From Winter to Spring – Whitehorse to Dyea
It’s that time of year when I love being able to drive to Spring. On Saturday, Cathy, Bobbie and I took advantage of a forecast sunny day to drive to Dyea, to get away from the snow for just a couple of hours.
I always take far fewer pictures when I have company, but the view down to Tutshi Lake was a must-stop, as it often is whether I have anyone with me or not.
I worship the sun this time of year. In mid-winter it’s a cold white orb that adds little or no heat to my world. Now, it’s adding 20 degrees C (35 degrees F) or more, bringing the night-time low of -25 or so up to near the freezing point.
This couple was just heading out to do some snowshoeing on the frozen surface of Tutshi Lake. Their charming dog, Kodi, seemed to be unaffected by losing an eye to a porcupine 3 years ago. A few days ago, a friend’s puppy lost an eye when he ran into a stick – I hope he has the same spirit.
There are some impressive cornices down Fraser way. Rescue crews must cringe when they see these conditions. The next day, 3 people were caught in an avalanche north of Haines. That’s not very far from here, so no doubt has similar conditions.
Conditions for snowmobiling were simply superb in the White Pass, and I was surprised to see relatively few people out enjoying the day. Many people of the snowmobile-level-income persuasion may have left the territory for Spring break.
There were lots of skiers out, though – the slopes were tracked everywhere! The folks at YukonHiking.ca posted a couple of photos on their Facebook page of the view looking down from the upper reaches that day. The photo below was shot right at the White Pass summit.
I stopped to get some more detail photos of the rebuilt ballast cars at Skagway. This photo shows clearly how narrow “narrow gauge” is.
We were very surprised to see a great deal of heavy construction going on along the Dyea Road. There’s both widening and re-routing being done – both involve blasting large amounts of granite.
A look at the road rebuilding from the Dyea tidal flats.
We all love Dyea. Getting here brings out the “aaahhhhh” of appreciation for a job well done, Mother Nature 🙂
The 115-year-old pilings from one of the wharves that served the Klondike gold rush stampeders.
In just a few weeks, this will be a fairly busy spot, with people rafting the Taiya River and hiking the Chilkoot Trail.
On the way home, we got delayed for 50 minutes here while crews cleaned up a rockslide that had come down unexpectedly. A few miles further towards Skagway, some large rocks had fallen on the road since we came through, but traffic could get around them.
A break like that makes a huge difference to me in terms of being able to deal with Winter. Even making it a few hours shorter counts 🙂 Now, we have days and days more sunshine forecast, so I’m heading back outside!
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