Kluane National Park

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After looking at the schedules for the ferry from Haines to Skagway, I found that there is only one a day, and not everyday at that, and that it is at an inconvenient time. It goes at 12:45 in the afternoon and arrives at 1:45. There seemed to me no way I was going to be able to check out Kluane National Park and Preserve, visit the local cultural centre, and be able to get down to Haines in time to catch the ferry. That was going to leave me in Haines for the rest of the day and then the next day would be spent getting to Skagway and not having the chance to do a boat trip to Juneau. So that would have to wait until the next day. That would mean three days. I don't want to spend three days like that, so I decided to cut out going to Haines. I may end up spending a couple of days in Skagway anyway, but I can see other things on the way, including Atlin, where Uncle Bruce Bruce came from.



So I went to chat with the parks personnel for some information about the hikes and such that can be done in the national park. Another man came at the same time and was inquiring about how to see bears. The woman we were talking with recommended seeing the what-to-do-if-one-encounters-a-bear video they had on hand. I thought it might be the same one I had seen in Dawson City, but it never hurts to see such things again, particularly when entering bear country. It was indeed the same film, and it had much the same effect on me as the first time. What? I want to actually go into bear country? What was I thinking? And this was after the park ranger said, much as the ranger in Dawson City said, that it wasn't to scare us. Uh huh. Sure.



I went anyway. The ranger made some suggestions to me about where I might want to go, as I wanted to drive down the highway as well and see the scenery. She suggested that I might like to hike a trail to St. Elias Lake. It was a moderately difficult trail almost 8 kilometres round trip. She also suggested that I stop and do the Rock Glacier hike. That was much shorter about 2 kilometres. I thought they sounded just fine and got a couple of maps to guide me and headed down the road.



St. Elias Lake trail was about 60 kilometres south of Haines Junction. I had been told there were a couple of campers that would be coming out of that area, but there were no reports of bear activity in the area. That's not a guarantee, of course, but it was still reassuring.



The people who had been camping were in their vehicle at the turnout. I guess they were finished. I headed into the trees on the trail and was confronted with...



Mosquitoes. It was a cloudy, cool day with the sky kind of threatening rain. That was perfect conditions for the little blood suckers to be out. In force. I hadn't put any repellent on, but I did only have my hands and my head exposed. Nevertheless, I had to eventually cover my head with my outer jacket to keep them away. It was all right when I was walking. They kept up, but they didn't have much chance to get at me. However, whenever I stopped for a rest or to take a photo, they attacked with a frenzy. I shall have to start using some repellent, I guess.



I also found that I had gotten way soft. All those months in Calgary waiting for my house to sell had taken their toll. I have gained a lot of flabby weight and it was a fairly tough slog up a reasonably short bunch of hills. And after the big uphill of the Eielson hike in Denali National Park, I was really feeling this hike.



But I persevered through fatigue and the bloodthirsty little insects and was rewarded with a wonderful view of an alpine lake sitting amidst a bunch of mountains. I was all alone there and the silence was amazing. I sat on a bench in the camping area, covered my head with my jacket to keep the mosquitoes at bay and just listened to the birds, the wind, the waves on the water. It was very serene.



The wind came up while I was there and that blew the mosquitoes so I was not harassed as badly on the way back to my car. I was very happy about that.



Once back at my car I headed farther down the road towards Haines. I don't know exactly why, but I wanted to reach the Yukon/BC border. But I was very glad that I did that. As I was driving along, I spotted something on the side of the road. It was brown and it was moving. I thought it might be a bear, and I slowed down as I approached it, so as not to upset or startle it and make it go away. I didn't want to disturb it. I was also alone at that point on the road, and I thought I might have a chance to just sit and watch it for a while.



I was expecting it to be a black bear, but as I got closer I saw the characteristic hump on its back. It was a grizzly. I pulled to the side of the road and it didn't even look up. It had to know I was there, but it was apparently indifferent to my presence. As it didn't seem bothered, I rolled down my window and began to take some photos. This time, I did the proper thing and stayed inside my car.



Suddenly the bear looked up. I didn't think I had done anything to startle it, so I looked in my rearview mirror. There was an RV pulling up a short way behind me. They bear went back to eating. Then suddenly the bear stopped, and reared up on its hind legs. In the bear video I had seen (for the second time this day), this was a classic gesture of trying to find out what was going on. Again, I looked in my rearview mirror and saw the people from the RV had exited their vehicle and were advancing on the bear, a grizzly bear. After a moment, the bear dropped back down and went back to eating. When I looked back at the people, they had returned to their vehicle. I thought they had come to their senses. Having noticed that the bear they were trying to get close to was getting upset (and how can you mistake a sudden rearing up by a bear to be anything but a display of upset?), they had returned to their vehicle to observe from there.



Nope. Suddenly the bear broke off its eating and headed across the highway. And I noticed that the RV was moving forward. Either they were leaving or they wanted a better view. The bear went down the bank on the other side of the highway and disappeared. The people in the RV stopped where the bear had gone and got out again with cameras ready! I just about had a fit. This is an animal that can kill you and you are chasing after it into the woods? I was stunned. But I was too stunned to take a photo of their vehicle or to do anything to stop them.



After that, I went on and eventually turned around at the border and returned to my original plan of hiking a couple more spots in the national park. But as I was approaching the St. Elias Lake turnoff again, I saw another bear. This time it was a black bear, but more of a reddish brown bear. Again, I stopped a distance away and watched, but this bear didn't like my presence and very soon stopped eating and headed into the woods. It had still been quite a day.



I proceeded to the Rock Glacier trail and hiked that one as well. It was nice, but the only really interesting part of that hike was the views out over Dezadeash Lake. With the clouds breaking up at the point, it made for some nice views over that lake.



Next I headed up to Kathleen Lake and another very short hike. It was just a boardwalk along the edge of the lakeside. I went a bit further along the shore, on a rough path, and found a great look out to the mountains of the Kluane range. This range of mountains contains the 16 highest peaks in Canada and, along with the Wrangell/St. Elias National Park's mountains in Alaska, has a large number of the highest peaks in North America. In the two parks (three when the provincial park in BC is also included), there is also the largest ice field in the world outside of the polar areas. It is quite a striking sight.



With that, I decided that I had done justice to my visit and experience of the national park and I headed back in to Haines Junction. I wanted to report the bear sightings and I wanted to see the Da Ku Cultural Centre. And I needed to get my stamps for the Yukon Gold passport.



The park rangers appreciated my taking the time to report the bears. All reported bear sightings are put into a database and that is used to try and get an idea of range and behaviour of bears when humans are encountered. Every one counts and it can maybe help keep bears and humans from having unfortunate encounters that end up with a dead bear.



The Da Ku Cultural Centre was something of a disappointment. They had only opened at that location the previous day and they didn't really have much set up. But the lady there was nice and she explained what would be happening there. And I got my stamp for the place.



Then it was on Whitehorse where I planned to spend a couple of days going to museums and such and planning my trip to Skagway and Juneau. A productive day, all in all.

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Photos

St. Elias Lake
This lake is at the base of the mountains that lead up to the big ice field held and protected in national and provincial parks in Canada and the United States. Aside from the mosquitoes, it was a lovely setting.

A Grizzly Bear
Finally, I spotted a grizzly bear browsing in the grass and flowers along the road beside Kluane National Park. It didn't react at all to my presence and so I was able to watch it for a few minutes.

Huh?
This is bear for, "Hey! What's up?" It wasn't me. It was the people who pulled up in the RV behind me and then got out of their car and advanced on the grizzly camera in hand. For the record, that is possibly the stupidest thing one can possibly do when around a bear. But their stupidity gave me a great photo.

Kathleen Lake
This lake is within the boundaries of Kluane National Park and is glacier fed. It's quite nice.

Da Ku Cultural Centre
The cultural centre for the local First Nations group shares the same building as the Kluane National Park visitor centre. It was still new when I visited, but it looked as though it was going to be very interesting.