Since we’ve arrived in the Yukon, Tom has been off on his timing. Like telling us it was going to take 7 hours to get from Watson Lake to Whitehorse. The guidebook said 5 hours so that’s what I was going with. I had big hopes for our dinner in Whitehorse, Jen had told me all about this local place she used to work at called Klondike Rib & Salmon, that was a must see in Whitehorse. The drive was about the same as what we’ve seen… forests and mountains. Like I said we’re spoiled. The Alaskan Highway is mostly paved, but spots of gravel. There’s really no speed limit signs, so I just did my best guess and pulled a “keep up with traffic” rule. Arrival in Whitehorse. We found the Klondike Rib and Lindsay ran in to see what time they were open until to see if we had time to go check into the Robert Service campground. It was 8:40, and she came back to say they usually close at 9 but it was a packed house, so she wasn’t sure. We decided not to chance it and find somewhere to park. I’m pretty sure we parked in a reserved spot, but once again who was going to really yell at us. With 34,000 people in the whole province, how many of them can really be law enforcement authority. When we got onto the porch of the Rib, the smell of “game” and bbq sauce hit us and we realized we hadn’t had a real meal in a week. We’d be living on sandwiches and hot dogs and smuggled potatoes. We figured that if we splurged on a real meal, it should be at least authentic and that’s what the Rib is. It’s in the oldest building in Whitehorse and part of the restaurant is literally a tent. The sign on the edge of town mentioned fresh “game” and that had Lindsay convinced. We had to wait to get a table, which on a Thursday, must mean something. I could imagine little Jen running around waiting tables. I ordered the half rack of ribs and Lindsay got some sort of Elk Sausage pasta. We drank out of mason jars. Yep, hello authentic Yukon. I even tried Lindsay’s elk… so adventurous, it tasted like a mix of sausage and pepperoni. When we walked out of the restaurant, we were both stuffed. It was nearly 10 pm but still very light out. Bizarre. We checked into our campground, found campsite 66, and set up the tent. While I was checking in I asked about the most important amenity, showers, and he told me that yes they had them, and it cost 1 loonie for 5 minutes…again with the loonies. I had him break my 5 for some loonies… wasn’t making that mistake again.
By the time we had everything ready to go, it was 11 pm. Still light out. But since neither of us really slept that much the night before, we just put the blankets over our heads and went to bed.
When you think the YUKON, you probably think of just forest and nothingness. This is perhaps what you imagine CAMPING in the Yukon is like… nope, we had a highway (or 4 lane road more like) in our backyard… so rustic. But definitely felt safe. Those critters would have to cross the road to get to me… not that there was much traffic…road kill spottings have been very minimal here in Canada. Probably cause they don’t let it go to waste… they take it home for supper.
It was raining when we woke up, about the worst sound to hear when you wake up in a tent. It means you have a wet mess to clean up. We got out of bed at like 7:45 and got to packing up the tent. It had temporarily stopped raining and we got to work dissembling the tent. We’ve gotten pretty good at this and we can almost do it without telling the other what we need. And then the best part of the day… real showers. It had literally been 5 full days without a shower… unless you count washing my hair in a sink at the gas station. We brought the loonies and took glorious showers. We took our time to dry our hair, etc. Didn’t know when our next shower would come, plus we had a big date today…with the Alaskan border. We had to look gooooood.
We headed in to Whitehorse to get some souveniors. What a quaint town. We explored some little shops, got some Starbucks, and then On the Road Again. We had already played the song. We had planned on heading to the town of Keno City because there was this cool sign pointing to a bunch of different cities worldwide. But we saw a sign telling us the US border closes at 7 pm, so that limited our ability to make the detour to Keno. I am not sure why the border closes so early…it doesn’t get dark until 11 pm. We headed for the town of Dawson City.
Hopped up on coffee and scenery (yep I had a white chocolate mocha, who have I become?), I cruised us to Dawson City…about a 6 hour drive. The roadway was lined with all these wildflowers…. Purples and yellows and a blueish purple. It was gorgeous. We saw a brown bear, not a grizzly, a Kodiak bear… bigger than a grizzly. I belted out tunes and Lindsay insisted that we never give me coffee again….. come on now, who doesn’t like a good Celine Dion serenade or a dedicated solo of Dirty Dancing’s “I had the time of my life….”. I also changed the lyrics to Toby Keith’s ‘Kissing in the Rain” to “Camping in the Rain”. Appropriate. I’ve become quite the two line highway driver…and given the amount of RVs on these highways going slow speeds, an expert at passing motorhomes. Safely, don’t worry. I don’t have a death wish, although the highway that we’re currently on has me questioning it. There are so many RVs on the Alaskan Highway…it’s like old people central up in here. Which kind of makes me feel a little safer… most old people are kind and nice. We had an old man on a motorcycle honk at us while posing by the British Columbia Welcomes You sign and we ran into him at the gas station and he was like “I saw you holding the sign up back there”. Friendly. And for the record, the BC welcome sign actually says “Super, Natural British Columbia Welcomes You”. Now that’s good advertising. So much better than “Land of Lincoln” or the “Cheesehead State”. Supernatural. True. So back to the Yukon…. It was just a nice afternoon of driving. I was singing along…we were going to Alaska… we were in the YUKON, traveling, rocking out. Life is good, at least that’s what the tire cover of the Jeep in front of us said. I agree. Lindsay stopped on the side of the road to pee, probably flashing some of the old people in their RVs. It’s a reminder that most people have to wait their whole lives, until they are retired, to take an adventure like this. How lucky we were to do it now, when we are still young.
Before we hit Dawson, we stopped for gas and dashboard sandwiches. We had some snackies on the road and some starbucks breakfast. Dawson City… an authentic gold rush town. And I’m pretty sure it’s stuck in the 1800s….it’s surprising to think that people actually live there. There were all these brightly colored buildings with the old wood siding. We kind of described it as a hippie town, somewhere people probably sit around and smoke pot. The lime green house with matching lime green greenhouse only confirmed this thought. Town children were sitting on their porch steps. People were driving their four wheelers around town on their unpaved streets. There was a gambling hall… and a general store. Like stepping back in history. The best par t of Dawson was the Dawson Ferry. When we had plugged Alaska destination of Chicken, Alaska (totally not kidding) , Tom had fired back “This route involves a Ferry.” I was like Tom, you must be nuts…Dawson is in the Yukon…landlocked last time I checked. But when we stopped at a gas station I had checked a travel brochure and found out there was a ferry. A free ferry to go across the Yukon River to connect us to the Top of the World Highway. Now wouldn’t it be more cost efficient to just build a bridge? Although the ferry was more fun and operated by fun old men who smiled at us and made goofy faces We rolled down the window and said thank you! He said Welcome to the Yukon and safe travels!. He reminded me of an old miner. Like I said, authentic.
And now, the “On the Top of the World” Highway. And they were not kidding. They should’ve also named it, the “No guard rail and really steep mountain” highway. We had one problem, like I said before, the US border closes at 7 pm. It was currently 6:04 and we had 42 miles of UNPAVED, GRAVEL roads to cover. I told Lindsay to drive as fast and as cautiously as possible. I changed the lyrics to some rap music to reflect the need to get the border. So up and down and around mountains. Parents, you would’ve died. Aunt Kath you would’ve been screaming…about to pee your pants. Mom, you would’ve had your eyes closed the whole time. This was worse than Ireland curvy, and NO guard rails…or even pavement. Except in strategic locations for about 12 seconds, literally, I counted. And there was patches of snow. I was getting stressed about crossing this border…it didn’t seem to be anywhere in sight, nor was there civilization that we could’ve camped at. Lindsay navigated us safely… and I felt pretty safe, except for the moments where I was literally staring straight down. Lindsay reminded me that we had only seen like 2 cars, so if we plunged off the side, it would be a while before we were rescued. I turned on some theme music… “Oh Happy Day”. Sometimes you need God to hear you…. And protect you, so singing worship songs can’t hurt at all. It was like we were climbing to the sun…. maybe God was giving us the “Going to the Sun” road we had only gotten a little bit of in Montana. 2 miles to go to the nearest town to the border I could find in Tom (not knowing how far it really was) and literally at the top of this mountain. Please appear border…. And there, at the top of the mountain, was the United States Border. Clock read 6:54…just in the knick of time. And here we go!! ALASKA BORDER!!!!!!! We waited to go through, had a cute border man ask us a few questions… why were going to Alaska? Visiting anyone? Have any dogs or cats with you? Selling anything? He told us we were all set…and we pulled ahead, into ALASKA!!! We made it!!!
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