A winter drive to Fraser, BC, and back

Posted On January 20, 2023

Although Winter is far from over in the Yukon, there’s a change in the air, and a bit of sunshine yesterday prompted a drive south into the mountains I love. I went as far as Fraser, which is the furthest I’ve driven in a very long time.

Within about 10 minutes of getting up from a recovery nap, I was on the road. The first photo, shot at 1:25, shows Fireweed Drive as I was heading towards the Alaska Highway. Poop! I had forgotten about the “ghosts” showing in the photos I shot at Fish Lake 10 days ago. I’ll tell you more about that towards the end of this post.

Thirteen minutes later I made another photo stop. This is the world I’ve been missing. This was shot just north of Robinson, at about Km 142 of the South Klondike Highway (measured from the ferry terminal at Skagway).

It’s hard to imagine how many photos I have shot at this spot, but it’s a lot. 🙂 That’s Brute Mountain ahead, Montana Mountain to the left, partly hidden by clouds.

This view just north of Emerald Lake stopped me for a minute.

Emerald Lake.

I stopped at Carcross to top up my gas tank, because I had no idea where this day might go. For the same reason, I had left Bella and Tucker at home.

Then I made a loop around the village. The Northern Airways building is now a museum, but I haven’t been inside yet.

The White Pass & Yukon Route railway announced a couple of days ago that they will be re-starting passenger service from Skagway to Fraser and Bennett, BC, and Carcross, this year. See https://wpyr.com/excursions/ for all the train and bus options. After 3 years of silence, it will be great to see them back. GE locomotive #90 has been pulling work trains, based out of Carcross.

Lime Mountain, another common shooting location, was ahead at 2:30.

This view up Windy Arm of Tagish Lake, with the historic mill of the Venus silver mine on the shore, would probably be the location that most clearly defines my life in the Yukon. That highway, that mine, that view, never fail to stir me, even after seeing it several hundred times.

A spring above the highway just south of the Venus mine causes problems for Highways crews every year.

The main flow (seen above) provides a good ice-climbing spot for some people, and I always enjoy the partly-frozen flows off to the sides of it.

The lighting at the “Welcome to the Yukon” sign was perfect 🙂

The weather started to close in south of Tutshi Lake. This is where I turned around, at 3:20 – the Canada Customs post at Fraser, BC.

A look back at Fraser as I started towards home, with the railway line running down the centre of the photo.

What a place. Yes, I really needed this drive.

There were 3 tanker trucks running together, hauling fuel up from Skagway – I saw them as they were northbound and again southbound. I had a better photo location planned but my patience didn’t last, and this was truck #3, so my last chance 🙂 The “1202” WHMIS placard on the front trailer shows that it would be filled with diesel.

Dail Peak, right on the Yukon side of the BC/Yukon border, fills the view.

Looking up at Dail Peak from the west side.

Lovely evening light about 20 minutes from home, 37 minutes before sunset. That ghosting is quite bad in this photo, which brings me back to that subject.

I decided that the most likely cause for the ghosting was a broken element in the lens. That’s easy to test – just go out the next day with a different lens.

Damn! It’s the camera body 🙁

I went for a walk along the airport trail and got a few shots. This is the Black Street Stairs, notorious among those who use it in their fitness/self-abuse outings 🙂

Sooo – what’s the solution to my photography problem???? I had a good look inside the body, but could see nothing amiss. I went to the Canon repair depot and was just about to enter my credit card information despite some disclaimers that made me very nervous about the possibility of just wasting $200. Then I decided to look at eBay.

The solution I came up with was to buy a very low-mileage Canon EOS 7D Mk. II for $730 – it’s now on its way to me from Quebec. The Mk. II is the upgraded edition of the camera I’ve been using since 2011.