Donjek - Day 2

Old mining roads along Burwash River

August 3, 2015

I got up at 03:00 to pee and the sky was already beginning to brighten. I went back to bed and got up again at 05:30 to read my book for a while until the others awoke. We shivered through breakfast, but by the time we had packed camp, the brilliant sunny day had us down to t-shirts as we set off along the old mining road. We came to a split where the description said was a more direct but difficult route, but I was out voted. We continued on the ATV track until we were supposed to head cross country, but Ivan had an alternate plan to descend down to Burwash Creek and follow old mining roads. I was out voted again on the high road, so we continued downwards. At one point we found a long abandonned pickup truck rotting away in the tundra, and then we came to the creek and began hiking upstream. The going was difficult along the stream bed, so after a short lunch, we switched to water shoes and forded the knee deep, ice cold rapids. On the other side we picked up a more recent mining road and followed this for several hours. Lots of remnants of equipment, random pieces of wood and metal, as well as lots of dredged up scars in the landscape filled our local vision, however the views of the snow capped mountains through gaps in the river gorge were spectacular. We continued following Burwash Creek for the rest of the day. The mining roads finally ended and then we alternated between the rocky river bottom and spongy tundra on a steep side slope. After a few hours of this we decided that we had travelled far enough and found a lovely flat area on the sponge tundra for the tents. After supper, we were relaxing by the stream in our makeshift kitchen which was too close to our tent platform, Krista suddenly jumped up yelling "Hey Bear!". We all looked over and ten meters away was a Grizzly bear poking its head around the corner. Six of us stood up, drew pepper spray, and the startled bear high tailed it out of there. Fifty meters away it stopped and turned to look back. Ivan fired a banger and the poor frightened creature disappeared over the horizon. We debated on moving camp in case the bear got curious and came back, but instead decided on setting a watch for the night.

Early morning sunrise.

Shallow ford along the old mining road.

Some fresh snow up high from yesterday.

The truck got stuck (and no Dodge showed up).

Fording Burwash Creek.

Climbing out of Burwash gorge.

Resting our heavy packs.

More resting in a tiny patch of shade.

Camp 2.

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