Posted by whalerho | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 12-09-2009
We left Dawson City to continue our southward trek and stopped for the night at a Yukon Government campground near the town of Carmacks. Carmacks was named for George Carmack who established a trading post here in 1885, hoping to strike it rich. He spent the next 10 years hoping for the mother lode of gold only to end up bankrupt. He moved his family to “Fortymile” and it was there his persistence paid off. He ended up extracting more than a ton of gold from the creek (which was renamed Bonanza Creek) and when his discovery reached the outside world, it sparked the Klondike Gold Rush. So cool to see history in person instead of just reading about it in books!
Our campground was beautiful and simple with the added benefit of having a huge wood burring stove in a big covered picnic area. Ken made a roaring fire in the stove with the free firewood and we sat by it feeling very toasty, enjoying our dinner. After our meal, we sipped tea with our freshly made banana bread. We were happy to welcome two women from Germany (Marian and Susie) who were visiting Canada. They won a two week trip complete with a big motor home. We had fun sitting with them by the warm stove and chatting about other treks they have made, including Iceland! Ken invited them for a tour of our RV as they had never seen a big class A before. They realized it is indeed a “home” instead of just a means of getting from place to place. In the morning, they were up to wave us good-bye. Now it’s off to Whitehorse, a place we visited in July with hopes of catching perhaps the end of the salmon run? Andrew’s is SO crossing his fingers (and toes! – Oops, is he missing a toe???)
We enjoyed our return to Whitehorse as the campground is great and the town had everything we needed. Ken made a stop at “Canadian Tire” which has SO much more than tires! We stayed a couple nights and then headed to Watson Lake which is the last place we will return to before heading off onto new territory. About 5 miles outside of Watson Lake, our RV engine started beeping. “What could this be?” I ask calmly, trying not to sound freaked out. Ken figured he could keep driving and get us to a service center but the engine started heating up so we had to park it along side the road. It wasn’t a very convenient spot to park our big rig as we kind of hung out into the road. Ken took the van and drove into the not so big town of Watson Lake. It was Saturday of a 3 day holiday weekend and we wouldn’t get the part (a belt was the prognosis) until Friday. It could have been SO much worse (as in we could have been in the middle of NOWHERE (which is where we spent the last couple months)) but it could have been so much better (in that we could have been in a town where they was actually something to DO!) but it all worked out. We started school that week so we just got really caught up! We also visited the Sign Post Forest to make sure our signs were still in tact. We had enough time to actually count all 60,000+ signs but passed on that idea! On Saturday morning, Ken helped the mechanic put in the belt and off we went on the Cassiar Highway, a new route for us.
