A White Pass getaway – 3 days of hiking and aurora
I needed a mountain getaway, so last Monday drove the motorhome down to the White Pass for a few days. The weather forecasts called for 3 days of good weather, then rain. Getting out in the mountains and being disconnected were just what I needed.
I left home just before noon on Monday. The Alaska Highway is just ahead in the first photo – Whitehorse is a few kilometers to the left, Adventure to the right 🙂
After getting parked at my usual spot just south of Summit Creek, I continued on to Skagway, where I planned to photograph a couple of ships I didn’t have in my files. But the American Constellation had already left, and the Silver Muse wasn’t in a photo-friendly position, so I got neither. I don’t find Royal Caribbean’s massive Ovation of the Seas very interesting, but that’s her in the next photo, with the Alaska ferry Columbia in front.
While I was out on the breakwater trying to get a good angle on the Silver Muse, I got a few photos of the Small Boat Harbor.
Back up top, I checked in with Canada Customs, and took a few photos of railcars on the WP&YR train that was there picking up passengers. Steel-bodied car #209, named “Lake Bernard”, was built in 1993 and has a wheelchair lift and seating for 26 people.
I went back to the RV, fed the fur-kids dinner, then on our after-dinner walk, decided that the light was so lovely, the dogs and I should go down to the beach below us on Summit Lake.
One of the lingering problems from my injury 5 weeks ago is an odd disorientation. As many times as I’ve walked the trail down to Summit Lake, I didn’t recognize most of it. That’s a bit unnerving given some of the places I hike.
It felt so good to be back on that beach. Bella was in the water immediately, and I’d brought Tucker’s ball so we had a good play. We didn’t stay long – it cooled off dramatically as soon as the sun dropped behind Summit Creek Hill.
I didn’t sleep very well that night. When I was up at 02:30 I noticed a bit of aurora borealis in the sky to the north, so I went out and photographed that for a while. The next photo has the motorhome in it.
The display peaked just after 03:00 – the next photo was shot at 03:03.
The next image intrigues me – with no change in the camera settings and no change in the aurora, the colour is quite different. The photo above is accurate colour – the one below isn’t. Having other lights in the photo can change the way cameras record the colour of the aurora, but with that not being the case here, I don’t know what did it.
My parking spot, seen at 09:00 Tuesday morning from the area where I walk the dogs.
I spent about 3 hours reading, then heard a train horn so decided to go for a drive up to Fraser to see if any good photo ops presented themselves. A short walk got me the next photo of Summit Lake.
Another White Pass train was loading passengers, but I’d have to go through Customs to get any photos of it.
The Customs post at Fraser is a pretty quiet station, with a couple of short rushes during peak touring times.
It was a gorgeous day, so I decided to give a real hike a try. Summit Creek would be a good test, with no long or steep climbs. By 1:30 Bella was immersed in her favourite element 🙂
The kids were having a ball, and I was doing well.
It was a slow hike for me, but the Fall colours were coming along nicely so there were plenty of reasons to stop for a minute or two.
Imagine the forces that can do that to a wall of granite. It’s about 15 feet high.
When there’s a dry way to go and a wet way, always choose the wet way, Bella says 🙂
We stopped in the lower canyon of Summit Creek. The water level was much lower, and the water much clearer than it had been 5 weeks before.
We were back at the highway in about an hour and a half. It had been a very good hike.
The next photo shows the view to the south from the RV at 5:00 pm, shot at 400mm.
Molly is always happy to have her family back. She loves the RV life 🙂
Once the kids were fed, a nice but simple dinner for me – Italian sausage and seasoned rice with a nice bottle of red wine while finished reading “The Mindful Hiker” by Stephen Altschuler.
It had been a busy day, and taking my cane on the day’s final dog-walk was a comfort. Taking a walk in my pyjamas – one of the pleasures of boondocking in the middle of nowhere. Also one of the pleasures of not caring what anybody thinks about it 🙂
I also did a a bit of photography of berries and Fall colours (and dogs) on that last walk.
Two days before the full moon, the world was pretty interesting when I woke up at 02:00 so I went out and did some shooting. The full moon overpowers all but the strongest of aurora displays.
With the Autumn Equinox fast approaching, this is no longer The Land of the Midnight Sun – this photo of the dawn colours was shot at a much more normal 07:04.
On Wednesday morning I went down for a look at progress on the William Moore Bridge, before the highway opened and work crews arrived. I expect that now that the gully has been filled with rock from the bridge approach construction, this curve will soon be eliminated.
While the light was still rather dim, I drove past the bridge and took a few blurred-water shots of Bridal Veil Falls. This one was shot at 0.8 of a second.
Back to the bridge. They’re down to the finishing now – it looks like paving will happen soon.
A final shot of the bridge construction site. I expect that the next time I go down, that will all be cleaned up.
Driving back to the motorhome, I noticed some low-lying fog in the distance, so continued on for a look, as it often produces some interesting photo ops. I love the colour of the dawn light in the next photo.
Dropping down into the shade, the colours were dramatically different.
After breakfast I decided to try a much more challenging hike. I’ll tell you about that outing in the next post.
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