Through the Yukon: Part One

Through the Yukon

June 13 - 14, Watson Lake to Whitehorse: 438 miles

Stopping for fuel at The gas bar 100 miles west of Watson Lake we hear that two days ago the generators in the town of Teslin failed. Without generators the gas bar (Canadian gas stations are gas bars) can't pump gas. The Teslin gas bar is the only other place to get fuel on a 150 mile stretch of the Alaskan Highway between Watson Lake and Johnson Crossing.

Teslin Totems

Folks will tell you that the Yukon is remote. They'll say that the population of the capital city is only 28,000 and at that size it holds 60% of the population for the entire territory, a land mass bigger than a whole bunch of big states combined (not having access to the internet, I can't look that up right now) But trying to calculate if you can make it to the next fuel pump, or should stay in town until Jack fixes the generation puts the remoteness of the Yukon in a new perspective.

Teslin,  the town sans generator mentioned earlier, is no exception. The visitor information center in Watson Lake hands out a flyer listing all the gas stations, restaurants, hotels and campgrounds between it and the capital of Whitehorse, 282 miles away. The flyer is double-spaced, 14 point font and one page. We've only had cell phones reception in one town, and there has been no data service in any of Canada. The only wifi to be had is via the painfully slow dial-up or satellite hotspots offered at various camps and information centers. There are a lot of trees, and lakes and mountains. The remoteness, at first, is discomforting, but after a little while it starts to feel good.

Teslin is in the middle of all these woods, and mountains, set on the shore of Teslin Lake, an 88 mile long, 2 mile wide lake that runs approximately east - west. It's the home of the interior Tlingit, a First Nation tribe that runs a very nice Cultural Center. You get the idea these folks were doing just fine being 'remote.' It is, in fact, not remote to them. It is the center of an amazing universe.

S.S.Klondike

And that's where we spent the night.

June 14, Whitehorse

The next morning we hit the road early, heading to Whitehorse. The plan was to set up camp early. Get into town, stock up and spend two days looking around.

Whitehorse is the capitol of the Yukon. For a territorial capitol, it's very small. Laid out on a 8 street by 24 street grid on the floodplain of the Yukon River, at the head of the navigable waters. Apparently S.D. and I are becoming acclimated to being out of town. Even as small as Whitehorse is, it didn't feel right. There were too many people and cars. The rain and clouds didn't help as we couldn't see any of the surrounding mountains.

After touring the S.S.Klondike, a 1937 stern wheeled steamboat, (which was really interesting) we walked around town, had lunch, bought groceries, filled up with diesel, and decided we'd move on tomorrow. We needed to get back into the country.