Our first day in Kluane was a bit blahh. Not bad by any means, but we set out to do the “Auriol” hike and had high expectations. It was OK, but not really my cup of tea.
We started off in snow shoes, walking through the forest, alongside cross-country tracks. Neither of us were enjoying the snow shoes as it wasn’t really the right terrain, so after about 1km we headed back to the car & switched them for our crampons. We then re-started. There was a lot of walking through the trees, until about 4km in when you could take a side route to a few view points. This part was fun. Luckily someone had been before us in snowshoes so we followed their trails to the top; it would’ve been way too deep & powdery to get to the top in just our crampons otherwise!
We stopped for another nice lunch in the trees & eventually made it to the top where there was a nice view. It was nothing compared to Fish Lake though. Then we descended, again the first part was fun but the end part in the trees was a bit monotonous. Etienne liked it more than I did, I found it a bit boring by the end – just not my kinda trail!
We then headed into Haines Junction which was the nearest ‘town’ to our accommodation, in search of Wi-fi. We wanted to message Lene to ask if we could stay another night at hers, as we didn’t want to extend in the cabin. (We’d left the final night ‘open’ so we could choose once we arrived.) We stopped at a Motel but there was no-one at reception. There was a note next to the door addressed to people checking-in with a number to call though; I picked up the note & there was the Wi-fi network & password listed on it… RESULT!* We sponged this & sent our message, before heading back to the cabins for the night.
When we got to the site, we grabbed our jacket potatoes, baked beans & marshmallows and headed up to the chalet up top. We passed Roger on the road up; he’d started the firepit for us, left some foil for our potatoes & said we were welcome to use the kitchen & dining room.
It was such a lovely end to the day – deffo made up for the rubbish not-my-kinda hike! We cooked our potatoes on the fire (donning ski goggles to protect us from the smoke as the wind was crazy), then sheltered in the dining room over-looking the mountains.
When the sun had set we made our way back to our cabin for the night – we’d lit the fire before dinner so it was super warm & cozy again. Perfect for another great night’s sleep. 👌
*In hindsight we were insanely lucky with this find. There was hardly anything in Haines Junction & pretty sure this was the only Wifi in town. 🙃 (Back to top)
