A day trip to Kusawa Lake, Yukon
On Monday, I got a call from a friend asking if I’d like to go to Kusawa Lake. Yes, I certainly would! We usually take our dogs but decided not to today.
We didn’t get away until 1:00, but I wasn’t feeling up to a long day anyway. It was wonderful to see lots of leaves coming out on the trees out Mendenhall way, half an hour west of Whitehorse.
It’s always wonderful to see the wild horses along the highway. However, Karla and I had seen photos of a new foal with a mare who has markings just like this one. Where was her baby?? It wasn’t until I got home that I could check the photos of the mare and foal and saw that it was a mare with very similar markings. What a relief that was! There are a few stories about where these horses came from but nobody knows for sure.
Ahead on the left in the next photo is the Takhini Valley Rest Area at Km 1487 – 2 km past that, we turned onto the gravel Kusawa Lake Road and headed south.
At 2:10, we stopped across the road from the Takhini River Campground to photograph some Prairie crocuses. All Yukon campgrounds are still closed as a COVID-19 precaution.
Fun with crocuses and my lensball 🙂 I’m back to needing a cane to walk, complicating photography somewhat.
This was a 10/10 day, and there were a few people out enjoying it, most just on day trips, but some campers as well.
At 2:30 we found a good spot for a picnic, at the foot of still-frozen Kusawa Lake and the head of the Takhini River.
The water was so clear! It looked shallow enough to be able to walk across to the beautiful big beach on the far side.
This was an absolutely superb spot to spend some mental-health time.
There is clearly some awesome hiking on top of one of the mountains to the east, and we figured out a way to get there, for some future very long day.
This was precisely what the doctor ordered. Nature is medicine.
By 3:30 I couldn’t stand it any more – that water just looked too inviting. Karla wasn’t as convinced as I was that I could get back up once we got down to the river but agreed to go with me.
Yes, this was even better 🙂
I was too unsteady to prove my theory that the river was shallow enough to walk across, but I got far enough to be convinced of it. With the frozen lake only 100 meters/yards away, the water was quite chilly 🙂 (Karla shot this photo and the one above of me sitting)
By 4:00 I was getting very tired, and it was time to go. I saw a trail that might be easier than the one we came down. The climb, barefoot on a soft, sandy trail, turned out to be not as tough as I thought it might be.
Signs of Spring back up top.
At 4:20 we were almost back to the truck.
The day was simply perfect.
Although my osteopath’s office isn’t open yet, she saw me on an emergency basis 2 days after this outing. When I got home from seeing her, I slept for over 4 hours and was useless the rest of the day. I felt clearer the next day and even better the next day then sort of stabilized. I’m back on the right path, but I have no idea yet how to deal with this long term, when it takes very little activity to put me back in a very bad place. I really need to get back into the mountains, but for now, outings like this will be pretty much it.
Everything right now – the virus and my injury – would be infinitely more difficult if I lived in a city hit hard by the virus. I’m always thankful to live in the Yukon, but especially now. We have no active cases, and none of the 11 cases has been sick enough to even be hospitalized. Yesterday, our Chief Medical Officer announced plans to start opening everything back up – it will be a very slow, very cautious process, and it seems to be supported by the vast majority of Yukoners. We certainly have every reason to keep believing that Dr. Hanley and his team know what they’re doing.
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