May 29, 2015

We awoke to rain once again and the skies remained gray until about 11 a.m. then the sun broke through and it became quite warm.  Engineer Creek Campground was a little marshy and had many mosquitos, our first so far. We still aren’t sure which repellant works the best but we tried Avon Skin So Soft and Avon Bug Repellant. Both worked but the Skin So Soft needed to be reapplied frequently.

Sapper Hill rose about our campsite. Sapper is military slang for combat engineer so both the hill and the river were named for the Royal Canadian Engineers, who built a bridge over nearby Ogilvie River as a field exercise. Sapper Hill, a tor, indicates that it was never covered with ice during the last ice age.

Snowshoe hares were abundant around the campground. They are still growing in their brown summer coats and were quite splotchy. They certainly have enormous feet. They also seem to munch on aspen bark. Many of the saplings had gnaw marks. In fact, you could tell how deep the winter snow got by how high on the tree their gnaw marks were.

We finally saw a moose and her yearling calf as we passed Tombstone Territorial Park. Both were shaggy with winter hair. And boy, do they have long legs. We noticed that the animals on the less traveled roads are much more wary than those along the highways. When you stop the vehicle to photograph them, they move off. Along the highway, the animals ignored the people with cameras!

Tonight and tomorrow night we will be in Dawson City. It is a cute little town really trying to preserve their gold rush heritage. The museum is a wonderful collection of photographs and artifacts of the Klondike gold rush. This is where Robert Service wrote many of his poems about the Yukon and the gold rush. He was a favorite of my father’s so I even brought with me the volumes inherited from my dad. It is like traveling to Mecca in a way. Jack London also wrote here in Dawson City. We can visit both of their cabins tomorrow.

It was my hope to post these additions to the blog while here in Dawson City. The RV park advertises free wifi but no uploads and no downloads are allowed. So I will connect when I can.

Here is the #4 Dredge on the Eldorado Creek near Dawson City and a view from the top of Midnight Dome which gives the best view of Dawson City and the Yukon River.