Family Time

From the Seattle area we took U.S. Hwy 2 over Stevens Pass through the Cascade Range to Leavenworth, a quaint Bavarian town, then to Wenachee, the apple capital of Washington. Summer was late here, too, so only the earliest apples were on the market. We, of course, purchased a few, but we’ll have to wait for most varieties. From Wenachee, we continued east on Hwy 2 through thousands of acres of wheat fields. While most fields had been harvested, and even some fields plowed and maybe even planted with next year’s crop, there were still a number of combines busily cutting grain. Interesting stuff for a California couple.

We reached Spokane around 3 PM, and headed north for 15 miles or so, to Deer Park. Debbie’s Aunt Alice and Uncle Skeet from Silver Creek, WA were camped with their long-time friends, Keith and Francie, in a beautiful RV & Golf Resort just east of town. They all enjoy playing golf, so this was the perfect spot. The weather was finally sunny and warm, which we really were looking forward to after all the rain and clouds we’ve had. While neither of us are golfers, just sitting in the sun was a great pleasure.

The RV Park is large and the individual campsites are huge! The concrete RV pads are about 14 feet wide and 100 feet long, with a wide patio at each site. A nice lawn surrounds the pads, and they allow guests to wash their RV’s and cars, so we were able to get the coach and the car reasonably clean in a day. We made several shopping trips into Spokane during the week, but we spent most of our time enjoying the park.

After a week in Deer Park, we packed up and followed Alice and Skeet to O’Sullivan RV Resort just south of Moses Lake, WA, about 125 miles from Deer Park. Their friends headed back to their home in Salem, OR. We spent four nights in Moses Lake with Alice and Skeet, and we were joined for the weekend by Debbie’s Aunt Ann, also from Silver Creek, and her son, John and his wife, Lory from Post Falls, Idaho. Their adult kids, Jennifer and John also joined us for the weekend, so it was a real family reunion. We haven’t seen any of them for at least five years, so we had a really good time visiting with all of them.

On Sunday morning, September 14th, we left the family still having fun at O’Sullivan, and headed south through Bend, OR to La Pine State Park, just south of Sunriver, OR. Our Holiday Rambler RV Chapter had held their first campout of the fall in Red Bluff the previous week, and a number of them continued north to La Pine for a week of camping. Our fellow Alaskan travelers were there when we arrived, so we had a great time catching up with them and all of our other camping friends.

A number of the ladies went to Sisters, a small touristy town about an hour north of La Pine one day, while several of the guys spent some time at a fish hatchery near La Pine. One evening we had a excellent potluck dinner to which everyone brought their own meat to grill and a side dish to share. Good food and fun!

On Wednesday, about seven motorhomes from our group packed up and headed for Salem, OR and an annual rally for diesel motorhomes. Tom is on the Board of Directors for this chapter which specializes in technical seminars on diesel-powered motorhomes. A number of our other RVing friends will be at this rally and another one, sponsored by our motorhome manufacturer, Monaco Corp. which will follow the diesel pusher rally.

We’ll have more to tell you soon.

The Lower 48

It rained all day Thursday in Vancouver, limiting our activities somewhat. We did make a trip to the grocery store and fruit/vegetable stand, as well as celebrating our last day in Canada with an excellent dinner at The Keg Restaurant.

Friday morning saw us heading east and south to the US Border crossing at Aldergrove. After satisfying the US Customs Service that we were neither terrorists nor wetbacks, we traveled to Lynden, WA, about 5 miles south of the border. Lynden was founded as a Dutch community, and many unusual rules established by the founders are still in effect. For example, no business can be conducted on Sunday, not even mowing the lawn or hanging out the laundry. Also, no dancing is allowed, except for the traditional Dutch clogging. Surprisingly, there is a liquor store next to the post office, but we’re told that the State requires it because of the size of the town (12,000). We walked the downtown and had a very good ‘comfort food’ dinner at Dutch Mothers.

Saturday morning we packed up and traveled about 15 miles west, to a farm where we met our friends, Pam and Karl. They spend several months each year at Karl’s Aunt Myrne’s farm, cleaning, repairing, mowing and other farm chores for his 96 year-old aunt. They took time off to show us around the area, including the Peace Arch Park at the Canadian border in Blaine, WA. The border runs right through the large arch, and there is a beautiful park on both sides of the border. In this area, a ‘secure border’ is a joke, since there is a community of homes on the Canadian side with no physical restriction to an adjacent park on the US side. We just walked across and back. Hmmm!


They also took us to Bellingham for lunch, then back that evening for dinner. Sometimes it seems like all we do is eat! The next day we picked a large bucket of wild blackberries on the farm and quickly froze them for cobblers & stuff at a later time. We’ve motorhomed with Pam and Karl, and also cruised with them. We last visited them at their new home near Albuquerque last fall and it was great to get together again.

On Labor Day we packed up and headed back to the Seattle area. We stayed at Lake Pleasant RV Park in Bothell, just north of Seattle. We’d stayed there for three days on the way north in May. Friends from Santa Rosa, Ron & Sue, came by just after we’d arrived and traveled with us (or more appropriately, we traveled with them) to Seven Cedars (Indian) Casino in Sequim, on the Olympic Peninsula. Longtime friends, Mike and Carol, were playing in a band at the casino that afternoon, and we thoroughly enjoyed their music, as did a large contingent of other folks who obviously love to dance to a live band. Their music covered the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s and was great to listen and dance to. The band’s schedule didn’t allow much time for visiting, so we’ll come back one of these days to catch up with Mike and Carol.

Monday morning we drove over to Ron & Sue’s new home in Sammamish, a suburb just east of Seattle. After Ron retired from the City of Santa Rosa, they decided to move closer to their two daughters and their families who live in the Sammamish area. They also motorhome, so now that school is back in session, they’re about to head for their other home in Indiana so they can spend time with Sue’s mother and catch up on the second home’s chores. They’ll leave their motorhome in New Mexico and return to spend time in that area when winter arrives in Washington. Tom and Ron worked together at the City, so we really had a good time catching up with them. We had lunch at the beautiful Newcastle Golf Club near their home.
We then went to Snoqualmie Falls, a gorgeous spot that Tom had visited about 45 years ago, but that Debbie has never seen. There are two power plants at the falls, one built in 1898, and the other in 1910. Snoqualmie River drops 270 feet, 100 feet higher than Niagara. We finished the day with dinner at a Japanese restaurant and enjoyed some sushi as we usually do when dining with Ron and Sue.

From Seattle, we headed to Deer Park, WA, near Spokane where we’ll spend about 10 days with Debbie’s Aunt Alice and Uncle Charles, AKA Skeet. We’ll tell you about our adventures with them the next time.

Around and About Vancouver

It’s Thursday, we’re still in Vancouver, and it’s still raining!! Actually, the days have been OK, except for Sunday, but we’ve had rain almost every night.

Monday we headed for Whistler Mountain, BC’s prime ski area and the venue for the alpine events during the Winter Olympics in 2010. It’s about 60 miles north of Vancouver, and at an elevation of almost 9,000 feet, it gets lots of snow. The village is a lot like Squaw Valley or Mammoth with about 10,000 year-round residents. Almost the entire length of road between Whistler and Horseshoe Bay just north of Vancouver is being widened and straightened for the Olympics. The signs say it’s a $600 million project, but it looks more expensive than that to us.

While at Whistler, supposedly named for whistling marmots in the surrounding area, we wandered about town, had a nice lunch, and found a brewpub to wait in while the ladies shopped. There’s a tremendous amount of construction in and around the village, too, all geared toward the Olympics.

Returning from Whistler, we stopped at Shannon Falls, which plunge 1,100 feet and are the third largest falls in BC. A short walk brought us to a viewpoint with a terrific view of the falls.

After a rainy Monday night, the day dawned mostly clear and sunny, so we packed up our bikes and drove across the Lions Gate Bridge to Stanley Park where we rode the 7 km seawall trail completely around the park. It was a fun ride. From there, we drove to Granville Island and its huge public market. We had lunch in a nice restaurant and then spent a couple of hours checking out the stalls and shops in the market. We headed back to the RV Park in commute traffic, but it wasn’t too bad. It sort of reminded us that we’re headed back to areas with too many cars, very different than what we’ve seen in the past three months or so.

On Wednesday we headed back into downtown Vancouver to see Chinatown, the 3rd largest in North America, after San Francisco and New York City. The markets are filled with stuff that we’ve seldom seen, and the smells are different, too. We had a nice lunch and visited the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. From there we walked to Gastown, the historic commercial district in Vancouver. While no longer the commercial center of town, it’s filled with interesting shops and restaurants, and it's also the home of an antique steam-powered clock.
What we didn’t realize, though, was that between Chinatown and Gastown is a run-down area full of the homeless. It was depressing and a little scary walking through that area, so on our way back to the car, we detoured way around it.

Wednesday night was rainy again, but we cooked Thursday morning breakfast on the outdoor stove under the awning. It wasn’t cold, just wet, so everything worked out just fine. We had all sorts of ideas for sightseeing in the Vancouver area on Thursday, but it didn't stop raining all day, so aside from a trip to the grocery store, we just watched it rain.

It's now Friday, and we're back in the USA again. LaVan and Louise have headed out on their own, since they've got a small fuel tank leak and they want to get to the Monaco repair facility in Harrisburg, OR on Tuesday to get it repaired. We, along with Bob and Diane were able to get our motorhomes road-ready and the cars hooked up before it began to rain again. We left Vancouver mid-morning for a 50 mile trip back into the states. We crossed the border at Aldergrove, BC, which took most of an hour because of border-crossing traffic. We're now in Lynden, WA, a beautiful little town with a strong Dutch influence. It's been raining here, too, but right now the sun is peeking through the clouds. We'll spend the night here, then travel a few miles to Ferndale to visit with our friends, Karl and Pam for a couple of days before moving on. We've got lots more visiting to do in Washington, so we won't leave the state until mid-September.

That's it for now. Have a great Labor Day weekend. There'll be more of our adventure in a few days.

To Vancouver

We left Vanderhoof on Thursday morning for the short trip to Prince George. First on the agenda in PG was a stop at Costco for groceries and supplies. Of course, Costco doesn’t stock everything, so stop #2 was a large grocery store called, “The REAL Canadian Superstore”. It was a very large store, and the ladies were able to fill their needs. The next stop was for fuel, and we stopped at a Shell station that is affiliated with Flying J, a large truck stop chain in the US. That’s important, ‘cause by showing our Flying J cards, we got a 3¢ per liter discount, or $1.299 per liter. The conversion resulted in an equivalent price of $4.91 per gallon, the first time we’ve paid less than $5 per gallon since mid-July.

Once leaving Prince George, we headed south to Quesnel for the night. We stayed near here on the way north and visited Barkerville while we stayed in the area. This time we spent the night at Robert’s Roost RV Park. It’s on the shore of a pretty lake, (Dragon Lake) and as usual, we had lakefront sites. Lots of ducks and geese were on the lake, but, WATCH YOUR STEP! There was goose poop all over the lawn.

Friday was our longest travel day in a long while. If you’ve followed this blog, you know that we don’t often spend more than 4 or 5 hours traveling per day. This day, however, was the exception; 275 miles from Quesnel to Boston Bar. And of course, this was the day that Debbie decided she wanted to drive. It was not a difficult drive, but by the time we reached camp, she decided she was really tired! We stayed in the same campground as on the way north, exactly three months earlier.

Saturday was a short travel day; only about three hours to Vancouver. We stopped along the way for a couple of hours at Minter Gardens, a 32 acre garden similar to the more well-known Butchart Gardens in Victoria. It was a blaze of color and we enjoyed our stop. Before leaving we grabbed a bite to eat in their café; very good.

We arrived in Vancouver mid-afternoon, and after settling in our RV Park which is right next to Lions Gate Bridge and across the inlet from downtown. LaVan took his car and explored possible dinner alternatives, since the gals had said, in no uncertain terms, that they were on strike and weren’t gonna cook! He found a really good restaurant in the shopping mall nearby, and we enjoyed an excellent dinner.

Sunday brought rain and more rain. The ladies decided to explore the mall, and the guys used the wet ground to hide the fact that they washed some of the grime from the motorhomes since the park rules said, No Vehicle Washing! A bucket of water, a brush and let the rain do the rest was our game. It’s supposed to be better weather on Monday, so we’ll start seeing the sights then.

Until the next time, have a great day!

Grizzly!

Debbie & Diane were kayaking on Sunday afternoon toward the creek outlet of Meziadin Lake. They were heading into the outlet cove and a grizzly bear came charging out of the woods toward them, about 50 yards away! Almost peed their pants!! They paddled farther out into the lake, watching over their shoulders to make sure they weren’t being followed.

They turned around and headed back toward the outlet, while remaining farther out in the lake. Debbie was ahead of Diane and heard splashing; not sure if it was Diane paddling or the bear swimming. All of a sudden the bear appeared at the point of land just outside of the cove. They scrambled out of there with their hearts beating fast! It sure gave them something to talk about. Wouldn’t you know, neither one of them had a camera so we had to search on Google for this picture. They continued kayaking toward the other end of the lake for another hour, all the while thinking about that bear.

We left Meziadin Lake on Monday morning to complete the last leg of the Cassiar Highway. We stopped at the native village of Gitanyow where we spent time viewing a number of classic totem poles, many of them very old. After turning east on the Yellowhead Highway, we made another stop at Moricetown Canyon on the Bulkley River. The salmon were running and several natives were using dip nets to catch fish. It was fascinating to watch; we could have spent hours here.

We stopped for the day in Smithers (not Smothers, or Struthers), at the Riverside Golf and RV Resort. We had full hookups for the first time in a week, and we could watch the golfers on the course. The gals all headed into town to find a laundry; clean underwear was becoming a priority! We barbequed some of our Alaskan salmon for dinner, then settled in our motorhomes to watch a little of the Olympics on TV. It’s a little different for us, because since we’re traveling in Canada, there is no American emphasis in the coverage.

Tuesday our travels took us to Vanderhoof, BC for two nights. We’re camped at Dave’s RV Park about a mile east of town. We had some hard rain on the way, but we outran it, so it was fine by the time we reached the park. It was haircut time for the ladies, and for Tom as well, so we headed into town to find a haircutter. We found one who trimmed us all in short order. We noticed that the new Pixar film, Wall-E, was playing in town so we went back to town after dinner to watch the flick along with every kid under 12 years old in town. Enjoyed the film.

Wednesday morning we traveled about 40 miles north to the small community of Fort. St. James. This is the third time Tom has been here and the second for Debbie. In 1980 or thereabouts, Tom along with three friends, Bud, Bob & Doc, drove here and took a short ride on a float plane to Trembleur Lake, a short distance north. They stayed in a remote lodge on the lake and fished for four days or so before returning to Fort St. James and then home. The second trip was in 1988 when we, along with our good friends, Bob & Janie, took a ferry to Prince Rupert, traveled the Yellowhead Highway to Jasper Park, then to Calgary and home. We spent part of a day in Fort St. James, visiting the historic trading post and fort, established in 1806 by Simon Fraser.

In the twenty years since we’ve been here, they’ve added a very nice visitor center and an on-site café at which we enjoyed lunch. We walked through the well-restored buildings and learned about life in the 1800’s from several costumed docents. We also saw a moose hide being cured under the watchful eye of a native elder woman. It was a very interesting time.

Tomorrow we’ll head to Prince George, only about an hour away, to reprovision at Costco before turning south toward Vancouver. We’ll spend a couple of nights enroute, arriving in Vancouver on Saturday.

You’ll hear more from us then, if not before.

Stewart & Hyder

Well, we’re still at Meziadin Lake Provincial Park. It’s Saturday evening, and we’ve had probably the nicest, warmest day in a couple of months. While we haven’t had unlimited sunshine, we’ve enjoyed temperatures in the 70’s today. The weather man is predicting a 60% chance of showers tomorrow, so we have really relished this day.

Yesterday, we traveled to Stewart, BC and its neighboring town, Hyder, AK. It’s about a 40 mile drive from Meziadin Lake through a couple of glacier-formed canyons, surrounded by tall mountains and glaciers; an incredibly scenic journey. We stopped at Bear Glacier which almost came down to the highway, and also took pictures of a number of spectacular waterfalls that, as far as we know, are unnamed.

Stewart is a town of about 700 people at the head of the Portland Canal which is ice-free the year around. About 3 miles past Stewart, we crossed the US/Canada border once again and found ourselves in Hyder, AK. Hyder is just barely a town, with most buildings either vacant, for sale, or both. There is a US Forest Service station, and of course, a Post Office, but not much else except for a tiny general store. However, about four miles past Hyder on a typical Forest Service road, which means it’s mostly pot holes, is Fish Creek Bear Viewing Area. It is run by the Forest Service, which means that there’s a fee for viewing, unless you’re old enough to have a “Golden Age Passport”. Of course, Tom qualifies!!

Fish Creek is a salmon spawning stream which draws many bears when the salmon are running. The Forest Service has built a walkway and viewing platform so that people can observe and photograph the bears without endangering themselves.
Many people spend hours at a time waiting for a bear or two to decide it’s dinner time. We got there about 1 PM, and there were about 50 folks sitting around with their expensive digital cameras with long lenses just waiting for a bear to appear. There had been one seen at 6:45 AM, and all these folks were just sure that another one would appear at any moment. After about an hour of these moments, we decided that seeing a bear was not such a big deal, so we left, passed back through Hyder, stopped at Canadian Customs once more, answered the same questions again, and then proceeded back into Stewart for lunch.

We returned to camp and decided against dinner, since we’d had a large late lunch. Then about 8 PM, we had an ice cream craving, so we opened the freezer and each had a Dove Bar. Motorhome travel is sure great! Late last night we were awakened by a bright glow in the sky. It was the full moon; the first time we’ve seen the moon in a long time.


After a big breakfast this morning, we took a drive to a nearby fish ladder to watch the salmon, but the ladder itself was all fenced in, so all we really saw was the fish diversion dam and the top of the ladder. Local (First Nation) natives have camps set up by the river and were dip-netting the salmon, which they are allowed to do in BC as well as in Alaska.

The rest of the day was spent resting, reading, sunning, and for the guys, a kayak trip around part of the lake. We’re planning on spending one more day at Meziadin Lake, unless it’s raining on Sunday morning. If it is, we’ll head down the road a hundred miles or so to the Yellowhead Highway which begins at Prince Rupert, and is a major cross-Canada route. We’ll work our way back to Prince George in a few days, then head south toward Vancouver.

We should have periodic internet connections from here on, so we expect to keep you up-to-date more regularly.

‘Till the next time, take care.

The Cassiar Highway through BC

Saturday morning was the end of our Alaska adventure (almost). We left Skagway and headed back up White Pass into Canada. It was as foggy on the way out as it was on the way in, a week earlier. Less than 100 foot visibility and sheer drop-offs on one side or the other. Maybe it’s just as well we couldn’t see; it might have made us even more nervous. Anyway, we got back through Canadian customs, and this time, we were ready for them. When asked about alcoholic beverages, we told them we had lots, but that we’d purchased it all in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. This made them happy, ‘cause they didn’t ask any more questions, like about fruit, vegetables or pets.

We spent a night outside the town of Teslin, YT, in an RV Park called Dawson Peaks. The park and its owners were featured as characters in Sue Henry’s novel, ‘Dead North’ a few years ago. It is a nice park and we had a good dinner in their little restaurant. The next day we headed east on the Alaska Highway almost to Watson Lake, then turned south on the Cassiar Highway. The Cassiar is the 500 mile western route through northern British Columbia to and from Alaska. It is much less traveled than the Alaska Highway, and the scenery is spectacular! The problem is that it doesn’t get the same level of maintenance as the Alaska Highway, so it’s in much worse condition; at least the first 40 miles or so. Pot holes, gravel and mud make up most of the northern section of the highway.

We stopped at a BC Provincial Park, Boya Lake, for three nights. We enjoyed warm sunshine for two of those days, and great kayaking. Then on the last day, our rain returned, dampening everything but our spirits. Boya Lake was, in our opinion, the most beautiful park we’ve seen yet. It is a large lake with numerous wooded islands on it. There is beaver activity everywhere, and while we didn’t actually see a beaver, their handiwork was very evident.

We traveled another 170 miles to another BC Park, Kinaskan Lake. We had campsites right at the water’s edge as we have had in most parks, but it rained at Kinaskan, too, so we didn’t do much except sit around a campfire.
We stayed in a few BC Parks on the way to Alaska, and they are all really nice! No hookups, but large campsites with beautiful scenery. Most of them are at lakes with boating and fishing, so there is activity around.

On Thursday, we hopped another 130 miles to Meziadin Lake Provincial Park for a few days stay. It’s right at the junction of the Cassiar and the Stewart/Hyder highways. It’s about 60 miles from here to Stewart, BC, and its neighboring town, Hyder, Alaska (Really our last stop in Alaska!) We plan to travel in our cars to the two towns on Friday or Saturday before heading on down the road. Meanwhile, we’re at another beautiful lake, and this afternoon, LaVan went trolling in his kayak and caught a 2 to 3 pound grayling, which is a relative to a trout. There are also kokanee salmon in the lake, heading upstream to spawn. We understand the salmon spawn has drawn a number of bears to the area to feed. There were some in camp last night, so maybe we’ll see them while we’re here.

We’ll tell you all about Stewart and Hyder in a day or so. Meanwhile, we send our best to you all.

Skagway & Haines

Well, one thing is for sure; Skagway is the cruise ship capital of Alaska. When we arrived on Sunday, there were two ships docked in town. OK, that’s not bad. Then on Monday, there were four.Tuesday brought five, as did Wednesday and Thursday. Finally on Friday, only one showed up, and the town of 1,600 summer population seemed deserted with only 2,000 visitors on the streets and in the shops. We’ve tried to stay out of the way of the cruise ship passengers, and by visiting the shops early and late seems to work pretty well.

We’re camped on the edge of a downtown RV park, right in front of the small boat harbor which means activity throughout the day. The town, founded in 1897, has many historic buildings, which has resulted in the formation of a National Historic Park under the protection of the National Park Service. One of the most interesting buildings is the “Arctic Brotherhood” building, a short-lived fraternal organization.
The front of the building is entirely covered by tree branches which have to be replaced every 20 years or so. We had drinks and pizza in another historic building, the Red Onion Saloon, which was one of the notorious brothels during gold rush times.


We traveled by car about 12 miles to the Chilcoot trailhead and the town site of Dyea at the base of the trail. Most of the gold seekers traveled the Chilcoot trail until the completion of the railroad over White Pass in 1898. Dyea had a population of 8,000 for about two years, but soon dwindled to nothing. The wilderness has taken over the town site, with few remaining relics of the many buildings in town.

Back in Skagway, we crossed a creek between our campsites and town. A king salmon run is occurring now, and the local hatchery has placed a weir in the creek to capture the returning fish so that they can gather and fertilize the eggs. It’s quite a sight, and it has drawn many viewers.


On Wednesday we all boarded a ferry to Haines to visit our old friends, Al and Carol, who live in a lovely home overlooking the Lynn Canal. They took us to a wonderful exhibit about eagles and other wildlife found in the area. Then, after lunch, they took us up the Chilcoot River, looking for eagles and bear. Eagles - yes, bear – no. Oh well, it is a beautiful area. Bob, Diane, LaVan and Louise caught an evening ferry back to Skagway while Debbie and Tom stayed with Al and Carol until Thursday evening.

After dinner we went back out to the Chilcoot River and saw a grizzly bear. It was about three years old, and was trying to catch a salmon dinner in the river. Actually, it was trying to get out on the fish-counting weir, but the guy counting the fish kept banging a big stick to discourage the bear from climbing on the weir. Finally the bear gave up and went into the river to try his luck. It was the closest we’ve come to a bear in our trip, so far.

Thursday morning was our time, with Al and Carol’s encouragement, to do a couple of loads of laundry and get caught up with the internet. Following that, we took another ride, this time up the Chilcat River to hopefully see some eagles. That trip, while beautiful, produced slim results; only a couple of eagles in an area where hundreds and even thousands congregate at certain times of the year.

Friday dawned with fog and rain in Skagway. We had plans for a number of activities, and for a while we thought all plans would be scratched, but the rain quit before noon, so we went out of town a couple of miles to Jewell Gardens,
a gorgeous garden with a lovely restaurant and a glassblowing studio. We got great pictures which you can see by clicking on our newest Web Album, “Heading Home”.

We leave Skagway on Saturday morning, and we’ll be heading back through Canada for a couple of weeks. We probably won’t have much cell phone or internet coverage available, but we’ll continue to write to the blog and will publish our travel adventures whenever we can.

‘Til the next time, take care.

Whitehorse to Skagway

This stay in Whitehorse was less about laundry and more about seeing the sights, although our towed car acted up by bucking and snorting on a couple of trips to town. Tom found the local Honda dealer and made arrangements to have a mechanic take a ride to see if the cause could be determined. Ha! During the drive back to the dealer, the car ran just fine, and it's been OK since. Of Course!! Minor RV repairs resulted in a couple of trips to the hardware store. Oh yes, and to the liquor store, as well. Whenever we stop at Canadian Customs, they ask a lot of questions about how much alcohol we're carrying. Their allowable limit is very tight, and we've been over it each time. That hasn't resulted in fines or confiscation, but they're clearly unhappy with us. So, our supply now consists almost entirely of Canadian-purchased beer, wine and liquor. We were about out anyway, so this was a good time to stock up. Oh yeah, the sun came out while we were here. Hooray!!

We took a drive out to Miles Canyon and the White Horse Rapids on the Yukon River. During the Klondike gold rush, so many goldseekers wrecked their boats in that stretch of the river that the Northwest Mounted Police required each boat to have an experienced pilot for the short trip through the canyon.
In 1959, the local power company built a dam on the Yukon which raised the water level and eliminated all but a trace of the rapids. There's a pedestrian bridge across Miles Canyon and hiking trails on the other side. The lake formed by the power dam is heavily used by float planes during the summer.


On returning to town, we stopped at the 210 foot historic stern-wheel steamer, Klondike, which traveled between Whitehorse and Dawson City from 1937 to 1956. It replaced an identical ship which sank in the Yukon River in 1936. The engines and machinery were salvaged and placed in the new ship. It has been totally restored and sits on the bank of the river.


We also stopped by the local airport to see the most unusual weathervane imaginable - a restored DC-3 which had crashed on landing at Whitehorse in the 1970's. It was mounted on a pedestal to swivel in the wind in 1981.

On Saturday afternoon, the gals realized that there were apparently no laundry facilities at our next stop in Skagway, and they couldn't get information on a laundromat, either. So, they scurried over to the laundry room at the RV Park and got everything washed and dried.

On leaving Whitehorse, we followed the route of the White Pass and Yukon Railroad to Skagway. It was built in 1898 to transport goldseekers on their way to the Klondike gold rush and operated until 1982, when economic conditions forced it to shut down. It reopened in 1988 as strictly a tourist operation. The section from Whitehorse to Carcross has not been restored, but the railroad offers tourists several itineraries out of Skagway.
We stopped for photos at Robinson Station, built as a flag station for the railroad in 1900. Rumors of gold in the area brought a number of settlers, but the gold never materialized, so the community soon vanished. All that is left are several log buildings in various stages of decay.



We stopped again at the Carcross Desert which was once the bottom of a glacial lake. Wind in the area formed sand dunes which made it difficult to establish plant life.

Then we headed into the town of Carcross which is the present terminus of the railroad. Carcross stands at the downstream end of Bennett Lake which was the beginning of boat travel down the Yukon River to Dawson and the gold strike. There are several interesting old buildings in town that continue to serve the tourist trade.

From there we traveled through a sliver of British Columbia before reaching the Alaskan border again. The U.S. Customs Agent at the border was the nicest and friendliest we've ever encountered. Once back in Alaska, we crossed the summit of White Pass in a dense fog, (scary!) and descended into Skagway where we'll stay for about a week.

You'll hear about Skagway in the next update.