Dawson City, Yukon Territory

After Carmacks, we continued on northward on the Klondike highway in the Yukon.  The weather was cooperating, there were no bugs and the scenery great.  Road conditions deteriorated somewhat on the approach to Dawson City due to the constant frost heaves and underlying permafrost.  Soon, we were in Dawson City where I immediately noticed that the main street and highway through town had been paved since my last visit.  Downtown the sternwheeler Keno sits renovated on the bank, heralding the era of the gold rush when up to 70 such vessels plied the waters bringing in miners an goldseekers, and hauling out ore.

A smaller river boat still takes passengers on the river today.

And of course the free ferry transports vehicles and passengers across the Yukon river.

Several more vessels sit on shore awaiting eventual launch.

A first time trip up the Dome Road provides a high panoramic view of the whole area, as well as up and down the Yukon river.

While up there, I noticed an even higher viewpoint with a fire lookout tower on top.  After a bit of four wheel driving, we made it up to the top, just in time to chat with the towerman who had just come down to have lunch and do his weather readings.  We had a good chat and compared notes between lookouts in Yukon and back in Alberta.

After that, it was time for a drive out along Bonanza Creek, where the discovery was made that started the huge rush for gold in the area.

Dredge #4 is still in place where it sank, and is being restored and maintained by Parks Canada.

I had my gold pan with me, so it felt like deja vu all over again!

The weather was warm and mostly sunny, so there was no choice but to head for Chicken, Alaska, via the Top of the World highway…

North–on the Klondike Highway

After a few days spent in the Whitehorse area, it was time to move on – north!

A little red fox was hanging around roadside, trying for his 15 minutes of fame on worldwide internet.  Well here it is …!

 

I headed north out of Whitehorse, on the Klondike highway #2, ready for a day of adventure.  About 30 km north, my truck informed me that it was suffering from a rapid tire deflation problem .  I pulled off the road to check and found that it had ingested a large lag bolt right through the tread, just as a sprinkle of rain started.  No worries; dug out my jack and tire iron, and got the jack under before it had a chance to go completely flat.  Unfortunately, the spare tire would not come completely loose from it’s hiding spot under the rear.  No amount of kicking, twisting, or cursing would free it from it’s lair.  Seemed to me like a good time to try out my never-used roadside assistance plan from Onstar.  A quick press of the ‘blue button’ soon had me chatting with a friendly service advisor, who soon had Dave from Action towing on his way for the rescue.  After more grunting, and kicking and a liberal dose of WD-40, the spare finally gave up it’s resistance, and I changed the tire without further ado.  But now, it was back into Whitehorse, to get the lag bolt surgically removed, and it turned out that I needed propane anyway.  I eventually found Super Save Propane, where they do not fill propane tanks!

 

But they do fill tanks at Integra Tire, using super save propane!  Go figger!

Once that was all straightened out, we headed northward again, albeit a day later.  Weather was still great, there were no bugs, and when time came to find a campsite, a nice lakefront private spot along Fox Lake appeared on cue.  The access was much too steep for any trailers or bigger rigs, so once again I was glad to have the truck camper on.

There was a small fire circle there and lots of available wood, so a small campfire was in order.

There were a few merganzers, loons, and a magpie that seemed to like my bird call recordings, courtesy of the National Geographic bird app!  The ice was literally just breaking up and a few small ice floes floated by, disintegrating every minute.  At another location, bears had tried and failed to break into a bear-proof garbage bunker, covering it with muddy footprints.

Some days, it’s tough being a small grey cat on the road.        …   But, today isn’t one of those days!

Further up the road, we visited Carmacks, a historic spot on the Yukon river, where a number of the original structures are still standing.

Further north, the Five Finger rapids was a formidable obstacle to the sternwheelers that plied the river in the gold rush era.   Before blasting a deeper channel, the boats had to winch themselves up over the drop using a cable anchored to the shore upstream.  There is a long stairway of 217 steps leading down to the river for a closer look.

That evening (it’s hard to call it ‘evening’ when the sun doesn’t go down till well after 10pm, and it’s light all night), after checking out a few alternate options, and driving down a long very narrow road through the bush, we found a great spot high up with a view over the Yukon river at an abandoned hunting or fishing camp.

I think I was in this same area back in 2009 when Al from the Bayfield Bunch realized that myself and Wandering Willy were both travelling in the same area of the Yukon!  Since then of course, I have met up with them both many times, and at least once all three bloggers were camped together near Bouse, Az.  Next – on to Dawson City!