Asleep before 9PM last night, nothing to do here after hours except get into trouble. Lots of truckers passing through. There is some native presence but in minority. The hotel and room. It makes me uneasy when the manager behind the desk refuses to make eye contact. There are machines in the tiny lobby that accept Loonie Lizzie money (picture of Queen of E on the money even though they are independent nation but still part of Commonwealth). Our only window opens to the side and that is the side of the breeze so it is blocked. Our view is a solid wall of worn cement block that is so large we can’t see around it at any direction. Décor is the heavy dark pine colonial style furniture of the 50’s in beautiful condition, heavy stuff and a feat to bring it here. The room is very clean, the bed is hard but everything works, micro, coffee pot, shower, coffee maker, fans. We don’t turn on the TV so don’t know about that, but the Internet has good connection once we got the correct password. The towels are nice and soft. The last two hotels had towels/clothes that were so stiff they seemed to be designed for abrasion; head to toe mega loofa. We eat our breakfast in the room, instant oatmeal, fruit and yogurt and Chuck bought himself chocolate donut holes and we have help from Cheryl’s gift of instant Starbucks and creamers. Unlike our other hotels this one demanded our bill be prepaid. Hmmm, think some people skip? Sunny day, predicted to rain before we reach Whitehorse, YT. We will be on the road by 8AM.
The road is good with just a few areas of loose gravel, we eat a lot of dust. A semi went off the road straight down a steep bank engine first. Everyone looked relaxed so driver must not have been hurt. Not a lot of guardrails and steep sides. The semis come barreling at us on this two-lane road, high speeds and throwing dust and stones. Fingers crossed no cracked windshield yet. We are not likely to make it home without at least one incident, it has happened in Anchorage driving. Very sparsely populated area as we weave in and out of British Columbia and Yukon. 10,000 Trumpeter Swans migrate through here in April and 4 species of migrating warblers are banded every year. A beautiful red bushy fox with a white stripe on its tail crosses in front of us. A young bull moose is browsing near the road and a dark brown black bear is munching by the road. A dark brown porcupine waddles up the side of a hill. We have not seen any big birds of prey, eagles, hawks, owls etc. This area has many large rivers, streams and bog.
At a roadside stop we talk
with a couple from Arizona, our age, both on one motorcycle with a little
trailer attached. And we thought
traveling with a roof top carrier was daring.
We leave the Laird River, it winds north into the sea and we start
following the Yukon River, status as one of the longest rivers in the world. It
crosses YT and Ak to the Beaufort Sea on the west coast of Ak. Chinook and Chum salmon swim that distance
into the Yukon to spawn. An amazing
journey. We cross the Continental Divide
which influences which way these large rivers flow northward. The sheer volume of water is hard to
describe. We cross a long bridge at
Teslin Lake which is incredible in its size by length and depth. The village of Teslin is Tlingit, one of the
14 tribes identified under the One Nation banner in YT; each with its own
distinctive dialect and customs. We see
snow covered mountains and incredible vistas of mostly White and Lodge Pole
pines with birch/aspen; amazing to think that in all that wilderness not one
human exists. Exposed rock shows the
variety of geologic formations and mineral content; one area looked with
lava. People passing through stop and
form messages using roadside rocks on the sides of the hills and occasionally
there is an inukshuk, a column made of balanced stone, a kind of cairn that was
used by natives as messaging in the past.
We arrive in White Horse,
capital of the Yukon Territory Province.
It is a university town that sits on the Yukon River; it is a very
youthful population. We visit Yukon
Brewing for a tasting and then late lunch at the Woodcutters Blanket, an
historic log cabin brew pub. We stop off
at the Klondike River boat that is dry docked and preserved from gold rush
days. We can’t board it due to repairs
but have pictures of moms and kids on it in 1984. Arrive at Quality Inn in downtown. No matter how modern these towns try to be
there is still a wild frontier atmosphere.
The exterior is drab but the room is fine, at least we have an
elevator. Crossing into US
tomorrow. We trust the agents won’t give
us any trouble because unpacking would be a nightmare. We will also pass by a favorite place, Kluane
Lake. so looking forward to it. One more
night. Anchorage here we come! Nighty night.
Total Miles Driven So Far 3732
