The most north-western territory in Canada - subarctic climate, arctic tundra, boreal coniferous forests, huge glacier areas with the highest mountain in Canada. Barely populated and also home to bears, wapitis, moose and caribou. These factors convinced us to take a two-week trip to the far north. In the following report, we try to describe how we fared in the wilderness and solitude.
Our adventure in the Yukon was supposed to start with a six to ten-day trek in Kluane National Park (Saint Elias Mountains). But everything turned out differently than planned. The planned air traffic controller strike was quickly stopped by the courts, but a faulty plane caused a delay of nine hours, which meant that we missed the connecting flight to Whitehorse, as well as the planned trip on the Alaska bus to Haines Junction. This meant that the planned tours were dead for the time being.
This is already off to a good start.... However, we had more than enough time to think about it until we finally arrived in Haines Junction a few days later. The good mood only lasted for a short time, however, because we spoke to a ranger at the national park administration and he told us that the weather was going to be bad with continuous rain. He also said that he would not recommend the alternative route we had planned, as the water level of the rivers was already quite high at the moment, so crossing them could be problematic. Great, another new plan to work out. Ok, maybe the local weather service is wrong. To at least enjoy the current good weather, we made our way to Kathleen Lake, 28 km away, with the King's Throne.
And immediately the next realization: hitchhiking in Canada is not easy. Only one coach with Asian passengers passed the Alaskan highway in the first few hours, but they didn't pick us up and filmed us all the more euphorically from inside the bus. Only when we had covered about 18 km did a Dutchman take pity on us and we were able to drive the last few kilometers by car. We were soon to spend our first night in a tent in the wilderness. We were a little nervous after we had (had to) watch a 30-minute bear video at the park administration a few hours earlier, in which "Master Petz" looked into tents or analyzed different attack variants, among other things. After we had survived the first night without a bear visit, we were finally able to enjoy the beauty of the landscape in sunny weather. The exertions of the last few days were forgotten as we looked out over the turquoise lake on the ascent.
The joy was short-lived, however, until thick clouds shrouded the summit and blocked our view of the mighty Saint Elias Mountains glacier. After another night, we made our way back to Haines Junction to check the latest weather forecast. Fortunately, the hitchhiking worked better this time and the way back was done quickly. Unfortunately, the park ranger didn't give us any good news: it was still raining and cold temperatures for the next week. Great!
New plan, new luck!
What now? A (further) new plan was needed! Back to the capital of Yukon, Whitehorse. You don't really need to have seen this city: A string of various fast food chains and a paddle steamer moored on dry land. That more or less says it all about Whitehorse. The primary goal was to leave Whitehorse as quickly as possible. If trekking didn't make much sense due to heavy rain, a rental car was needed to drive to Dawson City and Alaska. So, motivated, we made our way to the car rental agencies in the city, but we heard the same thing everywhere: "all cars are currently out of stock" and the weather forecast didn't promise any improvement. A few days later our situation finally changed when we finally got a car! The price was beyond good and evil, but we were finally allowed to leave Whitehorse and make our way to the world-famous gold mining town of Dawson City.
On the way, to our great relief, the constant rain of the last few days took a break from time to time and we were able to see the magnificent forests and tundra. No cars, no towns for miles around, lakes, ponds, forests and mossy landscapes further north - that's what we imagined northern Canada to be like. Shortly before Dawson, we saw the first bear on our trip, sitting in the middle of the highway. So we headed to Dawson in good spirits, where we were greeted by sunshine and significantly higher temperatures. The weather was also at its best the following day, so we were able to explore the venerable town where the legendary Klondike Gold Rush began in 1896. The facades of the houses are still reminiscent of Clint Eastwood films today. Or, for the cartoon generation, Lucky Luke. It is hard to imagine that this town, with its subarctic climate, was home to around 40,000 people during the boom. The gold rush didn't last long, so after a short time people started to leave again. Today, only just over 1,000 people live there, mainly from tourism.
Up to Alaska
We continued our journey in renewed rain and fog along the "Top of the World Hwy" to Alaska. Whenever there was a gap in the clouds, we always had a magnificent panorama. It was just a shame that these moments of joy were far too short and too rare. We then continued on to Alaska via Canada. Our next destination was the town of Haines at the end of the Chilkat Peninsula. Despite the rain, we were able to take in some wonderful impressions. At the beautiful Chilkoot River, where there are numerous salmon fishermen in the river, we were able to watch a mother grizzly with three cubs catching salmon. Bears can apparently often be seen "fishing" along this section of the river with its abundance of fish. We also spotted two seals and some of the many bald eagles in the area around Haines. Unfortunately, we were denied a view of the heavily glaciated mountains around Haines, the dream mountains par excellence for many freeriders, due to the bad weather.
We then headed back to Calgary via Whitehorse, where we will report on the Rocky Mountains... but first things first: we should have better luck there...
Text and photos: Christian Skala and Regina Hörhammer
