Today we awoke to bright blue skies and comfortable temperatures, after some coffee, muffin and yogurt it was time to try to get a run in with Jebo before our relatively short drive down the Klondike Highway to Alaska and the town of Skagway.
Our girl at the front desk of Canada’s Best Value Inn advised that the closest and most beautiful trails for walking / running around Whitehorse were at Miles Canyon. We had seen the signs for this area as we were coming into town yesterday so we took her advise and headed up that way.
We took a side street that followed the Yukon River, past the Float plane airport and up to the Canyon, this was only a few minutes drive away from the downtown but as we got out and crossed the river to the trailhead, it felt like we were in the most remote place.
One of the great things we have loved about our Okanagan years is the abundance of trails in our backyard. Our dogs have enjoyed exploring mountain trails daily and in the last few years Linda and I have taken to doing more trail running than road running. We have many favorite trails we love to run in our home area, but I would have to say these trails at Miles Canyon may have been the most fun we have ever experienced. The Rim trail runs right along the edge of the canyon edge over the fast rushing Yukon river.
The main trails wind and weave through clear forest and Jebo was having so much fun; sprinting at near full speed and navigating the turns with grace, he would lower his shoulder and lean into the turns without slowing down, it was really incredible to watch him run in there. And all the time he had a big smile on his face, it was clear he was loving this place. But running at this speed wore him out pretty quickly and as we had a late start we headed back to the car after just 2.5 km (Jebo did about 5 km in the same time I am sure). As Linda said, she would have loved to spend the day exploring the trails in there.
We needed to fill up the car and I really wanted to get a quick wash on the mud-caked BMW (after the Grand Canyon drive) so we pulled in to a gas station on the Alaska Hwy. I was chatting with the girl filling up the car while she cleaned the windows (yes, they still do that in the Yukon) and told her about running in the Canyon trails and how much fun Jebo had. She looked at me kind of quizzically and asked “Well, did you carry bear spray?”. When I told her we didn’t have any, she told us a story of some girls last week that were being chased by a bear on their bikes in the Canyon trails and actually had to jump off their bikes and into the Yukon river below to escape the “chaser”. All I could come up with is: “I guess that’s why the call us City-its”
Well it was back to the hotel for showers and packing the car; we were back on the road by 11:00 and that was okay as it was a short drive today. We got back on the Alaska Hwy. headed east for a short while to catch the turn south; onto the Klondike highway towards Carcross and ultimately Skagway, Alaska.
The Klondike Highway links Skagway to the Yukon city of Dawson City (709 km) and roughly follows the route used by prospectors in the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush. It winds its way up from Skagway through the Coast Mountains for 24 kms crossing the US / Canadian border at the Summit of the White Pass where it enters BC and then continues up to enter the Yukon 56 km later just south of the Alaska Highway.
Heading down from the Alaska Highway, the first 40 km are relatively mild with scenic hills in the distance. The first really breathtaking / must-photograph spot was at Cowley Lake.
The blue green shade of the water was captivating. The color of these mountain lakes comes from a layer of marl which forms in the bottom of the lake bed. Marl is a white calcium carbonate clay that forms in the water and then settles on the lake bottom. The glaciers that once covered this area were rich in limestone, and when the glaciers retreated leaving very shallow lakes, the limestone gravel left behind reacted with the calcium rich water forming the Marl which now creates amazing color vistas seen here. We were pretty sure there would be many more of these lakes in the mountains ahead.
The next hour plus was perhaps the most stunning drive I have ever experienced. We had the great opportunity to drive the ice-fields parkway just over a month ago and I remarked more than once that “this had to be one of the worlds most beautiful drives”. This section of the Klondike is stunning in the variety of the terrain, the size, the hanging glaciers, the almost hoodoo like valley floor between the mountains, every corner it seemed brought a brand new pallet of landforms.
We had to stop down in the Hoodoos for some family time.
As you cross the summit of Whites pass you start the 15 mile long and stunningly beautiful descent into Skagway, I was so over-stimulated at this point my whole body was tingling.
Skagway, like Whitehorse, has a feel about it before you even get out of the car. They have built their “brand” on the gold rush days of 1898. It has an old town look but all the people just looked happy, it had a welcoming feel.
We were a little ahead of check in time, but the front desk at the Westmark Inn were fantastic and accommodating. This was a first class hotel, with an older feel, but great people, a great bar/hotel and they set us up in a first floor room perfect for having Jebo with us. We felt like we landed in the perfect place.
After ordering a quick lunch to eat in the room (pulled pork and black-eyed pea soup with paninis) we ventured out to explore the Klondike trails with Jebo.
We quickly understood why the town was so bustling as we made out way past the waterfront we saw no less than four cruise ships in port, One Disney, two Holland America, one Princess).
We subsequently learned that Tues – Thurs are the busiest days for the ships coming in (this was Thursday) and they estimated that they had 12,000 visitors that landed on this day, they have had up to 20,000 in a day.
The trails proved to be a great adventure again for Jebo, we walked out to the Yakutania Point and then to the hidden Smugglers Cove.
We were out for an hour in the trails and coupled with the early morning run, we knew he was pretty much done for the day
As we strolled back through town and took the long way to our hotel, we realized the celebrity power that lay within our boy Jebo. On pretty much every corner, pretty much every minute or so, someone would approach us to say what a beautiful dog we had and ask if they could pet him. The script was pretty much the same, they all had a dog at home and miss them so much as they’ve been on the cruise for so many days. This went on all the way back to our hotel, and then as we walked thought the lobby it didn’t stop. We were approached at every corner on the journey to our room, we were laughing but we could see that Jebo, always accommodating, had pretty much had enough of this celebrity status and just wanted to go lay down.
We cleaned up and went down to the lobby bar for a drink and then into the dining room for dinner, a meal that exceeded any expectation we may have had. We had the seafood chowder made with local halibut, a wedge salad that was awesome, and then we split a main of a pecan topped halibut in an amazing cream sauce with a side of truffle fries. Oh and they had a beautiful bottle of J Lohr Chardonnay, golden color and soft on the pallet to wash it down.
It was the perfect end to a truly great day in the North
Our trip so far looks like this, 42.47 hrs, 3517 km
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