Car(ibou) Cross(ing)

Carcross Y.G. Campground, Carcross, YT – June 1-3, 2014

Mocha didn’t let loose with one of her bloodcurdling yells from the front room this morning. The reason? It was too cold and she was in bed with us snuggled up in the warm blankets. Since neither one of us had a camera in bed, we supply this so you get the idea.

We’ve got a big 31KM (~20 miles) this morning to get from Tagish to Carcross. Carcross, YT is the jumping off point for the drive to Skagway, Alaska.

We pull up in front of the general mercantile store. The bridge in the background is the RR trestle for the White Pass and Yukon railroad. An interesting side note is a sign we saw coming into town forbidding drinking within 1.62 KM of the south side of the RR bridge. Wonder what’s so special about that 1.62 KM?

We immediately spot 3 Loosey Goosey members wandering around. They give us a good tip about where to camp tonight.

We wander through the store and then the railroad depot where we check out the Duchess.

The story of the Duchess is that she used to haul passengers to Atlin. One stretch of track had a grade steep enough that often passengers had to disembark the train and push it until it crested the hill.

Then we wandered over to the tourist stores which were very colorful.

We inquired at the visitor centre about a place to eat and were given several recommendations. We were tantalized at our first choice by the offer of espresso. But when we were ready to order, we were told the machine was broken.

The visitor centre also told us the Carcross campground gate was unlocked, but they were not officially open so we could stay there at no cost. Sounds good.

Still hungry, we go in search of our second choice, a small café off on a side street. There we had excellent quiche and tomato bean soup. It was marvelous.

EJ wants one more pass at the gift shops before we head over to the campground.

On the way to the campground Frank turns too early and ends up having to drive over an airport runway to get turned around. But we make it to the free campground. Turns out Mark, Jon and Sue (our LG friends) are already camped there.

We unhook the Element and go straight to a wildlife museum we have heard so much about called Caribou Crossing, We end up not going to the museum because they were going to close shortly. EJ did buy an Inukshuk here to hang in Big Guy to guarantee our safe journey.

Caribou Crossing wants to make sure you see some stone sheep. So high up on the hill side they built some.

Leaving Caribou Crossing, we stop at the Carcross desert, supposedly the smallest desert in the world. Formed by sand blowing up from the lake, it is unique.

Back at the campground we build a nice fire,

and invite Mark, Jon and Sue over.  We talk about plans, ourselves and Rainbow’s End. They all are headed to Skagway in the morning and we’re going to stay put for awhile then head to Whitehorse on Tuesday or Wednesday. We finally call it a night.

Over night it began to drizzle and it looks like it will all day. It will be a good day to catch up on the blog. Mocha thinks it’s a good day to dote on her.

Later in the day we drive back into town and go to the Chilkoot Trail Bakery again. The tour buses are in and our little bakery is crowded.

It quickly becomes obvious that the crowd is not making any decisions in a timely manner so I step to the front of the line and place our order for a bowl of soup and a cinnamon twist so we can get out of there. Then we go for a quick drive around the rest of the town we missed yesterday.

Oh yeah, we checked e-mail at the visitors centre and got word that Taz’s ashes were released from the post office, have arrived home and will be waiting for us to return. Way to go John.

Back to the RV to continue writing.

A government truck comes by and drops off a load of firewood and cuts some underbrush. I bet our free stay is coming to an end.

This morning we wake to clear skies. Outside temperature is about 45 degrees. After making coffee and feeding the cat I take a walk around the camp. I rush back to the RV to get EJ so we can walk over to the gas station to get breakfast.

Turns out they don’t normally serve breakfast, but the cook did whip up a great veggie omelet for us. Then we walked to town and EJ found a jewelry store that she had missed on her first pass. In talking to the owner we found out she lives in Whitehorse and she has been open three weeks this season. We mentioned how many tour buses we had seen coming through, she said that was nothing. During peak season there are 30 to 40 that come through per day on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Wow, time for us to get out of town.

It’s laundry time again, and of course it chooses now to start raining again. But the laundry gets done and some more writing gets done.

Then about 8PM this evening, one of the indigenous natives shows up on a bicycle and knocks on our door.

He starts asking questions like how do we like the weather, how long have we been here, how much did our RV cost, and oh by the way, can I give him five dollars because we’re obviously rich? According to him the campground officially opened yesterday and we should now be paying. I tell him we’ll put the money in the payment box. He said, no the visitor centre can take it. Which is very odd, since yesterday they didn’t know if the campground was officially open or not.

Long story short, our time has run out and it is time to move on. See ya in Whitehorse or somewhere up the road.