Yukon Wrap-up

We DID make it to the Yukon!

Sheep Mountain and Kluane Lake, Yukon

We just stopped blogging during the trip as we rarely had electricity let alone Internet access (we both have blogs over at www.ronerwin.com/blogs.php now) . Actually it was liberating to not have to blog every few days. It left us free to just concentrate on the trip, the wonderful vistas, and the real purpose of the trip: the taking of the pictures. Or at least we were as free as having to make regular backups would let us be (see more on this topic in an earlier posting: https://ronerwin.blogspot.com/2006/06/from-leader-to-lethbridge-ab-june-4-5.html). It stays light so late in the Yukon in the summer! Instead of shooting on July 29, we spent the evening sitting at the picnic table at our campsite at Kathleen Lake in Kluane National Park with Ron making backups (power provided by our van's battery) and me writing in my journal. Only at midnight did it get so dark that we needed a lantern to continue our tasks. I'm not sure we ever really discovered "first morning light" in the Yukon. We had to settle with just getting up as early as we could manage. From the Yukon (click to view more Yukon images) we even had a side trip south into Atlin, BC, often referred to as the little "Switzerland of the North", and to Haines, Alaska - which is also south from Haines Junction, YT down the very beautiful Haines highway and through BC's Tatshenshini-Alsek Park. In a car both these towns are only accessible via the Yukon. Other highlights of the trip that weren't already mentioned in previous blog posts:

• camping in a tent beside Kluane Lake in the height of soapberry season in the Congdon Creek Campground in spite of the Yukon's warning signs that tents weren't safe due to bears.

• surviving the drive down and back up the very scary and steeply pitched dirt mountain switch back road the locals call "The Hill" to Tweedsmuir Park, and Bella Coola BC. Parts of the road are wide enough for 2 vehicles - others not. Traffic going up have the right of way. Apparently the road was built by 2 guys with bulldozers - one starting at the top the other from the bottom. They eventually met somewhere in the middle and voila a road!

• cooling off and camping at Pyper Lake one of BC's Forestry Service many recreation areas.Ron even got shots of his nemesis bird - a belted kingfisher. It was so hot if you weren't in the water or the shade you would feel like you could spontaneously combust! We ended up having to leave when smoke could be seen across the lake. Smoke from BC forest fires definitely was a problem for photographing landscapes during this trip. But that isn't surprising considering the heat and the ecological disaster caused by the mountain pine beetles. Huge areas of monoculture forest such as this one one in Tweedsmuir have been destroyed. Note every red tree is a dead tree!

• having a black bear sneak up behind Ron as he sat at the edge of the beta pool at Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park. I warned him and he managed to scare it off just by standing up and clapping his hands. It was the middle of a rainy afternoon so we didn't even have a camera with us at the time! We were relieved the bear did go away though. Earlier we had seen the same bear being chased off by the Park Ranger with bear bangers (flares) and rubber bullets to its butt, but we didn't have a camera then either!

• leaving our own sign with the thousands already posted at the SignPost Forest in Watson's Lake, YT. The info centre provided the hammer and nails.

• driving the Alaska highway through northern British Columbia and the area called the "Serengeti of the North" with its abundant wildlife. Caribou, Bison, Stone Sheep, Red Fox, and Beaver were just some of the animals we would see and photograph. This fox got so close to Ron that he could use a wide angle lens to photograph it. Ron decided it was in fact too close when the fox started to tug on the frayed edges/fringe around a hole on the knee of his jeans!

• pitching our tent right beside the very beautiful turquoise waters of Muncho Lake in Muncho Lake Provincial Park. We marveled over how the sun would light up various mountain ranges around the lake at different times a day - like this one to the west/behind the campground that was lit up with peach tones after 11:00 pm.

• shooting in the always amazing Jasper National Park. We would finally shoot male Bighorn Sheep at Disaster Point were we used to only see lambs and ewes. We also would take the tramway up Whistlers mountain and find ptarmigans along with the wonderful views over the park. And of course there is always my favourite mountain - Mount Edith Cavell!

• discovering moose in Grasslands National Park in Southern Saskatchewan and watching the funny habits of the black-tailed prairie dogs.

Those are just a few of the highlights. To see what we've been up to lately check out our new blogs on our web page at: www.ronerwin.com/blogs.php Ron Erwin's blog: http://exposure.ronerwin.com/ Lori Erwin's blog: http://loris-log.ronerwin.com