Trip log: RV Trip to Alaska 2014 |
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6/29/2014 Day 53 Walker Fork Campground to Dawson City, YT; 100 hard RV miles
The intention was to get up early and drive the road from the campground to the border station before any traffic. The early part worked fine; we were up at 5, had breakfast and were ready to go a little after 6. Then I found the left inside dual tire was flat. A stone shaped like the tip of an icicle had punctured through the face of the tire. I changed the tire in situ using my two 12-ton jacks, and this was actually easier than I thought it would be. But now we had no spare, and going 100 miles over the Boundary Spur and the Top of the World Highway with no spare is a very poor idea.
So we left the RV in the campground, threw the flat tire in the jeep and headed back over the Goat Trail, through Chicken down to Tok. At the Chevron station, we found a very nice young man (didn’t get his name unfortunately) who found a tire for us and mounted it in about 15 minutes. We found the rock driven through the tread and sticking about an inch inside. I bought a second tire, unmounted, just to have along. We got back through Chicken up the hill and over the Goat Trail to the campground with our load of new tires about 2:30, a 200-mile round trip. Visiting Chicken once is interesting. Twice is plenty and four times is greatly surplus to requirements.
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7/1/2014 Day 55 Dawson City to Pelly Crossing, Yukon, 150 miles
The days just flit by with one exciting adventure after another. This morning started with no electricity—again—at the RV site, so we had to wait until 8 when the office opened to get them to reset the breaker. Power returned, then disappeared again about a half hour later when our RV neighbor behind kicked our plug loose while undoing his. |
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6/30/2014 Day 54 Layover day in Dawson City, Yukon
The Top of the World Highway abruptly ends 0.2 miles below the Yukon River Campground in a steep gravel parking lot that tapers down into the Yukon River. The small George Black Ferry runs back and forth across the Yukon ferrying cars, trucks, motorhomes, motorcycles and foot traffic from one side to the other. It’s free, and it runs 24-hours a day, but it only holds about 10 normal sized cars, or 2 large motorhomes plus maybe two cars, or one large tanker truck. So depending on the traffic mix, it can be a long wait. We had split the Jeep from the RV, so Donna got the last spot on the first crossing in the Jeep and I had to wait for the next. But it was only about 15 minutes until the ferry was back and I was able to board.
This is an interesting situation: the ferry landing tapers right down to the edge of the river and it is not paved, just gravel. This means that the river constantly erodes it, so there are huge piles of gravel on both sides of the river and two earthmovers stationed there to maintain a more or less level landing spot for the ferry ramp. The landings are never quite the same from one day to the next, or even one crossing to the next. |
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6/28/2014 Day 52 Walker Fork Campground to Eagle, Alaska
We got up early to drive the RV over the goat trail the first third of the way to the border. After depositing the RV at Walker Fork BLM campground ($5, no hookups) we drove the Jeep 15 miles east to Jack Wade Junction then 65 miles north to Eagle. From Teslin Junction east of Tok all the way to Eagle this road is Alaska #5, known as the Taylor Highway. The continuation from the Jack Wade Junction to the boundary of Canada is known as the Boundary Spur, and then down to Dawson City is the Top of the World Highway, the word “highway” being a cruel turn of phrase used to fool the tourists into thinking it’s an actual road.
The road to Eagle is much the same as from Chicken to the Jack Wade Junction, but is in better shape. The road surface is not nearly so rough and pot-holed. There are some narrow spots and some precipitous drops of only 500 feet, but we averaged 31 miles per hour, much better than you can do on the rest of the road. |
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7/2/2014 Day 56 Pelly Crossing to Whitehorse, YT; 180 miles
During breakfast at the campground this morning a pretty little fox came down into the space next to us where two ladies had set up tents last night and just sat down. He was obviously waiting for a handout, which they gave him, to our dismay. He sat right behind their car within 10 feet of the picnic table. He was obviously a resident of the campground. We left around 8 AM and stopped briefly at Five Fingers Rapids on the Yukon River. This was one of the most dangerous places on the old paddlewheeler route. They had to carefully maneuver through the rocks on the way downstream, and a cable was affixed to the rocks with which to winch themselves upstream when returning.
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Once we got to Eagle we went to the Yukon-Charlie Rivers National Preserve Visitor’s Center and met Michael, a seasonal Ranger who was on his day off. Bored, I guess, because he offered to take us on an abbreviated tour of the old Fort Egbert buildings and the courthouse. Normally this takes 3 hours, but with our limited attention spans we find that hard to do. It was a great tour and we got most of what we would have on the longer one. A grass airstrip runs up alongside the town and there are several airplanes tied down alongside it.
We anticipated the fact that there are no restaurants here at all, so we brought lunch and ate it at the expansive Yukon-Charlie Visitor’s Center lawn overlooking the Yukon. The Yukon River is joined near here by the Charlie River, hence the name. It’s not the name of a person as you might think. This preserve is inaccessible except by hiking or floating down the Yukon. The Yukon flows 220,000 CFM on average, more during heavy rains. In May, 2009, during breakup, there was a massive ice jam 6 miles downstream which backed up water and ice and flooded the town.
We toured the town, such as it is, and found the ice cream kiosk, a 8 x 10 trailer with a vending window on the side and a list of offerings. Also a CLOSED sign. However, there was a person with her head down on the counter just inside the vending window, so, ever hopeful for the possibility of ice cream, Donna rapped on the window and woke her enough for her to say, “we’re closed,” and plop her head back down. |
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We stopped at Braeburn Lodge to look at the World’s Largest cinnamon rolls, but decided they weren’t to our liking and continued on to Whitehorse. We briefly saw a black bear a quarter mile ahead crossing the road. All in all, the road from Dawson City to Whitehorse is pretty much the same as the Cassiar. It has it’s share of potholes and frost heaves, some parts are a little narrow, other parts are pretty good and there’s a minor amount of road construction.
We are ensconced in the commercial Pioneer RV Park just 4 miles southeast of Whitehorse for $32 in the trees with water and 30A electric hookups. There is a dump, there is a car wash which we availed ourselves of for both the RV and the Jeep, there is a laundry which Donna used, and they have both gasoline at $1.41/ltr and propane at about $1/ltr. So we accomplished much at what seems to be very fair prices (for Canada) and pleasant service at a single stop. We went into town to Boston Pizza for lunch, then shopped at Canadian Tire, M & M Meats and the SuperSaver food mart for some essentials.
Another Fox News Alert: While doing laundry a fellow camper showed Donna a picture of another fox that came down into this campground, sat next to their RV and ate a banana. |
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After breakfast we went into town to see the Keno, a stern wheel riverboat similar to the Klondike that we visited in Whitehorse, only much smaller. There was an excellent movie documentary made in August of 1960 when the Keno was moved from Whitehorse to Dawson, its final trip down the river to become the museum at Dawson that it now is. One of the old pilots who had actually piloted the Keno on the river got the privilege of moving her the final time. There’s a riverboat graveyard across the Yukon River from Dawson where several of them have been moldering since the ‘50s. The Keno is much smaller and not nearly as well restored as the Klondike in Whitehorse.
Then the real excitement: Since July 1 is Canada Day, the equivalent of the Fourth of July in the US, Dawson City had a parade! It began with the RCMP in full dress uniform followed by townsfolk on bicycles, vehicles of many types and finally the EMT and Fire vehicles with sirens and horns blowing. We filmed the whole thing, at least until the batteries in the camera gave out. Everybody loved it! Of course it rained, but not heavily and not for long.
We came back to the RV park and secured everything for travel. We were on the road by 12:20, a late start for us, but we only planned on doing about 150 miles today anyway. So tonight we are camped in a little primitive campground that is not even marked across from the gas station at Selkirk, aka Pelly’s Crossing. There is no fee and no amenities, not even water, just picnic tables and fire pits at some sites. |
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Boy, is this a long slog! At least we had the hard part over with and didn’t have to take the RV over the Goat Trail again. Even though we had already driven 200 miles today to get the tire, we were antsy to get this over with, so we hooked up and left the campground about 3 PM for Dawson City, 100 miles of bad road distant. This first 15 miles from the campground to Jack Wade Junction where Alaska 5 heads north to Eagle is mostly just rough and slow, not narrow and scary like the Goat Trail, but the Border Spur is miserable. The Alaska road maintenance department is working on this 13-mile piece and has it covered with sharp pointy gravel up to the size of oranges the entire distance. Add to that the 10-15% uphill grade for the last 4 miles and you have a tire puncture fiesta. It is a very generous 2-lanes wide, however, and it will be beautiful next year when paved.
But we made it. It took just over 1 hour to do the last 13 miles and we thought every bolt was going to fall out of the RV and every tire would go flat in the process. We got through customs after about a half hour wait for a car in front of us and started down the road to Dawson City, 66 miles. This is a much better road, very wide with hints of pavement here and there, but still mostly gravel with steep grades and very rough. You can do 30-40 mph for several miles then run suddenly into a minefield of hub-deep potholes. We finally conquered the beast and pulled into the Yukon River Campground on the north side of the Yukon river from Dawson City about 7 PM Alaska time, 8 Yukon time. Now I can justifiably and proudly wear my Top of the World T-shirt! |
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You drive off the ferry headed south and you are immediately on Front Street of Dawson City. We went to the Visitor’s Center and got information about things to do, and more importantly, where is the car wash? The Jeep and the RV were just large blocks of dirt. Then we walked around town, took a 1-1/2 hour walking tour and visited the museum. At 6:45 we boarded the Spirit of Klondike side wheel riverboat for a 2 hour river tour. This is also, optionally, a dinner cruise, but we didn’t have dinner. The boat went about 5 miles down river, then about 5 miles up river just beyond where the Klondike River joins the Yukon and got back at just before 9 PM. The river flows about 5 knots, and the sidewheeler does about 10, I estimate, so it was very slow going up and very fast coming back. It was a very fun, though touristy, trip.
That evening we drove up to The Dome, an overlook above Dawson which gives a commanding view of the entire Yukon Valley below. We are camped in Dawson City RV Park just across the Klondike River from town, side by side with other RVs, allegedly with 15A power for $29. But there’s no power. There was when we left to go into town, but not when we came back. |
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At the Top of the World border crossing, Alaska side |
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The Dawson City ferry George Black |
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It was a long slog 85 miles back to the campground from Eagle, but it’s a historic old Alaskan town, portrayed in John McPhee’s book “Into the Country,” which we enjoyed immensely, and it’s worth seeing the real thing. |