July 19--Tombstone Mountain CG to Mayo, Yukon Territory

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Tuesday, July 19, 2011 Tombstone Mountain Campground 48 degrees and raining and foggy and miserable cold and wet. Starting mileage at 10,281. Started out at 10:30.

Heater clicked on and off all night. Have no idea how cold it got, but there is still snow here and there on the ground in the Park and not on the mountain tops. Even with the rain all night long, you can’t see a thing out of Rosie’s back windows as there is so much mud on her.

We stopped to look at the Park’s Interpretive Center that was just in front of the campground. It is in a really nice, new building but doesn’t have much on content. Guess we may be getting jaded???

We then drove back along the mushy, muddy, dirt/gravel road to the intersection of the Dawson Highway and into the corner gas station/café/motel/RV park that also had a car wash. We had to remove the mud as Valerie couldn’t see anything out the back windows , plus the calcium chloride they use on the roads is not good for the car as, I have said before. This stuff also makes the road slick when it gets wet so, going back down it, we slipped here and there somewhat like driving on ice. After washing her down, we got on the Dawson Highway and headed south.

We drove for a number of miles along the wide and navigable Stewart River that flows into the Yukon, not far from Dawson City. Stopped at Gravel Lake and watched the ducks and birds while we ate lunch. When we got to Stewart Crossing, we turned off the main road and headed toward the small town of Mayo. It has a population of 470 folks.

After looking through town and finding that their gas station is open only in the mornings, we found their free municipal park campground and pulled in about 3:30. Thousands, maybe millions, of mosquitoes are flying around outside of Rosie II. I hurried outside and turned on the propane gas and jumped back inside quickly. Managed to only get three of those suckers inside Rosie in the process of opening and closing the doors and they were quickly dispatched! It is so nice to be self contained!

Still raining. Think I will think about getting dinner since it is 6:30 now. Since we didn’t get gas, we need to use the propane for cooking tonight, as we are down to about ¼ of a tank.

PS: I knew I shouldn’t have bragged about the pests as 4 more came out of hiding while we were eating dinner and Valerie is complaining of more in the back. Sigh!! What worries us is that they might be coming in someplace somehow.

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