White Horse to Dawson City

It was laundry time and most of our gear needed drying so we stayed in a motel - The Yukon Inn. The exterior said old, but the interior was newly renovated including new RFID room keys (not affected by cell phone). Our room quickly filled with drying gear and Jeff hung extra lines to hang wet stuff. My down sleeping bag is supposed to be hydrophobic but that didn't stop it from smelling a bit funky after being damp for 3 days. Hope the smell goes away.

Hope nobody steals stuff from the bikes

Lizzy watching over stuff drying in the room

The desk clerk was a well made up native girl who had been partying too much over the last few days and was experiencing memory gaps. I got my room quote and put down the card, only to find there were several extras/gotchas i.e. extra person costs, room is not close to parking - it's second floor, oh, there is no elevator, oh, it's at the very end of the hall. I know we would have looked elsewhere had these facts been available at the start so perhaps her scatter brained approach was designed to benefit the house. At lest she let us park the bikes where the desk clerk and cameras could see them. There were several shady looking characters in the parking lot even though this place had a wide range of clientele.

We asked for dinner options and were pointed to go right up the street when in fact, our phones circled us back past the building and the best direction would have been go left.  KFC, A&W were not on our agenda so we ended up at Boston Pizza. What a mistake. The server could not understand us and mixed up the orders. We ordered the large beer and got the small pints. We ordered one brand and got the other. Clearly this server did not want to be here and wasn't afraid of sending that message to her customers. And finally, it seems that transportation costs significantly increase the cost of products in this city. Our bill was a surprise. Needless to say, the tip reflected our disappointment. This was not the best introduction to White Horse. Little did we know that a few blocks over, the old downtown had plenty of options that would have made us happy over the top.

Laundry was done early before the partiers got up. There was a lot of party in most of the rooms the night before. The smell of metabolizing alcohol permeated the halls.  Packing took some time but our bikes and license plates garnered interest from a Japanese tourist and his Canadian/Japanese guide. We answered their questions which were translated by the guide. The respect and protocol between the two was interesting to watch. Then, a German tourist and daughter, who were here for her birthday asked about the BMW bikes. They had flown from Germany to Alaska and White Horse. Today, they were taking a plane to a helicopter, which would take them to a glacier to hike on. A bit of cash being spent on that celebration but we had a few laughs with Jeff.

On the road with a pizzling rain that started to go away as we got further north. It did however get colder so we kept the fleece and rain jackets just to keep warm.

We stop at a historic site of the Montaque log road house that serviced miners and trappers at the turn of the century. This area must have been difficult with the short summers, cold winters and bugs, Bugs, BUGS. 

The bugs are bugging Cipi

Jeff and Cipi have more photos of this location

A bit further on, we stopped at the Five Fingers Rapids. This is a historic spot since the rapids prevented easy boat traffic until some brave soul executed a series of underwater explosion that destroyed the rock structure blocking the navigation channel. The location was popular with tourists. Whenever we thought - “what a remote location - we’re in the wilderness”, along came a bus or rental camper with tourists, many German or Northern European. A couple of red bulls and Snus to keep us alert and off we go.

Three Amigos at Five Fingers Rapids

The fat pig with a full load

Five Fingers in the distance. Thus area used to be ocean bed until the continents started colliding (a few years ago)

Road is fun to ride

Closeup of the rapids

Panorama of the view

Stewart Crossing - Cipi got what he was asking for: Kilometers of dirt road. On Google Maps, the section was paved but for this trip, I guess the road needed repair and didn't have budget for the full chip cover, so we had new gravel for a long section. We were following a number of vehicles which meant driving in constant thick dust clouds. The solution was pass, but speed was greeted with a wobble and wandering bike track. For Cipi, it was easy - I'm outta hear. Hit the throttle and he was gone. Jeff and I needed to ride back a bit to get comfortable and then we made our moves to pass the lead car. Again - what a way to learn - just in time and school of hard knocks rolled into one. We survived the test, which prepared us a bit more for the Dempster.


We stop just before Dawson for a break at a remote spot, Gravel Lake, and instantly, just as nature calls, the parking lot is filled with vehicles - how does that happen?? We meet a traveller from Texas who is roaming all over in his “mobile home” - a Saturn sedan with the rear seats removed and replaced with a bed. He is literally living from his car. He loves meeting people on his trip and is on his way to Brampton (yes - in Ontario), to stay with a family that invited him to visit and stay “any time”. The three amigos look at each other and silently promise to not invite him to visit us - ever.  

Gravel Lake. Had a great info sign on the history of the Jack Pine. Trees are definelty smaller here due to the growing season. Jack Pines need a fire to activate their seeds, so forest fires are part of the circle of life up here.

Gravel Lake pano

Cipi was itching to camp again, so we found a campground just outside of Dawson City, near their airport. We saw a 737 aircraft but later discover that the runway is made of gravel since pavement heaves too much with the permafrost. The 737 needs a gravel operations modification to operate on this runway but is kept busy shuttling tourists from Fairbanks for Holland America tour lines. That explains all the europeans wandering around Dawson City. 

In front of the Grocery store

We do a quick tour of town, buy food and water from the grocery store. There is no liquor store but all hotels offer off site sales at near beer store prices. Dinner is cooked over a camp fire. Wood is free with the $12 camp fee but Jeff borrows an axe to chop wood. It turns out the axe lender is a player in a reality show about gold mining which is filmed near Dawson city. These trips never fail to deliver a source of interesting people to meet. 

Chillin' in camp

The chop meister ...

Inspecting the sausage

While this photo may seem rude, the fire cooked sausages and foil wrapped baked potatoes, baked in the wood coals tasted amazing. We head to bed without a shower since Yukon campgrounds do not offer showers. This would become mildly interesting as we head further north. Tomorrow we hit the dempster and it's hard to get to sleep thinking about that.