Kluane Kane is long, probably measuring well over thirty miles from top to bottom. It splits at the top end, creating two wide finger like stretches of water that ultimately become the sources for streams heading north. But the Alaska Highway heads the other way, south east, along the western shoreline of the lake. Although it loosely follows the lake, in reality, the shore is much more jagged than the straighter road, and that inevitably leads to some interesting climbs and descents. In short, this is a really lumpy course.
The rollout carries on from where the finish of stage 506 left off: climbing. The ascent is short lived however and as the road descends down towards the water’s edge, it loses over a hundred feet by the four mile mark. There’s then the first of the up and downs as the road doesn’t follow the water precisely, and that takes you to Destruction Bay at nine miles: as the road approaches the lake, the descent is steep and fun.
Bocks Creek flows down into the lake at eleven miles, but it does so having started high up on the hill and the road rises to meet it at the highest elevation of the stage at the end of a straight climb up away from Destruction Bay. There are further water crossings at thirteen miles (Mines Creek) and at fourteen miles (Nines Creek), each warranting a dip that fuels the undulating nature of the course between eleven and seventeen miles.
As the road hangs a left on seventeen, you need to fasten your proverbial seatbelt. Route 1 heads straight down the hillside to the water’s edge before curving right along the shore to Congdon Creek Territorial Park and Campsite. The road then cuts between the Park and the Creek itself before rising slightly ahead of a dip down to the finishing line at the edge of the lake.
Distance: 22 miles / 35 kilometres
Ascent: 469 feet / 143 metres
RGT Magic Road: DnGggonVQIrU
Max elevation: 2748 ft
Min elevation: 2558 ft
Total climbing: 469 ft
Total descent: -582 ft
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