Day 31 - Tombstone

Hike, Rain, Hike

After last night's rain, we woke to a sunny morning on the day of the Summer Solstice.

It was a bit cool, so I started another campfire while Ellen and Sally were out birding. It was a good day for pancakes for breakfast...banana pecan pancakes, of course. I got out the propane grill and its griddle plate and when Ellen returned we were ready to eat. Nothing like breakfast by the fire on a cool, sunny morning.

After breakfast we embarked on a morning hike toi the nature trail to a beaver pond. We walked over to the visitor center where we chatted with a ranger who was interested in birds and had some tips for Ellen and sally as to where they might find interesting species like the Northern Hawk Owl.

It was off to the nature trail that ran along the river to a beaver pond about a mile away. The pond was pretty impressive. The beavers had built a terraced ponds with several layers of dams. We found the lodge, but no beavers were making themselves seen. We did spot a Spotted Sandpiper poking along the tops of the dams.

We were back on time for lunch and barely beat the rain. There was a heavy afternoon thunderstorm that lasted much of the day. It was so bad that there were lightning-caused wildfires about 200 km up the highway that closed the road. I'm glad we didn't choose to continue up the Dempster.

It finally cleared and after dinner Ellen, Sally and I did an evening hike to the mini-glacier on the solstice. We were a little early as the actual time of the solstice was 10:25 PM local time, but it was interesting walking on ice several feet thick over the Klondike River in mid-June.

We didn't make it to the Arctic Circle so the day was only 21 hours 29 minutes long.