Peter & Judy
New member
Atlin Lake is one of the headwater lakes of the Yukon River. It is located in NW British Columbia with a small portion of it crossing the border into Yukon. The lake runs parallel to the Alaska Pan Handle. The lake is long and thin and covers an area of about 300 square miles and is up to 1000 feet deep. The lake is at about 2200 feet of elevation. The town of Atlin can only be reached from Yukon and you access it via Hwy 7, just west of the Jakes Corner turnoff on the Alcan highway. The town is about 60 miles south on a good, newly paved road. Atlin has all the basic services, but they are expensive. You are best to stock up on fuel and groceries in Whitehorse. There is a nice campsite just south of town (pay by donation), but backing into one of the few sites suitable for a long truck and boat will test any marriage.
We spent a week on Atlin Lake and I’ll share some of our experiences on that adventure. I did a lot of research before the journey and I have to thank Jim Bishop of Whitehorse, Yukon for all his help. We bought Jim’s C-22 and picked it up in Whitehorse. Jim owns a cabin on Atlin Lake and has a lot of experience boating on Atlin in C-22 Silvertip. He provided us with a set of aerial photos and maps of the lake, which details the hazards such as reefs as well as anchorages. I will be sharing some of these photos in our album “Mistaya” (Grizzly Bear in Cree), the new name for our boat. I am not an expert on Atlin Lake, as I only spent a week on the lake, but I will share what I experienced.
We arrived in Atlin with the idea that we would spend the first afternoon touring the town and checking out the boat launch. Atlin was established in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush and soon had a population of 5000. Today it has less than 500. There are still many colorful and historic buildings standing. One of our first stops was at the local Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) depot. Here you can check in with the police and fill out a detailed trip plan. The constable and receptionist were very helpful and gave us photocopied maps and detailed information about travelling safely on the lake. On completion of the trip you must check out with the RCMP so that they do not mount a search for you. There are several local boaters who monitor VHF channel 16, boat to boat, radio traffic on the lake is on Channel 23. If you cannot get an emergency call through on one of these you can try Channel 24 which is monitored by the U.S. Coast Guard in Juneau. They will contact the RCMP. In case of emergency we also carried a SPOT beacon and an InReach Explorer beacon. There is no cell phone coverage in Atlin. We also checked in with the Atlin Provincial Park to get some more information and brochures.
There is a good boat launch and a private dock that we could use to launch from. We parked on the road next to the lake near the launch for free and with no problems. When we returned to the boat launch we were met by the very friendly RCMP constable, he had kept an eye on our truck and was very interested in our adventure. He had flown over us in a helicopter patrol a few days earlier as well. If you have a problem, you can always rely on the Mounties. The RCMP also has a patrol / rescue boat at the lake.
There are no nautical charts for Atlin Lake, so I used the 1:250,000 Canadian Topographic Map (104 N - Atlin) as well as the Gaia GPS App on my Ipad. I downloaded the maps and used these as my main form of navigation. I also had my Garmin 62st with maps as a backup. In addition to this I had a series of aerial photos on my Ipad and some photocopied aerial photos that were made by local boaters and float plane pilots. Atlin is a deep lake, but there are some reefs in certain areas, especially in the narrow channels and along some of the peninsulas. In June 2017 during our trip the lake levels were lower than normal due to a low snowfall winter. So some of the reefs were above water level and thus easier to spot. These rough chicken head outcrops could do a lot of damage to a boat.
We had about a week to spend on the lake and we chose to stay at the south end and do a slow circumnavigation in a counter clockwise direction. From the town of Atlin, we travelled to the north end of Teresa Island. Here we turned south into Torres Channel. The north entrance to the Channel under Atlin Mountain is quite narrow and shallow. There were a couple of marker bouys to help guide us in. Once in this narrow channel huge mountain faces rise up out of the water on both sides and the water is very deep. We hurried through this spectacular channel as the dominant winds in Atlin come in from the SW and tend to build in the afternoons. We hoped to stop for the night in the Second Narrows at the south end of Copper Island. Two channels lead back to the main Atlin Lake around Copper island. First narrows is very shallow and best left to canoes and kayaks. Second Narrows had a few shallow sections, but also a few nice sheltered coves where you could anchor or beach your boat. We preferred to beach the C-Dory as this would allow us to wander the shoreline and go on some short hikes. We tended to beach bow first, tie off the bow and then put on two lines from the stern in each direction, something like a tripod, so the wind would not take us sideways into the shore. In most places Atlin Lakes drops off quickly, so the hip waders we bought in Whitehorse were very handy in the cold water.
The next morning we set off to explore Willison Bay, which is the SW end of Torres Channel. It is the most spectacular region of the lake with high cliffs and glaciers descending into it. By early afternoon the winds picked up with swells and white capped waves up to about 3 feet high developed. We decided to return to the sheltered waters of Second Narrows. We travelled through the narrows and headed south to explore the Llewellyn Inlet. At the head of the inlet is the Llewellan Glacier that descends off the Juneau Icefield and this is considered to be the source of the Yukon River. While on the lake we did not fill our water tanks to save weight as we were surrounded with excellent quality drinking water. We simply reached overboard and took what we needed from the lake. We filtered or boiled what we drank. In the Llewellyn Inlet the lake is filled with glacial silt and the water is a beautiful turquoise color. This water is not the best for drinking, so we filled a few jugs further out in the lake in advance. We beached the boat at the head of the inlet where there is a nice campsite. That evening we hiked up the ridge to view the glacier. We continued down a trail to the bottom of the ridge hoping to hike to the glacial Lake fed by the melting Llewellyn glacier. We found a small, but deep creek that we would have to wade in order to hike to the glacier. We decided to return the next morning with our hip waders to cross the creek. I crossed the creek first and made my way through the willows when I spotted a grizzly bear and her yearling cub feeding about a 100 meters from me. I turned around and told Judy about the bear and we both crossed the creek again and climbed up the ridge a bit, before looking back. The grizzly must have heard us and was moving towards us to investigate. She was about 100 meters away from us when I decided to fire a bear banger at her from our pencil flare gun. The banger flew about 50 meters before discharging, she stopped, stood up with her cub, looked around and then headed off into the bush away from us. We decided that seeing the toe of the glacier from a distance was better than seeing the toe of the sow grizzly up close so we hurried back to the safety of the boat.
From Llewellyn Inlet we decided to head up Sloko Inlet to the SE of us, and hike into Sloko Lake. We beached the boat and walked towards the trail head. In the soft sand at the trail head were a set of the largest grizzly bear tracks I had ever seen. They were very fresh and we decided that one grizzly encounter was enough for the day. So we headed north to find an anchorage on Sloko Island for the night.
Over the next few days we explored the many islands in the southern end of the lake. There were good spots to beach at various islands including Sloko, Griffen, Bear and Caribou Islands. We were able to take our sea kayaks off the boat on a few occasions and had several nice kayak trips away from the mothership. Our objective with the C-Dory is to use it as another means to explore the many beautiful and remote places in North America. We love to hike, kayak and fish. We hope that “Mistaya” (Grizzly Bear in Cree) which is her new name will allow us to do this.
Atlin Lake is a spectacular lake to explore and one of the most beautiful places that we have ever been. It certainly will be on our list to visit again in the future. We hope that when we are fully retired we will have the time to explore the waters of Alaska around Skagway and Glacier Bay in our C-Dory. Atlin will be a great place to wash the salt water off the boat after such an adventure.
Check out the photos of our adventure on our photo album “Mistaya”.
We spent a week on Atlin Lake and I’ll share some of our experiences on that adventure. I did a lot of research before the journey and I have to thank Jim Bishop of Whitehorse, Yukon for all his help. We bought Jim’s C-22 and picked it up in Whitehorse. Jim owns a cabin on Atlin Lake and has a lot of experience boating on Atlin in C-22 Silvertip. He provided us with a set of aerial photos and maps of the lake, which details the hazards such as reefs as well as anchorages. I will be sharing some of these photos in our album “Mistaya” (Grizzly Bear in Cree), the new name for our boat. I am not an expert on Atlin Lake, as I only spent a week on the lake, but I will share what I experienced.
We arrived in Atlin with the idea that we would spend the first afternoon touring the town and checking out the boat launch. Atlin was established in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush and soon had a population of 5000. Today it has less than 500. There are still many colorful and historic buildings standing. One of our first stops was at the local Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) depot. Here you can check in with the police and fill out a detailed trip plan. The constable and receptionist were very helpful and gave us photocopied maps and detailed information about travelling safely on the lake. On completion of the trip you must check out with the RCMP so that they do not mount a search for you. There are several local boaters who monitor VHF channel 16, boat to boat, radio traffic on the lake is on Channel 23. If you cannot get an emergency call through on one of these you can try Channel 24 which is monitored by the U.S. Coast Guard in Juneau. They will contact the RCMP. In case of emergency we also carried a SPOT beacon and an InReach Explorer beacon. There is no cell phone coverage in Atlin. We also checked in with the Atlin Provincial Park to get some more information and brochures.
There is a good boat launch and a private dock that we could use to launch from. We parked on the road next to the lake near the launch for free and with no problems. When we returned to the boat launch we were met by the very friendly RCMP constable, he had kept an eye on our truck and was very interested in our adventure. He had flown over us in a helicopter patrol a few days earlier as well. If you have a problem, you can always rely on the Mounties. The RCMP also has a patrol / rescue boat at the lake.
There are no nautical charts for Atlin Lake, so I used the 1:250,000 Canadian Topographic Map (104 N - Atlin) as well as the Gaia GPS App on my Ipad. I downloaded the maps and used these as my main form of navigation. I also had my Garmin 62st with maps as a backup. In addition to this I had a series of aerial photos on my Ipad and some photocopied aerial photos that were made by local boaters and float plane pilots. Atlin is a deep lake, but there are some reefs in certain areas, especially in the narrow channels and along some of the peninsulas. In June 2017 during our trip the lake levels were lower than normal due to a low snowfall winter. So some of the reefs were above water level and thus easier to spot. These rough chicken head outcrops could do a lot of damage to a boat.
We had about a week to spend on the lake and we chose to stay at the south end and do a slow circumnavigation in a counter clockwise direction. From the town of Atlin, we travelled to the north end of Teresa Island. Here we turned south into Torres Channel. The north entrance to the Channel under Atlin Mountain is quite narrow and shallow. There were a couple of marker bouys to help guide us in. Once in this narrow channel huge mountain faces rise up out of the water on both sides and the water is very deep. We hurried through this spectacular channel as the dominant winds in Atlin come in from the SW and tend to build in the afternoons. We hoped to stop for the night in the Second Narrows at the south end of Copper Island. Two channels lead back to the main Atlin Lake around Copper island. First narrows is very shallow and best left to canoes and kayaks. Second Narrows had a few shallow sections, but also a few nice sheltered coves where you could anchor or beach your boat. We preferred to beach the C-Dory as this would allow us to wander the shoreline and go on some short hikes. We tended to beach bow first, tie off the bow and then put on two lines from the stern in each direction, something like a tripod, so the wind would not take us sideways into the shore. In most places Atlin Lakes drops off quickly, so the hip waders we bought in Whitehorse were very handy in the cold water.
The next morning we set off to explore Willison Bay, which is the SW end of Torres Channel. It is the most spectacular region of the lake with high cliffs and glaciers descending into it. By early afternoon the winds picked up with swells and white capped waves up to about 3 feet high developed. We decided to return to the sheltered waters of Second Narrows. We travelled through the narrows and headed south to explore the Llewellyn Inlet. At the head of the inlet is the Llewellan Glacier that descends off the Juneau Icefield and this is considered to be the source of the Yukon River. While on the lake we did not fill our water tanks to save weight as we were surrounded with excellent quality drinking water. We simply reached overboard and took what we needed from the lake. We filtered or boiled what we drank. In the Llewellyn Inlet the lake is filled with glacial silt and the water is a beautiful turquoise color. This water is not the best for drinking, so we filled a few jugs further out in the lake in advance. We beached the boat at the head of the inlet where there is a nice campsite. That evening we hiked up the ridge to view the glacier. We continued down a trail to the bottom of the ridge hoping to hike to the glacial Lake fed by the melting Llewellyn glacier. We found a small, but deep creek that we would have to wade in order to hike to the glacier. We decided to return the next morning with our hip waders to cross the creek. I crossed the creek first and made my way through the willows when I spotted a grizzly bear and her yearling cub feeding about a 100 meters from me. I turned around and told Judy about the bear and we both crossed the creek again and climbed up the ridge a bit, before looking back. The grizzly must have heard us and was moving towards us to investigate. She was about 100 meters away from us when I decided to fire a bear banger at her from our pencil flare gun. The banger flew about 50 meters before discharging, she stopped, stood up with her cub, looked around and then headed off into the bush away from us. We decided that seeing the toe of the glacier from a distance was better than seeing the toe of the sow grizzly up close so we hurried back to the safety of the boat.
From Llewellyn Inlet we decided to head up Sloko Inlet to the SE of us, and hike into Sloko Lake. We beached the boat and walked towards the trail head. In the soft sand at the trail head were a set of the largest grizzly bear tracks I had ever seen. They were very fresh and we decided that one grizzly encounter was enough for the day. So we headed north to find an anchorage on Sloko Island for the night.
Over the next few days we explored the many islands in the southern end of the lake. There were good spots to beach at various islands including Sloko, Griffen, Bear and Caribou Islands. We were able to take our sea kayaks off the boat on a few occasions and had several nice kayak trips away from the mothership. Our objective with the C-Dory is to use it as another means to explore the many beautiful and remote places in North America. We love to hike, kayak and fish. We hope that “Mistaya” (Grizzly Bear in Cree) which is her new name will allow us to do this.
Atlin Lake is a spectacular lake to explore and one of the most beautiful places that we have ever been. It certainly will be on our list to visit again in the future. We hope that when we are fully retired we will have the time to explore the waters of Alaska around Skagway and Glacier Bay in our C-Dory. Atlin will be a great place to wash the salt water off the boat after such an adventure.
Check out the photos of our adventure on our photo album “Mistaya”.
