North to Alaska 2010

Whitehorse YT

Whitehorse is filled with lots of history - for instance when the White Pass & Yukon Route railway was completed in July 1900, it connected Skagway with the Yukon River. This is where the famed river steamers connected the rail head to Dawson City and some of these boats made the trip all the way to St. Michael, a small outfitting point on Alaska's Bering Sea coast. Whitehorse has been the capital of the Yukon Territory since 1953 and serves as the center for transportation, communications and supplies for Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories. The downtown section is flat and the facades of the buildings look as if they were still in the gold rush era.

The historic SS Klondike is on permanent display alongside the Yukon River and we took the opportunity to take the tour aboard. Genevieve - our tour guide from Montreal - made sure we all knew how to pronounce her name "Jean (sounds like John with a very soft z "zhan) vee - ev" or we could call her Jen! I like the French pronunciation better!! She was a very good guide and gave us many interesting facts about life on the riverboats during that time.

The SS Klondike was built in 1929 by the British Yukon Navigation Company and is was the largest vessel on the Yukon. She had a cargo capacity 50 percent greater than previous boats and could carry over 300 ton. She ran aground in 1936 at the confluence of the Teslin and Yukon rivers. Salvaged parts were used to construct a new ship - the second SS Klondike (launched in 1937) that was almost identical to the first. The SS Klondike carried mail, general supplies, passengers and silver lead ore along the 460-mile route between Whitehorse and Dawson City until 1955, when she was retired.

The wood pictured here is a cord measure. It took 10 cords per hour to power the stern wheeler up the river. On the way down it only took 8. Imagine how tired the fireman was when his day was done.

After our tour we took a ride outside of Whitehorse to view the Whitehorse Rapids Fishway. The fish ladder was built in 1959 to provide access for king salmon and other species above the Yukon Energy Corporation hydroelectric dam. It is the longest wooden fish ladder in the world. From there we ventured further to Miles Canyon. Originally called "Grand Canyon" to early gold seekers, the canyon was renamed in 1883 for Brigadier General Nelson Miles. Miles Canyon was an imposing challenge for miners and stampeders on their way up the Yukon to the gold fields, mainly because the narrow channel through the canyon was followed by the more daunting Whitehorse Rapids. These rapids along with the Squaw Rapids were eliminated by the construction of the power plant and dam.

There are all sorts of trails around this area and we passed many people on mountain bikes riding through the woods and along the river. There is a suspension foot bridge -Robert Lowe Suspension Bridge built in 1922 - across the canyon - it took me a little while to talk myself into going across it - and once across along this one path we took, an area is visible where it looks like the water stops moving. We could hear the water falls but couldn't see it at all.

Back at the campground that evening, we were sitting at the dinette playing cards when I looked out and saw a big black bear running across the road. He had been at the campsite next to ours nosing around in the fire pit. The occupants of that campsite were sitting in their car smoking a cigarette when he happened to come by and beeped their horn at him, thus making him run across to the campsite directly across from ours. He just stopped and looked over his shoulder rather peeved and then just moseyed on. Glad we were inside!!

Tomorrow off to the mechanic to find out about the wheel. Depending on what time we get out of there will determine whether we leave afterwards or wait until the next day.

Pictures to finish the day - the odd looking 3 story building is the highest building in Whitehorse - billed as the 3 Story Log Cabin. Looks very out of place! But interesting.

Once we had seen Whitehorse, we headed back to the Wolf Creek campground and Ken convinced me to walk the trail with him. We went on the shorter of the two trails and the entire time I was so tensed up afraid we would see a bear, that by the time we got back I had spasms in my shoulders. Ken said we wouldn't see any bears, and we didn't but this was the same trail the bear had been spotted on. The bear also showed up in the wood lot. The cleaning lady went to get her supplies this morning and inside the second fence by her shed was a black bear.

The end of the day had Ken running along side the truck trying to figure out the knocking noise. I had to back up to pick him up as he stopped running because he couldn't hear a noise. Drove a little further and the noise came back. He got out, I backed up and drove forward - no noise! He couldn't figure it out so tomorrow we will take it to a mechanic. Hopefully they will be able to tell us what it is.

North to Alaska 2010

Skagway AK - US to Whitehorse YT - Canada

We spent 3 nights in Skagway, had a good time, saw lots of cruise ships but it is time to head back out and go through Canadian customs once again. The trip back through the pass was just as beautiful going north as it was coming south. With the exception of the long climb out of Skagway - which was a little nerve wracking, remember it is a long, steep grade - the trip north was great.

We stopped once more in Carcross to see the Carcross Desert. This is the world's smallest desert and an International Biophysical Programme site for ecological studies. The desert is composed of sandy lake-bottom material left behind by a large glacial lake. Couldn't prove it by me - looks just like ordinary sand!! Although the strong winds off Lake Bennett make it difficult for vegetation to grown, it has an enormous variety of plants, including kinnikinnick, a low trailing evergreen with small leathery leaves that are used for brewing tea.

We stopped at Emerald Lake, also called Rainbow Lake by the people who live in the Yukon. The rainbow-like colors of the lake result from blue-green light waves reflecting off the white sediment - called marl - of the lake bottom. Marl consists of fragments of decomposed shell mixed with clay and usually found in shallow, freshwater lakes with low oxygen levels in them during the summer months.

Along the way we spotted one black bear. He was just laying on his belly munching away on the grass without a care in the world.

When we got to the campground near Whitehorse - Wolf Creek Yukon Government Park - we noticed we had traveled the last few miles with the RV door latched wide open. Luckily we didn't lose anything just gained a few more grains of road dirt. Everything was coated with dust and grit. That is a lesson well earned and I doubt we will do that again.

On the way north to Whitehorse we noticed a knocking noise coming from the right front tire area so guess we will be here an extra day trying to figure out what that is.

This is a very nice campground with Wolf Creek running through it in several spots. There are a few trails through the campground also and big signs posted everywhere - Caution! Bear frequenting area!

Tomorrow will be a day to explore and then we will try to solve the knock problem. For today, we will just unwind and enjoy the scenery.

One final picture for the day:

North to Alaska 2010

Skagway, AK

Skagway is an interesting town. It has a lot of old buildings that have been taken care of, refurbished with new businesses in them, but with the goldmining town look. Skagway has a population of 834 except when the cruise ships tie into port and then the population swells by 2,000 or more. Skagway is a bustling little town when the ships dock but they still roll up the sidewalks before 7:00 pm - most nights.

The name Skaguay - original spelling - is said to mean "stiffly wind rippled water" in Tlingit. In July 1897 the first boatloads of stampeders bound for the Klondike landed. By October 1897, according to a North West Mounted Police report, the town had grown to a population of about 20,000. By the summer of 1899 the stampede was all but over and Skagway's population dwindled to 500. But the small town held on and became an important port and a ferry terminal.

We went to the dock several times - whenever we would hear a cruise ship's horn just to see the docking procedure or the departure. Interesting how each one has their own way of coming into port. Some tie up nose in and then they have to back out into the bay and some of them turn around in the bay and come in backwards. Once they dock, hundreds of passengers depart to catch either the train or a bus to go north to Carcross.

The one very interesting thing in Skagway that wasn't a building was the rotary snowplow on display. This attached to the front end of the train to plow the snow off the tracks in the pass - on the track that went from Skagway to Whitehorse.

The first night there we discovered we had no electric in the RV. Ken spent almost the entire next day tracing down where the short was while I did the wash and read. Finally, he discovered that the electric brake wire that if the trailer disconnects from the hitch, it will lock up the trailer brakes was rubbing on the frame - thereby shorting out the electric in the RV. Electric is an essential item when you sleep with a C-PAP machine like Ken does. We were relieved to have that taken care of but didn't plan on spending an extra day in Skagway.

Skagway isn't very big, but we will explore what there is tomorrow then head for Whitehorse the next day.

North to Alaska 2010

Teslin YT to Skagway, AK

From Teslin we are going to take a shortcut by traveling the Tagish/Atlin Highway. This will cut several miles off of our distance but . . . and that is a big but!! The highway is a mess. They are working on the frost heaves and the method of doing this is awful. First, they dig the chip seal out, then they lay gravel - lots of it. When they have the gravel graded, they flood it with calcium chloride - mixed in water - to make the gravel pack better and to help keep the dust down. This makes for one sloppy, slippery mess for someone traveling on it. If you pride yourself in having a clean vehicle - this is not the road for you. We have, in fact, found a few of these roads along the way so far.

We did not go to Atlin as it was out of our way, but we did go through Tagish - population 206. This little village is not very big, but it has a marina and several business that cater to the traveling public. Two miles south of Tagish on the Tagish River is Tagish Post, originally named Fort Sifton, the Canadian customs post established in 1897. The North West Mounted Police and Canadian customs collected duties on thousands of tons of freight carried by stampeders on their way to the Klondike goldfields between September 1897 and February 1898.

Next town is Carcross. This is a delightful little town - population 446. Carcross became a stopping place for gold stampeders on their way to the Kondike goldfields. It was a major stop on the White Pass & Yukon Route railroad from 1900 until 1982 when the railroad ceased through train service. There are several little shops in the buildings that still look as it did back in the "old" days. And there are new enterprises like Eddie's Check Point. Eddie runs a hamburger/hot dog stand out of a 5 x 9 shed with his personal gas grill out the back door. The burgers are big, juicy and really good. I asked Eddie what he does in the winter and he replied "mush". He runs sled dogs and enters every long distance race he can. Sounds like a good life to me. His wife works full time in a business in Tagish and his kids are mushers, too.

After lunch we headed south to Skagway. But first - we had to hide our meat. When we came through US Customs 4 years ago after the Maritime Provinces, the customs person, went through our freezer and refrigerator and confiscated every piece of meat we had that didn't have a US label on it because Alberta, Canada had just had a mad cow disease - or so she said. So this time, we emptied out the freezer and refrigerator of meat that wasn't correctly labeled US and hid it in bags beneath and behind our refrigerator. There is a dead space there that works just wonderful for that.

This road going south is absolutely incredible - the best scenery we have seen so far. Tagish Lake and its extension Windy Arm, are beautiful. There is evidence of mining and a stamp mill site is still standing which ties in with the Venus Mines concentrator which had a capacity of 150 tons per day. The mine closed in October 1981 due to the drop in silver prices. We passed a beautiful area called Tormented Valley, a rocky desolate "moonscape" of stunted trees and small lakes.


We finally arrive at the customs station - we answer all of the usual questions - how long were you in Canada, do you have anything to claim, any alcohol, guns, ammunition? We answered all of these and expected him to come out to inspect our refrigerator!! Wrong - he just waved us through with a "have a great vacation, folks" and sent us on our way. Whew - that was great but a lot of work for nothing. Next customs stop we won't do that and hope we are as lucky.

In Fraser - where the Canadian customs is, this area reportedly gets up to 24 feet of snow a year. They have snow poles posted on the highway so the snow plows can see where the road was before it got buried. Incredible. From here is was all down hill and I do mean down hill. The grade for the next 12.5 miles is at 11% which is pretty steep especially when you have 10,000 pounds behind your truck. We got down safely, found a campground and decided to stay put for the next couple of days in Skagway.

A few more on the road pictures:

North to Alaska 2010

Watson Lake to Teslin Lake, YT

First thing this morning we spotted a brown Black Bear. The Black Bears like to forage at this time of year along side the road where the new grass and plant shoots are nice and tender. When the grass gets a little tougher in July, the berries will be ready and they will switch to the berry bushes. We have been told that if we spot a berry bush stay away from it as the bears do not like to share the fruit or be interrupted while eating. Black Bears eat over 250,000 berries a day - and it is a good thing that every where you look there are berry bushes. In the fall the bears start eating the Low Bush Cranberries - what we know as Lingonberries. Not all bears eat salmon, but the ones that do are usually close to the salmon streams and Grizzlies are very prevelant when the "fish" are running. In Alaska, when someone refers to fish, they are talking about salmon - guess that is the important fish in this state.

We stopped at the Continental Divide Lodge for lunch today. Primarily because in the Mile Post it listed Rhubarb Pie as one of desserts they have there. That is Ken's favorite. This "restaurant" had 3 tables. Two of the tables sat 4 people and the other sat 6. Other than that, if there were more than 14 people, the extras would have to wait for an empty seat. The bar/lounge was unique in itself. It had the usual bar but the lounge had 2 sofas, 2 reclining chairs, a raised platform for an entertainer and when there wasn't live entertainment, there was a big screen tv on the platform. The front of the building was the counter to pay for gas, a few souveniers and a few snacks. Quite the place. The women running the restaurant were a hoot! One was from Whitehorse, a full time RN who worked 3 days a week at the hospital there and came to the Lodge to do all of their baking for them. The other woman lived in Alberta during the winters and worked at the lodge in the summertime. She made coffee and the water wouldn't drip through the grounds - this happened twice - and she had quite the mess. Two nicest women you ever saw but it was quite the experience. The rhubarb pie had just come from the oven so was quite warm, they didn't have any ice cream - that wouldn't be delivered until June 1st (it was May 26th) and they were just getting the place started that week.

Along this part of the highway are hundreds of names spelled out on the sides of the road with rocks. Some are very imaginative while others are just rocks. Also there are several "Inukshuks" - oringally rock cairns built by the Inuit as landmarks - left by travelers. We talked about "writing" our names, but it seemed like a lot of work to collect all the rocks, then climb the bank to write our names.

We passed over the Continental Divide which divides 2 of the largest drainage systems in North America - the Yukon River and Mackenzie River watersheds.

After getting to our campsite in Teslin Lake, we headed over to theTeslin Tlingit Heritage Center but as it was almost 5 o'clock and they were closing we only got to look at the Totem Poles outside the center. The Tlingit tribe pronounce their name as Klinkit. The 5 outdoor totems represent the Wolf, Eagle, Fron, Beaver and Raven clans.

Skagway will be our destination for tomorrow. Here are a few more pictures to finish the day.