Canada Day 4th of July Tankini River
Trip Start
May 24, 2008
1
4
12
Trip End
Jun 2009
Whitehorse,
Yukon,
Canada
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Canada Day was a rainy affair but Dawson put on the parade complete with EMS,Fire, Police Red Serge Mounties, Diamond Tooth Gerties float and a bunch of kids on bikes throwing candies..Not unlike Canmore or Snow lake's CD parades.
We ended up at Kathy Webster's house for a BBQ. Kathy a retired teacher,is the Dawson coordinator for the Yukon River Quest. I really was great to sit in her living room by a wood stove and hear what life is like in Dawson.
The next AM we set of over the Top of the World Highway for Alaska. This hwy is to most northerly road connecting Canada with USA. The road winds along the top of mtn ridge tops for 60km in Canada to the border. Very spectacular views in that instead of looking up at mtns you are looking down into valleys from the top. At the border the road goes from fair to poor and the next 60km to Chicken AK is terrible.
Gravel with huge potholes 30kph top speed caused our poor camper to vibrate over the road.
We ended up in Chicken AK for lunch as does almost everyone who travels this road. The name chicken is because they couldn't figure out how to spell ptarmigan so the story goes.
From there we traveled on to Tok (sounds like poke) AK. We stayed in a State park which was a relief from the RV park we stayed in Dawson. Quieter and way more room.
We headed down to Valdez on the coast. We didn't really plan this part but the drive down to the coast was worth it.
Bridal Veil Falls Keystone Canyon
The Richardson Highway is the oldest in AK. It's 384m from Valdez to Fairbanks. It began as a pack route for the goldrush back in the 1890's. The highway passes by the truly spectacular Chugach and Wrangell-St Elias mtns! Along the way, the salmon are running in this area so every salmon stream had a bunch of people fishing at the bridges.Valdez is a true fishing/coastal/mtn town. 1964 saw it wiped off the map by a Tsunami after an earthquake just up the coast. The town has been rebuilt on bedrock not much higher than before but the original site was on gravel so it vibrated and sank into the ground during the quake.
The Pinks were running and most folks couldn't believe we weren't there to fish. The conversation would start with: "Where you from?, Been fishin'?", " No", "Oh,.....have a nice day"
The mtns come right down to the ocean all around and there still is a ton of snow up high. The Worthington Glacier in Thompson Pass, is just above Valdez and comes down close to the highway. Up we saw lots of fresh ski tracks on the sides. This area has recorded up to 5' of snow in a 24h period.
We sent a couple of days in Valdez. Cheryl took a boat cruise out onto Prince William Sound while I dog sat. The tour took her out to the Meares Glaciers and Columbia Glaciers. Both the glaciers calve off into the ocean. She got to see growlers (chucks of ice) floating along with sea otters, sea lions, seals, humpback whales and dolphins. It was the first day of commercial fishing for Pink Salmon, so the bays were full of fishing boats pulling in nets.
As it was the 4th of July Independence Day I went downtown and watched the parade.
Cheryl and Margie
Not much different from what we're used to. Police, Fire, EMS boy scouts, kids on bikes, throwing candy just a little longer than the Dawson parade. The biggest difference is the fireworks. Just about everyone seemed to have some sort of explosive devices. The biggest problem is that even at 11:00 pm it's not dark. The town's display had lots of percussion type works. Big bangs, but a lot of the beauty was lost due to the daylight. The echoes off the mtns were something though.
We made our way back towards YT and ended up in Beaver Creek. The weather had turned so we decided to head for Whitehorse. We drove by Kluane Nat Park in the rain and will have to save it for another trip. The roads along here were in rough shape as the permafrost beats them up. Because the traffic NW of Whitehorse is 85% American going to AK, the US Gov't has pledged $265Million to help with the work. There is lots of construction to upgrade the roadbed so we sent a lot of time waiting for pilot cars to get us through.
We are now back in Whitehorse, house sitting for friends waiting to move into our "home' on the 23rd. My driver's license arrived in the mail so Cheryl doesn't have to do all the driving. (there is a long version of this story about poor timing and bureaucratic BS). I think Cedar will like being in one spot for a while. I know we will.
We weren't back more than two hours and we had an invite to go paddling on the Takhini river with Dennis and Margie Peters (mutual friends of Jim and Michelle Wiebe).
Leaning smokestack of an old paddlewheeler
They were taking their three kids out to do some intro whitewater paddling. We headed out a day later to paddle the "rock garden" and the "Jaws of Death". We paddled for two days with them, doing eddy turns, front and back ferries and surfing waves. The Takhini, is very much like to Bow R. around Lake Louise a bit larger but the same sort of flow.
The water level was high so when we got to the aforementioned "Jaws of Death" the waves were bigger than Dennis had ever seen.
Nothing really dangerous but big standing waves and a right hand turn with the eddies at the bottom washed out. After looking closely, we lined down RR and went on our way. The flow has changed here in the last few years a new channel has appeared and the RR channel has most of the water. At lower levels this is a great play spot and being only 1h from Whitehorse, is a good spot to paddle.
We've done a bit of hiking trying to get our legs in shape to hike the Chilkoot Trail. We're aiming for mid August. We hiked up Grey Mountain which is right beside town yesterday. Cedar almost had a run in with a very large porcupine. Luckily I saw it just as she stuck her nose out to sniff this big pincushion.
We are slowly getting to know Whitehorse. There is a farmer's market on Thursdays and there is a daily vegetable and fruit stand downtown. I know where the Yukon Brewing Company store is J.
We've scoped out the vet's office and pet food store. I have to get a tree cutting permit so we can have firewood for the winter. Dennis Peters has offered to show me the good spots for wood.
