WHITEHORSE, YT

July 1,  2011

HAPPY CANADA DAY !!! Eh?

The Canadians are thrilled with the Royal Tour.  The high today was about 60 degrees F with sunny skies after 9:00.  Our schedule took us to see the SS Klondike II. Steamships were used primarily to carry supplies and liquor to Dawson City.  It took a cord of wood per hour, or one 4 foot log every 30 seconds, to heat the water in the boiler to push out steam to produce steam to turn the pistons to move the paddle wheel.  Wood stations were located at many stops along the river.  The first SS Klondike sunk in only 6 feet of water when it ran aground on the Yukon River. The British Yukon Navigation Company salvaged the upper decks and all the mechanical parts for the SS Klondike II.  The stern wheeler could handle up to 300 Ton in only 4 feet of water.  The new and improved SS(stands for steam ship) Klondike II was a  carbon copy of the first riverboat and operated between 1937 to 1952.  In August 1955 the SS Klondike II came to rest at its current site. The seal oil they placed on the skids to slide the boat from the river was being licked off by wild animals and dogs so the riverboat was pulled down Main Street by two bulldozers and slid down the road by using 8 tons of Palmolive soap.


We took a boat trip up the canyon on Schwatka Lake for a relaxing (yawn) two-hour cruise to retrace the passage of US Army Lt. Frederick Schwatka and his small expedition that rafted down the Yukon River to the Bering Sea.  They had to pole their way through the narrow Miles Canyon channel and the Whitehorse rapids.  The rapids are now covered by Schwatka Lake which is a green turquoise color. 



Before lunch we decided to get some stamps in our Yukon passport books.  At the Old Log Church we were invited to make dream catchers which was really interesting.  We popped into the MacBride Museum of Yukon history and the Visitor Center to make sure we didn't miss anything entertaining.



We enjoyed fish and chips and an elk burger at Klondike Rib and Salmon BBQ while we watched the locals participate in Canada Day festivities.  The restaurant was constructed of metal siding similar to metal that forms culverts.  It is the oldest operating building in Whitehorse, YT.



On our way back to the Pioneer River RV Park we stopped at Yukon Transportation Museum at the airport where we saw the world's largest weather vane, a Douglas DC-3 that is mounted on a rotating weather vane, and the  and Beringia Interpretive Center that features a full size cast of the largest woolly mammoth ever recovered in North America.

 
We were advised that Whitehorse is the last place to shop for food where the price of groceries is "reasonable." It is light out here until 11:30 p.m. so there are roughly only 4 hours of darkness.   We will be in Canada until July 6 when we arrive in Chicken, AK.