Ponts sur la Yukon

Bridges Over The Yukon

A.M. Dawson City the plan is to ride south down the Klondike highway to the capital of the Territory Whitehorse. The sun is shining and the forecast calls for the temps to be in the mid-twenties. We have a delightful breakfast then load the bikes. I wire tie a doll to Huckleberry’s mirror.  No fob drama at all, and we roll over to Petro Canada to fill our tanks. Full tanks and empty bladders Huckleberry wants to film Dawson from her racy windscreen movie camera. She went down one street then I went down the other. I wanted to be in the movie.

South bound just before the junction with the Dempster two riders pass us and then I see them turn up the mud road that got to me last year. All I can think is they must be pure of heart mostly to get to ride the Dempster when it is dusty!

We roll along the Klondike. It is not a very interesting highway. Mostly a straight line heading South East. The chip sealed surface makes a little rumble, and big bugs make a little sting as their exoskeleton collide with my leather protected leg.
Up ahead a lodge looms Moose Creek. Just how many places are named Moose Creek in the North?  Perhaps the koch brothers would give me a grant to find out?

Moose Creek Lodge is a authentic rustic lodge, just like we used to have in laska before major cruise companies wiped out all the small operators.
The prison (tour) bus was just leaving as we pulled in, and it took the two woman staff just a bit to recover from the on slot, but soon we were feasting on homemade strawberry rhubarb and blueberry tarts, washed down with steaming fresh brewed restaurant caned coffee. The parking lot was full of shots.

We met Dave. A rider from England. He started in Seattle on a new bike and had been riding to Anchorage, Fairbanks, Prudhoe Bay, Dawson, and Inuvik.  He saw other riders and wanted to talk. We chatted for a while and he never got off his bike or took off his hemit (required in Canada)

If you were traveling downstream or north on the Klondike you would see the Yukon get larger, but as we cross one of only four bridges on the river we should see the river shrink. So much glacier melt is flowing down the Stewart and the Pelly that the Yukon remains dark brown and bank to bank.
Zumo is in Km mode, but my tank is in gallons. The math is not working out so we pull into Stewart Crossing for petrol. My only credit card that works in Canada will not work. I pay cash.

We stop at Five Finger Rapids. This is where during the Klondike gold rush several paddle wheel river boats, and there passengers met there end. Today the rocks of five finger rapids are under lots of water courtesy of melting glaciers.

Yukon River At 5 Finger Rapids

At our next fuel stop my credit card will not work. I pay cash again. My credit card company that I called and told I was going on holiday, where I was going on holiday, and for how long I was going on holiday,  has locked my card because get this I am using my card on holiday. Fortunately we will be in Whitehorse soon and they might still have a public phone as our amerikan phones haven’t worked since Chicken.

We are staying at Casey's B&B I have written down the phone number but not the address, brilliant. Coming into town we pull into a petrol station thinking they might have a public phone but low and behold my phone has a signal! I get the address zumo knows right where we need to go, and now I can call my credit card company.

Seams that even though I called before leaving home, the system has locked my card. We had a meaningful exchange of thoughts and ideas, ok I was raging at the reps, but my card works again and I am on holiday.