DLTK's Alaska Road Trip
Day 15: Kluane Lake to Teslin Lake
Pine Lake (Yukon) was a lot colder than it looked.
This morning we woke up and had a walk down to the lake. Dad and Kaitlyn practiced throwing rocks in to the rocks while Tasha tried to convince Ruby to chase sticks that were in the icy lake. Tasha thought Ruby was a bit of a wimp not being more energetic about going the water. Isn’t it ironic that shortly after we got on the road we stopped at Pine Lake to let the girls have a turn to go swimming!
Pine Lake is a glacier lake so it is really cold-but when we arrived people were already swimming in it so we decided to let the girls try it.
I’ve never photographed people saying the word “cold” so many times.
The girls mission was to make to the white diving platform about 30ft of the shore. Tasha headed out first and we discovered the water was too deep for her to stand. Mom went in clothes and all thinking that she could get Kaitlyn across without getting too wet. But only 1/3 of the way there, the water was already touched her shorts and it was already getting steeper.
So dad decided to be the hero and put on his swim trunks and accompany Kaitlyn to the white platform. It seemed like a good idea at the time. He almost turned around but Kaitlyn really wanted to go out to the platform and dad had originally been the one who egged her on. Dad decided to dunk all at once and get it over with- the water was so cold it stopped his breath and caused a sharp pain in his back but he still continued on, carrying Kaitlyn with him. About 2/3 of the way there we realized he would have to swim the rest of the way carrying Kaitlyn. Off he went with his daughter almost pushing him under in her struggle to keep as much of her body under as possible.
They made it to the platform finally and rested there for a while before coming back. It took a bit of convincing to get Kaitlyn back in to the cold lake but she did it. Mom’s view from the shore was even funnier as they came back because she got the look on their faces. Mom was giggling so hard that she snapped shots of dad sputtering water that she had to set the camera on sport!
After drying off we continued on to Whitehorse where we picked up a few groceries and then visited the Beringia museum. We enjoyed the skeletons of wooly mammoths, cats, giant sloth’s and others. Dad and girls played a “match the fur to the animals” and we got to try throwing an ice age spear (called an atlatl) Dad was actually quite good at throwing the spear. We then continued on to Teslin Lake where we stayed at the Dawson peaks RV Park. We visited their restaurant for supper where mom and dad shared a piece of prize winning rhubarb pie.