Sept. 28th Drive to Keno and Carmacks

Today is Caroline's birthday. Caroline Ursula Baker (CUB) was named after the town Oberursel in Germany. As we drove to Keno today we spotted a mother bear and 2 cubs by the roadside. I backed up the car so I could get my camera, but a big truck drove by the bears and scared them. I only got shots of the mother and 1 cub running away. But we got to see a cub on CUB's birthday.

Keno is almost a ghost town. In the summer 28 people live in Keno and work the tourist trade. In the winter, 10 people live there. The town was the home of a silver mine from 1920 to 1988. When the mine shut down the people left and now the whole town is a museum.Things don't rust very quickly in the Yukon.   We had lunch in the Keno hotel and we appeared to be the only tourists in town. The hotel bar was straight out of the sixties. 

Cub

She Bear

Old Truck

Gone bust

The old bar

Sept. 27 Tombstone Territorial Park

First Light

It was another early start as I drove to Tombstone to attempt the Grizzly Lake hike. This time the weather was beautiful – cool but sunny. I started hiking a half hour before sunrise. I expected the hike to take 1 ½ hours to the first lookup and 1 more hour to the second lookup. The trail to the second lookout was much more challenging than the first lookout. The trail through the scree was difficult to follow since I was always looking down. I needed to look up every 15 meters to check I was still on the trail. When I went through areas of solid snow I used the footprints from a previous hiker (Anthony) to follow the trail. I found the checkpoint, took my pictures and headed back down. Going down was as difficult as going up. When going from a snowy patch to a rocky section, my boots were slippery for the first few steps. Also the sun had melted the mud in places and the track was greasy. In the end it took 2 ½ hours to ascend and 10 min less to descend.

Tombstone Mountain

In the afternoon Joan and I walked around Dawson in the sunshine, and we took pictures of the western style buildings.  Dawson is the second largest town in the Yukon.  It has 2,200 people and the main town is 8 blocks by 8 blocks with most buildings nicely restored.

Dawson  - Front Street

Sept. 26 Tombstone Territorial Park

Dawson City sits in a narrow valley. It shares the valley with the Yukon river, a large fast running river. Every morning when we get up, the valley is socked in with fog, due to cold and water. This morning was exceptionally thick, but we packed up and drove to Tombstone Park anyhow. Near the park we crested a hill and voila, the fog cleared and the sun shone brightly. It was the sunniest day we have had in the park. We planned to do a hike, but the trail we chose petered out before 1 km, so we drove the car from spot to spot stopping for picture breaks every 10 km. At one point we turned back due to a storm coming, and the storm never caught us. For the first time we were able to see Mount Tombstone.

Joan in front of a gravel pile for winter sanding

One of the many pyramid mountains in the park

Mount Tombstone with its head in the mist

A storm approaching

Sept. 25th Tombstone Territorial Park

Anthony

I was on the road at 6:00 this morning with plans to hike to Grizzly Lake and return. The weather forecast was cloudy with some sun around 11:00. Since sunrise is at 8:00 it was dark when I started. Within 15 km of Dawson I saw a bear on the road. The bear took off quickly but I could see it was all black. Just a black bear, not a Grizzly. When I got to the Dempster Highway, it started to rain. I did all 60km on the gravel road, in the rain, in the dark. I drove into the trail parking and was surprised to see another car already there. Since the rain was heavy I sat in the car for an hour and a half, drinking bad coffee and listening to my iPod. At 9:15 I decided to pack up and go home. The rain was solid and I couldn't see any mountains. I was peeing in the parking lot, when a girl walked in from the road. She looked like she had had a rough night – way too much alcohol. She walked by me to her car, checked the stuff beside her car and came back to talk with me. She got lost in the woods yesterday and had spend the night in the woods. When the light came this morning she had followed a river until it hit the road, and she walked back to the car. She had been with her boyfriend Anthony and his brother and she had lost the path on the way back. The gear beside her car was theirs and they must be out searching for her. She was going to walk back up the path to look for the brothers, but I volunteered to hike up and look for them while she rested. Off I went, and 1.5 km up the trail I found Anthony's brother. He was sitting under a large tree which protected him from the rain, with a small fire going. He was waiting for Anthony who was out searching. I gave him the news and carried on. About 2 km later I came across Anthony. He told me he had walked the trail to Grizzly Lake and back 4 times during the night looking for his girlfriend. I gave him the news and down he went. I went up to the lookout, and by the time I got there the rain had turned to snow. I took a few pictures, but I could not see the big mountains, so I descended. At least I was useful.

Snowcaps

Sept. 24th Tombstone Territorial Park

We drove the Dempster Highway all the way through Tombstone Park. The park stretches from km 51 to km 116. The trip took 2 hours because the gravel road is slow and we took many photo breaks. The park facilities are closed for the season so we ate lunch in the car. The temperature was plus 4, but the wind was strong as it whistled down the valley. After lunch we hiked up Goldensides mountain for 2 km and then back. We actually met 2 other tourists hiking the same path. That made at least 6 tourists in the 2,200 sq km park.

Peaks surround the valley

This lake is 3 km from the Continental Divide.

Mountains at the north end of the park

Joan hiking up Goldensides Mountain

Sept. 23 Top of the World Highway

Dawson is 105km from the US border. It is connected to the US by the Top of the World Highway. The highway follows an old indigenous path on the top of the mountains. The Highway is gravel and has some wonderful views of the valleys along the way. We started the drive in cloud and fog, but as we went up for the first 12km, the sun soon appeared, Again we found the driving to be incredibly slow as I stopped for photos every 10 km. It took us 5 hours to cover the 200km there and back.

Fall colours on the hills

US and Candian Customs are in the same building

Our reward at the end of our drive.