Day 38 of Lupe’s 2017 Dingo Vacation to the Yukon & Alaska!
7:48 AM, 59°F along the North Klondike River – Overcast again! At least it wasn’t foggy this morning. Lupe’s right rear paw was doing better, too. While SPHP made breakfast, Looper explored the bushes near the river, or sniffed around the huge pullout near the Dempster Highway.
After breakfast, Lupe and SPHP headed S on the Dempster Highway. Fall colors were already spectacular here in the Yukon!
Near kilometer 58.5, SPHP found the turn to the W (R) to the Grizzly Ridge trailhead. A surprising number of vehicles were in the parking lot, but plenty of room remained for the G6.
9:36 AM, 61°F overcast with a light S breeze, Grizzly Ridge trailhead – As soon as she set out on the Grizzly Ridge trail, Lupe knew this was going to be an epic day! She found 3 squirrels in short order up in the spruce trees of the boreal forest. A rushing stream nearby couldn’t drown out the shrill enthusiasm of the excited American Dingo.
The first part of the Grizzly Ridge trail climbed gradually through the forest. The trail was in good shape and easy to follow. Tree roots were frequently encountered, but were only minor annoyances. Yellow bushes brightened the forest beneath the dark green canopy of the spruce trees. The trail came to two creeks, but didn’t cross them.
Lupe loved being in the forest!
This first part of the trail was easy! Near the end, Lupe came to several sets of well-constructed stairs. By now she had gained enough elevation so the spruce trees were starting to thin out. Beyond the stairs, the trail began climbing more aggressively. Soon trees were few and far between. Colorful bushes dominated the landscape.
The trail became an increasingly steep grind up Grizzly Ridge. Lupe was sad to leave the forest and its lovely squirrels behind. However, she now enjoyed impressive views. Brilliant bushes blanketed the mountainsides to such an extent that entire mountains looked crimson, orange, or gold. On a clear day, the brilliance of the colors would have been unreal. Even beneath the cloudy sky, astonishing beauty was on all sides.
Down at the trailhead, there had been a bit of a breeze. Now that Lupe was up on the exposed slopes of Grizzly Ridge, the breeze was a SE wind, not a light one, either. As the Carolina Dog continued gaining elevation, the wind became more and more powerful. Looper kept going, though. Soon she would be high enough to see Grizzly Lake.
The trail continued up and up. Lupe climbed and climbed. Eventually she was high enough so that even the bushes started disappearing. Looper entered a zone of tundra. The trail was rockier now. The wind swept over the ridgeline at 30 to 35 mph, with gusts that made it hard for SPHP to maintain balance.
The Grizzly Ridge trail must be popular. Two days ago, Lupe hadn’t seen anyone when she climbed Surfbird Mountain. Yesterday she’d met 4 or 5 people on the Goldensides trail. By the time Lupe was way up in the tundra on Grizzly Ridge, she had already met twice that many people. They were all on their way down, heading back to the trailhead.
Ahead, the ridge leveled out and narrowed. The trail went right across the top of the narrow area. At the start of this section, Looper met a group of 4 hikers, who were also on their way back to the trailhead. The wind was blowing something fierce up here. Everyone was huddled on the N side of a minor rock outcropping taking a break from the wind.
One of the hikers noticed that SPHP wasn’t using hiking poles. This guy immediately expressed concern. He practically screamed into the wind that it wasn’t safe to go any farther without poles. Even with them, the wind was blowing so hard, he had barely made it across. He held out his hiking poles at nearly a horizontal position to demonstrate how hard he had fought to avoid being blown entirely off the ridgeline. He screamed that the ridge ahead was very narrow, pronounced the wind a virtual hurricane, and screeched that it was SCARY!
This was a somewhat unnerving display of no confidence to say the least. That the wind was strong there was no doubt, but was it really that bad? Would SPHP get blown into the canyon to the N? Would the Carolina Dog unwillingly take flight and sail helplessly into the abyss?
Lupe sheltered behind the rock outcropping for 5 minutes with the rest of the hikers. When they started getting ready to continue their descent, Loopster and SPHP struck out along the windy ridgeline in the opposite direction.
SPHP crouched. Loopster kept her head down. Forward! Despite the gale, the American Dingo did not take flight. SPHP managed to stagger onward. The ridgeline was narrow, but not as bad as that hiker would have had one believe. It wasn’t fun in this wind, but scary is relative to what one is accustomed to. SPHP didn’t think this was so bad. Looper hated the wind, but she wasn’t frightened, either.
Beyond this narrow section, the wind started to ease up. The Grizzly Ridge trail gains more than 2,600 feet of elevation from the trailhead to its high point. The American Dingo had already gained the vast majority of that elevation. As the ridge continued higher, the trail stayed to the S below the ridgeline.
As the wind continued to ease, Lupe caught glimpses of Grizzly Lake. Encouraging! The sky, however, was looking darker than before, and Grizzly Lake was still a long way off.
The Carolina Dog kept going. The mountaintops had disappeared in fog a while ago back to the E. Now it looked like it was raining over there.
Lupe soon came to a place where a rocky hill sat a little S of the trail. From the saddle between the rock formation and Grizzly Ridge, Loop had her best view of Grizzly Lake yet. Things were certainly looking gloomy over there.
Within a couple of minutes, Grizzly Lake disappeared completely. A rain shower was working its way down the Grizzly Creek valley straight for Lupe’s position. It wouldn’t take long to get here. SPHP donned the rain poncho. There was room for the pack and Lupe to get up underneath it, too. On the E side of the big rock formation, Loopster sat on SPHP’s lap inside the rain poncho.
The rain began immediately. Gray clouds scudded by 500 to 800 feet above, all but the closest mountains vanished, wisps of fog streamed by. Of course, the question was, how long was this going to last? If this was going to turn into an all day affair, which seemed entirely plausible, Lupe might as well beat a retreat to the G6 now.
Loop and SPHP sat there waiting as rain poured down driven by the wind. No cloudburst, or anything like that, but steady, relentless. The rain poncho, aided by the rock formation, was working. The Carolina Dog stayed dry.
For 30 minutes nothing changed. Rain fell everywhere, in every direction. Finally, it slackened. The sky looked lighter toward Grizzly Lake. The rain returned, however. Lupe and SPHP waited out another couple of brief showers over the next 15 minutes. When it was nearly over, Loopster hit the trail again. Onward! Puppy, ho!
The trail now went up and down, still gaining net elevation slowly, as it wound along the upper S side of Grizzly Ridge. The ridge was much broader here than back at that windiest narrow section. The rain soon quit entirely, and, thankfully, the wind died down to a gentle breeze. The sky remained overcast, but not so darkly as before.
The top of Grizzly Ridge was now often considerably higher than the trail. However, Loop did round corners a couple of times to find places where the ridgeline dipped down to the trail’s level. At these saddles, the Carolina Dog could see into the deep canyon to the N. A cluster of high mountains was visible off to the NW.
For a while, Lupe had views of Grizzly Lake. She was getting closer and closer, but still had a long way to go. The clouds had now lifted enough so she could see one of the iconic peaks of Tombstone Territorial Park. Mount Monolith (7,000 ft.) could be seen on the R above and beyond other towering spires closer to the lake.
(Note: To see topo maps after clicking on any mountain link in this post, switch from CalTopo to MyTopo at upper L on the Google dynamic map.)
The Grizzly Ridge trail reached its highest elevation beyond the last of the dips where the trail reached the ridgeline. By now, the ridgeline was much higher than the trail, and stayed that way the rest of the way to Grizzly Lake.
Due to the configuration of the terrain, Grizzly Lake was no longer in view. The trail went up and down over a series of big benches where there were alpine meadows, and sometimes bushes. In between these meadows, the trail ascended or descended rocky hillsides. On balance, Loop was now gradually losing net elevation.
At last, Lupe rounded a corner, and saw the glorious sight she had come all this way to see. Beyond a golden slope, Grizzly Lake lay nestled at the foot of towering stone spires. Toward the R, Mount Monolith (7,000 ft.) soared above all else. The promised land! One of the greatest sights of Tombstone Territorial Park!
Grizzly Lake was no longer that far away. Lupe and SPHP hurried on, but the trail crossed many boulder fields here that slowed SPHP down. Lupe saw an unusual bird. SPHP didn’t know what kind of bird it was, but it sure had a gorgeous home.
Suddenly, Lupe was there, crossing Grizzly Creek where it left the lake! The stream was so low, SPHP easily rock hopped across, too.
Beyond the creek, Lupe reached the Grizzly Lake campground. A gravel walkway wound among a dozen campsites consisting of plastic grids within wooden frameworks. Lupe passed by a solitary blue tent, but no one was there. Past the campsites were two outhouses raised 8 feet above the ground. The doors were reached by sloping metal walkways. If they’d had windows, the outhouses would have had commanding views of Grizzly Lake.
Down closer to the lake, two big white tents were set up. In one of them, two women were cooking dinner. One of the women about jumped out of her skin, when SPHP asked if they had the time. She hadn’t heard Lupe coming.
The women were from Germany, and friendly enough after recovering from the shock of being disturbed. It was 5:00 PM. SPHP thanked them. Lupe went on down to the shore of Grizzly Lake. It had taken more than 7 hours to get here. Sadly, the American Dingo couldn’t stay long. The G6 was 11 mountainous kilometers away back at the trailhead.
Half an hour, Loopster, that’s all we’ve got.
Lupe and SPHP spent the half hour by the rocky E shore of Grizzly Lake. A bit of sunshine would have been amazing! If only. Lupe had been in Tombstone Territorial Park for 3 days now, and hadn’t seen the sun yet, except as a bright, white spot in the clouds. In truth, the Carolina Dog had been lucky the weather had been good enough to get here.
It was too bad Loopster and SPHP weren’t equipped to spend the night. Sigh. A permit is required for backcountry camping, anyway. Staying here would have been awesome, though.
A couple of trails leave Grizzly Lake for other fabulous destinations. The Twin Lakes trail goes over a ridge SW of the lake to a viewpoint where Mount Monolith can be seen. A longer trail goes N over Glissade Pass to Divide Lake. From there, a second trail continues on to Talus Lake for a view of Tombstone Mountain (7,192 ft.).
None of that was going to happen for Lupe, at least not in 2017. Who knew, though? Maybe another time.
Lupe’s wonderful half hour at Grizzly Lake ticked away. She stayed by the E shore, together with SPHP, the whole time. Loop devoured Taste of the Wild. SPHP ate pudding. There was hardly any wind. Waves lapped gently up against the rocks lining the lake’s edge. Every moment was to be savored. Grizzly Lake was Lupe’s last big adventure in the Yukon.
Grizzly Lake was magnificent, and the rest and relaxation had been helpful, but time was up. Better get going. SPHP wasn’t at all certain it would be possible to follow the trail over the rockier parts in the dark. Lupe needed to at least get beyond those questionable areas before the light faded away. Parting photos, and it was Puppy, Ho! once again.
It was a long trudge. For several hours, Lupe traveled through light mist. There were more rock fields to cross than SPHP remembered. The mist eventually quit, however, and Loopster was making good progress. There was no wind at all now, which helped a great deal. Light would fade early again tonight with the cloud cover. No more breaks allowed than necessary to catch breath.
Although Lupe had met more than a dozen people on the way to Grizzly Lake, no one was on the trail on the way back. By the time she reached the forest again, it was pitch black. SPHP wore the headlamp set on red, and carried a flashlight. The forest was a short portion of the overall journey, but seemed to go on forever. Lupe was tired. SPHP was tired. It had been an incredible day, but both were ready for it to end.
11:18 PM, 50°F at the Grizzly Ridge trailhead – Well, it was over. Time for dinner, such as it was. Simple fare for sure. Too tired to do anything else. Lupe finished the 30th can of Alpo she’d had on this trip. Then she was out like a light, snoozing peacefully beneath her blankie on top of her stack of pillows and blankets.
SPHP had a harder time. Everything ached. Oh, well. It would all get better. It had all been worth it, too. Tomorrow Lupe would start for home. The rest of her Dingo Vacation would be mostly spent on long, relaxing, scenic drives. Loop would still have a couple more adventures on the way, but the Most High Exalted Dingo of the Arctic Sisterhood was now completely done in the Yukon and Alaska in 2017.
SPHP was glad that Lupe had come here to Tombstone Territorial Park. She almost hadn’t, you know. What a fantastic place this turned out to be! Surfbird Mountain, Goldensides Mountain, and Grizzly Lake had all been big successes for Loop amid splendid scenery at what had to be the height of autumnal glory.
Tombstone Territorial Park was a long way from home. Who knew, though, maybe someday Lupe would return? A happy thought!
Related Links:
Surfbird Mountain, Oligvie Range, Tombstone Territorial Park, Yukon Territory, Canada (9-4-17)
Goldensides, Oligvie Range, Tombstone Territorial Park, Yukon Territory, Canada (9-5-17)
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