The Meandering Melanders

This post covers the trip from Watson Lake to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. Distance was 272 miles; we made one overnight stop and spent four days in Whitehorse.

Spectacular mountains and Rancheria Falls were rather neat!!

During this leg of our trip we crossed the Continental Divide.

We spent the night in Teslin in order to avail ourselves of the famous Mukluk Annie’s Salmon Bake and of the free camping and RV wash she offers for people partaking of the salmon bake.

We toured Teslin Lake in this boat. Went way out in this small boat with 14 or so people and rather choppy water.

This lake, as others we saw, has a multitude of seagulls.

Road and bridge maintenance and repair are a major feat in the Spring and early Summer. Lots of damage due to weather and temperatures. Up here -40 C is not uncommon. This bridge had one lane closed and the open one was just a bit narrow.

It would seem that cinnamon rolls are a special commodity up here, many places claim to have the best in the Yukon. The locals all seem to have their favorites. This was a good place we found.

This dam is one of three which were and still are used to build up water levels in order to surge the water out and cause the breakup of the ice in the Spring.

Coming into Whitehorse we saw lots of ice on the lake and we saw the sternwheeler Klondike. We toured her.

This is the boiler. The fireman put one of these logs into the firebox every minute. Heavy, probably 4 foot long logs. The ship burned like one cord of wood every hour.

The cargo carried on the sternwheelers was about anything from gasoline, food, furniture, and anything that one would find in any type of store.

Among the cargo items was the second class sleeping accomodations. Only men slept down here, the women were crowded into cabins.

First Class facilities.

The huge paddle wheel.

This is the largest weathervane in the world; it is an actual DC-3.

The MacBride Museum gives a good insight into the area. It has some wonderful taxidermy.

Now is the time to talk about a great poem, written by Robert Service. The title is “The Cremation of Sam McGee” . A recitation of the poem can be found on YouTube. The text is at http://www.articwebsite.com/ServiceCremation.html . (As you can see, I can’t get the link feature to work.)

This is the log cabin of Sam McGee but actually belonged to the man who’s name Service borrowed for the poem.

A Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Mounty) uniform.

A bit of countryside.

The Transportation Museum. At this site the U.S. Army transfered maintenace responsibilities for the Alaska Highway to the Canadian Government.

A racing dogsled. The Yukon Quest is held annually and runs between Whitehorse and Fairbanks, 1,000 Kilometers. People here claim it is more demanding than the famed Iditorad.

A presentation on the Chilkoot Trail. Every miner or other person coming to the Yukon had to debark from their ship and climb this mountain on their way to the gold country, the Klondike.

There are flowers in the Spring.

A statue dedicated to the prospectors (and their dogs).

Since Whitehorse is the largest city in the Yukon, with 2/3 of the total population, we decided there must be some geocaches, so spent part of a day finding three caches. Also in Whitehorse we went to the Frantic Follies, a show similar to those put on in the saloons in the olden days.

We hope you enjoyed this installment. More to come!!