Catching up...

In the next couple installments, I’ll try to catch you up on our travels since leaving Haines. So, for those of you planning on soldiering through the whole thing, no need for ambien tonight!

When we headed back up towards Haines Junction, the weather had indeed improved from our trip down, though we still had some fog to contend with. All things considered, if you’re planning a trip down the highway and have the time, this isn’t a bad side trip to take (albeit a 300 mile, round trip jaunt). The roads are in excellent condition, and Haines is an interesting, if small town. As far as Southeast towns go, this one doesn’t seem to have been as significantly affected by the cruise ships it does get (although they only get a fraction of the ships compared to some of the Inside Passage towns). The same cannot be said for Skagway, but more on that later.

Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, was our next stop. This is the seat of government for the territory, and as such accounts for more than half of the entire region’s population with a whole 24,000 people. Like Anchorage, because it is the economic and resource center for it’s region, it has perhaps more infrastructure than would be the case in a lower-48 city/town of similar size. There are a couple of cross streets which seem to cater to the tourists, but there is a very nice riverside park area with bike paths, a kid’s water fountain for the hot weather, and the occasional beached stern-wheeler from the riverboat days (OK, only one, but it’s not everyday you turn the corner in the bike path and are faced with a 210 foot long steamboat sitting high and dry). The Klondike II (the first one was destroyed when it ran into a sandbar) was capable of moving 300 tons with a draft of only 4’. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me on our walk, so I can’t give you a sense of it’s size, but it’s flat amazing that such a large vessel would have only a one foot draft when empty. It’s pretty interesting to look out over the Yukon River and picture all the commerce and river traffic during the steamboat and gold prospecting heydays.

The northern terminus White Pass and Yukon Route small gauge railroad used to be here, but the train now only functions as a tourist ride to the summit out of Skagway, though they do combo tours where bus service will get you the rest of the way. These days, Whitehorse has a reasonable shopping area if you need to restock on supplies, and even has an RV-friendly Walmart. Of course, Whitehorse has those critical establishments such as McDonald’s, KFC, and a Boston Pizza (apparently, removing the “‘s” takes an American establishment and renders it Canadian…). However, that most critical of businesses, the microbrewery, is well served by the Yukon Brewing Company. I have to say that all this remoteness allows these guys to spend a lot of time perfecting their recipes, and the local population doesn’t seem to take it for granted. While we were there, there was a steady stream of locals filling their growlers for the weekend, and apparently, for the Friday afternoon at work, based upon some of the conversations (clearly, the Canadians subscribe more to the European mentality when it comes to alcohol). In any event, if your driving through and have ANY proclivity towards a good brew, it’s a must stop.

Our next side trip was down to Skagway, which everyone told us was a very picturesque drive, and a “can’t miss.” Well I’m sure it is, but the drive down from White Summit was just that- white. We were enshrouded in fog with less than 50 yards visibility most of the way down, so we had no real sense of the hundred plus foot drop-off on the other side of the guardrails, which I suspect, Laura didn’t mind at all. Just prior to the 10.5 mile steep downhill from the summit (Which the Whale handled surprisingly well) is the summit area surrounding Fraser. With it’s mountain tarns, stunted black spruce and it’s lichen covered rock and boulder strewn “moonscape,” this area was downright spooky in the fog.

Laura’s starting to give me dirty looks, as we need to hit the road, so I guess we’ll leave this as “to be continued…”