Whitehorse, YT. May 20, 2011. An early start brought us to Whitehorse, YT, this day. We stopped off in Watson Lake and walked through the internationally famous "Sign Post Forest." Legend has it that the forest started when a GI, working on the highway in 1942, grew homesick and mounted a sign with the name of his hometown on it. Now, the forest covers several acres and displays over sixty-seven thousand unique signs. The grandchildren's and granddog's toys had a good time posing there.
More and more wildlife were out today, perhaps because we were driving early in the day, their usual active period. We've sighted 3-4 black bears - we're unsure, because we just caught a glimpse of what I thought was a bear - countless bison, more caribou, several moose and our first porcupine.
Whitehorse is the largest of only three cities in the Yukon, numbering about 25,000 inhabitants. There are only 35,000 people all together in the Yukon, so it is by far the largest city. The Yukon itself is larger than all of New England.
Tonight we will decide whether to go south to Skagway or north to Dawson. Dawson was the center of the Klondike Gold Rush. Skagway was the jumping off spot for the miners. From there, they had to climb the Chilkoot Pass carrying one ton of supplies each. The one ton was thought to be sufficient to provision the miners for one year in the likely event they didn't strike gold. Most didn't.
So, we will be in Alaska tomorrow, or the day after, depending upon the road chosen. As you know, I favor the one less traveled. I just don't know which one that is.
1 comment:
oh, no! remember our first attemmpt at the Chilkoot Pass? Even though it was closed, the pass is forever burned in my memory because of the events of that day!! The scenery looks georgous! Boo wishes you would have brought me too!
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