Motor Homes & Motor Bikes

Aug 8 - 12/07

Arrived in Whitehorse and immediately drove to my friends tanning establishment. Have never seen so hides and furs - all soft and luxurious. He uses a lot of traditional methods and is very busy serving the trapper, hunter and native communities. We were invited to park the coach in their yard north of town beside the Yukon River. Gorgeous spot with mountains all around, they built their log home on 75 acres of pasture and woods. He is very knowledgeable about wild life and the environment having been a park warden in NWT so is a wealth of information as he showed us around including a boat trip down the Yukon to the famous Lake Laberge. There we visited a deserted native village complete with cabins, cemetery, raspberries and rhubarb. All lakes and rivers in the area are away above recorded levels due to the late warm temperatures and deep winter snow. Yukon has many museums - very informative regarding several historic subjects geological formations, wildlife, native history, the gold rush and the construction of the Alaska hi way. Speaking of the hi way - I've never seen so many motor homes and motorbikes. We see all kinds - big ones, small ones - one fellow was riding a WWII replica with side care and camouflage - a brand I'd never heard of. When asked how old it was he replied that he had just bought it and it had 4000 miles on it.

Back to Whitehorse - the hospitality was great and Nan really enjoyed spoiling the pretty black mare, Raven, with apples & Benson buddied up to the border collie, Phantom. There's so much history here, and some of it not that ancient. Sam McGee's cabin still stands and would you believe he was born in Ontario and is buried in Beiseker! I was some disillusioned!

The wooden fish ladder on the Yukon River resembles the old wooden flumes we knew as kids but the thing is almost 1/2 mile long. A drive up a high look-out hill over the valley and a morning trip to the hot springs rounded out the Whitehorse visit. We plan to stop again on the way back.

Aug 12 - Slid into Haines Junction after a very scenic afternoon drive. Parked in an RV park then called my old art school buddy to ask where he lived. "Right across the road" was the reply. So we dropped in and renewed old acquaintance. With their family grown and gone they're left with two sibling lab crosses - Bonnie & Clyde. Next day my buddy took us for a very pleasant ride in his tour boat on Kathleen Lake. Besides the rugged mountains coming down to the smooth, new deep water, we were treated to a visit to his grandmother's trapping cabin, deserted since the 40's. A nearby lake (Louise) was named in her honor by her son-in-law because it reminded him of her calm, quiet demeanor. Also we saw a blond grizzly on a high slope above the lake.

Next day the four of us drove to their cute log cabin on a hill overlooking Kluane lake. The meal cooked over an open fire was delicious! On the way home something was spotted in the bush by the side of the road - one said bear, another moose but I was adamant it was a horse because all I could see over the bush was withers, sway back and rump - and it was black. Backing up we saw hugest, blackest grizzly calmly chomping its way through the grass and bushes. For some reason our camera wouldn't pick up the image - Anyway we saw it up close and it was huge.

Aug 15 - The two of us headed for Haines, Alaska and in doing so we drove from Yukon, through BC then into Alaska. We both feel the scenery en route was the most awesome so far. High glacier covered mountains overlooked broad sweeping valleys - some forest covered, others green with low brush and grass but all sporting lakes and streams. I wonder what it would be like to ride through those valleys to the foot of the glaciers. Approaching Haines we came alongside Chilkat River, famous for the thousands of bald headed eagles that feed on the salmon. Years ago they were considered a nuisance and were hunted almost to extinction. Now they're back and people come from around the world to eagle - watch.

Haines is small town catering to tourists with a lot of souvenir shops lining the streets. Main street ends at the harbour where many small boats are moored and a huge cruise ship sat waiting for its passengers to finish their sight - seeing. I must comment on the weather - very warm 25 today and very few mosquitoes. Some nights get close to freezing but warms up quickly and daylight last til almost 11:00 pm.

Keep tuned.