Category: Hiking

Day 4 – return to Grizzly Lake

When I had looked at the forecast ahead of starting the trek, I saw that rain was to be expected on this day. The forecast had been very accurate so far, so I definitely prepared myself for a wet day, hiking back over the Divide pass. At breakfast we chatted with a couple who had crossed from Grizzly that morning, hiking the pass before the rain started. They were going all the way to Talus, and taking a snack break at Divide Lake.

It only took us about 4 hours to hike from Grizzly to Divide on day 2, so we really didn’t have to rush out first thing, and decided to take our time in the morning (although we missed the window of no rain, but that would have been quite an early wake up, which we’re admittedly not the best at). Packing up a tent in the rain is a bit of a process, but we took our time and put the tent in a waterproof bag so it wouldn’t get the rest of our stuff wet in the backpack. At breakfast I made sure to eat enough to avoid feeling low energy like the previous day. We had also planned a few energy bars for the way. I knew having a Naakbar just before starting the climb would help a lot.

Once everything was packed up, we headed out in the rain. We covered the first 4km around the mountain pretty quickly, and had our snack at the bottom of the climb as planned. Brice had told me the day before that if I recorded videos with my phone, he could use them, along with his to make short movie about the trek. So I spent a good portion of the climb making little video clips. It ended up being somewhat entertaining and possibly made the way up a bit easier.

Although to be honest I didn’t find it as challenging as I thought it might be, probably thanks to proper fueling + mental prep. We didn’t hang out too much at the top as it was pretty windy, but turns out the rain had pretty much stopped while we were climbing. I think it only picked up after we started going down.

I was slightly more anxious about the way down, as you walk down muddy trail across a grassy area – all made very slippery with rain (hence the name “Glissade” I guess, which more or less means slip-and-slide in French)
I was pretty cautious going down and was hoping that even without poles it wouldn’t be too slip-slidy, and in the end it wasn’t so bad. Once we were down it was less than 1km to get to the campground. In the end it only took is about 3 hours to hike the 6km this way (vs 4 hours on the way in).

It was still raining when we set up, which also made it a process, but eventually our tent was up, pretty much dry on the inside, and we headed to the cooking tents for the “goûter” (afternoon snack). Then another rest time in the tent before going back out for dinner. I would say the trek was definitely worth it even with mixed weather, the main drawback being that we spent our “rest time” tucked away in the tent to stay warm and dry, while with better weather we might have hung out by the lakes more, or explored the area near the campgrounds – unless, on the flip side warmer weather would have meant hordes of mosquitoes which could be equally as deterring from being outside. At dinner we shared a table with a group of hikers from Whitehorse, who were doing the trek for the first time after a couple of unsuccessful attempts in the past due to weather.

As a side note, I was pretty delighted with our dehydrated meals. We had a selection of Backcountry Pantry, AlpineAire and Happy Yak, and all were very tasty (all around 600 or 700 calories per serving). Outside of meals and energy bars, we had also bought some treats like mini Toblerone and almond/cashew nuts. I wish I’d brought tea and a few more treat choices, always welcome especially when fighting the cold, but ultimately a we did fine.

One more night before heading out. I finished the book I had started on the first night: “Split Tooth”, by  Inuit author Tanya Tagaq, a mix of auto-biographical, poetic, mystical- filled novel about a young girl in Nunavut. It was a pretty good match for the dramatic, cold setting we were in, and a captivating read, actually hard to put down. Although a book is added weight, I wasn’t sorry I brought it along, especially given the time we spent in the tent, hiding from the rain.

Day 5 – Hike out

It got pretty cold that night, and we woke up to a dusting of snow on the peaks around us.
We made sure once again to have a good breakfast, including a tasty couscous dehydrated meal (1 portion shared), to get us ready for the 12km hike out.

The tent was wet and our pants were pretty muddy but I still had dry pants, socks and gloves so the day started well. We packed everything and set off for the hike out. When leaving Grizzly lake, there’s a creek crossing that isn’t insignificant. Not deep but rocks are spread out enough that it can be a bit tricky to hop from one to the next. We had gone through it 3 times already without a hitch, but this time, I slipped on a rock and ended up with a leg in the water up to my knee – not ideal in near freezing weather.

Thankfully, my goretex shoes kept most of my foot dry, and somehow, my pants repelled most of the water and my long-johns underneath were quick to dry. I still took a moment to change sock and threw a toe warmer in my shoe to avoid any toes going numb. Sadly my gloves were soaked and I didn’t have another dry pair (I did bring 2 pairs. but the first one was a already wet from the previous day’s hike in the rain. Note to self: next time, bring three pairs). So I resorted to hiking sans gloves, which ended up being fine as the temperature warmed up slightly throughout the day.

We had 12 km to hike back to the parking lot, with the first 7 or 8 a slow incline towards the ridge – We didn’t have much views on the way in on day 1,  but the sky was much clearer on the hike out, and we were able to appreciate the views from the ridge, including looking back at Grizzly Lake, which could be seen quite clearly from most of the ridge.

We caught up with Kendra & her mom somewhere along the climb. They were still in good spirit as we said goodbye to them.
The portion on the ridge was quite windy, but warmer than down below so it was a bit tricky to know what layers to keep or remove.

We made couple of stops for snacks and eventually started descending back into the trees. The downhill wasn’t bad, but the last section, relatively flat in the forest, seemed to go on forever, I didn’t remember it being so long but again that was at the very start, on fresh legs.

Finally we made it to the car, all muddy and sweaty from the last section, but pretty pleased to be done. We changed to less muddy clothes and shoes and drove to the visitor center to return the bear cans, then we had to drive the 1.5 hours back to Dawson city.

I was hoping we could find a motel room to spend a night in and have a warm shower. But as we soon found out when we got into town, it was Saturday night and everything was booked. I got a bit annoyed as we’d almost booked a room for that night when we registered for the backcountry trip, but decided against it for some reason I couldn’t remember now.

We drove to a couple of RV parks and landed at the Bonanza Gold Motel and RV park, just outside of town.
Although it wasn’t very glamorous (the tenting area was on gravel near the road), it had showers and laundry. I was still intent on having a night in a bed, and I managed to book a room in the motel for the following night.

Our towels were soaked from drying our gear while in Tombstone, but we were able to rent a couple of towels from the motel office. They were surprisingly nice towels, all warm and fluffy, probably just out of the dryer, and that instantly made me feel way better.

Showers were $1 for 2 minutes. I put in $4 dollars, but 8 min ended up being quite a bit more than I needed. Still it was soooo nice to have a hot shower after 5 days of rain, cold, faint sunshine and more rain.

Once we were all cleaned up we headed to town for dinner. Weirdly, despite all the hotels being full, most restaurants were closed. We came to realize that opening hours in Dawson City were to be taken with a grain of salt, as, in the days and a half that we were there, we came across a few “Sorry we’re closed today” hand-written notes on doors. That night we ended up at the Sourdough lounge, adjacent to the Downtown Hotel, and had post-trek celebratory burgers and fries.

We’d been told that Dawson City had quite the nightlife, but for a Saturday night it seemed pretty tame (although we didn’t venture to the local casino, Diamond Tooth Gertie’s, famous for it’s nightly French Can Can Show). It’s possible the town was still recovering from it’s annual 3-day Discovery Days festival the week before, which apparently is pretty rowdy according to the two of Quebecois guys we’d met while in Tombstone. After dinner we went back to the campground and Brice took advantage of the late daylight to tidy up and reset all the hiking gear, food, etc. while I sat in the tent and finished writing up the tale of our five days of trekking.

In August of 2021, we drove more than 9000 km from Vancouver, BC to The Yukon and back. One of the highlights of our road trip was a 5-day backcountry trek in Tombstone Territorial Park.

Tombstone territorial Park is a 2200 square kilometre area of protected wilderness, offering stunning views of tundra landscape, incredibly rugged peaks, and home to abundant wildlife. The park lies within the Traditional Territory of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First nation and is a legacy of the Land Claim Agreement. It is managed in collaboration between the territorial government and the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First nation, with particular efforts on protection and preservation.

The park offers a wide range of hiking opportunities, including a 48km out-and-back backcountry circuit.

Dawson City

We got to Dawson City a bit after 3pm, and quickly looked for an outdoor gear place, after realizing that our small backpacking stove was out of commission – not ideal since we were about to head off for 5 days in the backcountry.

We found what we needed at the Trading Post, a neat shop that sells modern outdoor gear as well as a bunch of antique ones. It’s one of those stores that make you want to buy everything! I also bought a small sewing kit to fix up a hole in one of my gloves.
After that we headed to the airbnb booked for the right, a good way to comfortably reset and get our backpacking stuff ready for the next 5 days of t hiking and backcountry camping.

One thing we hadn’t quite sorted before arriving were bear canisters. They are required to go into Tombstone, to protect both the wildlife and people. We hadn’t bought or rented any as I had read somewhere that the park could lend us some, for a $60 deposit.

As I did a final check on the park website, I got a bit nervous as about being able to indeed borrow them so I ended up calling the Interpretive Center minutes before it closed at 5pm, and the confirmed that although they no longer rented them, they still had some on hand to lend. The park is quite far from Dawson so I guess they would still prefer people go in with the proper bear safety equipment than go without. There wasn’t really anywhere else to find bear canister in and around Dawson City. I don’t actually think the Trading Post sold them (but maybe they do) and the only possible rental was with the local adventure guides in town, but they wouldn’t open until 10am the next day – too late for us as we were headed to Tombstone at 7:30.

We had already purchased a number of dehydrated meals, so we put them and all other energy bars and snacks in ziploc bags, as was suggested in the park guidelines, to contain food smell as much as possible.
Once we were relatively ready for the next day, we went out to try and find a place to eat. At 9pm on a Monday, the only place we found open was the Drunken Goat and that night they appeared to be making pizza only – which we didn’t mind. It took 45 min to get our food, (we had been warned by the waitress from the get go, but there weren’t many other restaurant options). In the end the pizzas were pretty substantial and we took left overs home with us.

Day 1 – Hike to Grizzly Lake

There is a 1.5 hour drive from Dawson City to the Tombstone Interpretive center, which is actually 20km past the trail head for the backcountry circuit. We left around 8am and were there at 9:30am to collect a couple of bear canister in exchange for a cash deposit. In hindsight, although convenient when you show up without them, I would probably acquire bear cans before hand, as the only reason we drove to the center was to pick them up and return them – which also meant we had to be back before 5 pm on our last day, otherwise taking the risk of having to camp at the front country site and return them in the morning.

In any case, by 10am we were at the trail head and we organized all the food into the two cans. They seemed pretty full  but we might have been able to squeeze in a few extra snacks, I know I felt like I could have had more food during the 5 days, but of course that would also mean more weight. In the end we did alright with enough trail food, afternoon snacks and a couple extra lunch packs to complement protein and energy bars during the day. We had an assortment of dehydrated meals from several brands, which all turned out to be tasty very (especially so after hiking in the rain!)

The first day involved a 12km hike in to Grizzly lake, with 750m of elevation gain. The first 2.3 km were on a relatively flat single track trail, albeit very muddy and with lots of roots and rocks. Then we left the trees and started climbing to the ridge on exposed terrain, which was probably the most challenging part. It was rainy and windy, with zero visibility and for a moment I thought “what the hell are we doing, is it going to be miserable this way the whole time?”. But then I literally had another moment when I thought “Well, I could be grumpy the whole way, or I could NOT be grumpy the whole way” and just like that my mood changed. We stopped at some point, about 4km in, as we were both feeling the ass-kicking from that climb. and had a Naak bar to boost us up (which, as always, it did). 

The trail continued to climb more gradually along the slope, just below the ridge, and eventually we started to descend into the valley. The lower part of the trail wasn’t necessarily easier, it even got a bit more technical with rocky areas to cross at regular interval, and not a lot of smooth ground. Eventually though we made it to the campground, which, on a clear day, can actually be seen from quite a distance.

The campground was set up with a dozen or so tent pads along a well defined trail. Setting up a tent anywhere else is prohibited, as the ground is covered in very delicate tundra vegetation, moss and shrubs that take a long time to grow in this harsh environment.

The tent pads are some distance from the lake, and the trail continues down to its shore, passing a couple of outhouses on the way. The cooking tables and tents are set up near the lake, along with bear caches. All food must be prepared there, and stored in the caches, to avoid attracting animals  and especially bears, to the sleeping areas.

The cooking tents were pretty convenient shelters from the rain and provided good opportunity to chat with other hikers. We had a snack and got our tent set up. Since the weather was still pretty cold and wet, we tuckered in with a book until dinner time.

At dinner we chatted with two twenty-something guys from Quebec, who were planning on hiking to Talus lakes the next day (passing through Divide lake) to spend the night.

After dinner there wasn’t much to do other than go back to the tent and read for a bit, so we were pretty much in bed by 9pm. It rained overnight, but stopped in the morning.

Day 2 – Hiking to Divide Lake through Glissade pass

Second leg of the circuit, we hiked to Divide lake via Glissade Pass. The pass is only about 1km from Grizzly lake, but has an elevation gain of 450 m over 1/2 km. So it’s STEEP! The trail on the Grizzly lake side was a muddy path going through grassy areas and some rock patches. We pretty much put our head down and climbed on, passing hikers returning from the other side, trying not to slip down the muddy trail. This is when I thought to myself that hiking poles might be useful on the way back down, but oh well, let’s focus on getting to the top for now. Eventually we did, and although there were a bit of clouds on the summits we could see clearly the valley on the other side. The trail now descended just as steeply but this time through thick, loose shale, which turned out to be very fun, as the ground was loose enough that you could slide a bit but not so loose that you would lose balance and fall. It only took us 5-10 min to come down.

After that we had another 4km to go to Divide lake, around a slope to the left. Although relatively short, the trail was once again a mixture of technical dirt, rocky, boulder crossings, and we felt pretty happy when we arrived. We found a tent pad, set up camp and went for a snack in the cooking tent.

This time we chatted with Kendra and her mom Edie. We first thought they had hiked in the same way we did but soon found out they had been dropped off by helicopter at Talus lake, the furthest of the three lakes on the circuit, and were now hiking out over 5 days, taking a couple of rest days in the process,
Kendra was in her forties (I’m guessing), and her mom probably close to 70, so we were curious how she would fare on the pass and the hike out, having so far only covered the easiest 6km of the circuit. Kendra was being quite motherly with her own mom, and half-jokingly expressing concerns that she hadn’t been eating all the allotted food, so Kendra had to keep carrying it.

They very generously offered us some desert a couple of tortillas, and later some coffee packets when I thought we were out, all the while thanking us for taking that weight off their pack. They were a pretty amusing pair and we ended up chatting with them on several occasions, as we found them again at Grizzly lake on the same night we came back and hiked out the same day as us.

Weather being on the colder side, we retreated once again to the tent to relax between 5pm and 7pm, then had dinner before going to bed early- definitely earlier than what we had been doing while car camping, staying up by the campfire until 11 or 11:30pm since it was light out so late.