second cow moose and a third with a single calf before arriving in Eagle.

 

Another Moose with Calf

Eagle is situated on the Yukon River and during the late 1800's people were drawn to the area by the Klondike Gold Rush.  A United States Army Camp, Fort Egbert was built in 1900.

 

Fort Egbert

A telegraph line between Eagle and Valdez was completed in 1903.  In 1905 Roald Amundsen arrived in Eagle and used the telegraph to tell the rest of the world of his discovery of the Northwest Passage!  We returned to the junction of the Top of the World Highway and Taylor Highway and continued along the Taylor highway to the community of Chicken, a very unusual place where chickens and roosters are the theme.

 

Peggy in Chicken, Alaska

You can pan for gold in the parking lot but we opted for burgers and wine instead.  The next day we left Chicken and drove along the Taylor Highway to Tetlin Junction where we picked up the Alaska Highway.  Just beyond the town of Tok we stopped at a pond to check out 3 Trumpeter Swans.  This was the closest we've been able to get to these birds.  I was checking out my bird book when two of the swans started to make a ruckus with a lot of wing beating and squawking.  I can't say we've ever seen Trumpeter Swans mating before!

Mating Trumpeter Swans

 

We continued along the Alaska Highway to Delta Junction where we spent the night.  The next morning we went in search of a bison herd that lives in the area.  We drove for about 40 miles south of Delta Junction on the Richardson Highway.  We didn't find the bison but had plenty of views of the Alaska Range and Mount Denali, the highest peak in North America! 

First View of Denali

 

We returned to Delta Junction and the Alaska Highway and drove another 95 miles north to Fairbanks.  Traffic along this stretch of the highway is heavier but we managed to spot a Pine Marten crossing the road!  It was another secretive member of the mustelidae family that we were lucky to see.  We are now in the city of Fairbanks, Alaska for a few days before starting a raft trip through the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on June 19.  While here we've discovered that Fairbanks is the terminus of the 1000-mile Yukon Quest International Dog sled Race from Whitehorse.

Yukon Quest Route

Our route had pretty much copied the Yukon Quest route with one major difference, we traveled in a comfy SUV during the warm summer months with ample sunshine.  Nonetheless, traveling through the scenic boreal byway from Whitehorse to Fairbanks was an exciting start to our 6-week adventure. We can't wait to see what's in store for us in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge!  Stay tuned.

We hope all is well back home,

Peggy and Marc