Chapter Six – O Canada, Part 2

This is truly a wonderful country. And its amazing that we have seen so so little of it!

Hello again family, friends and other kind readers. We are here in Dawson City, Yukon. The farthest North in Canada we are going to go, following the route to the Top of the World highway into Alaska. Tomorrow, we will be in Alaska. But boy has it been busy getting here!

We spent two relaxing and productive nights in Kitwanga. A very small town, but we had a short walk to the market and a good laundry room, and a fun time watching all the RVers coming through for one night. We left with a Spanky clean rig and a plan for the Cassiar.

Our first stop was Stewart. On our way into town, we saw our first grizzly. He was just hanging out by the road, and I was so excited I fumbled the camera and missed the perfect shot! From that moment on, we were in constant “scan” mode. Alas, we haven’t seen another yet! We arrived in Stewart early enough that we had the pick of spots in the Community Park Campground. Lovely little spot along a creek, walking distance to “town”, with power, so we were set! Dale had read up on the town, and found that there is a bus that leaves every day at 2pm for a glacier tour. The drive was advertised as a must do, but rough on your vehicle, so Dale was VERY happy that someone else was driving. Gord was a great tour guide and glacier was shockingly amazing to see. We ended the day at the local Mexican restaurant and started the next morning with one last walk around town. Quiet, lovely, a really great stay!

Our next two nights were spent at two different Canada Provincial Parks, Kinasken Lake and Boya Lake. Both sites were gorgeous, lake front sites, with no hookups….and rules about when we can run our generator. well, we made it through the nights, but both times we had the fridge wake up with a low power alarm. Suffice it to say, we learned a lot about what to leave plugged in when we are boon docking, and we learned that we are “power people”. If we have to give up a lakefront site to have power, well then, its good that we have seen lakes before! On the positive side, we saw our first ever wolverine cross the road in front of us! And plenty of black bear. We had the Cassiar highway pretty much to ourselves, 90% of the campers we saw were heading the other way. Looks like most folks use the Cassiar to finish their Alaska loops, not begin them like us!

When you wake up after a low power alarm, you tend to rise for the day at an absurdly early hour. Knowing that all we were going to do for hours was sit and obsess that we couldnt turn on our generator, we opted to “set sail” from Boya at 6am. We left the park, found the first rest stop (amazingly about ten minutes away), parked and started up that generator and set up Starlink…. THEN we made coffee and enjoyed our morning routine. We crossed into Yukon and went east to Watson Lake (known for its Signpost Forest where at last count there were 100,000 on display) for both a gasoline and breakfast fill up. And then we began our drive on the Alaska Highway. We stopped at a little RV park called the Continental Divide Lodge and RV. The storefront appearance would normally lead you to keep on driving, but by then we did not care. And as it turned out, it was the right decision. We were one of three rigs there, there as NO lake view, but we had all the hookups. Dale was able to clean the bugs off the front of the vehicle, we were able to really look at the calendar and plan our time in Alaska, played some cribbage, had our first (and likely only) campfire, and slept like babies.

It became pretty apparent that we have some time to kill before we need to be in Haines to catch our ferry ride back to the states at the beginning of September. So it became time to stay a few days in one location. Since our next stop was Whitehorse, Yukon, we decided to start there. It was time to stop for a round of golf, so we found Meadow Lakes Golf Course on our way to our RV park. It was chilly and windy, and despite donating a good chunk of our ball supply to the woods around the course, we did have a good time. The course was in GREAT shape. We then made our way to our first “Rack ’em and Stack ’em” park of the trip. It wasn’t too bad, since we didn’t intend to spend a lot of time at the RV. We had only made our reservation for one night, so when we arrived, and asked for two more nights, we were going to have to move the next morning. Gave ourselves our second scare when we moved, and suddenly our upshot wouldn’t extend, and half the RV had no power. While I spent my time googling RV shops in Whitehorse, and Dale went through every GFI switch and circuit breaker in the house, he finally found the switch that turns off the house battery he fat fingered when we prepared to move. Ahhh, the lessons we learn! We had decided to spend the day exploring the town of Whitehorse, using the public access buses to get around. We got downtown just fine, were able to do some touristy things and shopping (it is a pretty interesting little town!) and even take the right bus to Walmart for some necessities. All while the nastiest, wettest weather settled in for the day. so when it was time to return, well then we had the joy of trying to understand which bus and when it was going to show up. The wetter I got, the grumpier I got, and the longer we had to wait for a bus, the more impatient Dale got. After walking our way as close as we could get, looking like drowned rats, and then jumping on the wrong bus, we finally gave up and called a taxi. It was nice to get home….

Our last day in Whitehorse we opted to take a tour down to Skagway, AK. We have been there twice before, like everyone else, on a cruise ship. And both times we took the White Pass Yukon railroad trip. This time, we were bussed down to Fraser, BC, boarded the train, and took it down to Skagway. Somehow, this trip we learned the most, and had some of the best views. We think this may have been the first time we had beautiful weather for the trip. A HUGE change from the day before. We were only in Skagway long enough to eat some lunch, have a beer and do a little shopping and walking. And get a surprise stamp for my National Parks Passport! We were there with all the people from the four cruise ships in port….it really put the “crowds” traveling the Alaska Highway into perspective! We really did have a lovely time, though the coach ride back from Skagway to Whitehorse, just about put Dale over the edge. Our driver, a kind and cautious man, carefully observed the speed limits, or at least the minimum. And he really wanted us to appreciate and get every opportunity to photograph the very beautiful scenery. The history of the area, being central to the Yukon Gold Rush is fascinating, and looking at the ruggedness all around, it is a marvel what people did to try and get a piece of the action. But I could just feel Dale buzzing next to me as the ride back took an extra 90 minutes we hadn’t expected. I really expected him to jump up and take the wheel!

Yesterday we made it to Dawson City, Yukon. A six hour drive from Whitehorse, this is one of our longer drives, so we opted to stay for two nights. This is a very well preserved old town, and a popular destination for vacationers. We happened to be here for their annual Music Festival. Although we weren’t into paying the fee to listen to the music, we had a fun time people watching in town! we had another beautiful day of weather, so we were able to break out the bikes and go for a ride. The place really threw us off of our routine, as all the things we would normally do, grab a drink, go to the casino, don’t even open their doors until 6 pm! this truly is the land of the midnight sun. The town is known for its Sourtoe Cocktail, a shot of Yukon whiskey with a real preserved human toe in it. Take your drink, let that toe touch your lips (no swallowing or chewing) and you get a certificate! Check out the video on Facebook for the whole escapade. Me only, it was too creepy for Dale to try. From there we went to Diamond Tooth Gerties, where Dale could not win, and I held my own long enough to see the first CanCan show of the evening. It was good! The girls could dance and the singers had pretty spectacular voices. AND I came home with winnings! All in all, an excellent end to our visit to Canada.

O dear readers, thanks for hanging in with me! When next we visit….Alaska!