EAAE: Carcross

 After our breakfast and morning tour in Dawson, Arthur and I travelled south on the Klondike Highway, past Whitehorse and on to Carcross, where we connected again with Teresa.  Teresa and her partner Pam generously allowed us to stay in their bunkhouse.  Arthur was again pleased to sleep in a proper bed :)

Southern Yukon is very beautiful, as of course is all of Yukon, but with beautiful lakes and forested mountains.  Teresa and Pam have waterfront property on a lake, very idyllic.  They can open the door and go canoeing, or snowshoeing in winter!

The following morning we visited Carcross, starting with the Carcross Desert.  The first thing we learnt about the Carcross Desert is that it isn't a desert!  It's actually a series of sand dunes.  Nonetheless it's fun to explore the dunes :)

Carcross is a cute little town, with a mix of First Nations, modern and gold rush influences.  There is a small shopping area at the entrance to town that embraces traditional Tagish art and architecture.

Carcross is on the White Pass and Yukon Railway, which operates between Skagway and Whitehorse, so there is a cute little train station!

I thought this 'leave a rock, take a rock' was a fun variation on the little free library movement!

We had the great good fortune to visit Carcross during the Haa Ḵusteeyí festival.  This is a celebration of Tlingit culture, and this year the Carcross/Tagish First Nation hosted Tagish communities from across their traditional territories in BC and Yukon. Events were based at the Cultural Centre on the shore of a chain of lakes that connect to Tagish Lake, Atlin, and other centres. 

We met up with Teresa at the ceremony.

The event we were privileged to witness was the canoe landing, where members of the Atlin community arrived by canoe.  

The drummer prepares everyone for the welcome ceremony.

There was a ceremony, where the Carcross Tagish chief challenged the arrivals (who are you, why are you coming to our community?) and received a response (we are family and friends, and are coming to celebrate with you!).  

The Carcross Tagish community then welcomed their visitors.  

In the video below, you can see the arrival of one of the canoes.  As it approaches, it carefully turns around so that it can come onto the shore stern-first, to emphasise the friendly intentions.  An enemy would dash in quickly, bow first, and avoid the vulnerability of the careful manuevering.

Unfortunately, we were not able to stay for the rest of the event, as we needed to be on our way.  We pushed on to see the famous sign forest at Watson Lake, and to be honest we were a bit underwhelmed.  

The gas station had some fun works of "art" made from old tires!

We then pushed on south on the Cassiar Highway, and spent the night at Dease Lake.  Arthur celebrated that it was his last night in a tent, as we would be in hotels for the remainder of the trip :)

EAAE Day 10-11 - Dempster Hwy return trip and visit to Dawson

Having successfully completed out Tuk rescue mission, we stayed a third night at Jak campground, and then we turned out vehicles back south on the Dempster Highway.  

Here's the map for today:

Our journey took us back across the Mackenzie River at Tsiigehtchik and on to Fort McPherson. This time we stopped into the town to find the memorial to the RNWMP's 1910 Lost Patrol.  It took a bit of looking around.  We were directed toward the church, and then looked around until someone said, hey, maybe it's under the flag...  OK, so maybe it should have been obvious!

We then pushed on back into Yukon, 

past Eagle Plains and made it to the Engineer Creek Campground.  Obviously, I needed a selfie!

 

Engineer Creek itself is very orange.

Next morning, we headed on our way.  Here is the map:

There was a bit of rain, so the vehicles got a bit muddy!

And then to the end of the Dempster Highway, where we parted ways from Tim and Matt. 

Tim and Matt continued on their way to Marsh Lake and points beyond, while Arthur and I headed for the Aurora Inn in Dawson (after almost two weeks of tenting, Arthur was very happy to sleep in a real bed!).

Arthur and I spent the rest of the day exploring Dawson, including a visit to the SS Keno, a paddlewheeler steamer that used to run on the Yukon River between Dawson and Whitehorse.

We also checked out the Trondek Hwichen Danoja Zho cultural centre.  

And we had a wander through the streets with the gold rush-era buildings, and visited the Dawson City Museum.

Dawson City Museum

The City Museum includes the original legislative chamber for the Yukon!

Another monument to the Lost Patrol, this time at the Dawson RCMP station.

We ate at the Bon Ton cafe where we enjoyed locally made cheese, bread and cold cuts, then took some time for a visit to the laundry - hooray for clean clothes!  After a comfortable night at the Aurora, we woke in the morning and found Robert Service's cabin

And also Jack London's cabin!

Then we hit the road and continued on our way south.

EAAE - food on the road!

 We ate well on our journey.  We patronised restaurants and eateries along the way, starting with an excellent dinner at El Tostador in Stewart, and continuing through many more great meals at various places on our journey.  

But we did not depend solely on restaurants, we also cooked for ourselves at various campgrounds along the way!

Before we left Terrace, Aileen set us up with a dozen pouches of homemade pancake mix.  I quickly adjusted to the difference between cooking with a small fry pan on a single burner stove instead of my usual big griddle.  Each package was the right size to feed four of us.

The yoghurt container was very handy as we were driving, we kept it in the truck with us as a garbage bin.  Perfect size for small things like eggshells, peach stones and the like.

In Inuvik, we enjoyed fried spuds and fresh veggies with our barbecue steaks.

Morning coffee and one of my favourite books - a collection of short stories by some of the world's best travel writers. I had great fun waking up early to make coffee with my little moka pot.