Stowaway (s)

This is our last day of exploring in the Kluane National Park. It’s a little wet but we plan on taking a few hikes before we leave. The first one is a nice trail called the Spruce Beetle trail and has an informative set of tables as we walk through, showing examples of the effect of the beetle on the trees and forest and the frequent fires.

It is quite amazing how nature combines to either make the beetle disappear through sap being released by the tree in a defence tactic or the beetle overwhelms the tree by bringing with it on its wings a fungus that gums the sap up and stops it from flowing and trapping the beetle. Amazing. Times of disturbance to the forest for example when the Alaska Highway was being built, resulted in unprecedented beetle attacks as the forest as it was more vulnerable from the disruption.

As we come out the turning fireweed is quite stunning.

Before we head out to the second trail along the Dezadeash river in Haines Junction, André opens one of our storage hatches and notices Mr. Sonic mouse in the bucket. With great speed, presence of mind and coordination he flicks the bucket out trapping the mouse inside the bucket on the ground. As I approach we release the mouse which darts into the forest at high speed, a life is spared. We see that it was planning to winter in Big Bertha as some insulation has been shredded into the start of a nest. That was a close call!

We decide to stop in at the new visitors centre in Haines Junction, as we have seen the new building looking very impressive and we have heard about it. As we leave, we stop in to check it out. It is incredibly well set out, there is a really well done focus on First Nations history in the area, the journey of their return to their roots, heritage and clan languages. A momentous agreement was achieved around land claims which required many meetings between the different clans and then with the Canadian government to achieve a final settlement in October 2003. The amount of collaboration and work that was needed is evident in the quality of this information centre.

We leave Kluane with more fond memories and head for the Tahkini river campground to be closer to Whitehorse for when we need to return Big Bertha.

Unfortunately the road is so bad to the campsite , that we decide just to camp in a pullout by the river. Big Bertha is level, it is peaceful and all we hear is the flow of the river and the trumpeting of the Trumpeter white swans until …..

At about midnight we are woken up by some scuttling sounds inside the van and André actually sees a mouse hurtling around. For a good 15 mins, we again think that somehow we can find and scoop this little visitor outside but of course he is much more cunning than our attempts. We try and get back to sleep but periodically the mouse ventures out and we hear “mouse noises”. In the end we give up and get up at 5.30am. We can’t understand how the mouse can be on the inside of a the van as the cupboards seem so well sealed. André goes to get our bags to pack and there are two more mice running around in that compartment unimpressed that their home building activities are being interrupted. With a broom we manage to get one flying out the door but the other one disappears.

Time for Whitehorse , we get in to the front cabin and notice we have a long crack in the windscreen. This is a $750 repair bill on our rental but for the fact , that for the first time ever in all our rental history I had a bit of a premonition and we tagged on a daily $15 insurance cover for any damage to the vehicle. This means it has cost us $150 instead.

We return Big Bertha and get another discount for our mouse travails so the windscreen only cost $40 in the end 👍

We have a full day to explore Whitehorse and it’s many galleries. We find out that my favourite artist that makes amazing polymer beads and jewellery does not display in Whitehorse anymore, but we have her name now and maybe an online order will be the go.