June 14, 15, 2008 : Days 12 and 13

June 14, 2008; Saturday; Day 12

The alarm went off at 0700 and up we reluctantly got up to get movin’ this morning. Stephen and I are fixing breakfast – SOS on biscuits and fruit salad. Also some of Nancy’s homemade apricot jam and butter. Am cooking the biscuits in the convection oven and although tiny – it works great but takes 4 loads to make a double batch of biscuits!

Have enjoyed the IPOD and our docking station. Speaker quality is wonderful and we seem to have a nice long battery capability! The guys went fishing again about 1000 hours in the fold-up boat while Sharon helped Janice and Pat with the photo printer again & received a couple of cool prints! Sun is out and looks as if we will hit high 60’s with our cloud cover and the breeze.

The afternoon was spent with writing postcards, downloading pictures, making the Dutch Oven savory roasts for dinner (I made two roasts per

Stephens encouragement, and had nary a bite leftover for the refrig!); camp & camper clean-up and a walk with the pooches and my Sweetie.

The guys returned about 1530 hours with having caught their limit but deciding that only 12 were worthy of filleting and freezing. We ate at our campsite again, adding fresh potato salad and bread to our roasts w/vegetables. It was an outstanding meal and the pups even got to eat the roast bones!

Bob took Janice and I for a 1 ½ hour boat ride enroute to the boat launch where we met the rest of the crew, dismantled the boat and headed back to camp to stow our gear. A campfire at our site, coffee, oatmeal cake, and conversation and all headed off to finish stowing and hit the hay. We were packed by 2200 hours and headed into the camper. Pooches were exhausted as were we. Daylight until midnight and it never does get dark.

June 15, 2008; Sunday; Father’s Day; Day 13

Up at 0600 hours – failed to put the heater on last night as it was warm in the camper but temp’s did fall to 43F overnight. Pups were anxious to hit the truck cab and we all rolled out of Tatchun Lake Park at 0658 hours.

We stopped about half an hour later at Beringia and had an impromptu Sunday Church Service. We marveled at how this group of six encompassed Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, and Presbyterian denominations. As we wound our way past Minto’s Whistle Stop we saw two Buck’s (Deer) in the foliage. Two massive fires (1995 & 1969) have resulted in the rebirth of the forests. The first plant to appear is the fire bush, followed by Poplars and then the Spruce trees.

Just north of Pelly Crossing as we crested the hill along the Klondike Highway we had to ‘duck’ for any potential aircraft. There is a grassy landing strip for small craft. Neat! We’ve noticed today that the road has some gentle ‘heaves’ at places from the perma frost . . . we are really North! The purple flowers that line the Klondike Highway are stunning. Pictures just don’t do them justice although we’ve attempted to by the number of pictures taken.

There are lots of lovely creeks and rivers; the McQuestern (named after the acknowledged Father of the Yukon) being one of our favorites for beauty and fishability.

We arrived at our campground just south of Dawson City after 1300 hours, set up and by 1500 hours were headed to Dawson City for sightseeing (after of course a much needed shower; shorts and tee’s being the order of the day for clothing with the heat!). The town of Dawson City is basically dirt/gravel road with boardwalks and pretty authentic. It’s a gold mining city whose mines has played out, used to be the capital of the Yukon and now is dependent on the tourist trade for a three scant months of revenue. The gold mines are currently under reclamation by the government.

We took a lovely walking tour of the city (where we had a wonderful ice cream cone) we headed up Dome Road and saw the vista’s of the rivers/town/mountains. The Yukon and the Klondike Rivers run together here. Tons of history and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. After pictures atop Dome Road we headed down the hill and saw a Black Bear and her twin cubs. The more pictures we took the worse our attempts at the perfect pictures were but we sure enjoyed the show!

Home to rescue pups; pay for the park and then a dinner of leftovers and soup. We walked the pups through the small gold mining park at the campsite and then it was time for popcorn for a movie snack and the movie, Tears of the Sun, on our DVD. We are leaving in the morning so have done some chores tonight to be ready to head off early. Will the sun never set?!?!?! Temperatures were in the 80’s with lots of sun, little or no wind and no cloud cover.

Miles traveled today were approximately 180.