YUKON TERRITORY

Wednesday we spent the day on Chena Lake, North Pole, Alaska.  It was wonderful to relax and finish my book.  Remember, I bought a book in Chicken entitled Tisha about Anne Hobbs who in 1927 had the courage not only to brave the Alaska wilderness as a teacher in Chicken but also to face down the community's violent disapproval when she dared to treat the local Indians as human beings. It's a good read for anyone looking for a bit of Chicken history.

The Fireweed has gone by which means summer is over here

Late that afternoon, we hit the road and drove to Tok for our second visit there.  We knew exactly where to stop for fuel, dump, water and RV wash.  We drove a short ways to Beaver Creek, Yukon. Denis found a nice place to spend the night.  We tucked in beside Our Lady of Grace Mission.  It was built in 1961 from a salvaged Quonset hut.  It's one of three Catholic missions on the north Alaska Highway and has masses the third Sunday of every month during the summer.

All tucked in for the night

Thursday morning we woke early and drove 30 miles at no more than 30 mph on loose gravel and frost heaves to White River RV Park just south of Beaver Creek and bordering Kluane Wildlife Santuary. What a beautiful spot with full hookups, wi-fi and grizzly bears popping in to say hi every once in a while.  We are deep in the wilderness of the Yukon and not surprised that our cell phones are useless.

Now doesn't that simplify things?

Most westerly community in Canada

Spotted these swans from a distance and stopped for a zoom

Cheers!

It was a day for washing the rig, baking bread, laundry and a little house cleaning.  Before I knew it the day was almost over and I hadn't even taken a walk around the park.  After dinner, we got to walk the park, check out the helicopter that they use to bring people out to the bush for exploration and gold drilling and we checked out the animal mounts in the lodge.

They have a large collection of fully intact moose antlers

Inside the reception area of the lodge

Around 7:30  we heard a knock at the door and we were invited to a bear hunting jeep ride.  About fifteen of us climbed aboard a 1942 military jeep and off we went.  We didn't spot any bears but the ride was an adventure and our guide was a self-proclaimed historian of the area and a bit of a comedian.  We were all beginning to wonder if our guide was ever going to bring us back to the campground, it was cold and we were getting silly.  He didn't bring us back to the campground until 11:00, of course, the only way you'd know that is by looking at the clock, the skies were still bright. 

Everyone's waiting for our jeep adventure

The 1942 jeep just keeps on going

We didn't see bears but we did see evidence - tree with bear hair, scat and tracks

This is what the skies look like at 11PM