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On Thursday morning, we had one last stop before we departed from Dawson City, and that was to pay a visit to the Robert Service cabin. Sandy’s father, Wilf, could recite a number of Robert Service poems, and he would have loved to see that spot.

Luckily, though the sky was still overcast, it was high cloud, and we had no rain between Dawson City and Carmacks – our Thursday night stop. Carmacks had its history, like Nanaimo, in coal mining. The Yukon River flows powerfully past the town, which has a hotel, a small community on one side of the river, a First Nation community on the other, and a wonderful wooden walkway along the south side of the river. We found our RV parking site behind the hotel, and then trod the length of the walkway. A planned “Asian Buffet” at the hotel turned out to be a noon-time show, so we disappointedly ate à la carte.

On Friday, we had a short run (less than 2 hours) to Whitehorse. The day started out with fog to our north, and clear skies and chilly temperatures as we headed south. (At one point the temperature was down to -1C). We passed several beautiful, long lakes (actually, widenings of the Yukon River, I believe). Each lake that we passed had its own fog bank hanging over it. The first two were Little Fox Lake and Fox Lake, and then…

We came to the marge of Lake LaBarge, where we turned to our left to admire,

And stepped out of our truck to try our luck at finding the site of the pyre

Where Sam got heated, and thus the cold cheated, as he burned to a crisp in the fire.

There are strange things done in the midnight sun…!

Enough Robert Service? I think so!

By 10:30 we were in Whitehorse under clear skies, and after stopping in at the Visitors’ Centre, we booked our spot at Hi Country RV, and drove back into town to explore, and to meet an old friend of mine from my Vancouver days of 40 years ago – Hilary Preston (née Deasley). Hilary took us on an extended hiking trip along the Yukon River past the dam, up to a scenic hilltop view, and back along the east side of the River to the paddle wheeler where we were parked. Later, we joined the Prestons (Hilary, husband Tim, and son and grandson, Jon and Scotty) for supper at their lovely home. The walk was the best exercise that we have had in some time, and the supper was awesome!

Since the forecast for today had accurately called for more rain, we opted out of spending a second day in Whitehorse, and after acquiring groceries, fuel and propane in the rain this morning, we headed south again towards our Saturday stop at Boya Lake with fingers crossed for a pleasant evening.

The fall colours are beginning to show, and the reds, of the fireweed, combined with the yellows and golds of the aspen and cottonwood, amidst pine and spruce dark greens are striking. I tried to take this photo in sunlight, but the sunlight might be more rare than Yukon gold! As the summer heads south, so must we!

We almost got the “pleasant evening” part, but as I write at 6:00 this evening rain is once again rattling on our tin roof, and I should also mention the other sound…thunder, as we sit in the same campsite that we held several weeks ago (in sunshine!) Hang in there folks, as requested, we are bringing the rain with us. It should be wet by Thursday or Friday when we arrive back on the lower mainland.

Sunday: We are at Dease Lake at the “Northern Lights College”, where we have access to the internet, however, it is a slow connection, and so I must leave pictures out the blog notes this time. The good news…overcast, but no rain today!

Much love and best wishes to all, and we continue to enjoy your comments and emails!

Tony, and Sandy