It is rare that, despite all of their faults, I would feel the need to warn someone about a Yukon campground. As a rule, they are safe, quiet, and a wonderful place to stay. They are scenic and most are on water.
However, I did see something this weekend at the Kusawa Lake campground that makes me wonder what some people are like.
The people in the next campsite have a 22’ aluminum boat. They were tied to the wharf next to the boat launch at the end, since they need reasonably deep water. On Saturday, they asked if I could move my boat, tied to the next wharf, a little further down the wharf to make room for them to tie there.
I had no problem with the request, although I was a bit curious. There was a rather stiff southerly wind and they were tied to the north side of the wharf, a far better place, particularly for a larger, taller boat.
After they got tied up, I asked why they moved. They told me they found a note in the boat. Someone had gone on their boat, went into the cabin, and left a note on their dash. Paraphrased, since I didn’t actually see it, the note said, “This wharf is for launching boats. If you leave it tied here, I will cut your lines and you can go looking for your boat at the end of the lake.”
Suffice to say, it is more than a little creepy.
Remember that this is one of the few wharves here and there is no rule about tying up here. And, what sort of wingnut threatens to cut a $150,000 boat loose because he or she doesn’t like the place you moored your boat.
So, when you come to Kusawa Lake, keep in the back of your mind that there is some congenital idiot out there who cannot be trusted. And, this is a sad state of affairs…
We came out after 5 PM and it was a nice drive. Clara sat on the passenger seat with Furball on her lap as a bit if an experiment to see if he found the trip better that way. Darcy had her seat belt harness on in the back seat. All went reasonably well until the halfway mark when Furball left Clara, headed into the back seat, made a few mournful meows and promptly up chucked.
It took a few minutes on the side of the road to clean up and the poor little guy was pretty clingy at that point. He spent most of the rest of the drive on the console between the driver and passenger seat with his head on my lap. By the time we reached the campground, he seemed much better.
This was a first. He’s normally a road warrior, although he does meow quite a bit on the way. That being said, he normally is rather talkative, since he has a fair bit of Maine Coon in him and they can be rather vocal. I suspect that being on Clara’s lap and being exposed to all of the scenery may have been a bit overwhelming.
We got to the campground and got set up quickly. There were a few things to get done that I hadn’t been able to do at home. We barbecued a quick dinner and settled down for bed at a relatively early hour. First, though, I introduced Clara to the game of Yahtzee. I beat her rather soundly in a few games before we went to bed.
The weather was overcast and it rained a bit. I opted not to set the alarm in hopes of catching some of the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. I’m hoping for better conditions tomorrow night.
August 12
Today could be summed up in one word: windy. It was far too rough to take the boat out, so we did a few things around the campsite. We read and I took the cats for a walk on their leads. We barbecued dinner. All told, a rather relaxing day.
I did stay overcast again so there wasn’t much hope of seeing meteors. However, it did get up to 23° so it was shorts weather. I’m not going to complain too loudly. There have been many years where I would have put my shorts away for the year by this point so it’s not that bad a thing.
Before going to bed, we discovered that Clara’s skills at Yahtzee have vastly improved and she won the majority of games from today.
August 13
I didn’t sleep well last night, so when 7 AM came around, and it was dead calm, I opted to go back to bed. By 11 AM, it was rather windy.
I did head out with the boat but really only made it as far as the second campground which is still partially sheltered. I trolled in front of it and the first campground loop for two passes, but there were very few fish on the fish finder. The ones I saw were all on the bottom, probably not feeding. I’ll try again after supper if the wind has dropped a bit.
Other than that, we spent the day reading and I took the cats out on their leads. Furball managed get under the motorhome and wrap himself around three struts and brackets before becoming completely stuck. Fortunately, there is enough ground clearance to rescue him easily enough.
I cooked dinner in the motorhome stove rather than barbecuing. It made for a nice dinner and a nice change. The wind did not drop off any over the rest of the day. In fact, it blew a bit harder by early evening. I’m going to have to set the alarm to try for about 6 AM and see if I can get down the lake a bit.
We played five games of Yahtzee. I only won the first one.
August 14
Today started with the wind. Over the course of the evening, Darcy became fixated on a moth on the window screen and tried to go out the screen after it. This involved jumping on me in the process. It took over an hour to calm her down and it was 3 hours before I got to sleep. Yes, I set the alarm for early fishing. No, that didn’t happen.
Because of the weather, we hung around the campsite. Much Yahtzee ensued, with Clara whomping me in some horrible example of how wedded bliss is not supposed to work.
That being said, Clara suggested the improbable game of sequential Yahtzee, where you get the required matches in order. I clobbered here, including getting Yahtzee in the allotted roll. Try this sometime. It’s a riot.
By after dinner, the wind had died down in front of the campsite, so I did go out for an hour to try fishing at the point and in front of the first campground. I had a nibble but that was all. I am jinxed this year. It has been almost three years since I caught a fish in Kusawa Lake, where I have almost always been successful.
After fishing, I did put some of the campsite away. I figure that that will let me get away a little earlier, since it is Mom’s birthday and I would like to get home at a reasonable hour to call her.
By 10:15, it was starting to actually get dark. There are some clear patches so we may see a meteor or two before all is said and done. I think it’s been too cloudy to see the Persieds here for four or five years.
August 15
No meteors. We get up and headed back. Furball was fine. Darcy rode willingly in her crate along the Kusawa Lake Road. In fact, she walked into it herself. When we got to the Takhini Burn rest area, I let her out and she got into her normal favourite spot on the dash. There she rode like a little sphinx. However, I did learn something just outside of town. Rain landing on the windshield you’re resting against is apparently rather disturbing to little cats…
My vaunted hopes of getting started early in the morning were dashed quickly when I realised I only had one complete large jerry can for boat gas. Since we were going to Kusawa, it would probably call for a fair amount of fishing, and gas requirements for that.
When I did pick up fuel for the boat and generator, and a cap for a second jerry can from downtown, Clara wasn’t feeling well. We waited a bit, but the threat of losing out on a campsite drove us to the compromise. I would head out today with the cats, and Clara would come out with the truck tomorrow. This would create one issue, in that launching the boat without help and with the motorhome is not an easy task. Therefore, Clara would come out in the truck, rather than her car, and we would use that to launch the boat.
I started off, and the drive was rather uneventful until we reached the turn off for the Kusawa Lake road. I was rather pleased with the condition of the highway. Although frost heaved in the usual locations, it wasn’t too bad at all. The Kusawa Lake road, however, was a mess. Most of the 25 km to the campground was washboard, and you couldn’t drive much more than 40 kph for the whole road. It took more than half an hour to get to the campground. It is more than time for Parks to get the road graded again.
I did get camp fully set up, though, since the option for fishing was gone. This included setting up the stabilizer jacks under the motorhome, which keep it from moving when you walk from one part to the other. Clara says this will eventually make her sea sick. I also bought a new camping tarp for the first time in four years and put it up. This is a more complete set up than I have bothered with for some time, and certainly the first this year.
The campsite.
The cats were far more at ease this trip, although neither expressed a great deal of happiness with the washboard road coming in. I put Furball in the larger carrier and he seemed OK with that. Like Darcy, he spend most of the run into the campground sleeping.
It was nowhere near as warm and sunny today as it was yesterday. It did climb up to 20° but was cloudy and muggy most of the day. Guessing that rain is coming sometime in the near future is not a huge issue. It did get a bit windy this afternoon, with whitecaps on the lake. This probably would have restricted my fishing anyway. Ah, aren’t the grapes sour? By 8 PM, though, the sun came out and the sky cleared.
Walking scenery.
I used this as an excuse for a walk. I did a 2.2 km walk around the campground and out to the stream that runs between the first group of campsites and the second. It was a beautiful evening for a walk, with enough of a breeze to keep the mosquitoes from being a problem. I’ll knock on wood now, since in the three camping trips so far, I haven’t used insect repellent once. It’s been buggy in the back yard, particularly since I need to repair my mosquito vac, but not in the campgrounds. Since I’m looking to go to Lake Leberge at the end of the month, a lack of camping mosquitoes would be deeply appreciated, especially there.
Furball has spent his first camping day at the bottom step, looking out at the world. He really is my worst worry about running away. Darcy is quite the homebody, and she has spent most of the first day on the upper bunk, looking down on the rest of the world. I seriously suspect that, if I left the door open, she’d stay on the upper bunk.
I did take the guys out for a bit of a run, and quickly found a very good spot to put their tie-out stake. Furball, normally, was far more adventurous. He was particularly interested in the birds in the trees above him.
Furball, timber kitty.
And, a bit after 10 PM, it seemed time to just sit back, watch the fire, and read my book until it was time to go to bed. After all, it’s peaceful and what could there be to worry about?
Camping. What could go wrong?
July 7, 2016
I woke up during the night a few times, since Furball decided it would be a wonderful evening to see how many times he could stop the circulation in my legs by lying on them. Other than that, and some cramping in my poor left hip, I did have a great night.
This was the first night on the new mattress. When I was going for knee surgery, the plan was to sleep downstairs on the sofa bed for the first little while, rather than go up and down the stairs on crutches. However, a quick measurement proved that the sofa bed was far too low for me to comfortably get in and out. This necessitated a quick change of plans and I tried to find a inexpensive mattress that would the double bed and allow me to have a higher place to sleep. I ended up buying a rather nice memory foam mattress.
This quickly led to the consideration of adapting it to the motorhome bed. The corner of the bed is cut off to allow for more access into the bathroom. I was going to cut down the foam mattress and resew the cover, along with finally having the incentive to tailor the bed clothes for the bed. However, it only does stick out about a few inches, since the mattress is a little bit narrower than the bed itself. No modification of mattress, and bed sheets, required.
P.S. The mattress is far more comfortable than the old one that came with the motorhome.
Today started well, with me cooking a nice, but late, breakfast at 9 AM. This does seem to be our traditional wakeup time camping when I’m not getting up really early to go fishing.
After breakfast, I put the cats on their tie outs and did a bit of cleaning up. Then, I made coffee and went to read outside with the cats. They did surprise a vicious squirrel who was probably coming to kill us all and drive him away, or least, that’s Furball’s point of view. However, there are three dogs in the next campsite, and when the neighbours woke up and took the dogs out, Furball was quite frightened of them. He made a beeline for the door, but his line was tangled around a tree and he literally backed out of his harness. I did manage to grab him and pick him up but he was so frightened, he scratched me while I was trying to get him back to the camper. Note to self: time to restock the first aid kit.
This is kind of strange, since the dogs are all quite small and Furball hasn’t really shown any fear of dogs before. Darcy seemed a bit leery of them, as usual, but Furball was genuinely frightened. He probably is bigger than two of them to begin with, and the next campsite is about 50 feet away. I did buy off his consternation with wet food, the favourite treat in the house for both cats.
After a short while, Clara came with Katrina and Ryan. They drove up in their car and my truck. We used the truck to get the boat loaded and I took the kids for a bit of a ride, about 15 km in total. I ran it full out to see how well the boat would run. It was perfect. So, after that, I refilled the fuel tank and headed out to the first point on the other side of the lake to troll back. It did not run very well at all, surging again. If my problem was bad gas, why do I still have the same problem with new gas and fuel system cleaner in it?
I trolled on this side of the lake, therefore, in case it quit on me. I fished along the next bay, past the third campground. There were lots of fish on the fish finder, but they were all sitting on the lake bottom in about 50 feet of water. Not feeding, I’m afraid. So, I decided to see how much sputtering there would be if I ran it wide open on the way back to the campground. It ran without a hitch. I am confused.
Note that one thing was not confusing and ran perfectly. This was the fish finder from the old big boat. Since the boat was going so cheaply, I kept some of the items from it. This included the old Garmin fish finder, which works wonderfully on the little boat. One thing that did not work so well were the two cans of Coke I packed for the trip. The little cooler was still on the floor of the camper when I came back.
We made supper and then had a nap. After an hour, I decided to try the boat again. This was the worst it’s been, before and after being fixed. I had started for the first point again, but decided to come back to the dock since I didn’t think the motor was actually going to last long enough to get back. It simply does not want to run with any load on it. Half of me thought of packing up the camper and taking it back to Checkered Flag first thing in the morning to see if they could actually fix it. I also did consider just heading back with the boat early tomorrow morning, but since I probably wouldn’t get it looked at until at least next week anyway. I am a little bit tired of the motor’s issues this summer, since it hasn’t worked well this year at all.
I did come back and go for my walk. I didn’t get very far tonight, just 1.6 km. I did follow that up with two more smaller walks. Neither Darcy nor Furball were interested in being staked out with dogs on leads 50 feet away, so I took each for a walk individually. At about 9, I put a fire in. It was time for s ’mores anyway.
All told, the weather was nice although it did look like it was going to blow up from the north for a while. It was sunny and got up to 20° again today. The sunset, or as close as you get to it here with the mountains, was lovely, with Mount Vanier being licked by the last rays of the bright sunshine.
As we sat reading a bit before bed, along comes a fox down the campground road. He was quite the size, and a cross fox as well. We don’t normally see foxes in this campground. I wonder if this is the end year of the rabbit cycle, since I haven’t seen many of those this year either.
July 8, 2106
It rained overnight and the wind blew. All of the tent poles blew down on the tarp over the picnic table, which led to the cats being fascinated with the ropes blowing to and fro. There was a great deal of scrambling to determine who would have the best window vantage point to watch things swaying the wind.
Through most of the day, it was quite cloudy. The sun did manage to peek through about 4 PM (for a little while). We did spend some time sitting under the awning, watching the cats on their leads. The people in the site next door with three dogs left around lunch time, so they were quite content to be outdoors.
However, despite the sun, a large black cloud appeared across the lake, followed by several rumbles of thunder. It looked pretty bad, so I battened down the campsite, put away the tarp and much of the cooking things. I also went and pulled the boat up onto shore just in case. When the wind blows out of the north here, it tends to blow quite hard and the lake can get pretty rough rather quickly. However, it usually calms down just as fast.
Storm clouds over Kusawa Lake.
I had started supper on the barbecue but finished it indoors because of the way the weather was turning.
About 8:30, all was sunny and calm again and the temperature went up to its rather consistent high of 20°. The low last night was only 13°, a nice temperature for sleeping. I went for a walk, about 1.3 km, and then remembered I had some fuel system cleaner in the motorhome. I pulled the boat back out far enough on the wharf to lower the engine and poured some of that in the fuel tank. I sloshed it around and ran the motor at idle for about 10 minutes. This won’t tell me if it works fine, which it has on occasion but not consistently, but will get a bit of the cleaner in the system to sit overnight and work, if, of course, that is the problem.
July 9, 2016
Morning started early, since I looked out the window when Darcy head-butted me awake a bit before 4 AM. This is normal, since she is a bit emotionally needy at times and needs her early morning cuddle to get through the night. However, I looked at the window at a lovely sunrise, so I grabbed the camera and walked down to the beach to get some pictures.
I quickly discovered the memory card was still in the computer, so walked back to get it. When I came back, a woman had set up her tripod on the same spot with much the same idea I had. She laughed and said, “I’m glad I’m not the only wingnut up at 4 AM.” I grabbed a few pictures, so I should throw one in for an example of what the mornings are like.
Sunrise on Kusawa Lake.
We did go back to sleep and got up at a more reasonable hour. After breakfast, I got the dishes and got out the gear to try the boat… again. It worked fine. I ran her up under power and there was no power loss, no sputtering and no hesitation. I am confused. I did troll a bit near the campground, since I’m still a bit hesitant to trust going to the narrows, about 9 miles down the lake with a motor that’s been undependable. I did take another speed run after trolling a bit, since the fish were all about 1 or 2 feet off the bottom. They’re sleeping, rather than feeding, when they’re there. I came back in when it looked like the weather was going to blow up a bit. Sure enough, another afternoon thunderstorm came up.
Thunderstorm.
With the storm, the lake was quite rough, although the bay in front of the campground was still quiet flat. The wind was blowing out of the south, and the point where the second and third campgrounds are does block off a fair amount of weather when there are southerlies.
I put a fire in a bit later, and wondered my standard epicurean question. Do marshmallows and chocolate go with a red or white? I read in front of the fire for a few hours, while Clara read inside the motorhome. I also managed to take each cat for a long walk, in spite of Darcy trying to pull a fast one and escape through the door when I was coming in. Both cats were far more adventurous than usual, and both went quite a ways. And, neither asked to come in for a change. They are rapidly becoming advanced camping kitties.
It stayed warm and muggy, even with the thunder. It hit a high of 21°, while the inside of the camper got to as high as 25°. Nighttime temperatures were quite comfortable though, every night.
I went back in, finished working on my log, and enjoyed a hot chocolate. Camping is strenuous.
July 10, 2016
During the evening, the cats raised quite a commotion. About 4 AM, they took turns running over us in the bed to the bedroom window, and then back to the kitchen window a few feet away. The were quite intent on something. This morning, when I was getting the generator started for the toaster (have I mentioned that camping is strenuous), there was a bit pile of fox crap right under our bedroom window. I think I get what the commotion was about.
I went to bed, feeling miserable with a headache and a sore throat. I woke up worse. We did grab a quick breakfast and started getting everything back together to come home. Clara drove my truck while I brought back the motorhome and the boat.
We also shared cats, with Clara taking Furball and me taking Darcy. Furball travelled with his seatbelt harness for the whole trip. He was good but was upset that I wasn’t in the truck with them. We met up at the Takhini Burn rest area, and he was fine after that.
I left Darcy in the carrier to the rest area, but put her in her seatbelt harness from that point on. She tried three time to get onto the dash, her favourite camping napping area, but fell since the lead was too short to let her get up. I succumbed, and reach over and unhooked her. She spent the rest of the trip on the dash in front of the passenger seat, happy as a clam. She sort of looked like a little sphinx, perched with her paws out in front of her, sound asleep…
Camping on Labour Day has become a family tradition in our household. This was a bit odd, in that I was the only one who went out this year.
I’ll admit, it was nice to get out at least one more time this year. At this point, our weather can go pretty “iffy” but I’m still holding out hope for more fall to come. Camping can be quite nice this time of year. There’s no bugs to speak of and the weather can be pleasant if you’re prepared for the odd nippy morning. And, with the leaves changing, particularly at higher elevations, the scenery is wonderful.
Fall fishing can be good, although this weekend was not spectacular. I went to Fox Lake, and despite the normal trend over the last few years for Fox to pick up after Discovery Day and Kusawa to tail off, the fishing was a bit sparse.
My choice off campground was based on more than fishing. I have found, over the past years that Fox Lake has become more of the family campground, while Kusawa Lake campground has become party central. Kusawa can be downright noisy through the night, and the YTG camp officers can’t be everywhere all the time. It’s not as bad as the government campground at Pine Lake, though…
I did get one lake trout: small, about 2 lbs. What struck me as odd this year is that the surface temperature of the lake is quite warm, 55° F throughout the entire weekend. I usually see it about 49° or 50° by this time in the fall. That probably explained why the fish were still down quite deep in the water column. Most of what I saw were hanging around clouds of bait fish in the 60 – 90′ range. Trying to get a line down that far, without snagging the bottom at the same time is not easy.
I had a few complications. My relatively new (bought late last year) Rapala trolling reel fell apart. The line counter quit earlier this year, and I hadn’t fixed it because you can’t even find a parts diagram online. The level wind crapped out this weekend.
Fortunately, my 20+ year old Penn was also in the boat. I did put it on my good rod and used it. Its one issue is that the clicker isn’t working, but I do have the online parts diagram from Penn and will check to see which one of two possible parts needs replacing. My 10 year old Penn 190 also needs a bit of repair, but both of these are off season repair plans. When winter comes, a little diversion that makes you think of spring coming is perfectly good, right?
The weather was a bit strange. It followed the progression of sunny, sun showers, cloudy with showers, just cloudy. Repeat as necessary. There was a slight interlude with a bit of hail with the sunshowers at one point while fishing Sunday afternoon.
I’m not ready to put either the camper or the boat away yet. The issue with the camper is freezing temperatures and when the local sani-dumps close up. I may fix that issue since I’m calling our plumber tomorrow to see about having a dump attached to the house sewer system. Putting the boat away usually doesn’t happen until some time in October. The Environment Department is planning to keep 10 campgrounds serviced until the end of September, and they usually are available without services until the end of October for the hardy.
I will say one thing about the fall. I’m not the biggest fan of what it portends in the future, but it is damn pretty…
I haven’t posted a lot lately, but this is due to us either being camping or getting ready for camping. We’ve made two trips since I last put something up on the blog.
We went back to Fox Lake for five days, although conditions were quite different. There was no more flooding, the weather was quite sunny, and there was no snow this time. We brought out the boat with the camper and I managed to get a few days of fishing in. I’ll admit, Fox Lake is not the world’s greatest place to fish for lake trout. However, I’m happy bobbing up in a down in a boat on a nice, peaceful lake, even when the fish are not cooperating.
I did get one fish, but it was quite small. It was of legal, but not moral, size. The fish was about 12″ long, and I prefer my “lakers” to be at least 16″ long before I keep them. After all, it is still a baby.
I was pleased to see that the flooded out campsites and roads had been repaired. It was a little rough, since some of the gravel in the sites wasn’t packed down as much as the old sites, but this opened another eight sites at the campground.
We were able to get a site just above the creek and you could see the little waterfall that’s about 20 yards upstream from the site. In the picture above, you can see our campfire and the little waterfall in the background.
As you can see, Clara is enjoying the bright sunlight in here zero gravity chair. She spent the time enjoying the campsite while I spent much of my time trolling for trout.
As mentioned, the weather was really nice. It was nice enough to go out in the boat in shorts. This had a bit of a down side, since I managed to sunburn my knees. I didn’t burn the upper parts of my legs, or the lowers. All that turned out crispy were my knees. For what it’s worth, it did look a lot worse than it actually was. They seemed warm for the first day but didn’t really end up hurting. I could have done far worse, I suppose.
We headed out to our favourite campground last Wednesday. This is Kusawa Lake, a little more than an hour west of Whitehorse (60° 35’N, 136° 9’W).
We left about 4 PM and it was almost the last trip we took. There is a turnoff from the Alaska Highway to the campground road. I signaled my left turn, started to slow down, and checked my side mirror. I learned the last part in the two Defense Driving courses I’ve taken (one in high school and one in the army). The car behind me was slowing down but the idiot behind him decided to pass both of us. He should have been able to see the turn signals so he probably knew exactly what they were doing, and did it anyway. I caught a bit of his facial expression and he seemed unhappy with what I screamed at him while waving a one-finger salute. If I didn’t have the motorhome and boat behind us, I may have followed him down and yelled at him at his first stop. I’ll admit, visions of a tire iron may also have crossed my mind. It was a dark blue Toyota or Subaru, by the way.
We spent five days at Kusawa, and in a trend, the fish weren’t biting much there either. I did catch two trout, one about 1½ lbs. and one about 2½ lbs. I froze these and will smoke them some time this week. The weather was hot, with temperatures in the high twenties, except for Thursday. There was a nice overcast and it only got up to 23°. It’s hard to argue with weather like this for a whole weekend, and we enjoyed it to the fullest.
There were three more things to the trip that were an annoyance. First, the neighbours on one side of us had the most whiny dog. He was constantly whining and the neighbours really didn’t seem interested in doing anything about it. On the other side, the other neighbour was a bit of a winner, too. There was someone who moved into the site Thursday afternoon and, before that, there was nothing at that site at all. A little later Thursday, this guy shows up and says he had that site and, basically, kicked the other people out of it. If you like trends, the people at the two sites on either side of us were together.
The third problem was the road itself. I have never seen the road in such rough shape. There are 11 km of washboard, and some of the dips in the washboard are three or four inches. It is one lane in a few places and there is no evidence the government has graded it this year. Before they fixed it almost 20 years ago, it was better than it was this week. And frankly, that annoys me since, for the last three years, you see the following sign at the beginning of the road…
Doug Rutherford 