It was a hot summer’s day here in Kluane yesterday as we headed up the plateau for our first hike of the field season.

We went up to set out our latest tea bag experiment, which involved stopping every 125 m elevation in boreal forest, dense shrub land, and beautiful tundra meadow. At each elevation we set up ambient, temperature and moisture manipulation plots, which we will go back to collect at the end of the summer.

Once we left the tall shrub line we had spectacular, panoramic views across Kluane Lake, surrounded by beautiful flowers. Haydn noticed that they seemed to be in bloom higher up than last year, evidence of the even earlier spring.

Along the way, John and Eleanor tried to brush up on all of the new and exciting shrubs and plants that they came across.

Two adult grizzly bears were spotted grazing far off the distance, but they stayed away from us.

Some snow still remained as we reached the top, catching John out as he ended up knee-deep whilst trying to navigate across a snow pack.

With some time to spare we decided to head up right to the top of the peak, where we were greeted with even more spectacular views of snow-capped mountains and interesting rock formations. Once we had taken it all in we headed back down, the thought of a hot meal and a cold Yukon ale at the forefront of our minds.

A successful day all round!

By Eleanor