Day 91 – July 3

We pulled out of the Goldrush at about 9:30 and stopped at the cultural centre which had been closed the night before. It didn’t open until 10:00 so we went across the street (everything is close across the street in Dawson) to the Dawson City information centre and then to the NWT information centre where we wanted to get some info on the Dempster Highway as we were considering driving part way up it. We were entertained by one of the staff Dawn who berated us for not bringing lobsters from Nova Scotia before she turned her attention on the other tourists from, as she called it, Onterrible. We got directions as to how far up the Dempster Highway would give us a taste of this 734 kilometre long highway that ends beyond the Artic Circle in Inuvik.

As we left Dawson City we gassed up and then heading east drove miles through the tailing piles left from decades of dredge mining along the Yukon rivers. These ridged piles of tailings were dumped from the end of the floating dredges that scooped large buckets of the river beds up on one end, processed them for gold with the river water and then piled the residual rocks behind as the dredge laid waste to the landscape, forever altering it. At times a big dredge could harvest 50 pounds of gold a day from a river, clearly an incentive to ignore the environmental impact of the effort. In today’s market that is almost a one million dollar daily payday.

About a half hour outside of Dawson City we turned left onto the historic Dempster Highway which started construction in 1959 and officially opened in 1979. After the first 8 kilometres the paving stopped and the highway became a well packed gravel road. We drove the 71.5 km to the Dempster Interpretive Centre where we sampled a tea made by the host from Labrador Tea and Fireweed that she collects daily. It was very tasty.

In the parking lot were three men from Toronto trying to use a coat hanger to open the door of their rental SUV. Anyone who has been locked out of their car can emphasize with that grief. According to them their vehicle locked itself while the keys were inside. After two hours of trying they had no success and no tools from the BRT helped their cause. When we left they were on a satellite phone in the centre discussing smashing out a window. We saw them later in the day with a garbage bag taped over their back window.

As had been suggested at the Interpretive Centre in Dawson we drove to the top of the next hill, where we were beyond the tree line and at N64-32-45.7 we stopped, marking the most northerly point of our trip, and headed back down the Demptster and then towards Whitehorse. This stretch of the Klondike Highway is not particularly scenic so we had few interruptions for photos. As we were running a bit behind our schedule for the day we began to look for a campsite. Our first choice at Ethel Lake was closed, the first time we have encountered this, so even though it was later than we usually drive we continued on to our original goal of Tatchum Lake where we arrived around 7:00.

Located 8 kilometres down a dirt road we hoped that this would be a good place to stay and, despite some initial concerns about mosquitoes, it proved to be a comfortable spot. Conveniently located on a lake with a nice new dock, I was able to fish that night, and despite signs of fish around was only able to catch one Whitefish, a new species for me.

Two couples who were out on the lake fishing in boats returned with stories of several large Pike that they had caught and released. I returned to our campfire to find Diane happily sitting there bug free reading her book. We sat out until about 11:30 in the bright light before retiring for the night.

Day 92- July 4 Happy Birthday Uncle Sam (and Jason)

I was up at 6:00 to try my hand at catching one of those Pike that I now knew were in the lake. I had heard a couple of loud splashes in the weeds the night before so I waded the lake shore fishing for an hour but to no avail except at one point almost walking on one that was lurking in about a foot of water. My efforts yielded a nice walk on a beautiful calm morning while being serenaded by a pair of loons, a pretty good start to any day.

By the time we reached Carmacs we were ready for a break so we stopped at ‘The Barracks’, which was the local cafe/post office where we had a great visit with the postmistress who was an Ontario transplant. We also met the manager of the local greenhouse, a First Nations woman who in her youth was a single mom of two and a battered wife. Now successful and happy while being a two time cancer survivor she was an inspiration for taking charge of your own life.

Outside three young women had set up the weekly market where they were selling home made baked goods, eggs, and some produce and we visited with them for a while. One of the best parts of this trip has been these unplanned, accidental stops where over a coffee and muffin people offer you a glimpse into their lives and you get to walk away richer. It had only just turned noon and we already had had an awesome day.

After a couple of stops to explore potential fishing spots we stopped at the ‘famous’ Braeburn Lodge where we bought one of their ‘world famous’ cinnamon buns. We had sampled one of these on our last trip to the Yukon and not much has changed in the intervening time, these buns are the size of a grown man’s head and could easily feed four, although in this case two of us had to make do.

We stopped for lunch at Fox Lake (no fish) and then drove on to Lake Labarge after a brief stop at Fox Creek bridge (2 grayling). The visit to Lake Labarge was to return the bear spray that I had mistakenly made off with from my guide when I was fishing two weeks earlier.

We continued on to Whitehorse and signed in at Hi Country RV where we had stayed on our way through and then headed towards town for provisions. As we were leaving the park there was a group of young hikers trying to get all of their possessions into a taxi. We could see that it all wasn’t going to fit and when we found out they were going to town we offered to take some of the load and a couple of them with us. They were English and heading to the NWT to mountain climb.

After getting gas, propane, groceries, beer and wine we stopped by the Fireweed Community Market that was being held in the Shipyards Park in downtown. There was a hodge lodge of crafts, food, information booths and musicians – a very energetic spot. We returned to Hi Country and set up. Our neighbours on the next lot were planning their trip down through BC so we offered some travel assistance (we made sure to warn them off the mosquito infested Meziadan Lake).

After showers (two days of dry camping) we had barbecued turkey burgers and then to bed – 6:00 AM seemed a very long time ago.