The slow advance of Spring…
I always get a bit impatient this time of year – we’re having a lengthy spell of spectacular days, but the nights are still well below freezing (it’s -6°C/+21°F at the moment and I just lit the woodstove), so few plants are in bud yet. There are a few crocuses out. I should take a bit of a hike today to visit them – that always makes me feel good.
There are lots of Springs things happening, though. I spent a while with a pair of Common mergansers (Mergus merganser) on the Yukon River right in front of The Wharf in downtown Whitehorse.
The Miles Canyon Road has just opened for the season (it’s narrow, winding, and hilly, so is closed for snow season as nobody needs to use it), so I took I that scenic detour on Tuesday. Halfway down the side road to Miles Canyon, climbing up on a little ridge gets this view looking up the river at the head of the canyon.
The skies were clear in town, but from the Miles Canyon overlook, I could see that Father Winter was still in charge on Mount Lorne.
About 3/4 of Schwatka Lake is now open, but the bay where the main float plane base is located still has a thick layer of ice. A friend just took her Spring dip in the lake – Wim Hof (“The Iceman”) would be proud of you! 🙂
Wow, a beaver! I had heard about a beaver among the ice sheets here, and I was extremely pleased to find him out enjoying the sun on the bank. My 300mm lens ensured that I didn’t disturb his enjoyment of the moment.
A bicycle came by and he slipped silently into the water. It looked like he would come back out shortly, but I left him in peace.
A few hundred meters further along the shore, a pair of Barrow’s goldeneyes (Bucephala islandica) were close to shore. The female stayed a bit further out.
I stayed mostly hidden behind my car, and the male showed no sign that he was bothered by me.
I dropped Bella and Tucker off for their quarterly grooming, went home for a while, than came back in and parked at the SS Klondike to await the call to pick them up. There was a chilly breeze blowing, but I was soon asleep in the warm sun.
The kids really enjoy spa day. Bella in particular loves being fussed over 🙂
That afternoon, I finally moved the motorhome and started getting it ready for something, though we don’t have any solid plans yet. In the before times, I’d be down around Williams Lake now and Cathy would be flying to Kelowna or Vancouver to meet me for 3 weeks. In 15 days she’s retiring, so there will be some big changes happening.
The snow is disappearing from the high country fairly quickly, but there’s no sign that there will be any flooding this year. That’s one advantage of the cold nights – slowing the thaw to prevent flooding. The next photo shows Golden Horn from my breakfast table yesterday morning.
My new “bee garden” is where I really want Spring to arrive! I shot this just before 9 pm last night.
Sometimes it’s good to pull out some July photos to remind me how glorious it will be in just a few weeks. The first photo was shot above Braeburn, with Kodi and Kayla, in July 2002.
And in July 2016, Bella and I were swimming at Cultus Bay on Kluane Lake 🙂
I had a good day out in the sunshine down the South Klondike Highway – I’ll tell you about that in the next post.
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