It snowed in the mountains last night.  Waking up to the cold crisp air,  golden Aspen trees and an autumn sky that’s a bright blue filled with brilliant white clouds scattered among dark grey storm clouds-it takes your breath away. Our only neighbors are a fisheries crew down at the end of the road. Is it selfish to be happy that we have this beautiful wild spot to ourselves?

Twenty years ago we were in this same spot, loading rafts for a ten day trip down the Tatshenshini River to Dry Bay Alaska. It was a trip neither of us will ever forget.  The thrill of our first whitewater encounter only surpassed by the huge grizzlies we floated by, quietly eating their salmon, ignoring us. Then the beauty of fields of purple pink fireweed surrounded by sapphire blue lupine and the surprise of floating among the crystal blue icebergs.  So close we could reach out and touch them.  Some of us pulled smaller chunks of ice out of the water , how often can you crunch on a piece of an iceberg?

It seems like it all happened yesterday.  We had always wanted to find this spot, we tried 3 years ago with Ruby the RS Adventurous but the road was a muddy mess and with a 20% incline we were worried we would never make it back up the narrow winding road.  With Ruby the Wild Heart and her four wheel drive we had no worries and we were so excited to reach the bottom and the river landing point. It really was like stepping back in time.  The memories came flooding back.  It was such a great trip and my birthday fell in the middle of it.  Jim surprised me and let our guides know about my birthday, so after dinner that night I was surprised with an incredible chocolate birthday cake-I felt like a little child !

Well we aren’t rafting this river now, too bad .  We have been here for three days and have enjoyed every single minute.  Jim has been trying to catch a coho salmon, they just started their migration up to Klukshu Lake.  I learned during this trip that Klukshu means a place for fishing-pretty appropriate.

So far no bites, but he loves being in a wild river surrounded by the majestic beauty of this spot.  We plan on staying one more night to try and catch the northern lights.  They are peaking early Thursday and Friday morning, fingers crossed for clear skies.

You can see from the clouds in these photos that we didn’t end up with clear skies.  The Northern Lights god was not with us this time.  That just gives us another excuse to return to the Yukon.  Yellowknife keeps working it’s way up our bucket list-someday soon.  That is supposed to be an incredible spot to see the Northern Lights.

We have decided this spot is definitely worth a return visit.  So if our plans continue on the path we have set for 2020 we will find ourselves back here.  But remember what has been said about making plans :

“Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.”
― Allen Saunders

The sun has set, and I am getting sleepier and sleepier so I bid you all a good night and sweet dreams…….