July 5 – 12 Our week in Whitehorse
welllll.......making lemonade out of lemons. Today,
after a 5 hour ($$$) shuttle bus ride from Watson Lake to Whitehorse we are
ensconced in a hotel for 5 nights to do sightseeing we had planned,
then we will return the Watson Lake via shuttle and hopefully the pickup and
new tranny will at least be in the process of being united with each
other. We did very briefly see a cow and calf moose finally (!) as we
whizzed by a small lake this morning. So, the elusive moose is at least
in the country.
We continue to jet down the highway, going way faster than
we do when in our pickup and trailer. We
enjoy First Nation’s presentation of dance along our walk to the hotel and we
land in the Canadas Best Riverview Hotel.
The hotel shows its age but is relatively comfortable and nicely located,
overlooking the Yukon River and close to downtown. Venturing out for dinner we stumble into
“First Friday Art Walk.” Galleries are
on the agenda as Sam is very much into art, ceramics, music and acting. In addition to a nice variety of art, each
gallery has finger food and we munch and enjoy along the route. I even snag a glass of red wine. It turns out there is no need to find dinner
after all.
We enjoy the Riverfront Town Square, think “Saturday Market”
where Pam and Sam each make a silk screened t-shirt at one of the local artists
presentations. We wander the town to get
a feel for what else we might want to do.
Whitehorse is the capital of Yukon and in addition, is very cognizant of
the First Nations history. We will have
a nice variety of activities to choose from.
We do start a search for a new hotel as our has no hot water today and
the room is also sweltering despite two fans going full time.
On July 7 we take an all day excursion to Skagway on the
White Pass and Yukon narrow gauge railway.
We took this train years ago with Sam’s dad Zach and Uncle Jacob.
It was fun to return with Sam.
We board a bus for a ride to Fraser where we
catch the narrow gauge train for a ride down the White Pass canyon.
Scenery is breathtaking and the steep, curvy
route is an engineering feat. As such it
was designated as an international historic civil engineering landmark by the
Canadian Society for Civil Engineering and the American Society of Civil
Engineers in 1994. It was constructed in
1898 as a means for prospectors to more easily journey from Skagway to the gold
fields around Dawson City, Yukon.
Today we enjoy the “riverwalk” along the Yukon River and go
by the S.S. Klondike, one of Canada’s few remaining steam-powered paddle-wheelers
currently undergoing lead paint removal.
This is a National Historic Site so there are lots of interesting
information panels to read even though we cannot go inside the Klondike. Up until the 1950’s sternwheelers were one of
the primary ways to contact the outside world for people who lived in this
area.
We find ice cream along the way home, soft serve with root
beer slushy mixed in, it was quite good.
We tour and enjoy the “Old Log Church Museum.” The guides explain much about the early
history and the people who made the church and helped establish the town. This goes beyond the normal gold fever and
First Nations history and it is quite interesting. Even the layout and presentation of the
displays is very nicely done and not what I expected when we walked through the
doors. Housed in the Anglican Church, it
is one of the oldest buildings in town.
The rectory, a separate building next door is still in use today.
When we return to the hotel there is still no hot water and
no plumbers have been found to come to repair the boilers so we move down the
street. We also have determined that the
pickup will not be ready for at least a few more days so we decide to stay in
Whitehorse for three more days. Today is
Carl’s birthday and he has chosen the Klondike Rib and Salmon restaurant, one
of great ambience having started its life as in 1900 as a bakery housed inside
a tent with the other half of the restaurant originating in 1929 as a mail and
freight business. The ambience is great,
as is the food and Carl enjoys halibut for his birthday, “Oven baked Alaskan
Halibut Filet topped with Fireweed Honey Butter, a melted slice of double crème
Brie cheese, finished with Yukon Haskap & Saskatoon Berry Sauce,” yum!
Eating way too much in restaurants this week is offset by
our walking. Today we do about 4 miles
roundtrip from our hotel to the Whitehorse Fishway. This is the longest wooden fish ladder in the
world and allows fish to pass around the Whitehorse Rapids dam, part of the
Yukon Energy power program. Primarily Chinook
salmon but today we only see Arctic grayling.
The Chinook counts are at historical lows in the last couple of
years. We enjoy a sack lunch along the
way taking the trail up onside of the Yukon and back down the other. At the foot bridge we enjoy watching a
kayaker play in the rapids. We hopped on
the local trolly briefly at the beginning of our hike and of course stop for
ice cream on the way home!
So many museums and heritage centers. We spend time throughout the week at:
·
McBride Museum of Yukon History – wildlife,
Indigenous and gold rush history
·
Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre – First Nations
event center and resident artists
·
Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre – how the
Bering land bridge affected north America
Sam demonstrating the use of a Paleolitic period atlatl
·
Yukon Transportation Museum – from dogsleds to
interpretive EV charging port
Note the Tesla truck utilizing the "live" outdoor exhibit - charging port
Using the local bus system we travel out to the Guild Hall
for their “Round Back at the Guild Hall” evening small theatre offering, “WYRD
- A Musical UnFairytale: Staged reading of phase 5 of development.
Rock concert. Musical. Unfairytale. WYRD has
it all, without even a hint of a handsome prince. Think Alice in Wonderland or
The Wizard of Oz – just add eviscerating social satire and a lot more
mud.”
It was all that and more.
Priceless were the looks of delight on Sam’s
face as she watched local small theater in action.
She also learned that one of the authors of
the play, who read this evening’s play, is co-author on the Ride the Cyclone
play that Sam’s school will be presenting this coming year.
Our last evening in Whitehorse finds us enjoying the sled
dogs at Braveheart Adventures. Paul and
Jenna introduce us to their dogs, all semi-retired dog sled working dogs. They harness 7 of the pack who are very
excited to go to work. We meander
through trees along well worn pathways in a side-by-side “4 wheeler” while the dogs
strain at their harnesses. Partway
through Paul stops them for a water break and then we head back for a nice
evening around the campfire roasting sausages and enjoying lively
conversation. Paul returns us to our
motel and it is just starting to get dark around midnight when we turn in for
the evening. Tomorrow, we hop back on
the shuttle to Watson Lake to see what progress has been made with the pickup.
Mountain Goats on the hillside! Tiny specks of white.
Looks so much like Reddy Killowatt of PP&L that we grew up with!
In hindsight we should have stayed in Whitehorse and
ventured to Dawson City from there but, believing that the transmission for the
pickup would be in any day now we took the Kaska shuttle back to Watson Lake on
the 12th. We can now add elk to our list
of wildlife seen along the trip as we saw a small group on our 5 hour shuttle
ride. 
The transmission finally arrives Thursday the 18th. Most likely it went from Edmonton, right on
through to Whitehorse, and back to Watson Lake on a smaller transport van. The van disgorges 4 (!) transmissions and we
are assured that they will start our install in the morning. 
