Yukon or Bust 2017

Dana and I will be home tomorrow.  Our Yukon (and other places) Adventure 2017 has been amazing.  5 weeks on the road and over 100 hours driving time, plus 72 hours of ferry travel on the Alaska Marine Highway system.  Too many highlights to mention but if you want to read about them start at the beginning of the blog.  No, actually I don't think the blog even includes all the highlights.  It would however be a great place to start. Old friends, new friends, family and fellow travellers.  Our adventure has been as much about people as it has about places.   Customs, cultures, trends and beliefs.  The Yukon is undergoing cultural, economic and societal change the result of years of planning and eventual implementation of a number of important land claim settlements between the Federal and First Nations governments.  The devolution of government functions, not just programs from the Federal government to Territorial and First Nations govern...

Just getting caught up on a few photo edits and can now share these photos with you.  As I may have mentioned the last few days have been a bit of a blur.  I tried to recall the scenery from yesterday and I thought my memory was getting hazy then I realized that it was just all the smoke we went through yesterday.  Ha!  Well, I don't have photos of the smoke but I do have a few of the places we visited since we left Smithers.  Enjoy! Dana beside the "Tintagel Centennial Monument".  "TINTAGEL, pop 209, was a railway and LOGGING settlement 12 km east of BURNS LAKE on the CNR. The first homesteaders arrived in about 1915. It was named after the castle in Cornwall where King Arthur was supposedly born; in 1967 Britain's Ministry of Works sent a 45-kg stone (centre stone in the monument) from the castle as a Canadian centennial gift to BC. It was installed here in a roadside cairn."  (Quote and info taken from Waymaking.com website) Sign at the ent...

July 10th.   Tonight we are back on the west coast.  The last couple of days have been interesting.  Not exactly as we had planned them, but in a way that is always kind of exciting.  Anyone who knows me, and especially if you have travelled with me know that I sometimes occasionally mostly  alright, always over plan.  This time around circumstances called for improvisation. Yesterday morning we set out from Smithers.  For some reason we failed to grasp the severity of the wildfire situation in the Caribou region of the province.  This region containing the highways that we had planned on taking on our southbound leg.  I could blame poor, in most cases non-existent, internet and cell coverage for our failure to appreciate our pending dilemma but I think that we were still in a kind of euphoric state having just spend 2 days floating down the southeast coast of Alaska.  "Wake up Dorothy.  You're not in Kansas anymore." When we ...

July 8: Greeting from the beautiful town of Smithers.  For us it is deja vu all over again.  Another Saturday night at the Municipal campground on the river.  Last time we were here we went hypothermic at night in our tent.  Although I mildly complained at the time, okay more like a Kiddel kind of whine, which is pretty serious, we would trade those conditions for what we are having tonight.  It is hot here and the mosquitoes seem to be having a bloody good time, at our expense.  Plus, it just started to rain.  We don't mind sleeping when it is raining.  What we hate is putting a wet tent away in the morning.  I see a motel in our future....  But I digress.... Yes, we are in Smithers.  I last posted in Haines, Alaska.  Seems a very long time ago.  Since then we spent 2 nights on the Alaska Marine Highway M/V Matanuska, and one night camping in Terrace.  Has it only been 3 nights since we left Haines?   Our fe...

July 4th, posted on the 5th....  (Canadians need to stop complaining about poor internet service) Haines, Alaska, population give or take 1,500.  The big story of the day, and it will be in all the newspapers today, is the 4th of July parade.  Having viewed the July 1st parade in Haines Junction, Yukon we were anxious to see what the good citizens of this small coastal Alaska town would come up with.  Well, they certainly did not disappoint us. The parade began at 11:00 with a bang, or make that boom as a canon was fired across town in Fort Seward.  A flock of pigeons were released or maybe they were just frightened from their perch by the booming canon. Weather conditions were less than ideal for a parade.  Light rain fell throughout.  Given the size of the crowds that lined Main Street I think the entire town turned out.  Everyone was in a party mode, especially the kids who were all carrying small sacks or containers.  I think the k...

July 3rd:  We are closing in on our stay in the Yukon.  This morning we rose early and were on the road around 7.  The first stop today was only a few kilometres down the road at the site of the Dezadeash Lodge.  The lodge was once a thriving business on the Haines Road offering good food, accommodations, gasoline, minor car service, fishing and hunting guides.  The owners, Heinz and Katie were real pioneers and treated everyone as family.  Our connection to the lodge is that Dana’s sister Val once worked in the restaurant.  This was when Dana and I lived at Pleasant Camp, Mile 42 on the Haines Road.   After enjoying those memories and also the view of Dezdeash Lake from the site of the old lodge we set off down the road in search of birds, animals and more memories.  At Kilometre 62 we turned off the highway and drove a couple of km to Klukshu Village.  The village is still inhabited and was once a First Nations traditional salmon fis...

July 2:  Can you believe it is July?  Half way through the year.  Glass half full or half empty?  What a crazy question.  I’ll take a full glass of beer over an empty one any day of the week.   After the Canada Day celebrations we had a great evening in our B&B.  Home cooking, a little wine, showers and a good night sleep.  After breakfast we loaded the 4Runner and headed 30k south on the Haines Road to the National Parks campground at Kathleen Lake.  The campground in actually about 1/2 km from the lake, up on a shelf that overlooks the lake.  At first we were mildly disappointed that we were not camping by the lake.  Any disappointment that we had quickly evaporated as we quickly realized that there were no mosquitos in the campground.  I mean “none”.  Nada.  Zilch!  How could this be?  No time to be analytical.  We just enjoyed it! As soon as we selected out site, there are about 30 in t...

July 1st:  Happy Canada Day!!!  I want to get this post done before I get scooped by other bloggers.  We just got back to our deluxe B&B (Kluane Green Sprout) here in Haines Junction.  This morning we visited the joint Yukon Information/Parks Canada/Da Ku Cultural Centre.  Amazing facility.  Make sure you put it on your list of places to stop next time you are here. Okay, the parade....  We were just leaving the aforementioned facility and found ourselves at the start of the Canada Day parade.  The Alaska Highway was completely shut down for this event causing significant delays for travellers.  The parade lasted about 25 minutes and in that time over 6 vehicles were unable to proceed on the Alaska Highway.  Police and volunteers, as well as a few dogs, were on hand to marshal the parade and control the traffic and the many dozens of people who sporadically lined the parade route.  Many tourists joined the townsfolk in the cel...