The Speares

Dawson City June 2019

Last year we did left and right, so this year it's up and down. Or up anyway. The goal is Whitehorse, Kluane and Dawson City to see where Pierre Berton used to live beside Robert W. Service down the street from Jack London. They call the area Writer's Block.

 

June 5 Wawa

The Best Northern is becoming our go-to motel when we travel up this way. The motel itself is just an adequate motel but the restaurant is what makes people come here. I had the Hungarian Potato Pancakes and Deb had the Polish Sampler. Yummy.

 

June 6 Kenora

The next day found us in Kenora. We've been through here before looking for gas but have never spent the night. We stayed at the Comfort Inn, which is an okay 2 star with a deer eating the flowers for some reason. We ate at the Lake of the Woods Brewing Company which was great. Good beer and adequate bar kind of food.

 

June 7 Flin Flon

The drive up highway 6 was not nearly as pretty as I was expecting from looking at the map. It's all clear cut around the highway and everything is so flat that you can't see the scenery even though you're following the shores of several large lakes. Once you get near Flin Flon the scenery becomes more like Northen Ontario. We had booked at a very reasonably priced hotel downtown which made you itchy and wish you had a gun when you walked into it; unfortunately their water heater had just blown up so we had to cancel and move down the road to the Prospector hotel in Creighton, just on the SK side. Very nice 2 star and extremely reasonable, with a very adequate 2 star restaurant.

 

June 8 Lac la Biche

Our first critter sighting today. Scenery is quite different doing the northern route. No prairies at all, more like northern Ontario. There are still wildfires up north and the smoke smell started around Cold Lake but so far it's not so bad. We lucked out with the Canalta hotel, a brand new hotel a bit outside town for a very cheap rate. Supper was at Tom's Pizza and Steakhouse, excellant restaurant, but all we could eat was soup and salad on account of a mediocre all you can eat lunch at a chinese place in Prince Albert earlier that was still being processed.

 

June 9 Fort Nelson

The scenery changed dramatically on this drive from Northern Scruffy to Upper Lattitude Prarie. Enroute we went through Dawson creek which is mile zero of the Alaska highway. The theme for the Alaska highway is critters, and we saw a dead giant deer of some sort and of course a bear or two. For lodging we stayed at the motel 6 which is an entirely adequate 2 star motel. Get the second floor to avoid traffic noise if you stay here. Dinner was at the Boston Pizza next door, so pretty competent yet standard fare.

 

June 10 Muncho Lake

The drive from Fort Nelson to Muncho Lake was another dramatic change in scenery. Shortly after Fort Nelson you get into more mountainous terrain and much more sketchy highway. At one point the highway became loose gravel and so of course we got a rock on the windshield that we'll have to deal with when we get home. This makes a new windshield and two repairs in 4 months for the little Mazda CX5. The Mazda continues to be the best possible vehicle for a road trip except for the inexplicable climate controls and the inexcusable navigation system. Anyhow, at Muncho Lake we stayed at the Northern Rockies Lodge which is a 5 star gem in the middle of the wilderness. Our room wasn't ready so off we went to Liard River Hot Springs, a nice place to soak and unwind after a lot of driving. Just watch out for the critters on the road, in this case Buffalo. After a good soak it was back to the lodge. We got the cheapest room we could; a bit too rustic for me and I think next time I would spring for a better room. Dinner was fabulous however; Deb had the Goulash and I had the Schnitzel.

 

June 11 Whitehorse

The trip from Muncho to Whitehorse can best be described as critter viewing. There were Moose, Sheep (or Goats, not sure), Bison, Elk, Bear and a Coyote. We pulled into Whitehorse around 6:00 and were immediately underwhelmed by the city. It's pretty much like any other northern town. Lots of rich tourists and infrastructure, a lot more folks of lesser means trying to do their thing. The hotels seemed to be booked up, apparently from 6 busloads of Americans off the boats in Skagway. So we found ourselves at a little B&B that was extremely odd - more of a student residence. Our room was modern and OK, but the big common area downstairs where you make your own breakfast in the morning was the dormy bit. The young lady downstairs was inviting her friends in and one of them, a strapping great gentleman, seemed quite interested in the contents of the common fridge. So I took our beer upstairs. Supper was great, we ate at the Klondike Rib & Salmon. Deb had the Elk Carpachio and Arctic Char; I had the Hallibut. Just a brisk stroll past the drunks arguing some finer point of their heritage and back to the B&B.

 

June 12 Hike Around Whitehorse

The first morning we woke up to a strapping great gentleman sleeping on the couch in the common area. He didn't seem chatty so we did our best to ignore him whilst making coffee. Afterwards we walked around the downtown walking tour which takes you a little ways out of town to the place where the helicopter picks up buckets of Salmon fry to take to various lakes. That was interesting. Supper was at Giorgio's Cuccina. I had seafood pasta and Deb had the salmon salad. Pretty good. While we were eating the RCMP showed up at the attached hotel and carted off someone's grandmother.

 

June 13 Grey Mountain Summit

No homeless people on the couch this morning. Things are looking up. There's a hike a little ways out of town where you can drive all the way to the top and then just walk the alpine bits to the summit. So off we went. The directions are a little twisty to get to the trailhead so we took a wrong left to the hospital and had to double back onto the main road. Now here's the interesting thing about school zones in Whitehorse. There's one sign at the beginning of the zone which may or may not have a speed limit on it (it is 30 kph). There is one sign at the end. This is on the main road. If you enter the school zone in the middle for some reason there will be no sign, just a friendly RCMP officer handing out $100 tickets. My first ticket in over 3 decades. Anyhow, we found the road leading to the trail head but it was exceeding my skill and that of our little Mazda's, so we parked 2/3 of the way up in a little turnaround spot and hiked from there. A very spectacular hike considering it's only a little ways out of town. Afterwards we went to Takhini Hot Springs which is a cement pond full of very hot water and swirls of pink stuff which is apparently iron. Supper was back at the Rib & Salmon, where I had the ribs and Deb the carpachio and salmon skewers. Very tasty.

 

June 14 Kluane

This was to be the only respectably nice day the whole time we were in the Whitehorse area so we decided to go to Kluane for the day. The travel info guy said he liked the King's Throne hike so we did that. Very steep and gravelly as you would expect for a mountain, and after a couple of hours we were on the saddle, or alpine cirque that is the king's throne. From there you can carry on and do the summit but, being old, we decided to hike down the scree while we were uninjured.

 

Afterwards we drove to the other end of the park to see the sheep on Sheep Mountain. Turns out there are no sheep on Sheep Mountain. But we did see Slim's River. Global warming has reversed the course of the runoff coming off of the glacier that used to feed Slim's River, so now it is just a giant dust plain with dust devils and everything. We also hiked Soldiers' Summit, not so much a hike as a memorial to where the two crews working on the Alaska Highway met up.

 

June 15 Dawson City

We got up nice and early and made the drive north for Dawson today. Very pretty highway, but you have to pay attention as the shoulders are suicidal. I don't know what you do if you break down on this road. A bit back from Dawson is the start of the 736 km Dempster Highway which goes to Inuvik on the Arctic Ocean. We'll do that one another time. Anyhow, Dawson is neat. Getting accomodation here is dicey so if you do the route make sure you have a place to stay. We somewhat lucked out and happened to call the Dawson B & B just after they got a cancellation, so were in. A very enjoyable B & B with great owners. After checking in we did the walking tour which had a guide and a period actor and took in a few of the old timey restored buildings that are owned by Parks Canada exclusively for the walking tours. Supper was at Klondike Kate's and was very good. Deb had the Salmon Duo followed by another Salmon. I had the seafood chowder followed by Elk and Bison sausage.

 

June 16 Paddlewheeler Graveyard

Today was cloudy going on drizzly. We started the day with a hike around the town on the 9th Ave. trail which goes past the Moosehide Slide. On this walk we took the little ferry across the Yukon that joins up with the Top of the World Highway bound for Alaska. On the other side there's a campground that you can walk through and end up at the Paddlewheeler Graveyard which is cool. An old steamboat that didn't make the corner and is sitting on the beach rusting away. Afterwards we attended the Robert W. Service "tour" which is more of a very good period actor telling the story of Service and the writing of the Sourdough poems. Liquor stores aren't open on Sundays or Mondays here for some reason, which was to be our next outing. Lucky we have plenty of beer. Supper was at the Drunken Goat, a very decent Greek restaurant. We shared the Appy Platter for Two which was pretty much a meal unto itself, all Dolmodes and such. We also shared a single order of Lamb Chops which were superb.

 

June 17 Northern Lights Resort

Time to leave Dawson, so back down the road to Whitehorse, but this time straight through town to the NLR about 20 kilometres south. This is a really 5 star resort in the bush with mountains in the back yard and apparently a grizzly from time to time in the parking lot. After a warm welcome from the hosts we had a jacuzzi and then relaxed until supper, which was excellent. Deb had the tomato soup and chicken and I had the corn fritters and pork loin in a soy reduction.

 

June 18

Miles Canyon

The hosts showed up promptly at 8:00 (when we said to) with a nice little breakfast, some of which we packed up as lunch and then headed off to Miles Canyon. Miles Canyon is a narrow bit in the river made of those hexogonal lava things which tend to erode straight down, making for a particularly steep and narrow gorge. Back in the day it caused quite a problem with the barge traffic. Now it's an interesting hike. Afterwards it was back to the resort for supper. This time I had the soup and chicken and Deb had the salad and salmon.

 

June 19 Mountain Shadow Iskut

This was a travel day so we headed east and south from Whitehorse along the Stewart-Cassiar highway. A very scenic drive but not one you can sleep through. And it was raining buckets. We were warned to get food in Dease Lake because there's not much going on in Iskut. Our accomodations were a very rustic but great cabin in an RV park in the shadow of a mountain (as the name implies) and there was a terrific mountain lake on the property that had lots of fish jumping at flies. Supper was sandwhiches from the last resort with those awful noodle soup things that just need hot water.

 

June 20 Smithers

Another travel day. This day got us out of the bush and into more civilized areas. Smithers is a fairly big town in the mountains. We got here a bit early so had time for a hike to the Malkow Lookout, which is a trail through a farm up to the top of a communications tower road. It was a bit muddy so you could plainly see the bear footprints. Didn't see any bear feet though. Supper was at a great sushi place, the Blue Water, where we had the Tuna Temptations (tuna sashimi, tuna tataki, and more tuna), the house rolls and a chicken terryaki rice bowl.

 

June 21 Jasper

Last day on the road for a bit. We made it to Jasper after braving Prince George which is awful to drive through after a week or two on back roads. Our cabin was mostly as we remember a similar cabin from last time, but this one was oriented wrong so we had views and sounds from neighbours sometimes. We met up with Laura our daughter after her work and had her over for some home-made vegan chili.

 

June 22 Five Lakes

Laura worked today so we did a hike on our own. There was still quite a lot of snow at altitude so the travel info guy said to do a level hike such as 5 lakes. Not a bad hike, and you can start right in Jasper if you have the time. When Laura got off work we had supper at the Kimchi House which as a great Korean place.

 

June 23 Sulphur Skyline

Today we had Laura with us so we did a more ambitious hike. Sulphur Skyline starts from Miette Hot Springs and goes pretty much up right from the get-go. After a short while we found ourselves in rain and snow but persevered to get some amazing views at the top. Afterwards we saw a bear right in the roundabout at the entrance to the springs.

 

June 24 Lake Annette Beach

Yes, there are beaches in Jasper. You can hike to Lake Annette right from the cabin. Then it was back to said cabin for some home-made soup and spaghetti.

 

June 25 Old Fort Point

Laura was back at work, so we did a little hike on our own. Old Fort Point is for the gringos, as it has stairs and paving and such, but still a good stiff climb to get some great views of Jasper.

June 26 Russell

Time to go home. We decided to do the drive in 3 brutal days, so the first day got us all the way to just inside Manitoba, even though we had to go through Saskatoon. We won't be runnin' back there anytime soon. The Trans-Canada becomes the Trans-Saskatoon and if you hit it just right at around 4:30 in the afternoon it will take you about an hour to make a left turn at one of the lights. When we got through Saskatoon it was relatively clear sailing to the Manitoba border. We stayed at the Jolly Lodger, a completely adequate roadside motel. Supper was a take-out pizza we picked up enroute.

 

June 27 Thunder Bay

Thunder Bay is an ok place for your last night on the road if you like eating at The Keg and you don't mind a gruelling drive the next day and getting home at Moose time. So this is what we did. Of course, we had lunch at Old Woman Bay.

 

Anyhow, another great trip but it might be a while now before we do another epic roadtrip. they're quite tiring.

 

 

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