Jun 2007

We get a late start this morning. It’s raining and the sound of the raindrops always seem to keep us in bed later :-)

We leave the Hi Country RV Park in Whitehorse, Yukon, and after about 30 minutes on the road we hear a noise of metal being dragged along the road—not a sound that you want to hear. We quickly stop the trailer and find that one of the front legs of the 5th wheel has dropped to the ground. I’m not accusing anyone of not securing it tightly, but the leg I secured in the morning was fine :-) Jere takes it apart and fixes it so that it doesn’t drag on the ground, but it doesn’t want to work properly.

This part of the Klondike Highway is not real scenic at many places. It seems that they had lots of forest fires on this stretch of the road (they label the year of each forest fire with a road sign). We do make several stops, including a stop for coffee. The store is not only a convenience store; it is also a grocery store, souvenir store, miniature K-Mart, and most important a hardware store. So we take the trailer leg apart again and voila! It works. Jere had simply over tightened the one screw, so we happily take off and continue our drive.

Our longest stop of the day is at Five Finger Rapids on the Yukon River. We pull up beside another 5th wheel that we’ve seen off and on over the last 2 weeks. We introduce ourselves to each other and find that they have been on the road TWO YEARS! Jere spends the next hour saying “2 years” every 5 minutes. I don’t ask him if he would like to do that – I think I know the answer and I’m not anywhere ready to go down that road.

We realize as we’re walking up and down the trail to the rapids that it is very hot out! We are not used to warm, let alone hot. It feels like it's in the 80s. Strange that the high in Whitehorse today is supposed to be 14 degrees C, and the high in Dawson City (which is 300 miles north) is expected to be 23 degrees C, and Ninulvik which is several hundred miles north of Dawson City is expected to be 30 degrees C.

Although the scenery is not spectacular today, the wildflowers are spectacular. The road is lined with purple lupine, bright pink fireweed, yellow daisies and buttercups, and pink wild roses.

When we get near Stewart’s Crossing, the road is lined with large piles of trees and logs. We assume they are clearing the trees from the sides of the road, but it’s odd to see pile after pile of trees beside the road. We’re wondering what they’ll do with them.

We stop at Stewart’s Crossing for the night. We had hoped to make it to Mayo, Yukon, but too many stops today and we’re tired. Plus we really need to change into shorts – it’s hot here tonight.

Joe and I take a walk down the road to the Yukon River. There are dozens of swallows flying around the bridge so we watch them and their mud nests under the bridge for awhile.

The hot day turns into a violent thunderstorm later in the evening. The lightning and thunder are incredible. Then there's a loud boom of thunder and the trailer shakes and a spark of light travels across the light fixture above my head. Very scary. Joe comes running out of his bedroom and I tell him to stay with me for awhile. Jere says "I think we just got hit by lightning." We're not sure what it actually hit but it must have been very, very close to us. The storm finally passes after an hour or so. I don't think I like being in an aluminum box on wheels in the middle of a field during a thunderstorm.

We spend the morning doing chores and errands (oil change, cleaning, groceries, etc) and then take off for Takhini Hot Springs in the afternoon. This hotsprings is not anywhere near as enjoyable as the Laird River Hot Springs. But the water is warm so we soak up the warmth for an hour or so. The end of the pool where the water comes in is super hot. We can barely stick our hand in it, but there is a Japanese gentleman who is sitting directly beneath where the water comes out and he is thoroughly enjoying the hot water.

We drive back to the RV park, try to use the very slow wifi connection, give up out of frustration, and finish our chores. Not a very exciting day, but we got a lot done here in Whitehorse, capitol city of the Yukon Territory, and the last 'large' (there are about 19,000 residents) city we'll visit til we get to Fairbanks in about two weeks.

We have cable TV for a change, so we watch the morning news and then the Hour of Power. It’s interesting to see the U.S. news covered by a Canadian station. The JFK airport terrorist incident was covered last night by a Seattle news station as a lead story and a big deal. The Canadian station this morning explains that it is not a major terrorist threat and the president was just using it as a way of getting the American public’s attention on something other than the other problems the country is facing, especially the economy. They report that the U.S. should have used it as a way to find out who was supplying the weapons and not arrested these minor players. Interesting.

We have a hard time deciding what to do today, but finally decide to take a hike along the Yukon River and then take a guided tour of the restored Yukon sternwheeler, the SS Klondike.

It's a nice hike across a suspension bridge and beside the Yukon River in the Miles Canyon. Nice scenery. The trail ends at Canyon City, a former town used during the Klondike goldrush. The town is now just an area by the river with some rusty tin cans and an information board.

The tour of the SS Klondike is interesting – we are the only people on the tour so we get a personalized tour :-)

It is nice outside, but we have laundry to do so we return to the campground to do laundry. We were hoping to use the wifi connection to update our travel blog and check emails, but the wifi has been down all day :-( So we decide to make a trip to Dairy Queen and then call it a day.

We pack up again, but this morning we have an audience. The tourists from the Princess cruise ship watch us as we pack up, and one group of younger people even take a picture of Jere emptying the tanks at the dump station. We’ve had groups of people this week stop and point at our RV as they talk about it, but I haven’t seen anyone take a picture of us before this morning.

No blue skies today and we have a brief shower as we get ready to leave, but the day seems to get better as it goes on. The drive to Whitehorse is on the Klondike Highway and through some beautiful scenery.

We see the train we took yesterday at Summit Lake when we drive by on the Klondike Highway.

More beautiful scenery along the Klondike Highway when we reach the Yukon Territory, especially Emerald Lake:

We get to Whitehorse, set up camp at the Hi Country RV Park and then relax before driving into Whitehorse for dinner at McDonalds (we let Joe choose—and it’s been weeks since we stopped at a McDonalds, and it will be weeks before we get to another McDonalds). Then we stop at the Whitehorse Visitors’ Center.

When we get back to the campsite, we find out that we missed some excitement – there was a bear in the campground. We’re sorry we missed that. Oh well.

We spend the evening at the trailer with the TV and go up to the office to check our email with their ‘sometimes working’ wifi connection—we didn’t wifi or TV the last 4 days at Skagway.

We wake up this morning and I can’t believe it – BLUE SKIES!!! And no rain, no clouds, no fog. What a wonderful change from the last several days. Lucky us – we have tickets to go on the historic Yukon and White Pass Railroad today. It’s a 3+ hour train ride up to Summit Lake, elevation 3200 feet, following much of the same trail that the gold rushers followed.

In the morning I go out and take a few pictures of the town with blue skies and no cruise tourists (too early for them). Then I go to the shop that has an early bird special, 20% off everything purchased before 9:30am, and buy a t-shirt and some Alaska scrap booking supplies.

After breakfast we all go out for a walk and keep staring at the incredibly beautiful mountains that we haven’t seen much of the last few days. There is actually a glacier on the mountain across the fjord from our campground, but we never noticed it before…it blended in with the white sky or was covered with clouds.

We take our train ride and the trip and view is incredible! This railroad was built 100 years ago to take gold rushers up the White Pass Trail and then was used to get supplies to the Yukon. The traincars are well taken care of and clean/comfortable, but the best reason to take the trip is the view! I take 100+ pictures on the train ride. The mountain scenery is incredible.

We sit in our seats for much of the trip, but we also stand on the platform outside the train car several times during the trip to enjoy the scenery without the windows interfering and enjoying the fresh air.

After the train ride, we relax in the campground. The train runs right behind our RV:

Then we take a walk in the evening to Yakutania Point again. Wonderful day!