Whitehorse, Yukon
Today I drove 284.9 miles on the Alaska Highway. On the way, I stopped for a little hike at Rancheria Falls. Nice walking path through the woods to some pretty falls. The day started off sunny and later turned to clouds with a downpour around 4PM that had a lightning strike that took out the power to the area. It was back up and working about 2 hours later.
The Klondike River travels through Whitehorse and connected it to Dawson City. The Sternwheel ships would travel the river back and forth to Dawson City bringing supplies.
The Yukon River was the only “highway” to Dawson City until the Alaska Highway was completed. Sternwheeler ships would bring supplies to Dawson City. Once the highway was completed the sternwheelers stopped.
The Klondike stampeders heading to Dawson City would stop in Whitehorse to dry out their equipment and restock for their journey further north in search of gold. The gold rush brought the stampeders and the railroad to the area.
While in Whitehorse we visited the Fish Ladder, the S.S. Klondike Sternwheeler, and the MukTuk Sled Dog Kennel.
Fish Ladder and Hatchery.
This was constructed in 1984 to compensate for the loss of downstream migrating chinook salmon. It produces a specific number of chinook salmon fry for release each year at natural spawning sites in tributaries of the upper Yukon River. Each fish is given a nose tag prior to release that they can track the migration patterns.
The Adult salmon return to this location and pass through the fish ladder on their way to the spawning grounds upstream of Whitehorse. As they pass through the ladder the fish can be counted and categorized by sex and if they are wild or if they originally came from the hatchery.
We were about two weeks early to observe the salmon returning to spawn, but it was an interesting operation to see.
S.S. Klondike
The SS Klondike is a steam-powered sternwheeler located in Whitehorse. It was built to have a larger capacity and has a shallow draft and met the size requirements in order to travel down the Yukon River from Whitehorse to Dawson City. The ship was used to bring freight and supplies to the gold rush town of Dawson City.
In order to make the trip it took 160 cords of wood to power the ship. In areas along the river men would cut wood and the ship would stop on the side of the river for it to be loaded onto the ship.
These riverboats served as the main like between the Yukon and the outside world until the Alaska Highway was finished. Once the highway was finished there was no longer a need for the boats, and they stopped operating.
In keeping with the theme of the Klondike. We had a Klondike as a treat during our travel meeting.
Muktuk Dog Experience
Muktuk has raised, trained, and cared for dogs for more than 30 years. It started off as a dog sled racing kennel and now the focus is on recreational dog sledding.
They no longer breed dogs, but instead rescue and care for older dogs or dogs that owners can no longer care for. The rescued dogs become a part of the working dog sledding group or if they do not want to be working dogs then they are retired and join their group of retired dogs. They don’t sell their dogs, they only let them go if they know they are going to have the best possible life with their new owners.
They have 117 Alaskan huskies. We were told that sled dogs are very friendly, and they love to work. A dog is either a sled dog or it isn’t. They can’t train a dog to be a sled dog if it doesn’t want to be.
Muktok was originally created by a man named Frank Turner. (Same name as my great grandpap) Frank won the Yukon Quest dog race in 1995. He originally came to the Yukon from Ontario.
The current owner of Muktok has also won dog sled races.
We enjoyed a presentation about the dogs, dog sledding, dog sledding races (Iditarod and the Yukon Quest) and a demonstration on the type of clothing that needs to be worn in minus 40 deg weather. Had a lunch which included an appetizer of candied salmon and elk meatballs. Both were delicious.
There was an eagle that showed up in the morning. The owner put out a piece of salmon and the eagle swooped down and picked it up.
It was an enjoyable visit.
Next stop Dawson City, Yukon