Week 15

Monday, July 8, 2002

I left beautiful Muncho Lake this morning and although my original plan was to drive to the town of Watson Lake, I changed my mind and only went about 40 miles to Liard River Hot Springs. I heard this place was a “not to be missed place”. The word is that the campground fills early in the day, so I got there before noon and got a great spot. By 4:00 the campground was full. After eating lunch, I walked the boardwalk through the forest to the hot springs. It was a beautiful afternoon with comfortable temperatures in the upper 70s, but when I got to the springs, a ranger was explaining the geology of the park and the fact that there were two pools which are supposed to have rejuvenating powers. One spring was around 105 degrees and the other was almost 120 degrees. I went back to the RV and put on my bathing suit and walked back to the springs again. Man did that feel good! Later that evening, after I ate dinner, I took a third walk back to the springs for another dip. This is heaven!

Tuesday, July 9, 2002

It started raining last night and rained for just about 24 hours. I woke up this morning to the sound of pounding rain. This is only about the fourth day since April 1 that I’ve had rain, so I can’t complain. I left the Laird River Hot Springs Park and drove 130 miles up the Alaska Highway with about a 20 miles detour on muddy road to the Town of Watson Lake. I just entered the Yukon Territory. Watson Lake is a very interesting town which has thoroughly exploited the fact that a young GI, while working on the construction of the Alaska Highway in 1942, put up a sign indicating the distance from Watson Lake to his home town in Ohio. The town has developed “The Signpost Forest” which is about one square block of crude signs that every tourist who comes up the Alaska Highway adds to the collection. There are more than 47,000 signs, everything from official highway signs; street signs; and official “welcome to …..” signs to elaborate home made signs and crude signs made with hub caps or pie plates. They are from every corner of the Earth. It is fascinating to walk through this “forest” and read some of the many signs. I am camped at a campground called Downtown RV Park, which is basically a gravel lot in the middle of town with hundreds of RVs parked here. When I arrived early this afternoon, I was the third one here, by 6:00 there were more than 100 RVs. The camaraderie increases as you get further up the Alaska Highway. Every day you see people that you’ve seen earlier in the trip.

Wednesday, July 10, 2002

Today was another beautiful day. I awoke to a shining sunny day. It was so nice that I decided to wash the very muddy princess before I left Watson Lake. The RV Park had a free RV wash, so I took advantage of it. Today’s drive was 277 miles over excellent highway. I crisscrossed over the British Columbia/Yukon border seven times before finally staying in the Yukon from Teslin Jct to Whitehorse. I was planning to stop for lunch at Teslin Jct, and then I saw a sign advertising a place called Mukluk Annie’s. This is another one of those things that every tourist up here must stop to see. It is a small hole-in-the-wall café which specializes in Salmon. I got a salmon plate lunch for 15.95. It was not very good. I realized then that this was a genuine tourist trap. I left Mukluk Annie’s and continued on my way to Whitehorse. I was very impressed with this city. It is the capital of the Yukon Territory and it appeared to be a very prosperous town. In talking with some of the local folk, I found that things were not as good as they seemed. The mainstay of the economy is government and tourism. But there is no sign of decay and there are many very nice buildings including the government buildings and the library and the visitor’s center. I was planning to stay at an RV park called Hi-Country, but when I got there, they were full. I haven’t been making reservations lately. That may change. They referred me to a place called Mackenzie’s RV Park about 5 miles out of town. I drove to it and they did have room, although before the end of the day they too were sold out. I went to Wal-mart just to browse and I was fascinated at the number of RVs parked in their lot. Must have been at least 100.

Thursday, July 11, 2002

I got up early this morning. I was talking with several people with Adventure tours last night and they were taking a Gray Line sightseeing tour of Whitehorse including a trip to a wild animal preserve outside of town. They suggested that I come along, and I figured why not. They tour bus picked us up at the campground at 9:00 and covered most of Whitehorse within a couple of hours. I learned that Whitehorse got its name because when the Yukon gold rush occurred in 1898, the prospectors saw the miles canyon rapids just outside of town and thought the raging waters looked like galloping white horses. There are four governments in Whitehorse: Canada; Yukon; Whitehorse and First Nation. First Nation is the term for Indians. Canada seems to give the Indian population a little more autonomy than the U. S. government. I learned that there is a height limit of four stories because more than that would block out the limited sunlight in the winter. Up here the days are long in the summer but short in the winter. Right now, the sun comes up around 3:30 AM and sets around 11:30 PM. In the heart of winter, the sun comes up around 11:30 AM and sets around 3:00 PM. I saw a four story “apartment building” that was built like a log cabin, one apartment per floor. After the city tour, we went out to the wild animal preserve, where I saw plenty of deer, Bison, Musk Ox; sheep and goat. This wasn’t nearly as good as the San Diego Wild Animal Park. The tour also passed through some very nice residential neighborhoods, some homes were built as log cabins, but only as a novelty. They were beautiful elaborate homes. Most nice homes sell in the neighborhood of $100,000 (U.S. dollars). An acre of land in the suburbs runs around $3,000. After the tour, I came back to the RV and took a nap (unusual for me, but I was tired). At 6:00, I drove downtown and went to a show called the “Frantic Follies” It was a pretty good presentation of song and dance, comedy and the poetry of Robert Service. He is the favorite son of the Yukon. He wrote “The Cremation of Sam Magee” and they idolize him here. The show was pretty good. It lasted about two hours, and when I came out of the theater it was still daylight, so I drove around town and revisited some of the things that I saw on the tour earlier.

Friday, July 12, 2002

I slept in a little late this morning and didn’t get started until around Noon. I drove back into Whitehorse and went to the McBride Museum. This was a very well done museum sponsored by the Canadian Parks System. It gave an excellent demonstration of gold mining and much of the other geology of the area. There were fantastic scenes of stuffed animals and of course the obligatory memorabilia of Robert Service and Sam McGee. I cut the visit to the museum a little short because I had a ticket for the 2:00 sailing of the M.V. Schwatka. This very small boat went down the Miles Canyon which is a very high canyon that was the death of many prospectors attempting to get to Dawson City during the Klondike gold ruch 100 years ago. A dam has been built up river from the canyon, so the rapids are not nearly as rough as they used to be. In the parking lot, I met a couple from Delaware who recognized my Maryland license plates and we had a very enjoyable conversation during the 2 hour trip up and down the river. After that cruise, I went aboard the S. S. Klondike, which is a large sternwheeler that is permanently dry-docked in town and open for tours. It was the largest of the sternwheelers that carried the prospectors from Whitehorse up the Yukon River to the gold fields at Dawson City. After that tour I drove around town a little bit, and had dinner at a nice place called Pandas. I was surprised to see such a nice restaurant here in Whitehorse. The staff was all European and I had an excellent plate of Artic Charr.

Saturday, July 13, 2002

Well after 3 days in Whitehorse, I felt I got to know the place, but as usual I was ready to move on. I left the Alaska Highway just a couple of miles out of town and picked up the Klondike Highway on the way to Dawson City. It is 325 miles to Dawson City, a little more than I like to do on these Yukon Highways. So I decided to stop at a place called Whispering Willows on the banks of the Stewart River. This is 217 miles, a little more reasonable for a days drive in the RV. I stopped about 50 miles North of Whitehorse at a place called Braeburn lodge. The Milepost guide says this is a must stop. They sell cinnamon buns that are huge. Well they were huge alright. One bun cost $6.00, but I bought one anyway and should pig out on it for a few days. I also filled up with gas there. I believe this will be my last fill-up until I get to Alaska. The gas was 84 cents per liter which is $2.00 a gallon. I got $185 (CDN) which is $115.00 (U.S.). I stopped one more time about 100 miles further at a place called “Five Fingers Rapids”. This was a beautiful Yukon Park with spectacular views of the Yukon River as it flowed through a canyon creating five separate channels of water. There were 215 steps down to the bottom of the cliff where the parking lot was, then a 2 kilometer hike to the rapids. It was a great way to break up the day. Leaving there, I drove the rest of the way to Stewart Crossing and arrived about 6:00. The campground is about half full, although the highway coming up was almost completely without traffic. Tomorrow I go into Dawson City.

Sunday, July 14, 2002

I left Whispering Willows at Stewart Crossing this morning and drove about 100 miles to Dawson City. The road gets lonelier the further North I go. I ran into a lengthly stretch of road construction that shook the Princess to the bone. I had originally planned to stay at a place called Hi-Country RV Park, but last night I found another campground in my directory that was in the heart of Dawson City. It is called the Gold Rush RV Park. I went there and they said the only thing they had available was a site with electricity only. No water, no sewer. I was able to fill my water tanks with 100 gallons of fresh water, and I emptied my sewage holding tanks before leaving Whispering Willows, so I am good to go with this minor inconvenience. The campground is walking distance to everything in Dawson City. After setting up, I walked down to the Diamond Tooth Gertie Saloon and Casino and found that they didn’t open until 3:00. So I walked around the town some more. I went to the Grand Palace Theater to see if I could get a ticket for the evening show there. The box office opened at 3:30. So I did the town some more. Dawson City is just about the farthest North that I will be on this trip. Actually Fairbanks is a little farther North, but by the time I get to Fairbanks, the days will be getting a little bit shorter. Right now, since it is so close to the Summer solstice, the sun hardly sets at all. Dawson City tries real hard to maintain an atmosphere of the gold rush days of 1898. All of the streets in this town are dirt. There are no paved roads. The sidewalks are all wooden. Some are pretty badly decayed. Most of the buildings are in fair condition. Canadian Parks maintains about 30 buildings in the town. I was able to get a ticket for the 8:30 show at the Grand Palace. I had a balcony box seat in this beautifully restored 100 year old theater. The show was pretty good. It was called the “Gaslight Follies”. It wasn’t the slap stick comedy that I saw at the Frantic Follies. It was more of a re-creation of a typical vaudeville act of the early 1900s. This show was a little more serious, although it was song and dance. The talent was pretty good. I can’t imagine that all this talent came from Dawson City. Some of these singers and actors could have done very well in a more sophisticated city. I am going to stay another day here, then on Tuesday morning, I will take a ferry across the Yukon River and drive the famous “Top of the World Highway” into Alaska.