Day 34 -July 8, 2011 Kluane Lake, Yukon YT

Day 34, July 8, 2011-- Beautiful Lake Kluane and Preserve

Another beautiful day along with the weather,too! The day was sunny from about 10:00 Am on, with very little wind, and although we did not see any mammals during the day , there were more birds than the previous four days.

The journey from the Nusitlin Bridge at Teslin, YT, to Lake Kluane near Burwash Landing took us through the land inhabited for thousands of years by the native people of this area. Their influence is still strong and they have their own government, rules and regs. The Tagish, the Aishihik, the Tahkhini and the Carcross bands make up the main concentration. Takhini comes from the Taghish words for... tahk = mosquito and heena = river. I am sure that is true as there are many here. (mosquitos)

There is much subsistence living off the land as there is much wildlife here. Fish, Bear, Elk, Caribou, Deer, are the main animals hunted . North of the town of Haines Junction they have a main office building for services to their people. That same town has a great Convention center, just built, that is an an addition to the Ice arena there (curling , you know, eh?). Haines Junction is the center for the access into the Kluane National Park and Preserve.

The Preserve is some 2,225 sq. miles and holds the tallest peaks in Canada . They are; Mt Logan,19,545’; Mt. St. Elias, 18, 008’ ; Mt. Lucania , 17,147’; and 4 others all over 15,000 feet. These are all inside the Kluane N.P. and R. There are rafting, kayak, climbing, hiking and air pickup activities throughout the area. A great trip is to float down the Alsek River past glaciers and countless wildlife to the Pacific Ocean and get picked up by plane to return. Better be ready when they come. The Kluane Park and Preserve also contains the largest non-polar ice field in North America.

This area also is the area made famous by some authors , namely Robert Service, and can you name another Yukon “author” (Bet Marlys can?). Hint: He was a member of the Dalton gang!

Another native to these parts was George Johnson, a Tlingkit , a trapper and an entrepreneur who brought a 1928 Chevrolet to Teslin (before any roads were built), and built a 3 mile “road” to become the town’s “taxi and driver”. Lakes, creeks and a Museum are named after him. George’s photography was valuable in the years 1910 to 1940’s in depicting the native life in this area.

We crossed the Yukon River that carries many of these waterways as the Yukon assisted the gold seekers in the Klondike gold rush of 1898-99. At the point where the Yukon bridge is , there is a dam (Yewes) that was created to give the paddle wheelers more season to haul materials and passengers down the Yukon. ()It kept the ice from forming there. What took one day to go down would take 5 days to come back up the same stretch of river.

One of the widest and most homogeneous valleys appears between Whitehorse and Haines Junction. It is the Takhini Valley. It was an old lake bed before the glaciers and moved water down to the closer Pacific Ocean. Now it is forested and excellent wildlife habitat. The waters draining this area now join the Yukon in their 2,000 mile journey to the Bering sea. No paddle wheelers today ,but there is a relic of one at Whitehorse that one can tour. The Hudson’s Bay traders were on the Yukon River in 1840, with the missionaries shortly thereafter.

Now we come to the gem of this leg, and that is Kluane Lake. There were some great views as we came down the hill from the south. We were met immediately by a mother duck and 7 of her “followers’ on the Lake and we stopped abruptly , like we often do. We thought at first they were Wood Ducks, but it turned out the beautiful markings made them all Harlequin Ducks. What a way to start some time at this Lake. The last time we came (1995) through Ruth remembers that the wind was blowing a dust storm off the dry river beds into the lake. Today was pristine. The roads around this lake have always been a problem and inasmuch as it used mostly by Americans coming and going from Alaska, the Canadian and Yukon governments worked out a compromise with the USA to develop a cooperative project on the Alaskan Highway from here into Alaska. It is called the “SHAKWAK PROJECT”. In it the US agreed to fund the reconstruction of 300 miles from Haines Junction to the Alaskan border. That work continues this year but is almost complete . Some of that part of the road has befuddled the engineers as the road bed consists of a soft pumice like soil that “floats” and when it freezes and then thaws it doesn’t stay in place. Any suggestion out there?

The campground we are situated in is Cottonwood RV Park and is probably the best attired one we have been in. Lots of flowers, spacious sites, good visibility on the sites and you can park your RV either way , facing the lake of the mountains.Your choice! Of course looking at the surrounding mountains and the Lake in front adds to that ambiance. Tomorrow we head to Tok, Alaska and get ready for the last leg , the road on the Glenn Highway into Anchorage. It there are no pictures it is because the Wi-Fi will not handle the pictures. Thanks for reading.