Whitehorse to Dawson City 6/27

Today was a traveling day. Three hundred forty two miles. Doesn’t sound like much, but it was a full day and there were several stretches of gravel. Our speed ranged from 25 to 55 and braking often for bumps in the road. The roads really are better than we expected. We made a few stops of interest along the way. The first was Mom’s Bakery on the road to Lake Laberge. We talked with “Mom” about the Yukon and things to do along the way. She was born 80 years ago and raised in the Dawson City area. She has a beautiful little garden and a view of the river below. For company she has a Macaw that actually carries on conversations with her. Still being the spry woman that she is, she cross country skis, bikes to the lake and hikes down to the river to take the boat out fishing. We bought a few goodies from her bakery then headed down to Lake Laberge. We had to stop here after reading the poem by Robert Service – The Cremation of Sam McGee. The first line being - “The Northern Lights have seen queer sights. But the queerest they ever did see, was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge I cremated Sam McGee.” This was a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains; imagine crossing the area in the dead of winter. Brrr
A brief stop at what was a roadhouse where travelers stopped to rest their horses and get a meal, occasionally taking a cot for the night. There were pictures of the travelers in open wagons or sleighs in the winter. Wonder why they didn’t put a wagon cover over it?
Next stop was Five Finger Rapids. We took a hike here down from the viewing area to the platform over the rapids. That being 216 steps and 1 km one way. Glad we did it. You really got a better view of where the boats had to maneuver around these five rock formations (that looked like fingers) in order to make it up or down river. Bet they lost a lot of vessels. This is also one of the spots where the boats would take on more wood for their engines.
It was about 4 o’clock at this time and we decided to just press on and make it to Dawson City. We were almost here when all traffic stopped for about 45 minutes. There was a turned over car that swerved to avoid a moose. Everyone got out and walked around waiting for things to get cleared up. There was a helicopter and ambulance, but they said no one was hurt. Good thing cause the car was a mess.
We pulled into Dawson City around 8:30 and stopped for the night. It’s hard to get used to the long days. Because it’s still daylight we’re ready to go into town and see what’s what, but most everything is closed at 8. Diamond Gertie has three shows a night but that’s about it. We’re still having difficulty knowing when to go to bed and when to get up. Because it’s still daylight we don’t realize it’s after 11 and we need to go to bed, and when we awaken and see that its daylight we think we need to get up, but it’s only 2 a.m. We literally have to check the clock to see what we should be doing lol. We noticed in Whitehorse when we left the Frantic Follies around 9 and stopped for dinner at an A &W that closes at 9 (we just made it under the wire) leaving there and travelling back to camp the sun was in the sky where it is at 5 p.m. at home. Glad we’re here now instead of in the winter when it’s just the opposite.

Whitehorse YT 6/25 & 6/26

Whitehorse is the capital of the Yukon Territory. There is a lot to see and do here, as it is still quite a touristy town. We toured the SS Klondike which is a ship that has been restored and is now owned by the Yukon government as a historic site. It was originally launched in 1937 and took gold prospectors up the river. It was operated by steam that was produced by burning wood on board. The cargo area held the cargo as well as the wood that was burned to produce the steam. The ship stopped along the river to pick up more logs for burning. The man that kept the fire burning worked a shift of four hours on then eight off. He had to put another log (4’ long) into the burner every 30 seconds. Talk about a tiring 4 hour shift. Once up river it returned with a load of silver ore.

And have you ever seen a weather vane this large?

We went to a wildlife preserve and got a good shot of a mountain goat.

For the most part though we thought that the pictures of animal we got along the highway were much better. Guess the preserve is more for the folks that are on bus tours or cruises and don’t get an opportunity to see them naturally.
The most interesting sight for me personally was when we got back to camp. A large tour bus like none that I’d ever seen before. This first one is taken looking down the driver side. It has seating in the front with the kitchen and pantry below (used from outside) and the sleeping berths in the rear.

On the other side you can see that a tent of sorts comes our and they enter the sleeping area easily.


Here’s a closer look at the cooking area and pantry.


We were in the laundry room looking out the window when we first noticed a lot of women preparing a salad. When I walked over I asked the gentleman if I could take pictures. He didn’t speak much English, but said “for a dollar you can take picture”. I laughed and starting taking pictures. I’m sure they attract attention every where they go. I would have loved to ask more questions, but the language barrier prevented it.


These last two photos were added when I discovered an interest from Bayern. Don't know if the interest is for the bus or the people. In case it's for the people I wanted you to see all that I took. Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear from you.