Crossing the Yukon

Let's see if I can download the picture of this ferry crossing the Yukon. As you can see it's a very small ferry. It runs 24/7 except for two hours on Wed. morn. when it's down for maintenance. It takes 2 cars abreast and has a max length that just barely permits our rigs to occupy one aisle. We will cross over tomorrow early as the line gets long and RV's take up a lot of space. Then we will return in one truck and take a river 2-hr. cruise. Then we are off to the Top of The World drive and we will curve north into Alaska. Be back in touch in 3-4 days, probably. We spent the day in Dawson City, visiting the Robert W. Service cabin where the docent was really great and we learned a lot about the man himself and about his love of the Yukon. Then we went to the city museum and really steeped ourselves in the history of Dawson and the Klondike Gold Rush. It's incredible to think that my grandfather was here as a young man when those 'old-time' pictures were taken! I still have the nugget of gold his father brought home from the mine they worked on the Iditerod River. The history of this region is so fascinating. Garth has really enjoyed seeing all of this, having heard about "when we were in Dawson in '63" from my family for years! Time to get dinner on the table for Garth & Mother. It's leftovers tonight... leftover beef stroganof... with cold salmon salad on the side. Yup, life sure is tough here in the gold country! Having the time of our lives. Miss you all.

Crossing the Yukon River

Let's see if I can show you all a picture of the ferry that will take our rigs across the Yukon River tomorrow. If I wait to show you a picture of the rig on the ferry it might be a week before we have internet access again as we are off into the wilds after tomorrow. We will spend the day in Dawson City & tomorrow we are to take a boat ride on the river itself. I will take lots of photos, to be sure!

Along the Yukon River

Third time is supposed to be a charm! Let's see if it will finally accept this photo!

Five Fingers

Let's see if I managed to get the photo of Five Fingers into the blog!
We are today in Dawson City, home of the Klondike Gold Rush. It certainly has upgraded itself since we were here in 63 & 65! We stay here two days, seeing sites of interest (Robt. W. Service's cabin; the poet called The Bard of the Yukon, wrote The Cremation of Sam McGee and others of that ilk) then we will put the rig on the ferry across the Yukon River. The ferry will just only take one rig at a time & I'll be sure to post a picture of this teeny little ferry with our rig crossing the Yukon, a quarter mile wide at this point!
It's so lovely up here, pity the winters are so bitterly cold and LONG!

When we cross the River we start out upon a road called The Top of The World drive. We drove up to the Dome this afternoon (a knob that overlooks Dawson City) we could see it climbing and climbing away into the mountains across the river from us. It's gravel and narrow, with steep climbs and drops. It takes us close to the Artic Circle in fact. We curl around on it and enter Alaska at it's northernmost entry point. We will be back into cell phone range in 6 days, we figure! Either that or send the Mounties!

Five Fingers

This photo is of the famous passage on the Yukon River, formed by knobs of rock called congomerate, which the steamers had to navigate on their way from Whitehorse to Dawson City. It is amazing to see it looking the same as it did 110 years ago, from historical pictures of paddle wheelers threading those channels. The safest is the once closest to our side of the river and not really seen in the picture. My grandfather and great-grandfather went through there... it boggles the mind!
Pigs is traveling well, although he didn't want to come out from under the covers this morning, it was a chilly 45 inside the rig! Great mornings for hot cereal and hot chocolate!
We walk almost every morning with Jan & Walt... sometimes it's pretty brisk! I guess it will warm up later in the season.
Saw a fox yesterday... she'd been out hunting and had caught a ground squirrel.
Incredible scenery, to say the least.

Along the Whitehorse-to- Dawson Trail

We've been on the road, traveling northward.. followed by hordes of mosquitos. Which is why we don't see moose this time of year; the bites on the antlers-in-the-velvet are dangerous to the animals so they stay high in the mt.s until after skeeter season.

Tomorrow we will arrive in Dawson City, home of the Klondyke Gold Rush of '98. That's 1898! My great-grandfather was in Dawson, and so was my grandfather when they came north to work a gold mine on the Iditerod River. This is so exciting to see it all again, 'way different from when we visited in '63 with my folks, and that same grandfather who'd been there in '06.

The photo is a roadhouse, now abandoned, obviously, on the Whitehorse-to-Dawson trail. The interior walls were covered with canvas to help keep the wind out and to keep the chinking material (moss, mostly) from falling into the food, etc. It was in use well into the 30's. A 2-story log building with out buildings for the horses & storehouse. This truly was the frontier! It's still pretty wild when signs are posted by the Yukon govt. telling you how far it is to the next fuel stop! But beautiful.. words do not describe it. If I can figure out how to load a pic of the Yukon River I will

Meziadin Lake side trip

This is looking out of our picture window as we are camped here at Meziadin Lake up on the Cassiar Highway. We drove down to Stewart, BC today, a short side road trip to the coast. It's just 1/2 mile along a road and you are into Alaska, but only to the town of Hyder (pop. 100). VERY interesting. There is even a border crossing back into BC, but none into the US. We saw many glaciers, a bear, and even an eagle (flying back into Alaska while we waited at the border for the RCMP to stamp our passport). This is an interesting road, constructed during WWII to enable supplies to get to Watson Lake, Yukon Terr., a supply point in the landing-strip-to-landing-strip way that was used to ferry fighter planes to the USSR. Once the planes got to Alaska, then Russian pilots came over and took over flying them across the Bering Strait. Women in the Army Air Corps were the transfer pilots and it was a dangerous risky job with miles of trackless wilderness between each tiny landing strip. It's STILL miles of trackless wilderness, believe me! We took a picnic lunch and ate it in Stewart, sharing our picnic spot with a dozen Bohemian waxwing... a lovely bird I now can add to my Life List (of birds seen).

Glacier View

Here is that glacier across the valley from us.

It's as cold as it looks, too.

Glacier View

Here we are at Glacier View RV Park outside Smitters on the Yellowhead Highway (between Prince George & Prince Rupert, BC). That is a real glacier in the photo, too. I spotted the first moose today, a young one just munching on willows. It's been raining & chilly, so we are glad we did bring jackets from Land's End! Temps in the low 50's. Jan & I have decided that they will dine with us on Sundays and we with them on Wed. each week. Mother will ride with us until Sunday and then switch back with J&W. Whoever has Mother in the truck is the lead truck as she is the Official Trip Planner & Navigator. This way it gives everybody a chance to see everybody, too and not so confusing once you get going. After church tomorrow we start up the Cassiar Highway toward the Yukon but we've a day visit first to an interesting historical Indian (First People) Encampment and the day after tomorrow we've a lay-over to visit 2 small towns, Hyder & Stewart, 20 miles down on a sound which separates BC from Alaska. The only way to get to Hyder, Alaska is through BC or by float plane! From. now on we never allow the tank to get below half as fuel stops are few & far between. Having a grand time, as you can see. Miss you all.

Here is a photo taken as we drove north toward Prince George, BC. Big swift-flowing rivers and lovely meadows.

Northward through BC

We have made it to Prince George today. It must have been incredible for the early settlers to get this far north through what is basically trackless wilderness once you leave the settlements along the highway. We turn west tomorrow toward Prince Rupert and the turn-off north on the Cassiar Highway. That will take us north again into the Yukon Territory. It's all gorgeous scenery, of course with big swift-moving rivers. Walt saw a lynx in our camp a couple of nights ago... chasing a ground squirrel, probably. They don't attack humans. That's good as we were on the lookout for the bear that had been around camp!

Onward Into Canada

After 3 very long days we drove into Surrey, BC and were able to do the paperwork in order to leave his mother's remains there at the family plot.
Returning to the US for the weekend, we found a camping site at Birch Bay State Park on the sound north of Bellingham WA. We've moved the rig into Ferndale for Sunday so we could hook up the cable and watch the Lakers WIN!
Tomorrow it's into Canada to Kamloops where we will meet Jan, Walt, and Mother. The picture is of Garth at Birch Bay, sitting at the campsite reading. He needs that sort of relaxation.

We setup the blog!

Today, Tom helped us setup the blog that will be the on-going record of our roadtrip to Alaska! WE have been loading the rig and will be on the road Wed. at 0-dark-thirty in order to miss the traffic through LA.