Yahoo!!! We have finally reached the Klondike in the Yukon River valley!!!!
We had a great day. We left Whitehorse at 7:30 AM for our 320 mile drive to Dawson City. The scenery along the way reminded us of several areas of Idaho including the Silver Valley, Elk River, and the Elk City area. We had assumed the road would follow along the Yukon River. WRONG!! We actually only saw the Yukon three times. The road is routed over and around the mountains and valleys. The vegetation was so heavy and tall, for a good share of the trip, we could only see the road in front of us. Pictures are of the Dawson Range and the Yukon River.
As we drove along, we came upon a roadside restaurant in the middle of nowhere. However, Gayle had read that they are famous for their cinnamon rolls. No more needed to be said. This roll measures 8” across and is 3½” thick!!
The road was fairly good the first 100 miles, but then we saw this sign:
Having been in the transportation engineering business for the bigger portion of my career, I was not familiar with nor had I ever had seen a sign with this warning. Gayle and I discussed what it may mean. Then we figured it out. ROLLER COASTER ROAD AHEAD. These were actually frost heaves and sags in the roadway. Unfortunately, we did not slow enough for a pickup pulling a 31' travel trailer.
At first it was like a porpoise landing in an airplane – that is where the nose gear touches down first and bounces the nose up, then down, then up, then down before making the final landing!!
Then, it was like a motorcycle moto-cross track. You know the double jump...and the rider doesn't make it to the second hump and lands short, smashing the front wheel into the mound???? Well, we are sure that all 8 of our tires were off the ground about the time we hit the second frost heave. Hell, when you are in mid air you can't slow down!!! Our necks still hurt!!!
We stopped down the road a bit to re-arrange the stuff in the trailer – some of the stuff actually landed in places you would never believe!!
Even after all of that, we arrived in Dawson at 4:30. That is only 36 mph average speed.
Perhaps tomorrow we will get out the gold pans and try our luck??? You never know!!
