Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada

Mile 914 

June 9-11, 2016

water and bear spray

We are staying for 3 days in Whitehorse, which is a lovely city that is settled right on the shores of the Yukon River.  It seems like a big deal to us, as it is the first real “city” for such a very long time.  A real grocery store, hardware store, car wash, etc. etc.!  It has 29,000 people that live in the vicinity with 2 small colleges.  An absolutely cool trail system of hiking, mtn. biking, running and cross country skiing  that travels all through the forests and along the Yukon River.

Miles Canyon - great hiking and exploring

Kevin continues to ride his 30 miles daily as he has had good traction on the highway here (no loose gravel).  There is also a bike path through the town, but to get some good miles in, he is still on the Alaska Highway :)

I would have to say that the highlight of our visit here is when I took the WP&YR train into Skagway.

What a treat that was. This 27 mile train journey takes you back in time to the Klondike Gold Rush years and the legendary construction of this railway.  A photographers dream and we just timed it perfectly with a very nice day.  The old train cars were all restored to their original condition and each car had a wood burning stove in them.  Pretty cool.  If you wanted you could stand outside between the train cars as we dropped down 3000 ft through an amazing rock canyon to Skagway.  What a history this train has for the Klondike Gold Rush.  Waterfall ran along side of the train, went underneath the rails and came out the other side.  So cool.  Wooden bridges, lakes, big meadows, Dahl Sheep, Black

 bears and BIG mountains.

We were able to meet some friends of Susan and John.  They were a lovely couple that have lived in the bush for the last 15 years!  They built their log cabin from the start, by cutting, peeling and building their walls.  Their closest neighbor is 16 miles away and they come into “town” with a boat up the Teslin River about once every other month for supplies, except from mid September through February.  Then the river freezes enough for him to take the snowmobile down the river to Teslin, where he keeps a car.  Teslin is small, so he drives into Whitehorse. Pretty amazing couple, such great stories over Sushi in Whitehorse.  I will always remember them.

Klondike

wrapped and ready for the Top of the World Highway (100miles of unpaved road)

So the Airstream is all taped up with Yoga matts and ready for our Klondike loop north to Dawson City and then to the Top of the World Highway (100 miles of gravel way, way, way up there).  We hear if everything is right - the weather, the road - you can see for miles and it’s well worth it.  So we shall see.  Big Adventure coming up???