Whitehorse, Yukon Canada–Milepost 918

We crossed the border from US to Canada (again), riding back up on the South Klondike Hwy 2 back to the Alaska Hwy 1 at Milepost 874.
The Milepost (Alaska Travel Planner) is my Bible of where we’re going & what to see. So, I cheat & re-key the info from there to here to give you a little history & background. It also helps my pea brain absorb some of this.
Whitehorse is located on the upper reaches of the Yukon River. It is 109 miles from Skagway; and 396 miles from Tok, AK.
(Tok will be the place we cross back into US. )
Whitehorse has been the capital of Yukon since 1953, and serves as the center for transportation, communications & supplies for Yukon. It is the hub of a network of about 2,664 miles of all-weather roads serving Yukon. When the White Pass & Yukon Route railway, connecting Skagway with the Yukon River, was completed in 1900, Whitehorse came into being as the northern terminus. Here the famed river steamers connected the railhead to Dawson City (not Creek!) and some of these boats made the trip all the way to St.Michael, a small outfitting point on Alaska’s Bering Sea coast. The Klondike stampeders landed at Whitehorse to dry out & repack their supplies after running the famous Whitehorse Rapids. (The name Whitehorse was in common use by the late 1800’s; it is believed the first miners in the area thought the foaming rapids resembled white horses’ manes & so named the river rapids). The gold rush brought stampeders & the railroad. The river was the only highway until WWII, when military expediency built the Alaska Hwy in 1942. During construction (1942-43), thousands of American military & civilian workers were employed in the Canadian North. It was the second boom period for Whitehorse. Population today is a little over 26,000.
Enough History! Here’s some pics of the ride:

  

  

Goodbye Alaska, Hello Canada!

 

Left turn, back on the Alaska Highway……..and we made it to Whitehorse!

 

When we were in Calgary, AB we met a fella who lives in Whitehorse, but his family is from Watson Creek (his family owns the Nugget City/Northern Beaver Post). We didn’t get a chance to stop in & see his mom (I had him write her a note in my Milepost), but we will on the way back out. (Sorry, Lee, but we hope to see you in Whitehorse!)

Have a good one everybody!
RV Riding is meeting nice folks along the way & seeing them again further down the road

Skagway Train Ride - White Pass Summit Excursion

Today we took the train ride for a 40 mile roundtrip Skagway to White Pass excursion on the White Pass & Yukon Route railway. The ride starts at Skagway Mile 0.0 (elevation: 0ft) and ends at White Pass Summit Mile 20.4 (elevation: 2,885ft).
Here’s a few pics of the gorgeous view:




We were happy to hook up with some of the Loosey Goosey folks…..Really nice & FUN people that enjoy life and make the trip worthwhile.
Melanie, my Daughter #2 (xoxoxoxo) reminded me of Geocaching (which I haven’t done in years), so I downloaded the app again & did a little search here in Skagway. There's a few here, so maybe when we go to town later I can find one!. 
We decided we’ll do whale watching when we get over to Anchorage instead of the day cruise out of Skagway. We’ll head out tomorrow to Whitehorse and hang out there for a while waiting for our part to come in. (We are so blessed to have such an awesome RV Tech team in SC).
Have a good one everybody!


RV Riding is riding trains too!

Skagway, Alaska and Dyea Road

Before hitting downtown Skagway today we took a (short) drive out & over on the Dyea Road. It begins at Milepost S 2.5 on the South Klondike Highway & leads about 8 miles to the old Dyea Townsite (not much there) & then ends at Dyea Flats Recreation Area. The road is a narrow, winding, gravel road beyond Mile 1.4 and the girls were not real happy riding it. Dyea became a ghost town after the gold rush. Its post office closed in 1902, and by 1903 its population consisted of 1 settler. Skagway’s dwindled to 500, but they persisted both as a port & terminus of the White Pass & Yukon Route railway (which we’ll be riding tomorrow).
The Dyea road offers scenic overlooks with a view of Skagway River, Taiya Inlet and Skagway. We got a good view of the ship harbor and town from up there!. The Skyline trail leads to top of the AB Mountain (elev. 5,000 ft). There’s small turnouts along the way with interpretive signs about the Klondike Gold Rush & history. The Chilkoot Trail trailhead, Dyea Campground and Dyea Flats are at the end for most vehicles.  (The road gets REALLY bad, so we turned around).
During the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898-1899, Dyea was the jump-off point to the Klondike gold fields via Chilkoot Pass. Now covered with iris, fireweed and lupine in the summer, little trace remains of Dyea and the buildings that housed up to 8,000 people & 150 businesses, from attorneys to undertakers.
Here’s some pics:

Check out that road!
On the way back around, I think I spotted my first eagle! It was just sitting there across the water & I tried to zoom in as much as I could. Check this out:

It looks like an eagle to me, so I’m counting it! That was all the wildlife we saw.
Here’s the view of Skagway from up there:


The camper is somewhere down there to the left
After that ride, we dropped off  the girls & went downtown to check out the shops. It kind of reminds me of any small  “touristy” town, but the outside of the buildings have been “preserved” to look like the old gold rush town.
The Visitor Center is located inside the Arctic Brotherhood Hall, easily identified by its elaborate driftwood façade:

Check out these other pics:



Look at this! You can take a tour of the Brothel!

The sign says “$10 for 20 minutes just like in 1898” HaHaHa!

Here’s some other pics:

I love the art work on this antler:

 Check out this woodwork:
  


That’s about it for today. Tomorrow we’ll take the White Pass Summit Excursion train ride from Skagway to White Pass.  Hopefully, we’ll be meeting up with some of the Loosey Goosey folks. It should be fun!
Have a good one everybody! 
RV Riding is learning about all kinds of things you never even knew about!

We made it to ALASKA!

Today, Sunday 05/28/2017; Mr. Charley & I crossed back into the USA via the South Klondike Highway and landed in Skagway, Alaska. We were already 3 hours behind SC time zone, now that we crossed into AK, we’re 4 hours behind!

According to The Milepost, Skagway is 90 air miles northwest of Juneau, 108 road miles south of Whitehorse, YT. We need to be back over in Whitehorse within the week, since that’s where our part will be shipped to, so we decided to cut over off the Alaska Highway & come here for a few days.
Skagway owes it’s birth to the Klondike Gold Rush, back in 1897 and grew to  a population of about 20,000. By 1899 the stampede of people was all but over, and todays population is a little over 1,000. Today, the White Pass & Yukon Route railway (which connected the town to Whitehorse, YT back in 1900); Cruise Ships & the Alaska State Ferry System brought tourism & business to Skagway. It’s funny because Haines, AK is only 15 miles by water (via ferry), but it’s 359 miles by road, so maybe we can go there, too.
Enough history & geography, let me tell you about our ride here!

We left early this morning, on the road by 5:30 a.m.; knowing we had a longer than normal ride. The weather was a nice, sunny 34. I think because it stays light so late here, the wildlife doesn’t seem to be out so early, but we did see a fox walking down the street with a rabbit hanging out its mouth.

  We also saw a couple of porcupines, quite a few black bears, a caribou & a moose! I didn’t get pics of them all, but here’s a few Mr. Charley caught out of his side.


We saw the bear on the side of the road & then before he took off, he stood up to scratch his back on the branches, then took off! LOL!


HaHa… these are just statues but they got our attention!

So far, the road hasn’t really been that bad, mostly paved highway, but today there were  a few stretches that had  dusty gravel, but that’s better than the wet gravel road we travelled earlier!  What a muddy mess when we landed!
This is the view along the way today:



We haven’t seen a cop since forever, so this really caught my attention!
HaHaHa…its a fake


And the closer we got to Alaska, the view changed to this:


Oh! Remember the sign-post forest I told you about at Watson Lake? Well, that place is much bigger than we thought. When we walked up to the store, we passed by & look what I found:
I should’ve known someone would post CLEMSON, and it looks like City of Hialeah Police made it here, too. And, Spartanburg, SC
The last one is from the Loosey Goosey 2014 Group


That’s it for now. I may have “gained another hour” today, but my body is feeling like I “lost” the 4 hours difference from home to here.
Have a good one everybody!

RV Riding is living in different time zones, but keeping on for the sheer enjoyment of seeing what’s around the next turn