Canada

We pack up (again) and leave Five Mile Lake Yukon Govt Campground. Very nice campsites, but it is off the main drag without any hook-ups. There were only four campsites occupied last night.

The highway doesn’t have spectacular scenery as some highways have had on this trip, but the wildflowers along the road make the drive very enjoyable.

We have hit very little road construction in Canada, but that is going to change today. We stop on the way to Dawson City for road construction that consists of six miles of one lane traffic. The traffic person explains to us that there will be at least a 20 minute wait for a pilot car, who will lead us through the construction. So we turn off the engine and read (and listen to Joe complain). After about 20+ minutes, we see the pilot car leading a parade of vehicles from the other direction. Then it is our turn to follow the pilot car through PILES OF DIRT AND MUD! The pilot car stops several times to make sure that all of the vehicles are following him (and probably to make sure they don’t get stuck – we use the 4-wheel drive occasionally during the drive). I guess they ripped up the blacktop and are adding more dirt to make the road higher before replacing the blacktop. So a slow, interesting drive that is sometimes stressful for the driver.

At Dawson City we splurge for a campsite with full hook-ups. What is unusual about full hook-ups at this place is that it includes HBO! I’m wondering if we can stay here til Sunday night to see the finale of The Sopranos? Hmmm…probably not.

We drive into Dawson City to the Visitors Center, watch their movies, pick up some more info, and then drive back to the campsite to cocoon the remainder of the evening. Of course the evening here last past midnight. At midnight it’s still very much day – I go outside at 11:45pm and take this picture.

Well apparently Stewarts Crossing was hit by lightning last night. The town has no electric this morning. The town has a backup generator, but the generator stopped working shortly after it started. So we wake up to no electricity, which also means no water (no electric pump to pump the water) and no diesel in town (no electric to pump the diesel). The campground manager tells us that someone is driving to the next town (45 minutes away) to find out if they have electric so they can phone someone to fix the electric in Stewarts Crossing. Yep...no phone either in town. The wonders of living in the middle of nowhere.

We pack up and start our drive to Mayo. On the way we stop at a nature trail along the Silver Trail highway. The wildflowers are very pretty and we see some trumpeter swans, but no moose (which is what the area is known for). The wildflowers line the sides of the road between Stewarts Crossing and Mayo -- pinks, fuschia, yellows, purples...very pretty.

Short drive today (30 miles). We set up camp by the lake at Five Mile Lake park, a Yukon Territory park. No water or electric, but beautiful campsite. We then take off to Mayo to look at the Binet House museum and the Stewart River landing. The area is known for its' silver mining and in the early 1900s they would load the silver ore in bags at Mayo and ship it down the Yukon by sternwheelers.

Not much else in Mayo and the policeman that greets us at the river landing is wearing a very visible bullet-proof vest, which makes me a little nervous. He's reprimanding the guy who has been talking to us for drinking alcohol in public. (There's a sign clearing stating no alcohol drinking in public within 5km of town). We can tell the guy may have had 'one too many' in his lifetime, but he was telling us interesting stories about his grandfather working the sternwheelers and seemed like a harmless, nice guy.

Anyway, we take off for Keno City. Keno is a town known for its' silver mines, which are still operational. We first visit the Keno Mining Museum--it's actually a very interesting and nicely done musuem. Keno is really out in the boonies. I think maybe 20 people live here.

After the museum we walk around town a little to look at the other old buildings, including a strange house that is lined with beer bottles. The owner of the local hotel in the 1960s thought that the beer bottles would make good insulation so he lined his house with beer bottles. No one lives there any longer.

Then we make the 30 minute drive to the Keno Signpost on top of summit hill. The road is definately a bumpy, old road (4 drive needed at places), but the view is incredible. We also look at a couple of abandoned silver mine shafts on the way down from the top.

When we finally get back to 'downtown' Keno, we decide to get some pizza at the Keno Cafe. The place is lined with memorabilia and a funky little place, with a very friendly owner, who also is the cook and our server. The pizza was very good also.

Jere then decides to take the Duncan Creek dirt road back to Mayo. So a slow BUMPY drive back. We were hoping to see some wildlife on the road, but no wildlife. We get back to the campground, have a campfire and of course S'MORES!

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.