Oh Canada

Oh CANADA! Whitehorse 5,358 km

From home)

Heading back to the Yukon, so we can get back to Alaska!  Sounds rather odd, but there are no roads in Alaska that can take you to Skagway. We will be heading back to Whitehorse, and then another route back into Alaska. 

Today is a travel day,but still very scenic, with 10,000 to 14,000 snow clad peaks at every bend in the highway. 

It still strikes us as odd that most of the roads that take you through such enormous mountain ranges are located in rolling hill valleys, and not clinging to mountain sides like in BC. The valleys are usually very wide and rolling between the ranges and the passes through them are wide. 

Alaskans seem to love the outdoors. Anywhere there is water, there are countless RV's and heavy duty fishing boats (no 18+ ft run-about ski boats to be seen, and almost no Seadoos). In the interior regions, you find countless numbers of RV's parked anywhere in the wilderness with their ATV's (very few backcountry motorbikes). With the ocean and countless lakes and rivers, Fishing seems to be a way of life here. 

People are outdoor active here. As Willie Nelson once put it in a song, they want to 

     Live fast

     Love hard

     Die young

     And leave a beautiful memory

As of May 29, we are in our 24th day on the road. 13 days of that time have been spent with about 5.5 hours of driving. 11 have been spent just laying back or hiking, biking or exploring scenic side roads with either George or Terry,s truck.  

We are averaging just under 450 km for each diving day. The whole trip will take just under 20 driving days. This is certainly not a trip that can be done in 3 or 4 weeks  if you really want to appreciate the unique places of interest.  

Our planned 44 days really is not enough, but we are starting to get an appreciation for the area, it's history, and the very gracious residents of the north. We cannot say enough about how nice and helpful people have been in every location. 

Also we have been blessed with the best weather imaginable. Sunshine and warmth have followed us everywhere!  Up here a person has so much time to do and see things in the day light. I am not really certain what time it gets dark here. We are usually in bed by midnight or earlier--the sun has gone down but it is not dark yet. When we get up at 7:00 or so, it is always very light outside, with the sun up quite sometime earlier. 

Before Whitehorse, it was a night in a beautiful campsite at Beaver Creek. The owner was a wonderful lady who actually lived in Lund, British Columbia. From April till September she ran her campsite in Beavercreek, and then headed back to Lund. This had been her routine for the last 11 years

We arrived at Whitehorse for the second time this evening--a complete loop! We ran into a wee bit of heavy duty thunder showers for a bit of the drive. It once again partially cleared up in Whitehorse. A car wash a bit of shopping and to bed with Skagway on our mind. 

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