Rubber Boots & Bikes in the High Country of Lake Laberge | Yukon's Hiking Guide

TRADITIONAL TERRITORIES: Kwanlin Dün First Nation & Ta'an Kwäch'än Council

When we moved to the Yukon over 16 years ago, we picked up as many hiking guides as we could find for the area. There was:

Curtis Vos's 'Yukon Hiking'
Yukon Conservation Societies 'Whitehorse Area Hikes & Bikes'
Walter Lantz's 'Along the Dempster'
Vivian Lougheed's 'The Kluane National Park Hiking Guide'
CPAWS 'Yukon's Tombstone Range and Blackstone Uplands'

The original Yukon hiking guidebooks.

As you can imagine, we've ticked off a lot of the hikes in these books over the years, but understandably there are still many left to do.

Desrosiers Trail is a great example, from the Whitehorse Hikes & Bikes book. Marko has memories of attempting this hike back when we first moved here, and while the memories are foggy, he recalls swarms of mosquitos and swamps to wade through. So, it's not a surprise he hasn't been 'itching' to get back.

What got us interested again, was that you can access Flat Mountain from the trail. Flat Mountain is a prominent mountain in Whitehorse's northern skyline. Its' iconic flat top is easily recognizable once you know where to look. We had a friend who hiked it a few years back and sent us a photo of her summit beers, which certainly whet our appetite.

So there we were on Canada Day 2024, with a day to ourselves, while our kid was in a summer camp. With the tight timeline of camp drop off and pick up, we had to somehow cover the 20+ kilometres to get into the high country. E-bikes came to the rescue once again as a great tool to help us tackle the 7.5 km approach via the ATV trail.

Our next hurdle was on how best to tackle the aforementioned swamps. Do we wear crocs or rubber boots for the bike approach? We opted for rubber boots and I'm happy to report we have no regrets. It was wet and muddy in many sections of the trail.

Rubber boots and bikes, unusual hiking attire.

The trailhead is accessible via Scott Road, off of the North Klondike Highway. We hopped aboard our trusty bikes, with hiking boots in backpacks, and rubber boots on our feet, and pedalled our little hearts out. The ATV trail was mostly uphill with nearly 535 m elevation to gain by bike. There were a few downhill sections approaching various small creek crossings.

It didn't take long to reach the first swampy bog section (less than 1 km along the ATV trail), where we followed a detour around the left which avoided a much deeper wet area. Carefully rolling the bikes through the water and mud, we precariously balanced and thrashed along the edge over any logs and vegetation we could find.

The first a few swampy sections.

A little rocky knoll with the first views.

After that push we were back on the road again. Biking through aspen forests and then spruce and fir as we got higher. There were more little creeks to cross and muddy sections and swamy sections. After a while the trees started to open up and we got a clear view of a potential hiking route up a ridge near Flat Mountain. It was the most direct option we could see, given our timeline.

Reaching the sub-alpine with views of the potential route.

The hiking begins.

It was time to hike, so we switched our footwear. There was some bushwacking to reach the base of the ridge we were aiming for, but most of it was knee high with only a few sections of shoulder high shrubs, amongst bare alpine groundcover.

Relatively easy bushwacking to reach the ridge.

Unfortunately, as we got closer to the ridge, it was much steeper than it had looked. We had no choice but to go slow, and huff it up the talus and vegetation. The bonus of tackling such a steep route is that you get better views earlier on. As we gained elevation, we started to gain more sweeping views of Lake Laberge (Tàa'an Män) below to the east as well as the beautiful mountains and ridges surrounding us. This area has a lot of promise for future adventures.

It was a steep approach up the ridge. Views looking to the mountains to the east.

While our approach was steep, it meant for great views of Lake Laberge (Tàa'an Män).

After a little false summit and a lunch break, we realized we only had a few minutes left until we had to turn around. We weren't going to make it to the top of Flat Mountain this time. But it looked very doable.

The summit of Flat Mountain - to save for another day.

For the way down we decided to take a slightly different route, off the left shoulder looking downhill (west) of the ridge. It was a more pleasant grade with more vegetation for cushioning - a much better option for future approaches.

On our way down. Views of the ridges to the west.

Once back at the bikes, it was go-time, so we donned our rubber boots again. The ride out was certainly fun with the bikes, and we made good time. Knowing what was coming and what to expect for the muddy and swampy sections helped.

We are very interested in exploring this region again, but next time, hopefully without such a tight timeline.

The map of our route.