July 2nd - July 3rd

We got up this AM and said goodbye to Whitehorse but not before we had the truck & RV washed. A couple of days of rain and road construction really did a number on the vehicles and this is not the last.  A couple of shots from Whitehorse...

We took our time and drove about halfway from Whitehorse to Dawson City. We drove about 45 MPH (Biker Arda thinks she could keep up on her bike – HA!) and stopped at several places before selecting our camp spot for the night.

We did see some very interesting sights. It is very difficult to explain the ruggedness of this land or capture it in pictures. The roads for the most part are excellent. The worst parts seems to be under construction but we know we have some "maintained" gravel roads to drive after we leave Dawson City so we'll let you know what happens.

We decided to dry camp at McGregor Creek (mile 142 on the Klondike Loop). There is nothing here but small trees, which have grown back since a fire in 1995, some open fields and us. BA thinks she may see some animals as we have only seen squirrels and magpies today.

We didn't see any animals but we were safe… at least we woke up in the morning. We had another 180 miles to go to Dawson so we just took our time. It was a beautiful morning with the sun shining and very few clouds in the sky. In fact, the temperature was in the 80's by the time we reached Dawson. We did stop a couple of time to see the views… they are gorgeous.

About our clean truck and RV... they are not clean  anymore.  We ran into construction about 30 miles north of where we camped and that was all she wrote about being clean!

One place we stopped was Gravel Lake that is used by many migratory birds on their way north or south, depending on the time of the year, as the vegetation is very rich because of the minerals in the soil.

We did see a couple of wild animals today… a shrew and a muskrat plus some birds. Our list of animals now include:
• Muskrat
• Shrew
• Ground Squirrels

• Moose – young bull still with velvet on his antlers at Don & Gale’s in Schroeder MN. Plus a calf on the side of the road.

• Cows

• Dogs

• Horses

• Cats

• Antelope – North of Sheridan and all the way to Shelby

• Sand-hill Cranes – in Belfry MT

• Pheasants – in Belfry MT

• Bison

• Stone Sheep

• Bears – Sow w/2 cubs and another Black Bear.

• Magpies

As I said earlier, the roads have been reasonably good. It seems I may have spoken a little too soon as the closer we got to Dawson the more we experienced the "frost heaves". The bigger ones weren't too bad as you could avoid the worst part but the smaller ones just crept up (should I say gotcha!) and away we went a rockin' and a rollin'. We were lucky as everything stayed where it was supposed to in the trailer.

When we reached Dawson, we set up camp in the Goldrush Campground, which is located right downtown. We actually walked the entire town in about 30 minutes and we weren't walking fast. All the streets are dirt, even the main street and most of the buildings have been restored either, to their original state and use or are now used for other businesses. There is a lot of hotels, bars, restaurants, plus 1 grocery store and a hardware store.

Did you know? 200 lbs of bacon, 800 lbs of flour, 200 lbs of corn meal, 150 lbs of beans, 75 lbs of sugar, 150 lbs of dried fruit, 50 lbs of rice, 75 lbs of coffee, and 1 case of condensed milk were on the list of mandatory goods each person had to bring over the Chilkoot Pass to the gold fields.

Keep your loops open!