Post 6

July 5 Dawson City

Great day doing things around Dawson City. Started out with the Lutes group going off to explore Dredge #4, and the Rogers group went on the Klondike Spirt boat ride on the Yukon River. Nice 1.5 hour boat ride, interesting how muddy looking the river is here. Lots of interesting tour guide information like the Klondike town which was up and across the river. Now a historical site. Fresh water from the Klondike River cleared the Yukon up for a few hundred feet. A house boat was moored mid river. I guess the river is international waters, so I don’t know why there is no gambling boat! Housing is very limited, so a lot of people live in tents that work in town. Empty lots are done by drawings, and you must build within 3 years. All the houses are built on block or wood with no perimeter foundation. This is because of the frost heave.

Went out to the Dredge ourselves in the afternoon, then returned as it decided to pour rain. Seems like every day there is rain, and always clouds somewhere. Like Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Getting very tired of rain and clouds, forgot how depressed it makes me.

Had a great dinner out to celebrate my un birthday (birthday actually the 6^th). I choose Klondike Katie’s with its beer garden. Great food, I would say everything but the pulled pork (dry) was wonderful.  Really enjoyed the company of our friends.

After dinner the Lutes did a Midnight Dome Road tour, even though it was early evening. I guess the views were spectacular. Jerry and I went to Diamond Tooth Gerties Saloon for the 8:30 Cancan Show. Great dancing and singing, and of course they brought 4 guys from the audience up on the stage with them to perform.  Just hilarious.

Sad news at dinner, the Lutes group had decided not to continue over the Top of the World Highway. It has been raining and the rigs coming off the road are really dirty. Plus we heard horror stories about broken radiators and flat tires. The rocks are shale and very pointy.

Jerry and I agreed we were ready to head south to nicer weather.

 

July 6 Dawson Lake back to Whitehorse

 

Road southbound was about the same as the one northbound, rough. Though most of the frost heavy had settled down there still were badly patched areas, and pavement that was washboard. Saw only Rabbits and Crows. Boring drive back.

The Lutes family turned north to go to Haines Junction, we turned south to Whitehorse. Got a new fitting for sewer hose, ears on the old one had broken off. At one point during the day, our sewer hose was dragging on the ground. Had gone all this way without it doing that. But we hit one rough patch very hard. Then we went to the Chevy dealer to get the oil changed. Got that done and head out of town to a Yukon Provisional Campground. Absolutely full at 5 pm, as it is very close to Whitehorse. For $12 a night what can you expect. One gentleman told us about one opening, unit 40 might still be available. We have to drive backwards against traffic to get into it. Then we discover a tent and chairs away from the pad, but with the table and fire ring. No one around and an expired tag on the post at 5pm. We figured, we’d pay the fee and share the camp site if they showed. The people at the unit next to us said they had not seen anyone. So we stayed!

 

July 7 Wolf Creek CG (near Whitehorse) to Cassiar Hwy (Jade City)

Up around 6:30, and realized no one ever came to the tent overnight. I get worried that they will see our payment and think we are missing and/or left the tent. So we put the previous tag back on post. Decide to use the phone in the campground out by the highway to call the Parks people. Sure enough for 50 cents we could call and the phone booth actually had a phone book. A little worse for wear (the phone book) but it worked and we called in the abandoned campsite. Really weird as the tent directions were laying on the table for the new tent, a fishing pole laying there, two chairs, one of which was turned over. The people next door said it had been that way for the two days they had been there. Anyway the parks lady was nice and appreciated me letting her know. Makes you wonder what happened to the person or persons that belong there. Did they just get lost? Must have had a car, but where was it? Weird? Maybe I’ve been reading too many murder mystery books! Neighbors agreed and said they were glad they were moving on too!

Stopped late morning at Teslin and had drinks and a cinnamon bun, and got email. Got fuel again, about every 170-180 miles like clockwork. Hit the road and turned off the Alaska Highway onto Highway 37 the Cassiar Highway. It is about 450 miles long, and comes out just east of Prince Rupert, BC. We made it down about 80 miles to the Jade Store. We camped in their parking lot.

Miss our friends, maybe they will catch up.

 

 

July 8 Jade City (Cassiar Hwy) to Stewart, BC (Hyder, Alaska)

Left our free parking lot campground and headed south on Hwy 37. Cloudy all day with some heavy downpours, and brief sunbeams. At one turnout (also known as a “bump out”), we overlooked a lake or small pond. Muskrat was gliding across to some reeds. Would not have seen him or her, if they had not been moving. Looked like a small stick when not moving. Just beautiful mountains all along the route south. Every bit as pretty as the Rockies.  Finally, a bear and cub crossing the road. How cool

At our gas stop a couple told us that there were rumored to be lots of small bugs at the campground I had picked out. So we pulled in to Meziadin Lake, pulled into a site, then left. Never seen so many bugs, just like nats or miges. The host said that they did not seem to bite people, but did bite the stomachs of dogs. We left and went back 1 mile to the junction and went west to Stewart to the Municipal campground. Beautiful canyon we went down, no way to describe all the waterfalls and hanging valleys and glaciers. Ermila and Al are totally right on how pretty it is!

July 9, Stewart and Hyder

Weather Report==Rained all night, we are at the coast, on an inlet, so I get that. Cloudy this morning, cleared enough for the view of the Glacier and now cloudy again.

Went to the Visitors Center in Stewart this morning and got the low down on the glacier drive. So after breakfast out (eggs, potatoes, ham & toast for two for $35) to go to Hyder in Alaska and up the canyon to the glacier. Hyder pretty much all boarded up, very little there. The seafood bus was worth a stop and photo, so we had lunch there after the road trip. Decided against paying $5/person to maybe see bear fishing, just one stop in the National Forest. Numbered route has a write up on each historical site along the way. Narrow winding road that climbed from sea level (0) to around 3600 feet.  At the summit we could look down at Salmon Glacier. Best view of a glacier that I have ever seen. Waterfalls along the way were really pretty.

Came back to the 5^th wheel at around 2:30 probably will leave here tomorrow for Prince Rupert area.