FROM THE ROAD: INTO THE YUKON

“The only society I like is that which is rough and tough – and the tougher the better. That’s where you get down to bedrock and meet human people.”  – Robert Service

This is the latest dispatch from our friend John’s odyssey.  He’s made it into the Yukon and it looks like the real fun is beginning.  Now that he’s actually crossed the provincial border, these lines from the Bard of the Yukon, Robert Service, seem apt:

There’s a race of men that don’t fit in,
A race that can’t stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and they rove the flood,
And they climb the mountain’s crest;
Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,
And they don’t know how to rest.

If they just went straight they might go far;
They are strong and brave and true;
But they’re always tired of the things that are,
And they want the strange and new. . .

Good evening from Teslin, Yukon.

It has been a tough day on the road getting the snot kicked out of us on the Cassiers Highway. [Pfffttt!!  This guy did it pulling an MGB in a trailer behind his RV, for crying out loud!  He does say it's rough. - Ed.]

It took 3 hours and 45 minutes to cover 140 miles of gravel and frost-heaved pavement this morning before we got on the AlCan Highway going west. Even then we ran into 2 sections of 10-mile gravel road that we could only go 25 miles an hour or risk getting shaken to death.

Still, we’ve had some good moments in the last 3 days. Wednesday night we stayed at the Round Lake Campground hosted by Wayne and Nina Hemalin. That evening we used a row boat to get out on the lake and between us caught 1 squaw fish and 36 pea-mouthed chubs. The chubs are supposedly good eating but we threw them back because it would have taken forever to filet enough of them to make a meal for two.

The next morning we went out in a canoe and trolled the lake with no luck. However, we saw 3 pair of loons that came within 20 yards of the canoe, an eagle, and an osprey diving in the water for fish.

We left and fueled-up in Smithers before heading for the Meziadin Provincial Park on the Cassiers Highway.  [Here is a photo gallery -  gorgeous! -Ed.] This has been the most beautiful park we’ve stayed in to date and in the morning the park attendant, Marvin Reid, took us fishing. I caught a nice 3lb Dolly Varden and a small Rainbow (picture attached) while Cortney caught a 3.5lb Dolly Varden.

After fileting them we took off for Dease Lake and saw 8 black bears and 2 grizzlies along the way (picture attached).

We stayed at the Water’s Edge Campground in Dease Lake and shared our meal of fish with Murray and Pat Crees from Vancouver Island. They went to bed after “blubbering a bib-full” with us for a couple of hours and we played a game of “hit the stick in the lake with a rock” which I won 11 to 7.

We left at 9, got to the Yukon around 1 (DukDuk picture attached), and finished the day around 5 at Dawson Peaks Resort. Tomorrow we will make Skagway – 3 weeks from when I left MN.

All is good.

Related articles:

• Northern exposure (guardian.co.uk) [This is an awesome article about cruising Alaska's inside passage by ferry - a great alternative to more expensive cruise ships.]
• Teslin library to reopen at former trading post (cbc.ca)
• RuralCom Corporation to provide cell phone service to the Alaska Highway and the BC North Coast (newswire.ca)
• Crews work to contain rapidly spreading Lillooet, B.C., fire (cbc.ca)
• Whitehorse cafe owner, friend win $292,000 in Lotto 6/49 jackpot (cbc.ca)