Today is a beautiful fall day. We set off to visit downtown Whitehorse. Our first stop was the stern wheeler SS Klondike. This is actually the second SS Klondike because the first one went aground in 1936. This boat was constructed almost identical to the first with some salvaged parts. The boat carried supplies between Whitehorse and Dawson city from 1937 until 1955. This was the major means of moving mail, supplies, and silver. The river is closed by ice for 8 months of the year, so supplies had to be moved only in the summer. We had considered touring the boat but decided that the $6.00 charge per person was a bit much.
When they moved the boat to its current location on dry land, they used soap flakes to grease the way.
Next we tried to visit the Macbride Museum of Yukon History. Unfortunately the museum is already on winter hours and would be closing shortly. They don’t reopen until Tuesday. (This end of summer thing is getting a bit frustrating. It doesn’t seem as if winter is just around the corner but I guess most of the tourists are already long gone.)
We did enjoy a walk through downtown in the beautiful fall sunshine. Many of the buildings have murals.
This mural displays the prospectors hauling gear over the pass.
And much of the downtown still contains very old buildings.
Check out the advertisement for the Capital Hotel!
The wall says, "In the tradition of 1898, clean beds with springs, hot baths with soap, lowest room rates, whisky by the shot, bottle or in the glass, painted ladies inside, music live and "victrola"."
It was a busy day in Whitehorse because the annual Skagway to Whitehorse run began last night at 9:00 pm. Runners completed the 100 miles course by running all night. We saw some of the runners crossing the fishing line around 5:00 pm.
I’ve been working hard on finding campgrounds for our route south. From here we’ll follow Rt 1 towards Watson Lake, Liard Hot Springs, Fort Nelson, Fort St John, and Dawson Creek.
Our evening concluded with lamb chops on the grill. We looked for the northern lights throughout the night but did not see any.
