Toad River - Tetsa River, BC
June 18

It rained Monday evening, but it was nice in the morning. Today was one of the BIGGEST climb days--certainly the most obvious. We climbed to the highest point on the Alaska Highway -- Summit Lake (elevation. 4,250') on Stone Mountain.

It was only a 51 mile day, but we climbed 2,730'. I didn't think it was as tough a climb as we experienced on the 100 mile day in Alaska where we climbed over 4,000 feet.

Summit Lake
Casio QV30 photos

At the lunch stop, I was suffering quite a bit from a poor sleep and wondered about opting for a sag ride to the summit, but, I decided that I wouldn't want to miss the challenge and sense of accomplishment, so opted to die trying rather than wimping out.

lunch stop
Kodak DC50 photo (by Nelson Kibler)

It was real work and I wasn't fast at all, but I did it and felt like king of the mountain when I stopped to call home from the Summit Lake store.

We saw caribou,

Caribou
Kodak DC50 photo (by Nelson Kibler)

sheep, bear, a moose,

Moose
Kodak DC50 photo (by Nelson Kibler)

and a loon today.

Loon
scanned photo

There are four species of loon in the north country.

• Common loons have a patch of short, thin, vertical white stripes on their throat with another dark strip below that, and a dark green or black head. They have white stripes on their breasts and their backs are dark with bars and spots of white. They live in coniferous forests and in the Aleutian Islands. They nest near water, and prefer lakes away from people and other loons for they are very territorial.
  
• Yellow-billed loons have bigger white spots on their backs and a bright yellow bill. They don't "talk" as much as the common loons. They nest near tundra lakes, streams and rivers farther north than the common loons.
  
• The red-throated loon is smaller than the common and yellow-billed loons, and it has a grey head instead of black or dark green. They like to live on small, shallow lakes.
  
• Arctic loons also have white bars and spots on their backs, but they are a purpley black. They live near lakes in coniferous forests or tundra.

Loons eat fish, aquatic vegetation, insects, mollusks, and frogs. They are excellent divers, perhaps the best diving birds. They can stay under water over one minute and have been caught in nets 200 feet deep. They have also been known to fly 60+ mph and they land breast first instead of with their feet like most birds. Loons are very solitary.

One always wishes for a good downhill after a grueling climb. Often on this trip, our expectations have been thwarted by headwinds or construction. Not so today. Adding to my good feeling from the climb to the top of the summit, was a fabulous downhill toward the Tetsa River. I reached 40 miles per hour. It was a great downhill; so great that Bob trudged back to the summit to do it again. What a speed freak. He got to to something like 50 mph.

The lodge at Tetsa River (Tetsa River Services: a horse ranch somewhat reminiscent of something from the movie City Slickers), was one of the most pleasant (and one of my favorite places on the trip).

Tetsa Lodge
Kodak DC50 photo (by Nelson Kibler)

They had a very comfortable area to sit and while away the afternoon.

Carol, Bob, Ed, Tim at Tetsa River Lodge Kodak DC50 photo (by Nelson Kibler)

shower facilities (note dog sled) Casio QV30 photo

And, last but not least (by any means), they had GREAT baked goods.

Fresh from the oven at Tetsa Lodge
Kodak DC50 photo

I've never liked cinnamon, but love caramel buns. Well, they had cranberry buns here that were the best I've ever eaten. We got in early enough that we sat around for hours eating buns, doing our laundry, showering, sending postcards, computing, etc.

I didn't get much computing done because I was told that the power was dangerously variable and the lodge owners (who have their own website), use only their solar generator to power their computer. The only telephone access from the lodge was via satellite phone. It was not capable of handling data and was too expensive to use for that purpose, so I saved everything to disk for the next time I would be able to upload.

51 Miles

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© Ed Noonan 1996, 1997