Month: August 2013

With good weather continuing, I’m still not spending much time at home, so I’m getting further and further behind with my postings here (as well as a few other projects). I got up at 1:00 to watch a good Northern Lights show this morning, and decided to just stay...

After discovering during a flight on Saturday that the craggy cliffs overlooking Spirit Lake are topped with a huge almost-level plateau, I was determined to hike up for a look. I started up the trail twice many years ago but got stopped by a grizzly both times – on...

As much as I enjoy hiking into some of the fascinating historic sites we have in the Whitehorse-Skagway area backcountry, there are times when I think that it would be great to have some mechanical assist, whether that be an ATV, a boat, a helicopter or a float plane....

Following my discovery of a spectacular road-accessible area above Tutshi Lake on Tuesday, I returned on Wednesday without my husky, Monty, so I could explore higher, more rugged valleys and ridges. Although my primary target of interest was a high non-glacial lake to the southeast of the glacial one...

On Tuesday, yet another spectacular hot day, Monty and I headed back into the high country, this time to a spot I’d not yet made it into. An old mining road leads into the mountains between Tutshi Lake and Lake Bennett, but it’s buried in snow for all but...

The Vault, deep in Pooley Canyon on the south side of Montana Mountain, is the toughest mine I’ve ever managed to get into, and I’ve been wanting to get back in for a very long time. Some Whitehorse friends want me to take them in (having tried unsuccessfully to...

Lately I’ve mostly been going to places that are too extreme to take my dog, and I feel bad about that, so a few days ago, Monty and I did a little adventure in our 4×4, to Montana Mountain at Carcross. We had a gorgeous day for wandering, and...

Yesterday was intended as a motorcycle day – a ride to Skagway and back – but turned into much more, with an almost-6-hour hike past countless waterfalls and ending overlooking the Chilkoot Trail at a wall of glaciers across the valley. By 08:45 I was all armoured up and...

It’s tough to beat spending time with a family of 4 bald eagles to start the day off right, and yesterday, that’s what Monty and I did. The trail is high and there’s some exposure that certainly makes having a full pot of coffee in your belly seem like...

On Thursday, I went on the most difficult hike yet this year, to the ruins of the historic Inspiration Point gold mine high in the White Pass north of Skagway. I visited the site twice a dozen years ago, and have been itching to get back for a long...