On getting back to Whitehorse

I had missed the startof the Dempster Highway on my way to Dawson City, so I stopped to look at the information displays about it on my way South. I was amused to see a printout thumbtacked to the woodwork warning cyclists about an agressive grizzly that had been spotted along the Highway. It seems that biking the Dempster is not that rare a trek!

I stopped to gaze at the Five Fingers Rapids. After several false starts in order to return to the car for such things as bear spray, water, rain jacket, bug dope, camera, I hiked down to a view point. The trees were mostly quite close to the path and lacking a bear bell, I whistled and sang my way along to avoid surprising a bear. The path led to a vantage point just beside the river. I looked out at the massive rocks and marvelled at how people had steered riverboats through the one navigable gap between them.

I did the obligatory selfie and returned to the car.

Just as I was pulling out the parking lot, I caught sight of some boats coming around a bend in the river. These, I guessed were participants in the Yukon River Quest, a race for canoes and kayaks from Whitehorse to Dawson City. I returned to the parking lot, informed the other tourists and stood on the view platform with binoculars and camera at the ready. You can see them above the spit of land near the far bank as some blobs. As I left, I photobombed a group of Holland-American cruise liner passengers who had alighted from their bus for a photo op.

I pulled into the Coalmine Campground for lunch only to find the parking lot full of RVs. I parked near the canteen. An older woman in a high-viz vest challenged me with the question: "Are you here for the River Quest or the canteen?"  I said the canteen and was allowed to leave my car where I had parked it. It seems that the Campground was a checkpoint and mandatory rest stop for the Yukon River Quest. While the management enjoyed the River Quest business, they wanted to make it easy for canteen customers to park. I did allow as how I intended to take a gander at the proceedings as well as eat, but she didn't mind.

The River Quest was quite the affair and I looked around and spent a few minutes looking at a board with names of the teams and which category they belonged to. The categories were described by letters and number such as C2 and K1. I deduced quite quickly that "C2" meant "2 person Canoe", but was take aback by "VC8". After scratching my head a bit, I came up with "8 person Voyageur Canoe". I asked a member of the staff if I was correct. She said I was, and ask if had I figured out "SUP"? I sheepishly said I hadn't tried. She said it was for "Stand-Up Paddleboard"! The idea of stand-up paddleboarding for 700 kms struck me as masochistic, but that wasn't my problem!

I got to Whitehorse in time to visit the Yukon Transportation Museum. The museum suffered from having too many "don't touch the artifacts" signs and not enough signs saying what the artifacts were. It did have a nice panel about a proposed bike route from Skagway to Whitehorse circa 1900.

The idea was risible in the extreme and consequently, it didn't happen. Afterwards, I had supper at the Kopper King (immortalised in Stan Rogers' Canol Road) then a soak at the Takahni Hot Springs.

The next morning, I had the worst experience of my trip. I had gone into the Yukon Liquor store in search of some liquid souvenirs. I was in the process of purchasing a couple of bottles of what turned out to be disappointing booze, when a First Nations woman came in and was brusquely told by a staff member that no backpacks were allowed in the store. She promptly turned around showing she was wearing a tiny backpack and walked out the door. The thing was, I was just about to put my purchases into my quite large backpack that I had been openly and casually wearing as I wandered up and down the aisles looking for something interesting. I felt extremely uncomfortable at what seemed to be open racism. And being a weak-willed coward, I didn't say a damn thing on the off chance that it was a case of someone with whom the staff had frequently had trouble and who had been given many warnings in the past. But it sure didn't feel right.

In the afternoon, I drove out to see David, Karen's amicably divorced ex-husband. He is currently in a shack next to a house that he co-owns with Karen. The house is in the process of being moved to foundations on higher ground as the level of the lake it is next to is rising.

I was impressed that the contractors were First Nations.

David is a character. He was going to take me on a hike nearby, though owing to a bad ankle, we cut it down to a fairly sedate walk up a gravel road. He regaled me with the names of countless mountains, valleys and hikes they had been on, of which I made no attempt to remember but merely smiled politely. One place we might have hiked was on land controlled by a mining company which had a sign asking people to report in, just in case. David told me that one time he had checked in with a mining company in order to go on a hike, he had ended up getting a job there as he had a degree in mining engineering! A few hundred metres up the gravel road, I spotted an area with numerous signs of recent human occupation. We looked around and did some observational archeology trying to figure just what had been going on there. My guess that people used the spot for celebrations, and had been for some time as there was cut timber which had been exposed to the weather for varying lengths of time. There was also an iron bedstead wedged into several trees. I would have said that it had been used for barbecueing meat, but there wasn't any signs of a fire being lit under it. Whoever they were, they deserve credit for leaving very little garbage.

We walked up the road for a few kilometers then turned around. As we neared David and Karen's pickup, I noticed a bright orange piece of plastic on the road. "You know, that looks like the safety cap from a can of bear spray." David agreed and after I checked to see that his can still had it's cap, he inspected mine. (Our cans were on our backpacks, close to hand, but hard to see.) The cap was mine.  (David commented that most people in the Yukon are glad that there are bears around but would rather not have to deal with them.) 

Back at David's cabin, we discussed a range of topics including geology, history, literature, TV. And dog-sledding as David has some 17 huskies.

As David is getting on in years, he is no longer adding new dogs and the average age of his pack is over 10. He introduced me to his pack and I managed to register only one of the names ("Katana"). I did manage to learn quite a lot about dog-sledding including a titbit he learnt from a professional racer when he was asked on TV about what qualities he looked for in a sled dog. He said he wanted a dog that could rest. David explained that almost all huskies can run well. However, huskies that can stop running and lie down and rest quickly are good as they recover their strength. He illustrated this by giving the example of one of his dogs who was always somewhat crazy and didn't settle down. (I met that particular dog and can testify that it was on the wild side.) He also had a very good eye for dog flesh and described Cirrus as having the makings of a good sled dog.

In dealing with the pack as well as several other huskies on this trip, I was struck by how much body language huskies have available. The mobility of their ears and the position of their tails make it relatively easy to figure out where they are emotionally.

In our historical discussions, David put forward his opinion that the Umbrella Final Agreement (a comprehensive and progressive land claims settlement signed in 1992) was one of the two significant events in Yukon history, the other being the Klondike gold rush. I agreed that both of them must be considered significant but thought that he should add a third event, namely the construction of the Alaska Highway. Before then, travel to and in the Yukon had been either very difficult or reliant on transportation companies (i.e. riverboats, the White Pass and Yukon Railroad, or aircraft). Afterwards, individuals could easily drive in and out of the area. I reinforced my argument by pointing out that it was shortly after the opening of the Alaska Highway that the capital of the Yukon was moved from Dawson to Whitehorse which then stood at the juncture of three major transportation networks (the railroad, the Yukon River and the Highway). He conceded the point adding that he had arrived in Whitehorse on a motorcyle via the then unpaved Alaska Highway in about 1980.

(In the interest of full disclosure, earlier in this blog, I referred to the three important events in the history of the Yukon. I got the notion from this conversation with David and claim only the addition of the Alaska Highway as being even remotely original.)

When I got back to Karen's, she and Kendra were setting off with Affry and Sirrus to go bike skijoring. This means the dogs were pulling the bikes that Karen and Kendra were riding. I must confess I felt nervous for them, but they seemed quite happy, especially the dogs!