Rafting and hiking with Kate and Jordan

"The Nozzle" is the first drop on the Tutshi River. The river narrows between large rocks as it drops about 6 feet down. The nozzle isn't quite wide enough for a raft to fit through.

As we scouted from shore our guide explained that we would have to hit the chute on the exact right line and then lean hard right as we rode up onto the rock on the right side of the nozzle. Failure would almost certainly result in the raft flipping. My niece Kate took it all in and announced, "I think I'm going to poop myself."
Kate and her boyfriend Jordan came up for a whirlwind visit the first week of July. With the limitless energy that comes from being in their 20's, they wanted to jam as much as possible into the 8 days they had in the Yukon. Being a little bit older, Cyd and I just tried to keep up as best we could.

We did have one day of gear checking, food packing and general orientation before things got too hectic. Early Sunday morning we headed down the South Klondike Highway towards Skagway Alaska to raft the Tutshi River. It was the first time for any of us on the Tutshi, a small, steep mountain river that flows down from the summit of the White Pass into Tutshi Lake.
Although no photos exist to prove it, we all survived the Tutshi. On Monday we did the long drive north to backpack in Tombstone Territorial Park.

We had planned to hike with the dogs of course, but Gulliver was suffering from a slightly torn knee ligament, so he stayed home while Ripley learned all about hiking on lead for four days.

Unfortunately lingering deep snow on the north side of Glissade Pass (remember this is the first week of July) meant it was closed to hiking. So instead of hiking to Grizzly, Divide and Talus Lakes as planned, we hiked into Grizzly Lake, base camped there for three nights and did day hikes to the top of Glissade Pass and up to Twin Lakes viewpoint.

Ripley checking out the trail into Grizzly Lake.

Grizzly Lake

The hiking into Grizzly Lake was long and rocky, but the whole trip was spectacular. With all the research and planning we'd done for the US and South America parts of our trip, we hadn't given a lot of thought to the Yukon. If it wasn't for the damn winter weather, we could have easily spent a year exploring incredible wilderness without ever leaving home.

Grizzly Lake from the top of Glissade Pass.

Kate, Jordan, Cyd and Ripley with Twin Lakes below.

Cyd heading down from Twin Lakes viewpoint.

After hiking out starting at 7:00 AM on Friday, we headed to Dawson City for dinner, live music and to make a donation at Diamond Tooth Gertie's Casino. Saturday we raced back to Whitehorse for my nephew Zak's birthday dinner with his girlfriend Kia, his two sisters and my parents all in attendance.

Sunday was departure day, and Cyd and I enjoyed taking Kate and Jordan to the airport at 5:00 AM. Really we did. It's always fun to share the amazing place we choose to make our home, and it was great to show them a little bit of the Yukon in the short time they had.