Raven Motel Haines Junction

... and off!!

It was indeed fast and slippery, and being warmish, about minus5 I had less clothes on, (but still respectfully clad ) so was able to move in a lithe and quite delicious manner.
I was King Tim Sami Superhero. In truth I suppose I got a bit carried away with myself.......I got ahead of Jeff, which doesn'thappen often, still, I was King Tim, Sami Superstar.......
and then I wasn't

Over I went, flying like the ...

... we recognise a few shops by the colour of the building. There seems to be at least 5 "Marks Workwear " stores and 6 "Yukon Inns" every corner has one....until you realise it's the same corner again.
We never arrive at the hotell by the same route and it is always a surprise when it hoves in sight!! normally on the opposite side to expected.
Anyway...there is an outdoor kit shop on the corner of the main St. it is called Coast ...

... It is a glacial fed turquoise blue lake nearly 400 feet deep.

Our next stop was the trailhead for Lake St. Elias. This trail is 2.4 miles each way with some strenuous hills. Overall, it has an elevation gain of 400 feet. The trail is well maintained and looks like an ATV road without the ruts. There was a steady drizzle most of the day, so we wore rain pants and shells. We started out with fleece and heavy ...

... stamps from sites in Whitehorse, Dawson City, Watson Lake, etc). That earned us each a Yukon pin and an entry into a drawing for two troy ounces of placer gold.

We arrived at the airport at 11:00 for our 11:30 scheduled departure, but they were running kind of late. We went back to the coach for lunch and returned about 12:15. We finally took off around 1:00 pm.

The flight was definitely worth the ...

... match the earlier one on the left. We will try to meet up with our friend George, the glass repair man, in Whitehorse. Our clean car was already filthy.

We stopped at the Kluane Sheep Mountain Visitor Center along beautiful Kluane Lake. This is the largest lake in the Yukon. It is a beautiful shade of blue. Many years ago this lake drained south into the Gulf of Alaska through Slims River. A major glacial surge caused a moraine that blocked the river ...

... like the Yukon, thevistas are so great you can see many many miles. We knew when we were going to get wet because we would ride in to most of the down-pours and see the next one or two episodes of rain to come. Southern Alaska drizzle is easy to manage but this Yukon rain was frequent and heavy. So coupled with the bad roads and the limited visibility afforded by the rain, the ride to Haines Junction was serious. Imagine ...

... 48 (I can say that now) but pricier. The weak US dollar sucks. Exchange rate is about even but many Canadians charge 10% to convert. They sure are nice about it though:) We put the hammer down for the last 90 miles between Whitehorse and Haines Junction. Arrived around 1800, got a room at the Cozy Corner with a view of the Eliason Range. We could sense Alaska was near!

... of the best mountain scenes of the trip with the Kluane Mountains looking at you in the face. No, I have not heard of this mountain range before but it turns out they are the 2nd highest range in North America after the one in Alaska that has Mt. McKinley. Of course you could only see the front range of the mountains which only shot up almost 10,000 feet. You feel very small next to these. We stayed for the night at Kluane RV park in Haines ...

... XXXXX My missed Sunday Session and catched up at Whitehorse wasn't that successful as originally planned: I didn't travel, didn't go sightseeing and wasn't in the Internet. But I had to change the back tire, the motorcycle was checked and serviced, have done some writings and was looking around for a solution, to repair my broken tent sticks. That's the way my recreational breaks are today! My trip was continued on the ...

... Tetlin Junction. There was also the added rationalization that I would go to Dawson City someday to drive the Dempster Highway to Inuvik. (in view of later developments that may be unlikely) However, if I had to do it over again, I would opt to drive the "Top of the World" route. Having said all that, I now continued heading west on the Alaska Highway with the next major destination being Haines Junction. At this point the Alaska Highway is still in ...