SOLTESWEB.NET    ALASKA TRIP 2005 - AUGUST Page 5A


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Saturday, August 20 - Skagway to Carcross to Mukluk Annie's

Rain, again.  Just what we needed, more water.  After some time soaking up more water from the carpets, we decided it would be nice to have breakfast out.  After that…well, it was time to leave Skagway, and it would be nice to get some propane before we left.  The propane man says: “you’re lucky…the closest tow truck is in Whitehorse, 111 miles away…and you know they charge both ways.”  Says Ed: “would you be adverse to my changing my differential fluid here in your yard?”  “No problem…in fact, use the oil pan under the building there.”  The fluid was like putty.  Ed had the required fluid and silicone for the gasket, and in an hour or so, we were on our way. 

To get out of Skagway, you have to climb up from sea level to the White Pass summit at  about 2600 feet. The summit was the cause of a lot of unrest in 1898, since it was here that the North West Mounted Police stationed themselves to collect duties on the would-be miners' supplies that they insisted they carry up.  The border between Canada and Alaska was not well defined because the Canadians had a separate border treaty with Russia before Alaska was sold to the US in 1867.  Canada became a country in the same year, 1867, so the treaty was then between Russia and a territory.  The border unrest was one reason the US Army built its first Alaskan Army post in Haines, just 13 miles away from Skagway.  A beautiful drive over the pass and into the Yukon.

 

This is the scene in Fraser, just after the customs  (on this road, the US and Canadian customs are about 30 miles apart).   We drove past Carcross, a small town in the Yukon, and an important trail stop at one time, then headed east towards Teslin.  We stopped for the night at Mukluk Annie's, the same place we stopped coming up.

 Sunday, August 21 - Watson Lake

The drive was beautiful today...lots of scenes like those shown on the left...mountains, lakes and trees starting to change color. Very few signs of civilization.   :)

Stopped at Watson Lake for the night.  This is the place with the city signposts (we came through in early June).
 

 

Melissa, the bus driver who told us of Dyea, writes an email to us: Thought I would tell you that on Friday night there were many people camped at the tidal flats for the full moon.  And, of course, unbeknownst to all, there was another extremely high tide and at least 5 cars were lost, totaled, floated away!  I'm thinking the one thing that saved you guys was the weight of your rig.  One of the cars out there Friday night was a rental!  One of the seasonal employees here had her folks visiting, in the rental car, and they let her take it to the flats to camp with friends for the night!  Whoa!

These are some of the license plates we've seen in Alaska.

 

This last one is a Yukon territory plate.

 

 

Monday, August 22 - Watson Lake

We stayed in Watson Lake today to get transmission filter and fluid change. The transmission was flushed three times, and the filter replaced.  The filter looks normal, most water was removed, and no obvious problems.  The mechanic is a little raw in his conversation, somewhat concerned that we had put ourselves in peril, but he also wonders why Ed is so cool about it.

We went to the sign post again (where we got some of the plates shown below), then walked around the town and park with its beautiful flower gardens.

 

The last plate, shaped like a polar bear, is a Northwest Territories plate.

 

 

We kept hearing loons, and found that there were several in the two lakes.  We saw this one with two chicks.

It rained on and off during the day, and soon we saw the rainbow across the lake.

Rainbow...God's promise that He wouldn't flood the earth again!  New meaning, now.

 

 


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