Advertisement
Published: July 27th 2010
16th to 24th May - By Darryl:
DAY 34: Sunday 16th May 2010 - WATSON LAKE
This twilight thing is pretty weird cos as I write this it’s 11:40pm and still strangely light outside. Not daylight, but the sky is still bright blue and clear. Looking at the Aurora Borealis report on the net, the next best chance for seeing the Northern Lights is tomorrow night. Its not a good time of the year for viewing as the sun is always too close to the horizon so there is a bit too much light around, and its not cold enough, but will keep a look out anyway.
Some of the locals here in Watson Lake are your stereotypical small town back country folk. The only place I could get a fishing licence here on a Sunday was at BeeJays garage and café, which looks fairly grimey. When I asked at the counter the old fart muttered something like “don’t sell nothin fer the goddam Guvvermint that don’t make no money fer me…” and just walked off! I thought I would stick around anyway and soon a quite large lady with tattoos (love me tender - or else!) up both
forearms appeared and sorted out the licence for me. Its only $35 for a full season (for a non-Canadian) here, and the regs are a bit simpler than those in BC - however they don’t have the same extent of Salmon and Steelhead runs, but I’m more keen to catch an Arctic Grayling on this leg anyway.
The biggest attraction in Watson Lake is the Signpost Forest, which started in 1942 when they were building the highway and some Army guy got a bit homesick and madeup a signpost with lots of fingerboards and mileages to homes. Since then it has grown massively, and the sheer number of signs is incredible (last count was apparently about 55,000!). We spotted a few from NZ, and hopefully will be able to add our own.
So now we had our licence it was time to check out the lake just down the road from our cabin (Hour Lake). We all had a picnic in the woods by the water and spotted a nice large fish cruising about - so that looked promising. Sarah and Kelsey then left us to it while they sorted out another load of washing and other supplies.
The lake is quite pretty, surrounded by Fir trees and the water quite clear with a blue green colour. It wasn’t long and I landed a Rainbow Trout of about 1 pound on the spinner, then Lachie and Callum followed suit with more Rainbows of a similar size. I left the boys to the spinners while I tried casting a fly, but had difficulty getting much distance into the breeze with tall trees impeding my backcast. Wading was also a bit tricky as the bottom was really soft fluffy silt that shelved off quickly and would often just give way to sink into like quicksand - possibly up to my armpits if I wasn’t careful.
We worked our way around the shore to a narrow channel joining the two main bodies of water, and here the fishing was all on. I spent a bit of time untangling birdsnests again and unhooking snags, but the boys hooked into quite a few small trout. They lost more fish than they landed which is probably due to the barbless hooks requirement - it means you really have to keep the pressure on or they spit the hook. I piggybacked the boys across a
narrow channel and we worked our way back towards the motel unit, and walking back in the late afternoon sun. We landed and released a total of 7 Trout and probably lost just as many. There was also an Otter swimming about, diving and re-appearing , and we spotted a squirrel that we spooked which darted up a tree to watch over us. What a lovely spot, kind of makes up for the dodgy motel unit!
Its now 12:20 and possibly as dark as it gets, although I can still make out some blue in the sky.
We are off to Whitehorse tomorrow, and spend most of the evening looking for accommodation on the net. Its amazing how many motels either don’t have a website or if they do - no pricing or details of the rooms available etc. We will be stopping for 3 to 4 nights so it would be cool to get another cottage or cabin, but they are all a long way out of town. I had an email reply this morning from a central Hotel with a really good price, so that is the backup plan.
DAY 35: Monday 17th May 2010
- WHITEHORSE
It was good to get onto the Alaska Highway, as its much wider than the highway from Dease Lake and there are no potholes (well not many) so my speed was back up to around 100km/hr average.
I am always amazed at the number and scale of different buildings that are derelict and falling apart (especially some really old log cabins) and others that are newer but abandoned and boarded up. In places like Dease Lake, Watson Lake, Burns Lake and many isolated locations in between, there have been whole Motel complexes, restaurants, gas stations, houses etc that have been shut down.
The vegetation heading West changes slightly again, and the Fir trees are skinny with more of a yellow/olive green colouring. It amuses me that although the land here is tinder dry, insanely dusty and the sun is burning quite hot at the moment - there are still random blobs or lengths of snow/ice in places (especially the shady side of trees)
The Bear count today has now hit a total to date of 32, including one Black Bear that was brown in colour - as we were sure it wasn’t a Grizzly. We
also spotted a large Caribou stag with stubby antlers in velvet. The only other animal action was a squirrel tearing across the road into the wheelpath of the car in front - that’s only the second ever roadkill we have seen. (maybe there is just lots of carnivores around to clean them up?)
The pitstops today included:
The Rancheria Falls, where we strolled along a boardwalk to see the tea stained Rancheria River flow over some beautiful rapids.
We stopped for a late lunch at Teslin, under a large log framed roof & fire pit with picnic tables, next to the bridge over Nisutlin Bay - in Teslin Lake. We were shocked to find out from a passerby about the water in the toilet block, where we had all been in to wash our hands before eating. He yelled out “don’t drink the water from the tap coz we put antifreeze in it over winter” Lucky we didn’t, but heres an idea - put up a fricken warning sign!
We were hanging out for a coffee, so I hit the brakes when we saw a fresh bakery sign out at Johnsons Crossing. The bridge here over the Teslin River
is impressive in its length and picturesque under-arch steel frame. Most shorter bridges are truss framed above the deck. The place we stopped was actually a combination RV park, motel, café and we all sat out on the deck with our drinks overlooking the bridge.
At one stage when someone in the back desperately needed a pitstop, I spied an access road toward Marsh Lake to our left which led us down to a boatramp. The lake water level had dropped (later discovered it was dammed for hydro electric) leaving great piles and sheets of ice for us to play in. Most of the lake was still iced over, and we had fun breaking chunks of ice off and throwing it about.
We arrived in Whitehorse at around 6:15pm (after leaving Watson Lake at 10:30am) checked into Canadas Best Value Inn, and unloaded the car. This motel is another standard issue room, but we really appreciate it now after the grime and shabbiness of Cedar Lodge. Walking around town we found Whitehorse to be really nice, and a lot of effort has gone into maintaining a theme of historic buildings. The mighty Yukon River flows past, and we can
see it from our second floor room. There is also an old tram for rides, and a restored paddlesteamer restaurant/museum?
After wandering around for a while and getting sidetracked in a bookstore (I couldn’t leave behind an Alaskan fishing book) we stopped for an excellent dinner at a Chinese restaurant. The twilight caught us out again, as we were finishing our meal I was surprised to realize it was 10pm. So we didn’t get the boys into bed until after 11pm, but they are loving it. Its now after 1am as I write this and its almost dark, but still with a blue sky.
DAY 36: Tuesday 18th May 2010 - WHITEHORSE
I thought that the weather would cool off as we progressed further north, but the opposite seems to be occurring. It was pretty warm today (approx 20+ degrees?), and it doesn’t help that the motel room is quite muggy (no air con).
I have also noticed a change in the local accent over the last week. Its far less American sounding, and kind of has traces of European (Scot/Irish? As when the pronounce the word “out” it sounds like “oot” etc) but possibly more influence
from the native Indian language?
The locals are just as friendly, and an older native Indian guy starting chatting with me about an aerial photo of Whitehorse in the hotel foyer. I also tracked down the local fishing shop to get the lowdown on the best rivers and methods etc, and as it turned out they had just been in NZ for 2 weeks during Feb. We talked for ages and eventually Sarah caught up with me there, and she joined in the conversation which must have gone on for about an hour and twenty minutes! Oh, and I bought some flies for Grayling and some fishing nylon too.
This morning (well late morning -after a nice sleep in) we wandered around town and all had hot dogs for lunch from a street vendor. They smelt sooo good sizzling on the Barbie, and there was an endless range of toppings and sauces (including sticky cheesewhizz - yuk) which another guy noted is one molecule away from plastic - I thought it looked handy for filling cracks in the wall!)
We also looked through some gift shops, got lots of the good oil from the info centre, stocked up
on supplies at the grocery store (including the standard meal deal - hot roast chicken, pasta, coleslaw & baguette for $10). We had thoughts about going for a walk and a cast along the river… but bugger it, we were all still a bit weary so it was a quiet night in and hopefully early to bed.
There was a minor incident out in the street which we watched the tail end of from the room window, when it appeared that a Police (RCMP) car hit a guy on a little motorbike. He had some scrapes and bruises, but considering he wasn’t wearing a helmet he seemed OK. About 3 Cop cars, and ambulance and a tow truck turned up, all with flashing lights. So that was the excitement for the evening.
DAY 37: Wednesday 19th May 2010 - WHITEHORSE
It was overcast, cold and breezy today - in stark contrast to the blazing sun and heat of yesterday. I enjoyed things cooling off a bit as it was uncomfortable sleeping last night, its currently 4 degrees with 1 degree low forecast, but looks likely to shoot up to around 20+ degrees again tomorrow.
We all visited
the MacBride museum today, which is just over the road from our motel. The display of stuffed animals was brilliant, as we could compare it to the wildlife we had seen so far on the roadside. I think it definitely was a Wolf that I spotted on that brown flat area somewhere near Prince George, as a Coyote is quite small at about half the size. There was also a lot more of the history of Whitehorse and the Yukon, with some hands on stuff too. We got talking to Bev and Irv from Ottawa who were pretty interested in following our blog so we swapped emails.
After lunch I continued with a vain attempt at backing up our trip photos to DVD, then Lachie and I head out on a mission to get some new disks. We found a second hand book store easier than the DVDs, so I picked up (strangely enough) a couple more Canadian fishing books. (Great Canadian Fishing Stories and The Gilly - A Flyfishers Guide).
Enough of that mucking about - its time to go fishing!
Sarah wanted some time out to look through the local quilting, jewellery & gift shops, so
I took the boys out to a Park on the Yukon River at the southern outskirts of town (recommended as a fishing possie by the older Indian guy the other day) to see what we could catch. The river is quite low, but when it has some depth it takes on a lovely turquoise green colour. We fished a smaller branch of the Yukon where it starts to braid, and Callum picked up the first fish on his flyrod - a small Arctic Grayling. After I sorted out yet more tangles on Lachie and Kelseys spin rods, I had a try with Callums flyrod and also picked up a Grayling - this time a bit larger at approx 1 pound. They are quite pretty fish and I can see where they get the name of “Maiden of the River” with the large dorsal fin, iridescent colours and spots. Lively little scrappers too. We fished on and I hooked another fish on the ultralite spin rod which Kelsey landed. Callum also hooked up again on the fly (a size 12 beadhead Prince Nymph - tied by me) and gave it to Lachie to land, so we all had a fish each,
and released the lot.
I was so pleased to catch a few Grayling as that was one species on my list of target fish.
I also got talking to a young couple back at the campground carpark who were over from Calgary and keen on the fishing. He is a plumber and picked up a job a few days ago but were having a hard time finding accommodation. They just wanted to work long enough to pay for more travel and will canoe down the Yukon to Dawson City, then head back to Terrace.
It was getting late by the time we all got back to the motel, so we thought hamburgers would be a treat. Wrong - most of the burger joints close at 9pm (except bloody McDonalds) so we went back to the Chinese place again and had a great meal of Chop Suey, Egg Foo Yung, Fries and Sweet & Sour Pork - which we all shared. The boys loved the fortune cookies, and they probably would have been happy with just those!
DAY 38: Thursday 20th May 2010 - WHITEHORSE
We had spied a 1950’s diner in town the other day, and had
been keen on a feast of pancakes for breakfast at some stage - so we all trotted into Lil’s 50’s diner for brunch. The décor was well done, and the old boomerang patterns on the formica table tops brought back some memories. We all ordered pancakes which were fantastic, and too much for the boys as they couldn’t finish theirs. I left Sarah and the boys shopping for tee shirts while I scouted out Internet cafes to try and backup the photos.
I then locked myself in the motel room to catch up on a lot of the boring but important stuff - online banking, update and review the finances, update the itinerary, sort out emails, and try to get the travel blog ready to send out the link to everyone.
later we headed out for some food shopping, calling into a market for a gander on the way - but nothing took our fancy there. At the supermarket we bumped into one of the ladies from the office supplies shop, and Sarah got her number as they invited us for a BBQ if we were passing back through.
Homemade subway in the motel room for dinner tonight,
and I spent more time on the laptop setting up another blog entry and pulling my hair out trying to upload photos as the internet was running a bit slow. The icing on the cake was when the photo captions were jumbled up and didn’t match the pics - so I shut it down.
DAY 39: Friday 21st May 2010 - CARMACKS
Geez I ended up staying up far too late last night, but was determined to finally get the bloody travel blog live and distribute the link. I had a really frustrating time uploading the photos as the internet was quite slow and it jumbled up the photo captions. Then when I emailed out the link to the distribution list - it only sent to the first 10! So I had to sort out who, and re-make 5 more email groups to re-send. By the time all that was done it was about 3:20 am and getting quite light outside, so couldn’t get to sleep until about 4am!
It was uncomfortably hot in this motel in Whitehorse, although it was another bright sunny day - outside was nicely cool, so I think the problem inside was the
heat rising to our second floor. Only one small window to open too.
We packed up by 10am and finished a few errands around town before hitting the road. Luckily the drive to Carmacks today wasn’t too onerous. For this leg we turn off the Alaska Highway, and take the Klondike Highway through to Dawson City.
The country north of Whitehorse is pretty dry and dusty, but there is a lot of new spring growth to brighten things up on the stunted but bushy shrubs and trees. Occaisionally large rocky boulders and outcrops break up the vegetation, which gives it a Western Movie feel (again). We passed through a large area of forest that was burnt out in 1998, and that was quite barren. Apparently some campers at Little Fox Lake didn’t put out their campfire and that was the result. (That was also where we stopped for our picnic lunch)
There were some beautiful lakes along the way too, and most still iced over. On one the ice appeared to be green around the edges, and Twin Lakes were beautifully clear and emerald green around the shallows.
We stopped at a large old log cabin which
is a historic site (Montague Roadhouse?) I was impressed with the durability and the structure for something that was built over 100 years ago. It’s a two storey building (but the roof has gone) and was one of the food and accommodation stops for the snow sleigh transport industry back in the day.
We only really stayed in Carmacks tonight to break up the trip to Dawson City, and the Motel is just your standard issue job with a dusty gravel expanse around it. We are getting a bit tired of these, so looking forward to a change with a hostel at Dawson tomorrow. Sarah and I have also come up with lots of bright ideas for setting up the ideal accommodation, as we have had a few examples now of what/not to do!
I had a snooze when we arrived while Sarah took the boys for an exploratory walk, but I didn’t sleep long so worked on sorting out the internet billing (the Bell website is terrible, and the phone contact listed is the wrong company!). After dinner, I gave Sarah a break and took the boys along the river for some fishing in the Yukon, but
that was a waste of time. The river here is quite murky, and the mosquitos are getting larger!
DAY 40: Saturday 22nd May 2010 - DAWSON CITY
Heading north again, the vegetation gets greener, still barren and rocky in places, but the new growth provides a refreshing lime green contrast to the forest green of the fir trees. There is more undergrowth and swamps, but also more evidence of forest fires.
We hit the brakes to look out over the Five Finger Rapids on Yukon river, which was a tricky navigation spot for steamboats and rafts full of prospective goldminers. Lunch today was at Pelly crossing, and then another pitstop at Stewart crossing. Only one bear was spotted today (total 33 to date) and animals were noticably absent. The mountain ranges are distant from the road now, and the country is opening up with plains and stunted growth. This was especially so at the Tintina Trench, which marks a fault line and provides a corridor for massive herds of Caribou to migrate every year.(Just not today)
Arriving at Dawson City, the first thing you notice is the endless trails and enormous heaps of tailings and ponds on
way in. This is the legacy of the old goldmining dredges and it sounds like they probably won’t level it all off as its now an important part of the local history.
The “city” is pretty cool, and oozes real old world charm with the original gold rush buildings still intact, dusty dirt roads, rickety boardwalks instead of paths, a lot of the shops are restored, and others are falling down.
We stock up on groceries and head for the ferry to cross the Yukon River. The river is really wide and fast flowing here as it has merged with the Klondike and the White? River upstream, which also turns the water a thick grey colour - due to the loading of fine silt. The car ferry is free as it is part of the State Highway system (I guess its cheaper than a bridge) and it runs 24 hours a day.
The Dawson City River Hostel is a refreshing change - quite a leap actually, its very rustic and back to basics with a jumble of crazy cabins, shelters, tables, and fire pit etc.
There is no power or running water, and cooking is done over wood stove
out under a communal shelter, where the first job is to saw and split enough wood to keep you going. The facilities very basic but cheap, and the owner (Deiter) is a character. Its also quite a large site, with several cabins & other buildings scattered through the woods.
The main novelty here is the bathhouses where you light another fire to heat a tank of water from a nearby creek(untreated) and just bathe with jugs of water. You make up large buckets of bathing water, adding more hot water to get the temperature right, and it becomes more like a sauna room as it gets really steamy when woodburner heats up.
The boys love it here as they can run free again, chasing squirrels, sharpening sticks, toasting marshmallows over the fire, and they really get stuck into cutting firewood. Callum is in his element, as fire lighting is such a necessity, and so he enjoys plenty of practice.
The fire pit is also a nice social spot to meet the other backpackers. We talked to Brad his girlfriend (who lived in Christchurch NZ for a while) about mining, fishing and jobs etc. Later on we met a
young couple from the Czech Republic who were working in Jasper, and found out they had done lots of travels in Alaska so had many tips about where to go. We stayed up chatting with them around the campfire until about 1:30am, and we all couldn’t believe the time as it was light enough to be late afternoon!
DAY 41: Sunday 23rd May 2010 - DAWSON CITY
First job for the morning is to stoke up the fire, and the bath house is a refreshing start to the day.
Brekkie was a bowl of cereal and a coffee sitting in an old wooden chair overlooking the massive Yukon River with Dawson City on other side.
Today we walk down to the ferry, cross the river and stroll into town to visit the info centre, watch some of the movies showing, and get ideas for things to do.
After checking out some shops and lunch at a bakery, we joined a walking tour of Dawson City with our guide Colleen from Parks Canada (dressed in period costume) who highlighted some of the more colourful characters and juicy stories from the goldrush days. It was an excellent experience; we toured
around most of the beautiful old buildings and were shown through many that are not open to the public. Parks Canada has restored several of these historic buildings, and as were built sitting on blocks due to the permafrost, they are easy to relocate.
Its definitely Yukon time here, as everyone is pretty laid back and in no real hurry. The day ended with another ferry ride back over the river, cooking dinner over the woodstove, and then the boys sharpened sticks and toasted marshmallows over the embers. The time now is 10:30pm, and although we are in the shade, the sun is still shining on the houses over other side of the river.
DAY 42: Monday 24th May 2010 - DAWSON CITY
Well this has to be the most inspiring place I have had to write up my diary. I’m sitting in an old timber armchair up high on a clifftop, overlooking the wide murky Yukon River and watching the odd log float by with the drone of the car ferry chugging away to my far left. Over the river Dawson City has just lost the glow of the setting sun - even though its 11pm, but
its still quite light (and that’s about as dark as it gets). The lack of darkness is still a novelty, but it means we end up having late nights.
Staying at this hostel has been an experience in itself - and its fitting in a place like Dawson City, as it reflects a bit of the lifestyle of the old-timers eeking out a living during the goldrush era. We have all found the rustic living quite refreshing from the usual motel situation. The boys love the fires and are free to roam, whittle sticks, chase squirrels, and just generally be kids. Preparing a wood fire to heat up the bathing water, or to cook dinner hasn’t been as tedious as you might think. I will enjoy the next endless shower though, and I can now appreciate the little things we take for granted - like treated/running water. The only potable water is trucked in, and is housed in the kitchen (for drinking and cooking only) so its like gold. The bath house and handbasins for brushing teeth etc is much further away and the water there is from the creek which is untreated and tea coloured. So we take
bottles of water for brushing teeth.
We had quite a busy day, and it was a mission getting the boys out of bed in time to make the 10am start for the next tour. We were half an hour late, partly cos we just missed a ferry leaving - and then it decided to stop for refueling. They let us in anyway - on the tour around Dredge No4 on Bonanza Creek - and I’m pleased they did, as it was impressive. The four story barge, (with timber hull) which is massive and the giant steel gears and chunky timber structure - its hard to believe it was built in 3 months around the early 1900’s.
Apparently there are larger dredges in NZ, but with steel hulls. The Kiwis also get a lot of credit for some ingenious design of many things related to gold mining. The main difference here is that its all “placer” mining - which is extracting gold from the existing gravels/silts/clays (rather than from solid rock - quartz etc in NZ). One of the main obstacles to mining here is getting through the permafrost, so that took steam and pressurized water etc.
It also had
only 4 operators, and some of the work was pretty dangerous. This dredge was abandoned in the Sixties, and the lower levels became encased in silt and ice, which was a 2 year restoration project that the Army completed. Parks Canada owns the barge and it is one of the most treasured historic items in Canada.
We also got talking to a couple from Portland, Oregon who had spent 5 summers in NZ.
After that tour we took a drive further out on the dusty gravel road (un-maintained, but passable) past the site of the first major gold strike(Discovery Claim?) and on up to a peak called Soloman’s Dome. We had a picnic lunch at a site out in the middle of nowhere, where a roadhouse stood during the gold rush, with a spectacular view of a long snowy mountain range. We carried on into the next valley and arrived at Goldbottom Creek - which is a commercial gold mine operation, and they also do tours and goldpanning. We were all issued with gumboots and a pan, and then onto the “pay-dirt” pile to fill up and over to the stream to start panning. Its definitely a skill to
a. This Moose is stuffed!
MacBride Museum in Whitehorsebe learnt, with several stages and techniques. If you are too hasty the gold will be lost and that pan is a waste of effort. With some assistance from April we all became rich and struck with gold fever. For 2 hours we panned away in the stream, getting sore backs and pins and needles. Kelsey lost interest early on, got attacked again by a swarm of butterflies, filled his boots with water, and then discovered the trampoline - so he was happy. Callum picked up the panning quickly and soon had a vial with lots of little flakes of gold. Lachie spent more time throwing rocks in the stream, and tipping out his whole pan - but somehow scored the largest speck of gold. Sarah and I did OK - a good pan being 6 to eight specks, and a bad one having one or none.
In the office they showed us their best nugget (about 75mm across) which is worth $10,000 and many mammoth tusks and ancient bison skulls extracted from the permafrost. It was a great learning experience, and I felt we had earned our vials of sugar grain sized specks of yellow gold, but don’t think
b. A Couger?
MacBride Museum in Whitehorse we could make a living out of it!
Back in town, we stopped for coffees & icecreams at the internet café, trying to sort out our emails (unable to logon to Slingshot for the last few days - hopefully a temporary thing), and more groceries.
We had heard a lot of good things about the view from the Midnight Dome lookout - so shot up there for a look. It was getting on a bit now (6pm?) but still quite hot, so the elevation and breeze was cooling.
The view over Dawson City, the Yukon & Klondike Rivers, and the mountains in the distance was fantastic.
After the ferry ride back to the hostel it was more fire lighting, bathing for the boys and a superb dinner of jacket potatoes (roasted in the embers), bacon and beans. It’s now midnight, and still just as light as when I started this. Its cooled off though and the mozzies are getting annoying, so will shutdown and run back to the bath house to warm up.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.136s; Tpl: 0.035s; cc: 8; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0822s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
