2004/07 Yukon trip - Trek to the Arctic - |
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Wednesday 28th July
There wasn’t much peace in the morning as the government had chosen that day to bring in the grader to flatten out the road, and the tanker supplying water to the grader was backing down to the lake and pumping it out a few feet from us. Every twenty minutes! We headed back into Whitehorse to take advantage of being in a city as it could be a month or so before we saw another one. We needed food, wool, yarn, and a few nuts and bolts, so this was a good spot. Whitehorse is big enough to have a Walmart and a supermarket or two. The city is off the Alaska Highway, situated below the cliffs of the Yukon River, which probably keeps out the worst of the winter winds. The winters are about twenty degrees colder than Minnesota’s, so they need the help!
They’ve done a nice job of the Yukon waterfront, and kept it simple and uncluttered. There is the big Klondike paddle steamer, and a little trolley that runs along the river bank, and a good visitor’s center.
When we were done with our shopping we headed up to the highway to visit the Beringia interpretive centre. 
Beringia is the name given to the combination of Yukon, Alaska, and Siberia and the Bering 
Sea that was above sea level and unglaciated during the ice ages. The centre was all about the tigers, lions, mammoths, and giant beavers, sloths, bison, and bears that resided there at various times. Because things tended to freeze rather than decay they’ve been lucky enough to find pieces of animals tens of thousands of years old.
Sandie had picked up a free guide to rockhounding in the Yukon, and this sent us on a side trip to some sandy cliffs above the Yukon that are supposed to contain selenium crystals. We climbed up and precariously starting chipping away, but we had no luck. We asked a local eight year old who was rolling and sliding down the cliff, and she didn’t know anything about any crystals. She said we were the first people she’d ever seen digging for them. Guess that free guide was worth every penny we paid for it!
It was getting late, so we headed out of town, this time along the Alaska Highway, and we took a gravel road to a 
campground on the Takhini River. There was no one else there, so we claimed the site overlooking the river, got a fire going, cooked some bratwurst and defended them against a pair of young Canada jays. They aren’t quite as cheeky as their parents, but they have the same sneaky silent glide across the picnic table!
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Thursday 29th July
Next morning the peace was shattered by the arrival of a busload of kids who came with tents and kayaks and some harassed-looking adults. This just hurried us along a bit. We were all set to leave when I noticed that the exhaust pipe for our generator was dangling loose. It was not damaged but I couldn’t see how to reattach the pipe without removing the sewer tank, so I removed the pipe from the hanger and stashed it away for a later fix. Now if we used the generator we’d fry the sewage, bad news for both the environment and us!