Random Pictures

                                                   Baby Grizzly

                                         mother Grizzly and baby

                                             mother Grizzly

                                             baby eating his catch

                                           lone wolf at sundown

                                                 eating his catch

                                            Welcome to America?

                                         pretty scene while bear watching

It is way too frustrating to line the pictures up where I want them so I will just put some picture on and see what happens.

Srewart Cassiar Highway, day two

The Seven Sisters Range

If the sign says, "rocks falling", they probably are.

We drove out slowly across the big gravel lot, to many pot holes to miss and onto the highway wondering what today would bring. Had we been lucky with the road yesterday? We shall see. The stubborn rain continued. But the road was in such good condition, it must not be more than a year or two old. It even had lines down the middle which we had not seen for hundreds of kilometers. We began to see more and more snow capped and much higher mountains. Some even had obvious Glaciers high up. We saw four Black Bears along the road today.
We stopped for gas, after 148km. When I went in to pay I noticed a sign giving prices for site seeing by helecopter. 15 minutes-$345. 45 minutes-$940. I decided right then and there, that we would find another way to do our site seeing.
As we drove back out onto the highway a sign warned, "next gas 249km", we would be fine. We learned weeks ago to fill up when ever we saw a gas station. Northern Ontario, the Prairies and the Alaska Highway as well as the Klondike and now Cassiar all have long sections without fuel.
The showers became less frequent as the day passed and finally we turned right off of the Cassiar. Highway 37A would take us the 60 km west into Stewart. This is touted as the Glacier highway, as there are apparently 20 Glaciers along this stretch of highway. We saw several and two big ones that came right down to the road.
Stewart is noted for the Grissle Bear sitings as they catch migrating Salmon. We set up camp and went for a drive to see Grissles. The bears are in Alaska so we needed to cross the border from BC. The towm is Hyder Alaska, advertised as the friendliest Ghost Town in Alaska, We pasted the welcome to Alaska sign and were surprised to finf no Customs or Immigrations. The speed limit was 20kph. No one should go that fast here. I have written about potholes before, but this was the champion. Our 4x4 truck could barely handle the road actually covered huge, deep holes. The truck shook as though some monster was violently shaking it. Barely moving forward, in company with others heading to the bears. It is six miles to the bears and I considered turning around except there was no where to turn. No we did not hade the trailer with us.
We finally did make it, Tongass National Park. The bears have always come to the spawning grounds to catch and eat the dying Salmon after they have layed their eggs. The National Park has built a raised walkway. about six feet off the ground beside the river.
We stayed and watched for about two hours and saw nothing, so we decided to leave. Some people we spoke to come and stay for a month and spend their days waiting. After dinner, we decided to tackle the road again, afterall the bears were the reason for being there, so off we went.
We were there for about half an hour when Bev spotted a wolf. We watched quietly as he worked his way along the shore lined with low bushes. We watched and were able to get many pictures as he would stand in the shallow water,catch a fish, take it on a little grass covered island, eat what he wanted and set off for another. This all happens about 50m from us. It was amazing to watch, but almost dark, so we headed for the truck and home. On the road in we had sat in the truck and watched a black bear eat berries beside the road. On the way back out at dusk, a large Black Bear sauntered across the road in front of us, awsome!!
As we started to pack up in the morning, not having seen a Grisslie, we decided to go in one more time. WOW! We watched momma Grisslie and baby Grissle fishing, right in front and below us! Perhaps 50 feet away in the water and less then 10 feet when they came in the bushes below us.  That was what we had hoped for and we were so lucky.

Stewart Cassiar Highway, day one.

 Bev doing emails in the lodge at Tatogga Lake Resort.

The view from our trailer










Stewart Cassiar, is another of the remarkable highways built through the Canadian North West. The Klondike, first put through for a winter route to Dawson City, the Alaska Highway built by the US army in 1942/43 after declaring war on Japan and the Stewar Cassiar highway was also put through these mountains and endless forest about the time of the gold rush. We had been told by people who lived in Dease Lake, about half way down the 735km  highway to expect about 80km of gravel.
Well we drove along the good, smooth road, the usual twists and turns, both sitting in silence, waiting for the worst. That whole day, about 360km, we found the roads to be as good or better than the Klondike to Dawson City and certainly as much traffic, which was still not much. The scenery was as promised, spectacular, as the mountains were growing higher as we drove south.
Our park for a night was in Iskut. When you travel the north, you never know what parks will be like. Well this one had the typical old log lodge on the highway, large front gravel lot full of huge potholes, and because of the rain, mud everywhere. No comments from my copilot, but I knew the thoughts well by now. I went in to register, I had made a reservation back in May, this was late August. Lucky I did, as we were the only ones staying there that night. I paid for one night only as it was still raining and I could not see us sitting around there the next day.
Once the trailer was set up, we left Cassie and walked up to the lodge with the laptop. I had been invited to come and set up anywhere. There was a fire going, a big old lounge area and lots of cozy soft chairs and couches and tables to set up for internet. On the other side of the large room, beyond the fireplace, was the restaurant. On one of the couchs a woman was sound asleep under a big quilt. We spoke to a young man, also doing email. He told us he flew out every day to drill for ore samples high up in the mountains. Apparently there are three shifts up there, he was getting ready to fly up for his shift, 4pm to midnight.
A young Indian (First Nations) fellow, mid twenties, said he flew into the bush every day to cut trees. He was called a line cutter. He would follow a man that was called a flag marker. The flag marker would mark the line through the bush, probably with a GPS and this fellow would cut a line of trees behind him. I would think they were marking their claim for exploration.  Northern BC is one of the most active areas in the world for mineral explorations.There were quite a few of these young men around, but few actual guests, who were staying in little log cabins. On my daily 7am walk with the "dog", I spoke to several of these fellows as they made there way to the two helicopters, that would whisk them off to the mountains to work.
When the lady on the  couch awoke, she went to one of the tables, which had a lap top and numerous papers. It was obviously her office. As we got to talking with her, she told us she had owned the Lodge for five years and was trying to build it up. Guests could hire a guide to take them hiking in the mountains, or they could be flown in to other lakes to fish or canoe, with or without a guide. This was truly a remote northern experience, which was far more interesting than just going to a "nice" park and watching TV. We sat and talked with people in the lounge long after we had finished the email replys.                                                                                                    



Great rafting rivers

Farewell to Dawson City

As we drove south from Dawson City, we were of mixed feelings. We had seen and done so much in five days, but knew there was so much more to do here. We were leaving two days early as I have had a problem eye for about a month and I am going back to see the Optomotrist in Whitehorse again.
The Klondike highway is 530kn back to Whitehorse, so we will split it and just go to Carmacks the first day.


                    Cassie's bath day

 It was an uneventful drive with too many bends along the narrow road and on and off showers all the way to Carmacks. We walked the mile long boardwalk along the river.

The drive from Carmacks to Whitehorse is really great as I described on the way to Dawson City. We stopped at the Historic site, "Montague Roadhouse". It was one of many such "roadhouses". When the winter road was put through from Whitehorse to Dawson City in the late 1800s, these were built every 30 to 40 miles. People travelling the road could spend a night, have their meals and change horses. The cost was $1. each for a meal and a room. If you needed to go by horse drawn sled, because it was only used in winter, then the cost was $4 to go between Whitehorse and Dawson. While we were in Dawson we had gone to the beautiful museum, which was the legislative assembly building until the government moved to Whitehorse, and asked the historian for information on the builder of "Montague Roadouse". After some time we found several Montagues, but no one in relation to the Roadhouse.   

We had been told of a place on the way back to Whitehorse where we could buy the "best ever" cinnamon buns. It was about an hour out of Carmacks so we had some fruit for breakfast and planned to try one of these famous buns. When we arrived, it was not hard to spot, as there were several motorhomes and trailers in the big gravel yard. A Holland America tour bus pulled in right after us. We hurried in to avoid the lineup and there on the counter were the "buns". Enormous! they were about 8" across and four inches high, with lots of cinnamon and sugar wrapped into them. We chose a smallish one, if there was such a thing and decided to eat in the truck...mistake! What a sticky mess, but there would not be room in the shop for everyone now, so we made the most of it, and the cinnamon bun lived up to its billing. All these vehicles at the Cinnamon Bun store is maybe why we saw almost no one as we drove along.

We saw Holland America tour buses every day. We spoke with a woman who was on one of these tours. She said they came by ship from Seattle Washington to Skagway Alaska for three days, before joining the bus tour. On the bus they toured Yukon and Alaska for ten days, then flew out of Anchorage Alaska.

We are back in Whitehorse now until Saturday, when we will drive South to the intersection  of the Alaska Highway and Stewart Cassiar highway. We felt just a little unsafe driving the Klondike for 500+ km without a cel phone and now we will be driving over 700km down the Stewart Cassiar without a cel phone. Therefore, I have ordered a Satalite phone to take from Whitehorse to Prince Rupert, a total of about 1250 km.

Last day in Dawson City

Our last day in Dawson City has been full and varied. It was the weekend of Discovery Days in Yukon, so off we went into town at 8 am; the Anglican Church was hosting a pancake breakfast in the Catholic Church. It was in the Catholic Church, as they had a hall and kitchen and the Anglicans didn't. Anyway that is the way they share in Dawson, they are the only two churches in town. The big frame Presbyterian Church has all but collapsed. Before they closed they donated their old pews to the Anglican church.
Anyway, we joined many others for some sourdough pancakes made with a 100 year old recipe. They were soooo good I had to have seconds. They were as thin as crepes and with real Birch syrup, which is the favourite up here, a wonderful treat.
We moved the truck down to Front St, where the parade would come along. We walked the shops for one last time, then I went to the internet cafe to try their wifi signal. Well ten minutes of that caused extreme stress so I packed it up and met Bev back at the truck. There were crafts and a wonderful farmers market on the park along the river. It was a beautiful sunny day and it was fun to walk around and talk to the folks there. Bev picked up a good variety of the fresh vegetables, grown 15km away, then stood in line to pay for half an hour. They sure love there saturday market.
We stopped to talk to a couple, maybe early 30s, who had built a weaving loom from one inch tree branches. She showed us how it would have been used in Greenland a thousand years ago. If it had been in the 60s, they would have been Hippies for sure, maybe not the happy stuff though. I asked if they were from Dawson and she said no we live 40 miles down the river, they have borrowed a trappers cabin. They had no real plans, they had come from Minnisota and fell in love with Dawson and stayed. They had been a Botonist and a Biologist. When their money runs they may have to get some kind of work in Dawson, but they will stay.
So many times since we arrived in the Yukon we asked people where they were from, and everyone is from somewhere else, we came and loved it and stayed. A very common theme.
We heard the parade coming along Front St, so like all the other truckies, we dropped the tailgate and sat up with Cassie and enjoyed the parade. Out here in the Wild West, we fit right in with our truck.
Later that evening we enjoyed a Bison burger at the Eldorado Hotel. It had a very unique tast, certainly not like beef as I would has expected. Then we decided to accept the mornings invitation to come to the Anglican evening church service. Just before 7pm we arrived, no problem finding a place to park. We made our way to the front door and slowley pushed it open. We peered inside to find one man sitting there, who immediately jumped up and welcomed us in. I think he was afraid we would leave. Then, what looked like a very old man stepped from behind us, he was a retired priest who was filling in until the new one came. I am always concerned in a strange church that I will sit in someones pew. The old priest remarked, none of them have names on so help yourself. When the service started we were a total of six; the Priest and his wife, Betty the lay minister, Chris, a local guide complete with a big bushy beard and Bev and I. That's ok.
There was lots of music, from the 1800s of course, and the Priest read the two longest readings I have ever heard. He was reading very slowly, but his glasses would slowly slip down his nose, then he couldn't see at all, so he would push them back up, contine reading slowly and down would slide the glasses. Repeated many times. There were many thees and thous, but they were so pleased we had come. There was not a sermon, but the Priest wife told about the various hospitals Dawson had had since the 1890s which was very interesting.
After the service we were invited to tea and, yes cookies made with a 100 year old recipe. We could have listened for hours as they told stories of years gone by. The Priest had been sent to Inuvik in 1956 when the Eskimos were still living in tents. His wife was also sent to the far north and they met and married up there. He explained to us why he read slowly, he had just been diagnosed as having Parkinsons; he is 78. I thought it was wonderful that he was still active and able to carry on and I told him.

                                              Discovery days Parade

                                                  tailgate party

                                                  farmers market

                                                   Ancient Loom

                                            Bicycle wheel Dome

Well finally it was time to head back to Cassie and call it a night and a great last day in Dawsom City. What an interesting place full of interesting people, we have loved our stay here.

Dawson again

Jack London's home

Rober Services's home

Another interesting day of looking at the town buildings and joining a literary tour. We saw the homes of the three famous authers who had connections with Dawson city; Pierre Burton, who lived there until he was 12 and then went back many times. Then we saw the homes of Jack London and Robert Service. They gave readings at each of the houses and finished with a lunch. The best part was it was all free that day.

                                                                    Pierre Burton's home

Diamond Tooth Gertie and her girls.

From an interlectural morning we wrapped up our day by having dinner at Diamind Tooth Gertie's Casino and dance hall. The oldest Casino in Canada. So for dinner we had a pizza then the show girls came on stage, just like in 1898. With lots of songs and long legs kicked high, so someone told me, we all joined in and it was a great way to end the day. We drove back to the campsite and Cassie in bright daylight at 10pm. It is a non profit business with all proceeds gonig to the town

More of Dawson City

Friday morning we drove to the top of the "Dome", a very high hill, about 1800 feet above the town, overlooking Dawson City and everything else for many miles around. The 360 degree spectacular view was the best so far. Bev was a bit pale by the time we reached to top, she is not fond of heights. The view allowed us to see the Yukon River in both directions as well as the Klondike River as it converged with the Yukon just on the edge of the town. When I had finished taking my pictures, Bev was quite ready to go back down. She chose to walk the top part down as we were very close  to the edge. Once we were back down to the river below, she was feeling a little better.

Dawson City, Yukon

Most of the buildings have been restored from the originals built in 1897-1905

After three days of absorbing Dawson's history, we are begining to get a grasp on what makes Dawson so unique. When George Carmack picked up that first gold nugget in 1896, he set off a truly amazing event, that would last for several years. More than 100,000 men and women planned the trip to Dawson, but only 50,000 even made it as far as Skagway Alaska by ship. Of those only about 25,000 actually arrived in Dawson, the rest, due to the incredibly harsh winter conditions, either died or returned to their homes.
You have probably seen the famous picture of the long line of men in thier black coats and heavy packs making their way up and over the Chilcoot pass. Everyone who made the trip had to have 1,000lbs of food and almost the same in equipment. Their packs were 100 to 150 lbs, so many trips were taken by each one to bring all their goods over the pass. For many it took a month to carry all their packs over the pass. In the winter of 1896 with -40 to -50 degrees and winds to match, 70 feet of snow fell on the Chilcoot. Those who made it over the pass, then had to build boats during the spring to take them and their packs the 700 miles down the Yukon River to Dawson City before the next winter froze the river.
Finally having made it into Dawson there was no land left to claim as it had all been claimed by the first arrivals in 1896. Again most went home pennyless with a few staying to start businesses.
We saw pictures of the town as it was in the 1950s. Almost all of the buildings were in ruins. At one time Dawson was the capital of Yukon, but then the capital was moved to Whitehorse and most of the people followed. It is wonderful now to see that the majority of the businesses, hotels and homes are restored to what is probably better than the originals were. There are also many new hotels and businesses in the style of the era.
   

North to Dawson City

"Road Narrows" the sign said.

Whitehorse to Carmacks, as I mentioned, the roads were the best we had driven for many days. Now we pay for it. The roads did indeed narrow and we lost the shoulders of the road and the weeds hung out over the road. The picture shows a beautiful straight stretch, but believe me it was the only stretch of straight road in 360km to Dawson City. The traffic was almost non existant. The scenery was once again different. Now we often drove beside the Yukon and Pelly Rivers, or high above them and in between the river views we saw large pristine lakes far below us still in their natural state as they have been for 1,000s of years, with no signs of human activity.

Moose family

We stopped many times on this leg as we had lots of pulloff places to take pictures and to have a break from the ever twisting , narrow, hilly road. To add to the slowness of pace there were many sections of gravel where if a truck passed you in the opposite direction you, the dust was like thick fog. To be kind to the drivers the construction crew also dumped truck loads of water in some gravel sections which now covered our truck and trailer with mud!! But we continued on even over the last 25 km into Dawson City which was the roughest gravel of the trip. The condition of the inside of the cupboards in the trailer did not make Bev happy. 

                                                                               We made it! Dawson City

We have now driven 7,750km since leaving home July 4th, about 1,750km of that touring around various places means we are now about 6,000km from home. We are almost at the end of our northwest direction, except we hope to drive to the Alaska border before we leave Dawson City.

The Yukon River from the Klondike River.

Whitehorse to Carmacks

Carmacks is about 180km north from Whitehorse  on the Klondike highway towards Dawson City. It was a short drive today and a very beautiful one, different from any scenery we had seen. There were no high hills or mountains, just gentle rolling hills. What was also different was an obvious lack of trees and for two reasons. One, many of the hills were just covered with low sage bushes, which looked from a distance like grass. The other reason was the number of forest fires in the region. We saw signs about fires in 1962, '58, '95, '98. The only trees were 10 to 20 ft high, fighting there way up after the fire. The pretty Fire Weed, Yukons flower, is the first sign of life after the fires have gone out.

                                                           Fire Weed

Aftermath of Forest fires

                                            Boardwalk in Carmacks

Several groups canoeing Yukon River

What we really enjoyed was the incredable views from high above the valleys. They actually had places for us to pull off the road with a trailer which we have not had, and take pictures.

Carmacks was named for one of the two men who first found Gold in the Yukon. Carmacks moved to what is now Carmacks and found coal which he mined for many years.

A little farther north of the Klondike highway, turn right and go about 170 km and you are in Keno, which was a successful silver mine at about the same time.  

Whitehorse, Yukon

It has been a wonderful week here in Whitehorse. The weather was 18-22 all week with sunshine. Perfect hiking weather. It is difficult to describe the natural beauty of this remote little city of 25,000. All of Yukon has a population of only 36,000, in an area of 482,000 sq km, or about the size of Spain.

Whitehorse sits in the valley along the west shore of the Yukon River with the hills rising up on both sides. The river's water is deep green and fast flowing. We went on several hikes along the river and one was with two guides, university students. The two hour hike turned into 21/2 hours it was so interresting. We were told about the hopefulls who had pulled their packs of about two tons each from Skagway where the boats had left them, through the Chilcoot Pass to the rapids at Whitehorse on their way to the gold fields. Many men lost their gear or their lives in the rapids at Whitehorse. One man who had lost his partner to the rapids stayed and built a tramway,(see picture). It was built from log tracks with steel cars and wheels brought in from Skagway.He charged 3cents per pound to take the loads around the rapids.There are still piles of rusty tin food cans where they were left over 100 years ago.

The Salmon fish ladder is the longest in the world. It allows the salmon to swim up above the dam which is 20m high. The dam was built in 1959 and it was soon realised that the millions of salmon at the time could not reach their spawning grounds above the dam. The ladder was built within two years. The salmon swim about 3,000miles up the Yukon River from the Bering Sea through Alaska and Yukon to spawn.