May 27, 2015 Wednesday

Today was our first gray day. Clouds spilled over the rim of the Pelly Mountains and raindrops fell on our heads but not hard enough to free the truck from its “chocolate coat”. We were amazed by how big the Little Salmon Lake is. I bet we drove at least 45 minutes to an hour beside the lake before finally reaching the end! Yukon’s motto, Larger than Life, is certainly true. Everything may seem bigger in Texas but that is because the Texans have never been to the Yukon Territory! They truly have big water here and lots of it. And I am totally in love with the Yukon Territory.

Before long we were driving beside the Yukon River which is huge and wild. We stopped at the site of the Columbian disaster in 1906. The Columbian was a river boat that supplied mining companies with blasting powder. They were headed up river fully loaded when someone spotted ducks. A crew member grabbed his rifle and ran toward the bow to take a shot at the birds. He tripped and fell discharging his rifle into a powder keg. This caused an explosion that destroyed the bow of the boat. A quick thinking captain beached the boat and men jumped off to go for help to the Tantalus Mine. By the time they returned with a rescue party the boat was gone and 6 crewmen including the shooter were dead.

At Carmacks, we crossed the Tage Cho, which means Big River or the Yukon. We refueled in Carmacks where people commented on our accents. It is very amusing to be the ones with accents. After refueling, we crossed the Yukon again and headed up the Klondike Highway toward Dawson City. Still paralleling the Yukon, we stopped to see Five Finger Rapids. Now the river is quite full due to the Spring run off so we were not able to really appreciate how wicked these rapids were for the riverboats. The rapids were dramatic enough to please us. Riverboats ran the Yukon until 1955 when the highways were finished.

Pelly Crossing is not just a bridge across the Pelly River but is also a First Nation community. There is a wonderful lookout point on the hillside above town. When we arrived there, another couple was taking in the sights. A dog wandered around them so we assumed it was their dog and petted it. They got in their vehicle and drove off leaving the dog. Now we were unsure what was going on but the dog seemed perfectly content to remain where he was so we decided he must be the greeting committee.

Now we were anxious to see if the fuel station at the junction with the Dempster Highway had been rebuilt after a fire two years ago. If it had been, we would head up the Dempster Highway to the Arctic Circle; if it hadn’t we would go to Dawson City first then backtrack to the Dempster Highway. Luckily the station, (well it was simply a fuel stop, no attendant) had been rebuilt. After having to watch a lesson in how to fuel a vehicle, what to do in case of fire, how to treat a person with burns, how to shut off the pumps, etc. we were finally able to get fuel.

Tonight we are in the Tombstones Territorial Park Campground. You feel like you should be at 11,000 feet surrounded by barren peaks but you are only at 2800 feet and the barren peaks are only 5000-6000 feet high. Latitude certainly makes a difference. Tomorrow we will go to the Arctic Circle!

Five Finger Rapids on the Yukon