Dawson City

 

 

The camp ground was very quiet. Other transient campers were very spread out and out of sight.  Since we have excellent cell reception we connect with our good friend and neighbor Michelle Kuppersmith to water our plants and check on a few things in and around our house.  I can follow her around the house with all the WiFi cameras I have set up.

We stop for gas at the local gas station before we head onto Dawson City.  

At an overlook above Pelly Crossing, we run into two guys from Connecticut touring in an antique pickup truck. Linda is keeping a list of license plates, trying to get all 50 states. I am not sure an antique designated license plate counts.

Pelly Crossing

Antiques Road Show

The section of road from Pelly Crossing is much rougher than everything south of here.  We pass through many recently burned sections on both sides of the road. A couple weeks ago the road was closed and other days they were running a pilot car through the smoke.

We eventually reach a section of major road improvement, widening and straightening. We get lucky and only have to wait 10 minutes or so for the south bound group of pilot car lead vehicles to come through before it is our turn to go north. They have the couple motorcycles move up behind the pilot car. Although they do a good job of keeping the dirt surfaces damp it is still rather dusty.  After about 20 miles we get back on the paved highway. 

I let the two vehicles behind us pass. There are hardly any rest areas north of Pelly Crossing.  When we finally reach a rest area on Gravel Lake, we pull in behind the rest of the pilot car group that was ahead of us. All were looking forward to this lunchtime break.

While we are having lunch Linda notices something moving out on the lake. I get out the binoculars and spy a mother moose and her baby swimming across the lake.

The convoy

We reach Dawson City around 3:00 PM.  We get parked in the RV park in town “Gold Rush Campground RV Park” which is within walking distance to everything in town. We walk over to the visitor center to make a reservation to tour the SS. Klondike, Paddle wheeler, which is permanently dry docked on the shore.  The main street use to have a view of the river, but after many spring floods and ice jams the government built a progressively higher levy to protect the town.

Ice Cream in Dawson City

Nice Bikes

We have dinner back at the RV.  After cleaning up Linda watches a TV show and I go for a 10:00PM bike tour of the town. Sunset is around midnight.

The downside of Permafrost

Crossing the Yukon River

Ferry landing

Pelly Crossing

We slept very well in the “Real Canadian Superstore” parking lot with 8 other RV’s. Wake up to an overcast day and have a rather dreary drive north.

I don’t know why, but Google Maps and Apple Maps do some very stupid routing in BC and Yukon.  I have to constantly check for silly routings and pay attention to the road map.

We stop for lunch at the Five Finger Rapids Recreation Site.  This area overlooks  the Five Finger Rapids that the paddle wheelers would pass through on the Yukon river between Whitehorse and Dawson city. It is amazing that they could run up these rapids. When the water was really high they would winch the boats up through the rapids.

Five Finger Rapids in the distance

Back in the day

They same rapids today

We decide to hike the trail to the rapids for a close up look. Paddle wheelers ran until 1955 when the road to Dawson was completed. The paddle wheelers kept a lot of wood cutters employed, the round trip took 40 cords of wood, which they would load on at various points along the river.

I decide to stop for the evening at Pelly Crossing a community of 316 people, with a gas station, general store and 4 bars on our cell phones.  They have a free camp ground that is very nice.  I assume it was once a commercial campground that the town did not find economical to run.

The sun seems to set 1/2 hour later each day we travel north from the USA. Sunset is now 11:30. When we get to Dawson city, sunset will be in the next day.

Campsite

View from our campsite

Whitehorse

We check out of the RV park late morning and spend the day in and around Whitehorse. We spend a couple hours driving and walking around Miles Canyon.

During the Gold Rush, hundreds of boats loaded with precious supplies were lost (as well as several lives) before the Northwest Mounted Police arrived to regulate traffic. Only approved pilots were allow to guide boats down through the rapids.

Eventually a wooden rail system around the canyon eliminated the need to battle this hazard. 

As we are leaving we again run into Rob and Audry.  Hopefully we will see them in the Fall when they take their RV to New England during foliage.

Miles Canyon

Float plane docks on the lake behind the power dam near town

We next stop at the SS Klondike, a dry docked paddle wheeler that is currently going through a couple year restoration. 

SS Klondike

We then head to the monthly farmers market and score some baked goods.  We better set aside some time tomorrow for some serious hiking.

Farmer’s Market

After weighing a couple options we decide to spend the night in the “Real Canadian Superstore” a supermarket/household goods store parking lot. They allow RVers to spend the night at the far end of their parking lot. Since we have become regular customers, it's a good exchange.

Whitehorse

Work day. A leisurely breakfast, french toast before I get to work. 

I had previously installed a thermostatic faucet and shower and it has not been working correctly. Only getting very hot water.  Turns out the hot water and cold water lines were reversed, but unfortunately a lot of other stuff has to be taken apart to get access to the plumbing.  The exhaust fan switch in the bathroom failed so I jury rig in a new temporary switch, actually a much better switch than comes with the RV vent.

Late in the afternoon we get cleaned up we head into town for dinner.

We stop at the visitor center and meet another couple from Florida traveling in their Class B Airstream and have a long interesting conversation.  Turns out Bob and Audrey Hunter are members of Coral Ridge Yacht Club on Sunrise Bay, in Fort Lauderdale, where we have anchored many times. They are returning from Alaska and are a wealth of information for where we are heading. Before the evening is out we have texted back and forth a couple times.

Nile, Linda, Bob and Audrey

Whitehorse

I get up and turn on the heat and go back to bed.  Cold dreary morning, not much motivation to get up and get moving. We have a short driving day to Whitehorse, about two so no rush to get going.  The other 6  RV’s aren’t moving either.  I want to go to the Teslin museum, which opens at 10:00 a mile or so back towards town.

We are the first car there for the morning. We were in for a pleasant surprise and found the local history very interesting. The museum’s name is “George Johnston Museum”.  Before the Alaska Highway was built during WWII, Teslin was a remote eastern enclave of the Tlinget first people, that spread from the Alaska coast around todays Juneau. Until the Alaska highway was first built they fish, hunted and trapped the surrounding area. 

George Johnston who lived to become a venerated Tlinget Elder, made a good living trapping.  Teslin prior to WWII had no roads and the only access other than on foot was a paddle wheeler that came up the Yukon River.  George ordered a camera via catalog and he learned to take photos and develop his film. Most of the photos in the museum were his.  George had a desire to buy a car and his friends thought he was nuts. They had no roads, but in 1928 after a very successful trapping season he went to Whitehorse and bought a Chevrolet.  It was delivered via paddle wheeler.  Teslin still had no roads, but it did have 85 miles of frozen lake for more the ½ the year.

George, still a hunter, had a short tower where he could look out over the lake looking for game.  The game was quickly scared off by this black object speeding towards them. He solved that problem by painting the car white with house paint. His second problem was there was no such thing as automobile antifreeze for liquid cooled motors. He drained the radiator into a bucket, kept it near the stove and when he saw some game out on the lake, he would fill the radiator and take off. He also hired some fellows to build a couple miles of road along the lake and ran a taxi service on and off the ice.

George’s Chevy on the ice

George’s Chevy today

In 1963 after 35 years he returned to the Chevrolet dealer in Whitehorse to trade it in for a pickup truck.  The dealership restored the 1928 Chevy and it was featured in many parades for years, before it was donated to the museum.

George lived to be 80 and died around 1970

We get to Whitehorse in the afternoon and book two nights at the Pioneer RV park.  Tomorrow is a work day. I have some plumbing and electrical fan switch issues to fix. Picked up the necessary parts at Canadian Tire, tires are only a small part of this store, they have everything you could possibly want.

Out slot at the RV Park

Teslin Lake

Right after we get back on the road leaving the campsite we see a couple groups of Bison on both sides of the highway. Lots of new borns and most of the herd is lying down. A little later we see another solitary bear on the side of the road.  

We stop at Whirl Pool Canyon to check out the rapids.  Two campers are still there. There is a huge pile of logs which must be from the whirl pool at high water levels.  Just as we drive out about 8 RV’s and trucks, locals, drive in.  Today is Canada day, must be a vacation day for them.

Stop at Watson Lake for gas and to see the famous Sign Post Forest.  An acre or two of poles and trees with road signs, license plates, etc. from around the world.  Friends send us a picture of the plate they posted a couple years ago and I find it in the first couple minutes.

Found it

Sign Post Forest

Rancheria Falls

We stop for the night at a free rest stop on Teslin Lake, right on the water. Windy and cool.  Sunset tonight, 11:16 PM

View from our Van

10:30 PM

Fellow Travelers