We went just below that snow patch that we can see higher up in the middle.

Beautiful arnica flowers everywhere on the trail!

The beautiful beach in Carcross along Lake Bennett.

We wanted to do one overnight hike before leaving on our 5 day/4 nights hike on the Chilkoot trail next week. We decided to combine a bike ride on the awesome trails of Montana mountain in Carcross (45 min from Whitehorse) with a hike up Sam McGee/Mountain Hero trail. This trail was originally made to service the tramway built in 1905 by Sam McGee for a silver mining operation. There are many remnants of the tramway and mining artifacts along the trail.

When we arrived in the alpine after a slow 3 hour climb in the forest, we quickly found a great spot to set camp. The view from the top is fantastic, with Windy Arm of Tagish Lake below, and all of the surrounding mountains. We all sat in silence, in awe of this incredible wild land, thankful for it all. And thankful for all this amazing nature, from the scraggly moss I used to scrub the pots and dishes in the freezing creek, to the beautiful arnica we collected to make a healing oil for our sore muscles, the deliciously sweet wild rose petals we ate along the way and the chewed up yarrow leaves we put in Mathilde’s nose to stop a nose bleed.

And yes, it was every bit as idyllic as it looks... Except maybe for the sleeping part, because, well, sleeping in a tent on a ridge over the tree line 3 days before summer solstice is a challenge! Let’s just say that I could read my book at 2 am without a headlamp… And there was the full moon... And by 6:30, we were dying in the tents because the sun was so hot! Oh my beautiful Yukon!

*Photo note: these pictures have all been taken with my phone (a Samsung Galaxy S7) with the Camera FV-5 app and imported into DXO Optics Pro (a photo enhancement software that I LOVE). I’m pretty happy with the result! It’s nothing like my Nikon, but it works.

We woke up at 10 am on Sunday morning to a grey sky. We had had a nice evening in town at our friends Elise and Ludo's and were planning a slow day when Elise and Ludo showed up on their way to Carcross, where they were going hiking. We quickly packed a lunch and decided to join them. On our way there, it started raining... It's been that kind of summer here... So we ate our lunch in the rain, putting on all the layers we had, then sat in the car to wait for the rain to stop. Ten minutes later, we were good to go! As we started ascending, the sun came back and we stripped down to shorts and t-shirts!

Mountain Hero is a gorgeous hike that quickly has very rewarding views. It once was a copper mine and there are still cables and artefacts from the mining period. It is all ascent, however, so half way through, JF, Ludo and Aïsha decided to keep going to the top, while Elise and I went back down with the other girls.

It felt great to be in the wild again and the forest smelled amazing after the rain. Elise had the girls do singalong songs to signal our presence to the bears. They were hilarious! It makes my own heart sings to see my girls connect with their Yukon friends so easily.

We then met up at the new café in Carcross after the hike and the girls had homemade lemon and passion fruit sorbetto. It was such a wonderful spontaneous day!

An incredible weekend in Carcross, Yukon (overnight hike + bike)

Moutain Hero