Dawson City to Homer

The drive from Dawson City, Yukon to Homer, Alaska was a treat. The northerly route we'd planned to take via Tok, Alaska was not possible as the Top-of-the-World Highway and its border crossing was closed for the season (on September 20 already). This meant we had to retrace our steps a bit and travel through Whitehorse. We remembered Whitehorse as a rather sleepy place that I think still had dirt streets on our last visit many years ago when we arrived by railroad. What a difference today. It's a wonderful little town with all the services you could want. Unlike other northern towns, such as Yellowknife, whose downtown is tired, rough around the edges and displays its social problems on every streetcorner, Whitehorse impressed us as clean, full of new businesses, young people and bursting with promise. Pride of ownership and community spirit was evident everywhere. We stayed a couple of nights and enjoyed our visit very much. About 70% of the entire Yukon population lives in Whitehorse. It's a little jewel surrounded by accessible wilderness.

While in Whitehorse, we also took the opportunity to install four new winter tires. This unexpected cost wasn't in the plan, but, the snow was coming right behind us and there were many mountain passes we'd have to cross on the way south with potentially treacherous driving conditions. We also learned that chains, or, snow tires are mandatory on BC highways from October 1, so, we would be breaking the law without them. We didn't want to just throw away our still-good summer tires and were in a quandary about what to do with them. Another example of great small town service was that the shop would store our summer tires for us and we can pick them up for reinstallation on our way north next spring!

Once on the road again, we passed through stunning mountain scenery. Actually, I stopped taking photographs as there were just too many wonderful vistas at every bend in the road. As you can see from the photos below, the unbelievable weather continued, just look at those clear blue skies, we could only wonder, how long can it possibly last?

Thompson Pass - on the way to Seward, AK. The poles are for snowplow orientation during heavy winter snowfalls.

Leftmost photo is Kluane National Park, rightmost is Thompson Pass,

Sea otters are very endearing creatures.  We'd never seen one before coming to Alaska. They lay mostly on their backs. Once in a while they'll roll over and dive to the bottom to pick up a fresh crab which they then audibly crunch with long rodent-like teeth.

Exit Glacier, Seward Alaska.  It was an easy walk to the glacier snout, but, the weather was no longer ideal.

Mile 0 of the historic Iditarod Trail, Seward. Alaska. In our posting about Nome, you may recall seeing the photo of the end of the Iditarod Trail sled dog race held every year.

We're now back in Homer finishing up Gjoa's winterization and collecting a few things prior to heading south. Homer is a great little town also. At first, we didn't like its totally decentralized structure, but, now that we have a vehicle it's much easier to get around. The scenery is spectacular. Kachemak Bay is currently full of whales. You can go to the end of the Spit and see humpbacks, minkes and even orcas blowing and breaching. It's actually kind of late for the whales to be here, nobody knows why they're still around this year, but, we're enjoying them while we can. It's been another few days of wonderful weather and we got our bikes out for a tour along the Spit's paved bike path.

We recently saw an interesting bumper sticker on a car that brought a laugh:

"Homer, AK, a quaint fishing town with a Subaru problem."

It's true! The first thing we noticed about Homer is that every second car is a Subaru Outback. Haven't a clue why...

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Fort Simpson to Dawson City

Many years ago we were caught by 'The Spell of the Yukon'. It wasn't gold that drew us as in Robert Service's poem of the same name, but, the amazing history of that gold rush of 1898 and how it opened up Canada's North.

From Robert Service's poem, the Spell of the Yukon, as seen on the side of a building in Dawson City.

Back then, we traveled to Yukon by government ferry, sleeping on deck, up the Inside Passage to Skagway and then hiked the thirty-three miles from Dyea to Lake Bennett with tent and sleeping bags on our back.

Yes, we climbed over the summit as shown in this famous photo. It wasn't as thickly snow-covered when we did it, but, that probably made it harder because we had to climb over slippery, car-sized boulders and steep scree to get to the top. At least we only had to do it once. The fortune hunters had to do it many times to carry their supplies over the top.

It was so long ago that you didn't need to have a reservation and a permit like you do now. There was no road through the White Pass then either. We picked up the narrow gauge railway at Lake Bennett and rode it into Whitehorse. Due to work commitments we had to fly out from there. It always felt like unfinished business that we didn't get to do the entire trip to Dawson City. In the interim period, the dream was kept alive with our very own dog sled and Alaskan Malamutes named 'Klondike' and 'Grey Cloud'. Now, finally, we were determined to finish the entire Trail of '98 and see Dawson city for ourselves.

This time we were doing the trip in comparative luxury with our camper van. We chose to drive the less-traveled roads, one of which was the Robert Campbell Highway from Watson lake to Carmacks. There was so little traffic that we only saw one other car in two and a half hours of driving! It was single lane in places and mostly gravel and mud. We thought we'd see lots of wildlife, but, were disappointed, our vehicle was probably making too much noise.

Driving into Dawson City, we were immediately taken with the ambience. The whole town is a National Historic Site and strict regulations have kept the buildings in the style of the period.

Some of the buildings are still in their original condition, these two are badly tilted due to permafrost issues.

And some of the buildings are beautifully restored, this is the Palace Grand Theatre.

This is the building that has the 'Spell of the Yukon' painted on the outside wall.

Although most attractions were closed 'two weeks ago' and a lot of the town was actually boarded up for the winter, we still enjoyed walking around and visiting sites both in and out of town.

We drove out to the site of the original gold claim on Bonanza Creek and to see this Dredge, what an incredible machine, wooden-hulled, it basically moved itself along on a self-dug pond, digging up gravel at the front, running it through a sluice box inside to extract the gold and spitting out gravel in huge worm-like castings out the back. The landscape has basically been destroyed with these huge casting trails still intact.

We drove up to the Midnight Dome overlooking the town and the Yukon River. Note the snow cover and the beautiful mountain view in the background.

View of Dawson City and the Yukon River from the Midnight Dome which overlooks the town.

It was great to see Pierre Berton's childhood home where he lived until the age of twelve. Unfortunately, it's not open to the public. It was interesting to find out that Berton had a dog, also named 'Grey Cloud', just like ours.

A riverboat being restored.

Yukon River ferry crossing.

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Yellowknife to Fort Simpson

We picked up the van in Yellowknife and as all the campgrounds were closed 'two weeks ago' we decided to 'boondock' (in sailing we'd call it 'gunkholing', in RV-speak it's called 'boondocking') for the first night. We drove out about twenty-five miles along the Ingraham Trail and found a quiet spot overlooking a lake. All was well and we enjoyed this beautiful sunset.

Boondocking along the Ingraham Trail - Yellowknife, NT

After the sun set, it then got very dark and we were surprised when a van pulled into the lot in front of us and quickly switched off their headlights. A few people got out, they lit up cigarettes and hung around beside the van. We couldn't figure out why they would be here and were getting a little nervous when they kept hanging around. It got more mysterious when suddenly a few of them tiptoed by our van and headed down to the beach. As they went by we heard whispering, in Japanese! It was a tour group looking for the Aurora Borealis and they'd been driven out to this remote spot for a prime view. Guess they were as surprised as us to find the spot occupied. They spent an hour or two by the water, we identified their location by the little red lights shining brightly from each camera phone. It was a fairly cloudy evening and I doubt they saw anything and they left after a few hours. Yellowknife and environs really push Aurora tours. We often wonder how many tourists actually get to see the Aurora as it's really a matter of luck and being in the right place at the right time.

Next day we headed out on the highway towards Fort Simpson. We were really hoping we weren't 'two weeks too late' to miss an opportunity to visit Nahanni National Park, another dream destination for us. Fort Simpson is located on an island at the junction of the Mackenzie and Liard Rivers. It was fun taking the car ferry across the Liard and watching the skill of the captain as he docked against the fierce current. 'Docking' isn't really the right word as there is no dock. He basically lined the ferry up sideways to a gravel/sand beach area, slammed sideways into the shore and then pivoted around. Once perpendicular to the shore the engine was revved to hold us in place long enough so that they could drop the ramp and we could drive off.

We made our way directly to Simpson Air to enquire about a floatplane trip into the park. The only access to the South Nahanni is by airplane. They were still open and available and the weather looked great for the next day. With just the two of us, we opted for the cheapest option which was the flyover of Virginia Falls. After we'd booked and settled into our van for the evening, the owner of Simpson Air came by (it's not a big place). He had a third person for tomorrow and would we be interested in the longer trip option where we could land above the falls and do a walking tour for the same price? Would we be interested? Of course!

Virginia Falls, Nahanni National Park. Our floatplane landed on the river above the falls, look closely and you can see the dock at the upper left.

A closer view, the rock in the middle has been named Mason's Rock after Bill Mason (the canoeing icon) who worked for the establishment of the park.

The trusty little Cessna that got us there, note the snow patch. It was a beautiful clear, cold day with fresh snow on the walking trail to the falls.

On the way back.

We also landed on Little Doctor Lake in the park. Our descent took us very low and we flew right through that notch in the cliffs which was exciting. We met up with another Simpson Air plane already there.

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On the road again

Now that Gjoa is safely ashore until probably next May when we relaunch, we won't be writing about sailing travel for a while. Although we won't be sailing, we hope to still do some interesting things over the winter and will continue to post on occasion.

It's been just over two weeks since Gjoa's liftout and we have been on another whirlwind road trip since then. As I wrote earlier in the year, we acquired a camper van in the spring and drove it from Toronto, ON (Ontario) to Yellowknife, NT (Northwest Territories) and left it there while we completed the Northwest Passage by sailboat. The plan was to continue the road trip west in the fall, rendezvous with Gjoa in Homer to pick up a few things and then continue down towards Vancouver for the winter. 

Yellowknife to Homer, via Dawson City (we didn't complete the planned leg to Inuvik)

It's been a fabulous trip so far, except for the recurring theme of the trip which was: we're just two weeks too late. We'd planned to head west mid-September, but, due to losing a week to the crane operator fiasco in Cambridge Bay and a week lost waiting for the tide to haulout in Homer, we didn't get underway until October. We tried to arrange transit from Homer to Whitehorse where we could get a flight to Yellowknife. The bus service stopped running 'two weeks ago'. We then thought maybe we could get a ferry from Homer to Skagway and somehow from there to Whitehorse. The last service was 'two weeks ago'.  We ended up having to fly Homer>Anchorage>Seattle>Calgary>Yellowknife. It was a marathon four-airplane day, but, we got there.

During the drive back to Homer, all the campgrounds, parks, attractions and visitor centres were closed 'two weeks ago'. Luckily, nature was still open and the scenery was truly spectacular. The weather cooperated and we continued to get incredibly sunny, clear and warm days ideal for traveling through the mountains. The fall colour was muted and mostly past its prime (two weeks ago would have been better!), but, it was still very beautiful and probably much more interesting than a summer trip when everything is just green.

Winter weather was never very far behind. Many times we'd leave a place only to learn that snow had arrived the next day. In Dawson City we soon realized we'd have to abandon our plans to drive the Dempster Highway from Dawson City to Inuvik. This was going to be the highlight of the trip, but, common sense prevailed. We had snow while in Dawson City and rivers and lakes were starting to freeze over. The day we'd planned to start the Dempster it was winter driving conditions north of Ft. McPherson and 100 km hour winds through the Richardson Mountains. We had visions of taking the ferry to Inuvik and getting trapped by a partial freezeup. We'd then have to wait about three weeks for the winter ice road to form before we could cross back over. So, we were very disappointed, but, as we were not prepared to drive in such harsh conditions we had to reluctantly give the Dempster a miss. Maybe another time....

The border crossing into Alaska on the Top of the World highway, the highway itself and the Denali highway were also closed 'two weeks ago' which meant we had to drive the long way back from Dawson City to Whitehorse and cross into Alaska there instead. 

In the next couple of posts we'll share some of the incredible sights we've seen along the way so far. We should be back in Homer tomorrow and will be there a couple of weeks before starting out once again for the journey south to Vancouver. 

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Liftout

While waiting for a big enough tide to lift Gjoa we were blessed with an entire week of fabulous fall weather in Homer, Alaska. Day after day of sunshine, clear skies and warm temperatures. We thoroughly enjoyed it. Unfortunately, on Friday, liftout day, the skies were cloudy and the rain soon started. We made our way from the harbour over to the boatyard travelift. At least it was still reasonably warm. We arrived with numerous other boats and the boatyard called us in one by one. High tide came and went and we were starting to get a little worried. The tide was eighteen feet, but, we weren't sure how much that translated to at the shoreline. We were the deepest draft boat and we thought they would take us in just before high tide. Ten minutes after high tide, they called us. It's a bit daunting driving your boat directly towards the shore, but, we nailed the approach and were lined up perfectly to enter the travelift area. We got over the first strap and then stopped dead. We were aground! With the tide now dropping very rapidly there was nothing to do but reverse away quickly otherwise we wouldn't get out at all. With our hopes dashed, we dejectedly made our way back to the harbour, soaking wet and miserable. The yard said "you told us you needed six feet and we had six feet of water." We replied, yes six feet is our draft, but, we also need at least an additional six inches or so to float! They probably should have realized this, but, we probably should have been more specific as well. With eighteen feet of tide we assumed that there would be plenty of water. Luckily, the yard was able to fit us in the next day when the tide was going to be a foot and a half higher. With enough water, it all went very smoothly. The yard was professional and efficient and before we knew it Gjoa was in her winter home, safe and sound.

The lift.

Crossing the road.

An unorthodox cradling method, quick and efficient, hopefully it works!

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