Teslin, Yukon to Whitehorse, Yukon

A sorry day with no wildlife sightings, perhaps because the highway is busy, with more traffic than we’re accustomed to, and the drive to Whitehorse is a short one compared to the distances we’ve been traveling most days.

The drive from our “resort” into Teslin takes us across Nisutlin Bay and the longest bridge on the Alaska Highway. It is so jaw droppingly beautiful this early morning we turn around and drive across again….yes we do!

We hang around Teslin this morning in order to visit a couple of “attractions”. The Northern Wildlife Museum displays all manner of animals which reside in Yukon Territory. They’re stuffed, but the exhibits are detailed and life-like. The diorama entitled “Last Morning” gives me pause. A moose is surrounded by wolves and is about to be brought down. The caption reads “no matter how powerful or clever, each one of us will have a last morning”.

The George Johnston Museum tells the story of a Tlingit Indian man who chronicled the lives of his people through photography, (he developed his own photographs). George brought the first and only car to Teslin in the 1920’s with money from his prosperous fur trapping business. The only road he had to drive on was one he constructed with help from some friends. It was three miles long. In winter months, though, when the lake was frozen over, he drove for miles and miles. He painted the car white in winter for camouflage so he could use it for hunting. He fueled it with naptha and when a tire blew he patched it with moose hide and wire. Ingenious! The car now sits in the museum, completely restored. They say there were so many layers of paint on it that it was difficult to discern the original color, (seems to be black). The museum teaches a lesson in perspective as it tells the story of the Alaska Highway from the Tlingit point of view. The highway changed their isolated life style and brought measles, chicken pox and interference from the outside world in the form of religious conversion and loss of their children to government sanctioned boarding houses.

Last stop in Teslin is the Tlingit Heritage Centre to view their stately totems.

It’s a short jaunt to Whitehorse. We pass the Inn on the Lake a lodge recently featured in Martha Stewart Living. Martha herself has stayed here. We are definitely not in Martha Stewart mode or mood today.

The landscape is drier as we move north. The once grassy verge is now brushy with bare patches of soil and rock.

We traverse a high clearance bridge with extremely low guard rails. Yikes.  It’s built high to accommodate the steamers that once plied the river. When we get to Whitehorse we visit the SS Klondike, the last steamer on the river, which was retired in 1955.

The mighty Yukon River rises near here from Lewes River Marsh. It’s the principal river of the Yukon Territory and Alaska. Trappers and gold prospectors numbered in the 10’s of 1000’s used it for transportation.

We are issued a free parking pass in Whitehorse, thanks to a tip from Button, so we can park at any meter and not have to plug it. Pretty cool.

Tonight we go out on the town to a show called “The Frantic Follies”. It’s a vaudeville type performance based on the gold rush. The actors have great timing. Their jokes are corny, (Tom Brown, there is a market for your humor!), but they make them hilarious. “I shot the dog.” Was he mad?” Long pause. “Well he wasn’t pleased.” And to the Australians in the audience: “How does it feel to be standing right side up?” Add some ragtime, banjo music, Robert Service poetry, and the Can-Can and it was lots of fun.

It’s over at 10pm and as we walk back to the truck it’s still daylight.

Turkey sandwiches for lunch. We found the sliced turkey in the way back of our over-stuffed frig.

Wildlife count: 0

Airstreams: 1

Miles: 129

Gratitudes: PKB: fresh flower bouquets in the RV shower room JMB: home cooking in the Airstream

Gin Score: J: 765 P: 850

Frantic Follies

Nistulin Bay