Alaska trip Tuesday 6/16/15 Whitehorse Yukon

STARR TREKS Tuesday 6/16/15 Whitehorse Yukon

It seems that we are addicted to internet— and the park internet works poorly— so we went downtown to the Visitor Center a little after 8 AM to check email, catch up on Words with Friends, and just have electronic enjoyment!  We got info from the lady at the desk, and drove over to the Kwanlin Dun Cultural center — they had some beautiful displays of contemporary First Nations artwork, plus some videos that showed crafts— like carving a canoe.  There were some exhibits about the early First Nation people, how they actually helped the European fur traders, and how their land was taken from them and they were put on reservations.  It is a beautiful building right on the river with lots of meeting rooms and one very large conference room — even weddings and receptions can be held there.  It was a whole lot nicer than our Tays center in Alamogordo, for sure.

We then drove over to the Old Log Church Museum, built in 1900 by Anglican Rev Richard Bowen when Whitehorse had become a community.  They had exhibits with some early church furnishings and stories about some of the early missionaries.  One case had a pair of thick warm mittens connected by a yarn cord so that the minister would not keep losing his mittens when he adjusted the reins of the dogsled (I remember having mittens like that growing up in Chicago— the string reached thru both sleeves, so mittens did not wander away.  Another exhibit had an audio story about “The Bishop Who Ate His Boots”!  A missionary, Isaac Stringer, and his friend Mr Johnson had attempted a trip by water and then by land — they got lost, hiked miles each day in the freezing snow, ran out of supplies— so they eventually cut their sealskin boots in strips and boiled them — said the tops tasted better than the soles— they finally got to an Indian Village and were dogsledded home.   The building continued as a center for worship and gathering, even for the army corp of engineers building the road in 1942.  In the 1950’s, it became a catholic church until a new church was built in the 60’s.  

I was reading the tourist book on Whitehorse that we got from the visitor center.  They actually have 11 elementary schools here— we have seen school buses on the road, so school is not even out yet for the summer.  One school is Catholic, 2 or 3 are French language schools.  And there are certainly all kinds or restaurants— Caribbean, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, etc.  It really is an interesting town.

After lunch we drove about 35 minutes north to the Muktuk Dogsled tour at 1 pm.  We were the only people in the tour(!), so we had Jeff to ourselves.  The business belongs to Frank Turner who has won the Yukon Quest in the past — this is the equivalent of the Iditarod, but in the Yukon— and the payoff is not as much.  It is a 1000 mile race done in Feb between Whitehorse and Fairbanks, alternating the starting place each year.  It takes 9-10 days— there are some mandatory rest stops where vets check the dogs.  Frank gives some tours when they have a big busload of tourists, but we were very happy with Jeff  ~about 45 years old.  He told us how Frank had been a social worker when he came to the Yukon, then got interested in training dogs and becoming a musher.  We got to walk among the doghouses— each labeled with a dog’s name and whether male or female.  There are about 130 dogs — 85 are active sled dogs— others are retired or still being trained.  They were all tethered by a chain where they could move around and get into the house for shade— a lot of them laid on top of their houses (like Snoopy!).  We were allowed to pet them and they were very gentle.  Jeff had some of the volunteers (they get many young people who work just for room and board) loosen 5-6 dogs — all the dogs went crazy after just laying around in the sun — hoping they would be chosen.  Each time one was released, they ran like crazy — we walked and they ran down to the river — they jumped in the cold water chasing sticks and never tired of it.  They were really hyper and rambunctious.  Jeff says they start serious sled training in late September so they are ready in the winter.  He says they have just as many tourists in the winter here as in the summer— a lot from Japan and China — they actually have half or full days sledding trips— they teach people to use the sleds.  The dogs listen to verbal commands— they use the same gee and haw that horses are trained to.  We got to see the sleds, how the dogs are harnessed— he used one as a demonstration model, what they pack in the sleds, how they put on the “brakes”, how they boil water to mix frozen meat with to feed the dogs during races.  We had a 2 hour personal tour with Jeff, then had brownies and coffee at the house.  It was very interesting.  Jeff knew every dog by name, knew which were siblings or cousins!  

We drove to the Yukon Transportation Museum about 4 pm—it was interesting too — they had lots of old road machinery, trains, planes, boats— all of which played a role in connecting the yukon to the rest of the world.  The Klondike Gold Rush and building of the AlCan highway really triggered the transportation.  In front of the building was a Douglas DC3 airplane mounted on a turnable pedestal that served as a weathervane!!  It is of course, the world’s largest weathervane!  The sign claims that it will turn in the slightest breeze!

kwanlin dun cultural center

"sun glasses" to prevent snow blindness

sled dog tour

Douglas DC 3 weathervane

yukon river walk

Tomorrow we will do a very long driving day, trying to get to Tok Alaska— parts of the road are supposed to be really lousy, so we will put our tow cover on the car for sure.