Day 19 - The St. Elias Lake Trail

While planning the Haines Junction part of this holiday, the first of the walking trails I had highlighted in my hiking guide by Vivian Lougheed was the St. Elias Lake Trail.  However the same walk is mentioned in my Bradt guide, and because of what I've now discovered is a printing error in the latter (it reproduces part of the the description of a different trail under the St. Elias Lake Trail), I'd ended up dismissing it as one that we wouldn't find enjoyable to do.  I spotted this mistake last night, and realised that actually this walk would be a good one, only a couple of hours or so long, but still off the beaten track (on a holiday that is, on the whole, quite off the beaten track).

After a breakfast of Alpen and the last slices of Mrs. Watson's homemade bread toasted and slathered in the odd white butter they have here, we took off down the Haines Highway again, this time past Kathleen Lake and past the Rock Glacier.  Eventually we saw the sign for the St. Elias Lake Trail pull-out (lay-by), and turned into it.  There was no one else there, not even a Holland America coach.  It's things like this that remind you that, even during the tourist season, most of the Yukon is still pretty empty.  You start to wonder if you should have let someone know where you are going.

But this trail is described as easy, following an old road, good for a child's first backpacking experience, and only taking a few hours at most.  I left our Village Bakery sandwiches in the car, not wanting bears to smell the food on me (they would just have to smell me as food), and then, having liberally sprayed ourselves with insect repellent, we headed into the woods.

Not far in we came upon our first wild life experience of the day; a cute and fluffy chick of some sort, fluttering its way up into a tree.  We watched for a while, then noticed a parent bird at the base of the tree.  I think it was a Spruce Grouse, it might have been a Ruffed Grouse.  It studied us, watching warily, then fluttered its wings a few times.  Suddenly a second chick flew out of the undergrowth, and when we pointed and went, "ooh look", as you do, the parent bird went nuts.  It puffed out its neck feathers and wafted its wings, then ran at me, clucking.  To be honest it scared the crap out of me, which doesn't bode well if we ever encounter a bear under similar circumstances.  We both jumped backwards, and the bird kept coming, then started circling, protecting its young.  Thirty feet in to the trail and we'd met the equivalent of Monty Python's Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog.  And we were without the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.

We eventually got past our adversary by running quickly up the trail shouting, "it's all right, we're going, we're going"... Intellectual and strong humans - 0, tiny little bird without opposable thumbs or discovery of fire - 1.  Once out of danger (us, not the grouse), we settled into our pace.  After a few short hills we didn't need to make deliberate noises to alert bears to our presence anymore, they just had to listen out for our laboured breathing.  It was very hot and muggy, which didn't help, and the flies and mosquitoes were proving a bit of a nuisance.  The path was easy to follow, it being an old and narrow road (I can't imagine why people used to drive down there, it was a real switchback and hilly path).  After a while we broke out of the trees and into some open ground with long grass... but still no bears.

I won't big this walk up, it's only 2.5 miles each way, but in the heat of the day, and with both of us nervous about bear contact, it was far enough as a starter.  I would like to have done more and gone further with an experienced trail person, but for just the two of us it was enough.  We both had a real sense of achievement when, after about an hour and twenty minutes, we arrived at St. Elias Lake.  It's not a big lake, but it's quite pretty, and we'd made it our own as a result of walking here through a proper Yukon trail.

It didn't take us as long to get back to the car, and that cursed grouse wasn't there anymore (maybe a bear ate it).  We headed off to try and find the Million Dollar Waterfall that Mrs. Watson had told us about, but there were no signposts for ages, so we gave up.  Having checked on the internet later, it seems we didn't travel quite far enough.  Instead we headed back to Kathleen Lake again, and ate our lunch for the second time in what is now our chair.  The air wasn't as clear today, it seemed thicker and more prone to storms, even though it was quite sunny.

From there we came back to Haines Junction and down to the Bakery for a cinamon bun and a beer.  While we were sitting outside on the decking, the owner of the Bakery, Boyd Campbell, came out to talk to us.  This has been a recurring feature of the Yukon, people just want to have a chat with you, find out where you're from, ask a little about you and tell you a little about themselves.  Boyd told us he was originally from Ontario, and when I asked him why he'd come up to Haines Junction he said, "I just got in a truck and kept on driving until I found somewhere I liked".  A carpenter rather than a baker, he built the Village Bakery himself, then employed a couple of bakers.  As a business it's done really well in the 25 years he's been running it, but he wants to sell up now and is struggling to find a buyer.  He told us that the Holland America tours, which account for substantial business in the town, look like they're going to be moving to flights rather than coach tours, and will miss out Haines Junction.

It all sounds rather sad for a town that's got such a lot going for it in terms of hiking and walking.  I asked Boyd if the town wanted us to tell people about the Yukon, or if the Yukoners would rather it be kept a secret, he said, "feel free to tell everyone!"  So be told.

Following that we sat out reading for a while, then went over to the Northern Lights Restaurant again.  We've eaten there most nights because the food is quite good, the waitress is really friendly, and the only night we ate somewhere else we weren't that impressed.

Just one full day left in Haines Junction, and the weather looks like it's going to hold out for us, which is good as we've got a couple more places we want to visit.