Wednesday, July 22 - Day Eight. Today was our last day in Whitehorse, YT. We pretty much had a free day with no group activities until dinner. We did the laundry in the morning. They had a really nice laundry in the park. After lunch we had an opportunity to do an “Introduction to Geocaching” session with a member of our group. Joe and Tina are an interesting pair. Joe is a semi-retired businessman who grew up in Brooklyn, New York, but has lived in Texas for the last 23 years. He still sounds like he just walked off the streets of Flatbush. His traveling companion is Tina. Tina is from Uzbekistan, a former Soviet state in Central Asia. Although she grew up in the Soviet Union and Russian is her native tongue, she is of Korean descent. Both sets of Grandparents immigrated from Korea, on set from the North, one from the South. She is well educated and speaks good English, but with a heavy accent. Like many foreign English speakers, she sometimes has trouble with slang and idioms, but she is fun to talk to. Joe met Tina on the Internet and corresponded with her for some time. However, they only met in person about six weeks ago. Nonetheless, she agreed to accompany Joe on this trip and they seem to be doing quite well together.
Joe had expressed an interest in geocaching when we were talking about it at one of our group gatherings. He knew what the sport was, had registered on the official website and even bought a nice Garmin handheld GPSrx. However, he had never actually gone caching because he was unsure of the actual practice of caching. We told Joe that we would be happy to take him out and show him the ropes. Wednesday I selected four caches in the Whitehorse area that we could visit. Two of them were caches we had already found the day before and two were caches we had not yet located. I also selected different types and sizes of caches so we could give him a good overview. He downloaded the information into his GPSrx and off we went. We first did the two we had already found and let Joe find them. He did well. We then went off after the other two and found both of them also. Joe was very excited at his first four finds. I think we have a new geocache fanatic in our midst!
About 5:30 we got together with the group in the recreation hall at the RV park for a dinner. They had a prime rib buffet which was very nice, although the rib was a little dry and didn’t seem to have a lot of flavor. Nonetheless, we enjoyed ourselves and had some nice chat with other members of our group. Everyday we learn a little more about each other. After dinner we had our travel briefing for the
next day’s trip from Whitehorse to Stewart Crossing, YT. We had a relatively early start scheduled, about 8:30, but our leader told us that we all needed to be out of the park by about 9:30 because we had three caravans in the park, all leaving in the morning and all heading North. The leaders of the caravans had gotten together and set a cooperative schedule so that all three caravans would not be on the same part of the road at the same time.Thursday, July 23 - Day Nine. We managed to get up and out of the RV park just before 9:00 a.m. and started North towards our next stop at Stewart Crossing, about 225 miles. The scenery is pretty but the roads are continuing to get more challenging. The road on this part of the trip was narrower than earlier sections, and there were long sections with no shoulders, just a two foot drop-off. We also saw a lot more frost heaves and dips. Canada is pretty good about marking these rough sections with little orange flags or paint on the pavement, but you still have to be on alert because they don’t have them all marked. We also ran into a couple sections of construction where we only had a washboard gravel surface. One section was about 8 miles long and I thought my teeth were going to rattle loose. Another section was actually being worked on, so they had it watered and smoothed - it was actually smoother than some sections of the pavement!
Many of the group stopped about a third of the way to our destination at the Braeburn Lodge for cinnamon rolls. Cinnamon rolls seem to be a big deal up here, we have had stops for buns on several of legs so far. The rolls at this lodge were, by far, the largest I have ever seen. They were $8.50 but were at least 10 inches across and three inches tall. You could feed a family of four for a week with one bun. Well, maybe not, but they were big! We also saw our first coyote on the trip. I saw him trot across the road about a quarter mile in front of us, then he just stopped on the side of the road and watched us drive by. I talked later to Gary, who was a couple miles ahead of us, and he told me that the coyote was on the other side of the road watching them go by too. I guess he was just waiting for traffic to clear so he could cross the road. We also stopped for a photo
opportunity at a roadside rest which overlooked the Yukon River at a rapids called Five Fingers. We had heard stories about this section of the river when we were at the SS Klondike museum. There are four large rocks in the middle of the river which splits the channel into five separate flows, or fingers. The riverboat captains had to figure out which of these channels were passable - and they were not very wide, only a few feet wider than the boats. This was apparently the most difficult hazard on the river between Whitehorse and Dawson City.We arrived at our evening stop, Stewart Crossing mid afternoon and settled in. We were only going to be there one night and there were no sewer hookups, but we were prepared for that with empty waste tanks. The park also only had 15 amp power, which was no big deal to us - we have stayed with 15 amp service many times and as long as its not hot where you need A/C it’s no big deal. We had our travel briefing for the next day’s travel in the restaurant and afterwards Jackie and I stayed for dinner there. The food was quite good considering how far up in the boonies we are. Stewart Crossing isn’t even a town, only the lodge, restaurant and RV park on the banks of the Stewart River where the road crosses over the bridge. After dinner we stayed in the coach because the mosquitoes were pretty bad.
Friday, July 24 - Day Ten. This was to be a fairly short day, only 110 miles from Stewart Crossing to Dawson City. There wasn’t too much to see on the way up, the road was very narrow and in most places there were no shoulders, only a drop off of
a couple of feet. The forest is close into the road so you don’t want to go too fast because you might get an animal jumping in front of you. The roads were also not in too good a shape. At one point we again had an eight mile stretch of gravel with the powdery dust. After a while we found that we tasted the grit in our mouths and had to drink water to rinse the dust out. Now I know what the old cowboys meant by trail dust! We didn’t see any animals on this leg of the trip.We got into the Bonanza Gold RV park in the early afternoon and settled in. We are going to be in Dawson City for two nights. The park has full hookups, including sewer and cable TV. After getting set up we took a drive into town. Dawson City currently has a population of about 1,500 people, but during the gold rush years in the late 1800's and early 1900's the town had ten times that many people. The Klondike gold strike was the richest in history and prospectors flocked to the
area. The town today is fairly small, and VERY frontier in nature. The streets are dirt and the sidewalks are wood. Most of the buildings in town date back to the gold rush years. When you drive around town you feel like you have gone back an hundred years. The town is right on the Yukon River and was one end of the riverboat route between Whitehorse and Dawson City back in the first half of the 20th century. Some of the riverboats actually ran all the way up to the early 60's when the road between Whitehorse and Dawson City (the one we just traveled) was finally built well enough for vehicle travel. We spent a couple hours in town, going through some of the shops and just admiring the quaintness of the town. We had a big lunch in one of the cafes with some other members of our group and after shopping headed back to the park to relax.Saturday, July 25 - Day Eleven. This was a busy, crazy day in Dawson City, YT. Our tour leaders had a full day prepared for us, starting at 10:00 a.m. Our group gathered and carpooled up the Bonanza Creek road for a visit to “Gold Dredge #4".
Bonanza Creek was the little creek where the original Klondike gold strike occurred. In the early days of the gold rush the mining was done by individual prospectors working small claims along the creeks and streams. The gold in this area was not hard-rock mining but rather was placer mining, which means the gold was already out of the rock and just lying relatively loose in the soil and streams. Individual prospectors panning in the streams could get fair amounts of gold, but they soon discovered that real money could be made by large scale mining. That is when they developed the gold dredge system. The dredge was a huge machine, mounted on a barge, that had a bucket line in the front which scooped up huge amounts of rock and soil, a huge sifter, shaker and sluice assembly in the middle that sorted out the heavier gold from the rock and soil, and a large chute in the back that spat out the leftovers, called tailings. The interesting thing was that the dredge floated in a large pond, but the pond moved with the dredge. It would dig out in front of it and fill in behind it, so the pond never got any bigger, it just moved up the valley. Dredge 4 was built in the 20's and is about eight stories tall and over 100 feet long. It actually worked the Yukon river valley for gold from the late 20's into the early 60's. It is now under the care of Canada Parks and is being restored. It was a very interesting visit. We learned a lot about gold mining from this tour. On the road driving up
to the dredge we saw a gray fox trotting down the side of the road with a rabbit in his mouth! He didn’t slow down or go off the road, he just continued trotting past the whole line of about eight cars, looking at the cars as he went by. He appeared to all of us to be showing off, as in “Look at me, I got me a rabbit!”.Later on in the afternoon we all carpooled into Dawson City to the Visitor’s Center for a walking tour of the city. Parks Canada has about a dozen different buildings in Dawson City that are either restored originals, or replicas, of turn of the century buildings. The tour took a couple of hours and was very interesting. We learned a lot about the history of Dawson City and life there in the early 1900's. The guide was very informative, and very funny and interesting too. We visited a restored bank, post office, saloon, store, and also saw a number of other restored
and semi-restored structures. Very worthwhile couple of hours. After the tour most of the group went to a Greek (yes Greek) restaurant in town for dinner. The food was very authentic and VERY good. I would highly recommend the Drunken Goat Greek Restaurant to anyone who finds themselves in Dawson City looking for a place to eat. The owner even treated our group to a round of Ouzo after dinner!After dinner we all went to Diamond Tooth Gertie’s Gambling Hall and Saloon. This was a real casino with slot machines, blackjack tables, poker and roulette. It was really funny because we were just about out of Canadian money after dinner because the Drunken Goat was cash only. This was our last real stop in Canada, so I wasn’t too worried about it, but we were running low. I got on a nickel slot machine and put in $10 and ended up cashing out $100! Jackie only lost $20, so we were up seventy bucks. Yea! We only gambled from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 when the show started. It was another old fashioned western song and dance show with Cancan dancers, similar to what we had seen in Whitehorse. But, it was a pretty good show and we enjoyed it. After the show the most of the group went up onto a bluff overlooking Dawson City. The bluff, called the Midnight Dome, was pretty cool with great views of Dawson City, the Yukon River and the surrounding wilderness.
After the trip up the dome Jackie and I went over to the Downtown Hotel and a bar called the Sourdough. We had heard about a “special” cocktail they had here which
had a real mummified human toe in the drink. It was called the Sourtoe Cocktail and was kind of a local legend. We found the bar very busy and very entertaining. There were a couple dozen folks there trying to work up the nerve to do the Sourtoe. We ended up sitting with a couple of Canadian girls from Eastern Canada (Ottawa) who were out visiting. They were a real fun couple, Chantel and Melissa. We sat and drank with
them for a couple of hours and all four of us ended up actually doing the Sourtoe. There is a whole ceremony that surrounds it, with a guy who is supposed to be an old riverboat captain letting you know that you are about to enter a special society of those
brave enough to drink the sourtoe. He takes an old, ugly black mummified toe and rubs it on your face and then drops into your shot. You have to have something that is at least 80 proof. I had Jack Daniels, Jackie had Vodka. Then you have to chug the shot and the toe has to touch your lips. And he watches! He warns you, no chewing, no biting, no swallowing - just touch the lips! After you do it you get a special certificate welcoming you to the Sourtoe Cocktail Club. We had a blast and didn’t get back to the coach until almost midnight.Sunday, July 26 - Day Twelve. Our original itinerary stated that we were going to be staying in Dawson City for three nights before moving on to Tok, Alaska. However, several days before our wagonmaster had proposed that we leave Dawson City on Sunday afternoon and travel part of the way to Tok, staying one night on the road at the “Top of the World” before continuing on. Several things need explaining here. There is a road that leads from Dawson City to Tok, that is called the “Top of the World Highway”. However, there is no bridge across the Yukon River at Dawson City. After Dawson City the road doesn’t go anywhere except to the US border, so I guess the Canadian Government doesn’t feel the need to build a bridge. The Canada
highway department does operate a free ferry service to take you across the river, however, it is a very small ferry. Since there were a number of caravans in Dawson City, all planning on continuing on the Top of the World Highway on Monday, our wagonmaster thought it made more sense for us to go across the river on Sunday afternoon, when there would be very little traffic, rather than waiting until early Monday morning when there would be dozens of RV’s waiting to get across. Made sense to us and we had pretty much exhausted Dawson City’s fun anyway. So, about 1:00 p.m we packed up and headed into town and took the ferry across the Yukon. It still took over three hours for all twelve of our caravan’s rigs to get across. The plan was to drive about 50 miles towards Tok, Alaska, to an area that the wagonmaster had already scouted as a good one night overnight place big enough for our whole group. This would put us only about 15 miles from the US-Canada border station on the Top of the World Highway. The Top of the World Highway was MAGNIFICENT! There was a lot of dirt and gravel stretches, some of which were pretty rough and dusty, but the scenery was outstanding. The road climbed up out of Dawson City and then went along the tops of the ridges of the mountains with shear drops on either side. The going was slow,
and sometimes uncomfortable, but well worth the trip. The spot that Larry had chosen for our night stay was large and flat and we all got in and set up by about 6:30 p.m. Larry then did a great hot dog cookout and we had a wonderful time. We went to bed fairly early because we had an early start the next day. Although the next day’s travel was only about 150 miles, Larry told us it was VERY rough, VERY bad road. He wanted us at the border crossing soon after they opened at 8:00 a.m. Canadian time. Alaska has it’s own time zone, an hour later than Pacific time.Monday, July 27 - Day Thirteen. Day thirteen, how appropriate. We were up and out at 8:00 in the morning, not because we had a long way to go - Tok, Alaska, our destination, was only about 150 miles. It was because Larry told us it would be the worst 150 miles we had ever driven. After driving about 15 miles Northwest from our night’s encampment, we came to the US-Canada border. This was how I would picture a
border station in Manchuria. We drove up to a large green metal building where a Canadian flag flew on one side and the US flag on the other. We were driving on a narrow
road on a mountain ridge. There were few trees, mostly just windswept wilderness. Other than the couple of cabins for the border guards and the station itself, there were no other signs of civilization as far as one could see. The border crossing was very easy, the US agent took our passports, asked us about booze, guns and animals, and sent us on our way. The agent was very pleasant. We had drunk most of our Canadian bought liquor, so I told him that we only had a couple liters of leftovers that we had brought with us from the states. He asked about the cat’s rabies certificate, but didn’t want to see it when I offered. We were through the gate and back into the USA within 5 minutes.Once into the US we had about 100 yards of pavement leading West from the border station and then the road turned to dirt and gravel. The next 85 miles were just as
Larry told us - the worst roads I have ever driven the coach on. I would have been reluctant to drive the Jeep on some of the stretches, but we had no choice but to go on. The dust rolled on and into the coach, everything rattled and banged inside the coach, and we were only driving 15 mph. After about two and a half hours we finally
arrived in Chicken, Alaska. This was a badly needed - and pretty entertaining - break. Chicken is a town of about 35 or so in the middle of the Eastern Alaska wilderness. There is a store and service station right on the road, and then “Beautiful Downtown Chicken”, as they advertise it, is about a half mile down a side road. Our leaders, Larry and Doug, unhooked their tow cars and ferried people into “downtown” which consisted of three connected wooden buildings containing a souvenir shop, a restaurant and a bar. It was all very quaint and interesting. At least now we can claim to have been in Chicken, Alaska.A short couple miles after Chicken the road finally became paved again. Although there were a few torn up areas and gravel sections, it was like driving on a superhighway compared to the portion between the border and Chicken. We finally arrived in Tok, Alaska. We were also once again on the Alaska highway. Tok is the first major settlement on the Alaska highway after the border crossing on that road. Tok is not very large, probably 1,500 but we had a pretty nice RV park with full hookups. Everyone stopped at the fuel station across the street from the park because if you filled your tank there you got a free wash at the RV park. Larry told us that the tradition was that everyone filled their tanks, came across the street to the RV wash and got in line. Then everyone from the caravan that was there grabbed a brush or hose and cleaned all the Rv’s as they passed through. The wash was really only a concrete pad with two lanes and two high pressure hoses, a bunch of brushes and some buckets. But it was good to finally get the dust and dirt off of the coach. The amount of dust was unbelievable. It only took an hour or so for all the rigs to get at least a reasonable cleaning. After we parked I had to run down to the auto parts store to buy two new headlights for the Jeep. Both lights had been broken out by rocks on our trip over the Top of the World. The windshield has only had a couple nicks, no chips, cracks or stars yet, but the lights were smashed. Fortunately, our car is old enough to still use sealed beams, so it only cost me $20 and a half hour of time to replace the lights. After fixing the car we went to a local restaurant, Fast Eddie’s, for a quick dinner and then back to the coach. I was completely exhausted, mentally and physically, from the day’s drive and the cleaning and fixing afterwards. I was in bed and asleep by 9:30, which was actually 10:30 Pacific time.
Tuesday, July 28 - Day Fourteen. We left Tok about 8:30 a.m. and headed Northwest on the Alaska Highway again, destination Fairbanks, Alaska. This was a 200 mile trip, but Larry told us that it was pretty decent highway all the way, only a few areas of frost heaves to watch for. We did see a bunny rabbit (this one NOT in a fox’s mouth) and one moose on the side of the road. We found out later that some of the other caravan members saw several moose and a bear, but we only had the one moose. We also had a bird strike - the bird zigged instead of zagging and wacked the top front of the coach. I don’t think that counts as an animal sighting though. About halfway through the trip we reached Delta Junction which marks the
official “end” of the Alaska Highway. In 1942 the crews who were working and building the highway Southbound started here, while the Northbound crews started in Dawson Creek, BC. The point where the two crews met is at Beaver Creek, BC on the part of the Alaska Highway we bypassed when we took the Top of the World route. We will see that later on in the trip when we start back out of Alaska.We stopped at the visitor’s center in Delta Junction and had our picture taken at the marker showing the official end point of the Alaska Highway. We then drove a
couple more miles and stopped at the crossing of the Chena River for our first view of the Alaska pipeline. We will learn more about the pipeline later, so I will provide more details in another blog. We had lunch there and continued on towards Fairbanks. Just before we got to
our RV park we drove though the community of North Pole. Needless to say, there was a giant santa and a lot of Christmas themed stores. We will probably visit that on one of the days we are in Fairbanks. We arrived at our RV park about 2:30 or so and got settled in. It was a very easy drive this time. We had full hookups, which was good because were scheduled to be there for four days. We didn’t get to relax too long because at 6:30 p.m. there was bus waiting to take our group to the Fairbanks Alaska Salmon Bake. This is a huge operation located in Pioneer Park, a sort of frontier theme park in Fairbanks. It was an all you can eat buffet with prime rib, salmon, halibut and cod for main dishes, along with a huge
salad bar, desert and soft drinks. Although it was included as part of our trip, Jackie did notice the price was $31 per person. All of the food and cooking was outdoors in a very large venue. Most of the seating was also outside, although they did have an indoor section. There weren’t many mosquitoes, so we sat outside at a large table. The food was very good and we both ate way too much. While we were eating a group of five younger people asked if they could sit at our table. We chatted with them and it turns out they were all from the Sacramento, California area and were Air Force reservists. They had been sent up to Eielson AFB for their two week active duty deployment. The base is only about 20 miles South of Fairbanks. We had passed the base on the way to Fairbanks and had seen a B-1 bomber parked on one of the taxiways. There are a lot of military in Fairbanks because there is also a large Army base, Fort Wainwright, which is right next to our RV park.After dinner our leader walked us all over to another part of Pioneer Park to the Palace Theater where we had another turn of the century type vaudeville show. The material was different from the other two we have seen, but the theme and general tone of the show were the same. After a while they all start to look pretty much
the same. After the show we got back on the bus and back to the RV park where we pretty much crashed for the night. We had a big day scheduled for Wednesday - the bus was scheduled to pick us up at 8:00 a.m. and Larry said not to expect to return until after 6:00 p.m. Yikes - we are going to have to rest up after this vacation!Well folks, that concludes Week Two of our 48 Day Alaska Caravan. We are here in Fairbanks for another three days, then on to Denali National Park and Anchorage. I will try to post Week Three as quickly as I can given the full schedule of events our leaders have planned for us. Until then, “Hush you Muskies - no wait, Mush you Huskies.”
