Dawson City

18-Jun-14

Today we drove to Dawson City, YT. We previewed the Klondike River campground south of town on our way in and decided it looked good and was worth the drive back. In the afternoon we explored the town and enjoyed the wooden sidewalks, old buildings, and a bit of window shopping. We went to the local history museum and learned about the Yukon gold rush and the substantial production of gold today.  We had dinner in town at Sourdough Joes, famous for fish & chips...deservingly so.  

Enroute we stopped at Gravel Lake for a roadside lunch, and enjoyed the view of two moose across the lake during our stop.  Unfortunately, our zoom would not do them justice, but the binoculars did better for our eyes only.

Tomorrow we will repatriate ourselves to the USA as we enter Alaska for the first time. We look forward to exploring the town of Chicken, and perhaps moving further south toward the Alaska Highway again, to head toward Fairbanks and points east, such as Circle Hot Springs. 

Yesterday we made store-bought eggs for breakfast.  WE MISS OUR CHICKENS! Wow, what a difference in taste. Today we happened upon some farm eggs in a cooler at a small town gas stop and quickly bought a dozen!

We are now fully in the land of no darkness at night, only twilight. Weird, but cool at the same time. 

No photos synced to this device yet today. Sorry.

Tatchun Creek, YT

17-Jun-14

Today we spent much of the day in Whitehorse attending to minor repair issues and exploring the town. We saw one of the steam boats used to move material and man on the Yukon River in days gone by, and explored a nice downtown area a bit. Unfortunately, the alignment shop did not have the part required to bring Byron back into shape, so I'll have the part shipped up to Fairbanks and do the repair there.  Unfortunately, that will probably be at the cost of a pair of front tires. Alas, such an event was budgeted for in our planning for the trip. 

Tonight we're camped at Tatchun Creek, just north of Carmacks, YT.  It's a rural campground with no services, but a nice setting next to a creek that is a major Chinnok Salmon spawning area. We met our camp neighbors who happen to be from The Netherlands, where I worked for a few years. We had a good chat and congratulated each other on taking on such a journey as we've chosen.

Enroute to camp, we took The Milepost up on the suggested stop by the Braeburn Lodge. The place is a checkpoint for a 1,000 mile sled dog race, The Yukon Quest. Most important to us was the giant cinnamon rolls they make. Can't wait for breakfast tomorrow!

 

In White Horse of Yukon

Right now I am sitting in a Starbucks, using their WiFi. (Thanks Starbucks) Anyway, here we are in White Horse, which is in Yukon Territory, waiting for Byron to get a tire adjustment. We just got Mom's shattered iPhone screen fixed. It accidentally got a heavy object of sorts dropped on it. But now it is a lot better and it has a new screen. (Yeah!) Well, that's about all that is new today. So sorry for the lack of posts... I need WiFi to publish.

Whitehorse, Yukon Terriroty

We've made it Whitehorse in the Yukon and are taking part of the day to deal with some minor repair issues.  Byron is wearing the right front tire a bit unevenly and is in need of an alignment to solve that, and I trashed Rebecca's iPhone screen back in Glacier...we found a shop to do a same-day repair.  All should be good by the end of the day for a short drive north and then on to Dawson City tomorrow.
We're excited from what we've read to see the historical mining town, and travel on to Chicken, Alaska after a ferry crossing at the Yukon river!
We've seen some great scenery and lots of animals on the drive since Dawson Creek.  Some photos follow.

Caribou running quickly across the road. We were lucky to get this quick snap through the windshield before it was in the woods again.

Byron after a rough trip out to the Inga Lake campground.

Willow seems to be getting her groove on and even went in the water at Inga Lake.

Lake Muncho, BC

Mountain sheep with babies

More lake Muncho.

Byron and Rebecca at Lake Muncho.

Liard hot springs+a moose!

We are staying at Liard Hot Springs today, as well as staying there last night. We met some new friends,Pete and Marley, who were our camping.  "neighbors". They are headed up to Juneau for the summer.

There are hot springs a short walk on a boardwalk not far away from our campsite. While we were walking there yesterday to take a dip, we were stopped short when we saw a moose standing at the next bend. At first, I thought it would be a friendly statue guarding the entrance to the springs. That's when it leaped across the path into the woods. Luckily, we wee about 150 feet away from it. 

Ahhh...Hot Springs!

On Saturday we covered almost 400 miles and saw lots of wonderful scenery north of Fort Nelson. Many big rivers and cool bridges, and a large variety of wildlife including many black bear, caribou, bison, deer, and finally a bull moose at our destination, Liard Hot Springs. 

The springs are in a provincial park and though the campground was full when we arrived, the staff let us stay in the day use area overnight. $29 included camping, hot springs, and firewood. VALUE!  So good we decided to spend another night. Rained all night here...storms unlike CO storms.

We met Pete and his daughter Marley from Missoula MT who are on their way to Juneau AK to drop off Marley for a summer job. They are taking the trip as a great father daughter adventure and seemed to be having a great time too.

Byron got a bath in Fort Nelson and is looking much happier now, despite continued rainy travel. 

Tomorrow we hope to cross the line into the Yukon Territory on our push north. The days are getting really long already with light until after 11pm, but we know it only gets longer north of here. 

Officially on the Alaska Highway!

Today we entered onto the Alaska Highway at Dawson Creek BC (Milepost 0). Unfortunately there is major road construction going on right at the Milepost and we were unable to go right up to it for a photo.  Oh well, distance shots will have to do.  We traveled about 300 miles total and are now camped at Inga Lake. Simple free BC government campground that's just going to have to do. It was about a 3km journey into the camp on a logging road.  Byron did great, but is showing the signs in mud tossed up on his sides. I promise a car wash is on the list buddy!

After the rainstorm passed, we emerged from Byron and met a couple from Switzerland who are traveling in a 1984 Vanagon that they brought over from the continent. They have been on the road for over a year and sound to be just getting started. Their van has a world map on the drivers door showing where they've been, and flag stickers of the countries visited on the side. Rebecca was inspired and calls them her new heroes. Uh oh!

Willow made friends with three dogs here that belong to some locals out fishing. Those dogs inspired her to explore boundaries in terms of playing in the water we've not previously seen in her. Now we have wet, muddy dog smell and mess in our 75 sq ft shared living space.Nice! Glad that I chose the upper bunk and she can't get up here.