02 August 2006
Day 17: Eagle to Whitehorse
Woke around 7 AM to the sound of rain on the tent. Rolled over, went back to sleep. Woke again later to continued rain. Went back to sleep. Woke to really heavy rain. Groaned, went back to sleep. Woke again at 9:15 AM; still raining hard; finally admitted I couldn’t out-sleep the rain and got up. Packed away my very soggy tent and left without breakfast. Headed down the soggy muddy roads from Eagle (so much for the washed car) and headed over the pass into Canada and eventually down to Dawson City. It was raining about 80% of the time.
To reach Dawson City from the west, you have to get across the Yukon River. There is no bridge spanning the Yukon River at Dawson City; instead, a free ferry carries cars and pedestrians across the river. This is a very small ferry, with room for maybe six cars, or two RV (and yes, they get plenty of RVs). Dawson City itself is well-preserved from a hundred years ago (apparently, they had tourist traps a hundred years ago). I didn’t feel like killing the rest of the day in Dawson City (in the rain, yet), so I continued on toward Whitehorse. I was feeling tired, and intended to stop early at Carmacks, but the hotel there had no vacancies, so I had to drive another 100 miles to Whitehorse (there’s only one hotel in between, and it was closed).
I reached Whitehorse fairly late, and checked in to the hotel across the street from the one I stayed at on the way up (a couple weeks ago now).
First order of business: start recharging all of my batteries.
Second order of business: get food (I had almost nothing to eat all day).
Third order of business: sleep.
There were fourth and fifth orders of business, which I never got to, thanks to number 3.
Departed Eagle at 9:40 AM AKDTArrived Whitehorse, Yukon (60°43'N, 135°3'W) at 9 PM PDT
Sun: 5:36 AM - 10:36 PM
Distance to Seattle: 1,042 milesDistance driven: 469 miles
Total driven: 6,090 miles
2 August 11:10 PM PDT