A 9-day mental health break at Kluane Lake: Part 1/2
Cathy and the dogs and I got home Friday night (September 10th) from our best “staycation” ever – 9 days with the RV at Congdon Creek Campground on Kluane Lake, with no cell service or Internet access. I’d had about all the covid and politics I could handle, so off-grid was the planned remedy (and it worked).
It’s taken me a while to figure out how to blog this complex trip, but there will be 5 posts – two primary ones and 3 about specific activities or series of activities. This one is the start, though I’ve already written the 3 sub-posts, which will be linked as appropriate.
This trip was rather a last-minute decision, and as we’ve only had the motohome out once, a few weeks ago, it took a long time to get ready. To complicate things, I had a dentist appointment at 09:00 on Thursday, September 2nd, which turned into a 2½-hour root canal. But by 3:10, we were west of Whitehorse on the Alaska Highway, on our way. As our Tracker is still in the shop (it’s a long story…), Cathy was following me in her Jeep.
At 4:40 we were just west of Haines Junction. In 5 minutes we’d be going into “the dark zone” with no electronic communications.
We reached Congdon Creek Campground right at 5:30.
We had a quiet night. We had invited a friend to join us with her motorhome, and we got campsites side-by-side, on the lakeshore, which was rather a surprise given the long weekend just ahead and our late arrival.
The next photo of Kluane Lake in front of our campsite was shot on Friday morning just before 08:00. It wasn’t clear what the weather might do.
Looking up to the head of the lake at the same time.
The light back at the RV a few minutes later, looking across the meadow in the centre of the campground, was wonderful.
Bella having an after-breakfast nap on the couch at 09:25 🙂
Our first outing with the Jeep was back to Sheep Mountain just after noon, to check on the Dall (thinhorn) sheep.
There were about 80 sheep scattered across the mountain at high elevations.
Some of the interpretive signs and the spotting scopes which are free to use.
I noticed that all the interpretive panels have been replaced, and the new ones are excellent. The ones about grizzlies I found particularly good. The First Nations people call the grizzly A Si Shaw – Big Grandfather – and teach the children to respect them as they would their grandpa. Another panel about grizzly cub mortality acknowledges that adult male grizzlies are the heaviest predators of the cubs – that’s really awful and most people would like to ignore it, but it’s the truth.
From there we drove over to the dogs’ favourite beach for a play. The beach at the campground is pretty rocky and Bella in particular doesn’t like it.
Tucker won’t go very far into the water even for a ball, but likes to play along the edge.
We had taken the e-bikes with us, and I unloaded mine to ride back to the campground from the beach. That ride totalled 26.4 km (16.4 mi) and took an hour and 22 minutes. See all of our bike rides on a separate post, “Some e-biking near the head of Kluane Lake.”
Back at the campground for some plant photos in front of our site. No help from iNaturalist on this one…
Low bush cranberries and blueberries, I think.
On Saturday (September 4th) I got up at 04:00 then went back to bed at 06:00 (delayed for a while because Bella had taken my spot and was too cute to move) and slept until 09:00. The next photo of Tucker at 09:40 shows the Adventure Dog’s other side – putting on his best puppy-face from under his blankie 🙂
The skies were 2/3 clear at 04:00 but rain started just after we got up and was soon heavy. By noon when the next 2 photos were shot, though, it had eased off.
We decided to take our friend Gerry out for a drive and show her some of the area. The next photo was shot at the Destruction Bay marina.
The Kluane Museum of History at Burwash Landing was our next stop.
Maintenance on the museum property is at a very low level, hopefully just because of covid.
Out behind the main museum building, it looks even worse, with the log buildings rotting and falling apart. I guess this is what can happen when a community loses interest. 🙁
I didn’t check for a dial tone, so I don’t know whether this is still a telephone on the museum wall, or is now an artifact. 🙂
We didn’t really have any plans as to how far we’d go, but by 1:30 we were on another abandoned section of Alaska Highway, this one at Quill Creek leading down to the Kluane River.
This section of the old road also leads to a cenotaph honouring U.S. Army Lt. Roland Small, who was killed here in 1942 when his Jeep flipped. See The Lt. Small Memorial Access Road for much more information.
We had a good late lunch at the Talbot Arm on the way back, and by 6:00 we were back at the campground and I had a fire going.
Sunday was a very quiet day. Cathy and I went out for a 10-km ride along the highway, then a walk along the beach with Bella and Tucker got me the next colourful photo.
Gerry and Cathy enjoying life just before 8:00 pm on Sunday. Cold drove us inside not too long after.
At 8:50 that night, Bella had gone to sleep on the couch while the adults stayed up and chatted for a while…
About The Author
