We got up early and packed up the tent. Our camp for the evening had been ideal, a $10 self registration site, empty but for one old couple in their camper. There had been enough fallen branches around to keep a fire going for hours, and the solitary drop toilet shed had done it's smelly job.
All packed up, we got back on the road, knowing we had a short drive (comparably, it was still a nice 100 miles) to whitehorse, which promised a bed, a roof, a shower and luxuries like restaurants. We hadn’t particularly missed these things, in fact I recall thinking at the time of arrival how I hadn’t once wished for anything even when in the most remote areas of the Yukon. However, now that we were presented with the amenities, we felt like even the most basic service was something special.
We arrived in Whitehorse and pulled up to the privately run Beez Kneez hostel i’d booked months earlier. We were greeted by Nancy and her Husky, Bertha. The hostel was not at all what i’d expected it to be. A lady called Dona Sun, a farm gal from Saskatchewan that moved to Whitehorse in 1991 had essentially converted her house into a hostel. It was intimate and friendly, though I couldn’t help feeling like we were in someone else’s house.
I’d booked a ‘cabin’ for a night, which turned out to be a little shed in the rear garden. It was cute and private, plus there were clean bathrooms and a working shower in the house, so Steph and I felt more than happy. As was the case on a number of occasions on our trip, we had gone a good while without a shower and we were genuinely bouncing with excitement and the idea. We dropped our packs in the shed and got clean. It felt like a layer of dirt literally peeled off in there, we emerged new people.
Whitehorse is a pretty big town, considering where it is. A completely isolated location in the middle of the yukon wilderness, the closest city to it is Edmonton, 1,994km away. It has a population of just under 30,000 people, which makes up 75% of the total Yukon population.
It was early, so we spent the day taking in the sights of the town. We had an epic meal at Klondike Rib & Salmon Barbecue, which is a great comfort food eatery in one of the town's historic buildings, full of artifacts and great old photos from the goldrush. I ate too much. It really wasn’t my fault, they had bread pudding on their desert menu, and it wasn’t small. Afterwards we went to a big camping outlet on one of the main streets and bought a few new pieces of kit, then headed to the cabin/shed for the night.
We’d been in the cabin discussing the trip so far, the plan for the net few days etc. Time flew along and without realizing it we’d somehow ended up staying up till 11.50pm. The reason it surprised us was because, amazingly, it was still light outside!
In summer, Whitehorse gets sunsets at around 11.30pm, and it stays pretty light afterwards too. I went out into the garden and couldn’t believe it. It was such a strange and alien sensation to be able to see around, in light you would expect at maybe 7pm, at midnight. I suddenly got excited, realizing that this was not our most northerly point of our trip, not even close.
Next up, would be Dawson. 500km almost directly north. The last true frontier town. Tune in next time.
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