Yukon Gold - not just potatoes

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This entry was written august 9th in the morning at our hotel in Atlin...a good nights rest in the ghost town...and finished in the basement of a bed and breakfast in a hundred year old house built for Sam McGee (the namesake of the poem, the cremation of Sam MeGee) the next day.

We are on the famous Alaska Highway. We stopped at Dawson Creek, the official mile “0” of the Alaska highway and took the obligatory pictures. We had a good chinese food lunch - the common thread through all the little towns we have passed along the way - they all have chinese restaurants - most serving “chinese and western food”. Slept the first night at the Ramada in Fort Nelson after giving Chuggs (the car) a wash and an oil change.

A little about the highway - the US military built the road in 1942-43 in 8 months in response to a threat from Japan in WWII. This is an AMAZING feat. The road goes through swamps, mountains and over many winding rivers, and the area is mosquito filled when it’s warm and blistering cold when it’s not. They say that 18000 men (and some women) worked on the road. Although named the Alaska Highway, most of the road is in Canada - both B.C. and the Yukon and the Canadian government had to give approval for the americans to build the road - all as part of the Allies war effort.

Anyways, out of history and back to the present...

We have seen lots of wildlife - bison, moose, caribou, lots of water fowl and a couple of bears, we swam in natural hotsprings that were pretty darn hot - a bit too hot at times. These hotsprings, especially the ones at Liard (2 hours south of Whitehorse) were huge moral boosters for the highway builders back in the 40s. One time they even let the women in for a week!

We visited Atlin (B.C - but you get there by driving through the yukon and then south into BC for about 30 min) last evening, a ghost town that was in it’s hay day in the goldrush - it was about as big as Dawson City back then - which we are heading to in a day or so. This town is in about the most beautiful location we have ever seen - a beautiful lake surrounded by mountains, many of them snow capped - apparently the host of heli ski operators in the winter!! There was ONE place in the town that had food and drinks on deck - the choice of food was: pizza (two kinds, pre-made), a chicken wrap, or stew...but they had all the booze you could want to drink....

It was pretty sobering to see the boarded up buildings, the old church, theatre, hospital and hardware store, among others - all closed up with plaques explaining when the buildings were built and what they were used for. It’s too bad this town can’t make a come-back, but the guy in the bar and the lady who runs the one “food basket” store in town say it’s just too remote and there is “no work” in the area....but they still love living there.... Mostly old timers left over from the goldrush in town and a few tourists. Such an interesting stop about 2.5 hours from Whitehorse.

We have done a lot of driving through beautiful scenery - on our way to Alaska....

Between Fort Nelson and Whitehorse the road is very scenic and a real enjoyable ride - however we have been warned that the rest of the highway isn’t as scenic...we don’t mind, we are enjoying working on crosswords and listening to the ipod, novels and stories about the yukon (a cd we bought at a visitor’s centre) as we drive...

We reached Whitehorse yesterday around noon and our first stop was the long-awaited North End Gallery. We had been told of this place days before as THE stop along our trip to get Canadian (esp first nations) art. It was a successful stop and we got a few beautiful pieces. Jesse had to drag me out of there because there was so much unique Canadian Art. We then had a GREAT lunch at a local favorite - the Klondike Rib and Salmon BBQ - YUM

We then took a nap in the car in front of the SS Klondike followed by participating in the last tour of the day on the big steamer...built in 1929 and now a national historic site. We learned about how the steamer was the life blood of the Yukon in the goldrush years as it transferred much needed supplies to the northern towns. What a feat it was to operate that boat, the firemen had to load anywhere from half a quart to 3.5 quarts of wood an hour to keep the boat moving, depending on where they were on the river, that’s an average of 1 4 ft piece of wood every 30 seconds... Lots of interesting history in this area.

After much contemplation we decided to stay in a sheltered hotel/B and B instead of the tent in a pretty raunchy campsite 20 min out of town (it just grossed me out a bit...and I convinced Jesse to drive back to whitehorse and find a hotel). We settled on this old Bed and Breakfast, the breakfast part is a bit different, they give us a fridge full of food and we can use the kitchen and make our own food...works for us. We stayed in tonight and watched the olympics in our private little apartment in the hundred year old house in the Yukon - pretty cool!!

Yukon is full of a history of dreamers, big animals, big and beautiful landscapes and we have really enjoyed driving and visiting here. We plan to see the history at Dawson City tomorrow.

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Comments

[Hilary]

Yukon Ho!
dudes, sounds pretty awesome but I don't see where you visited my ancestral home! I also thought you guys were headed to Alaska first but I must have got that mixed up. I especially like the part about the Klondike Rib and Salmon BBQ. MMMM. Makes me re think my thought of going up there to see if anyone wants any criminal defence work done. We miss you here - saturday yoga aint the same - come home soon.